2014 marks the twentieth anniversary of The Manic Street Preachers’ 1994 album The Holy Bible, a seething compilation which didn’t just flirt with taboo but went at it with a sledge-hammer. At a recent gig in Brixton they alluded to the fact that their song ‘Everything Must Go’ had featured in a chart of best Britpop anthems, prompting bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire to joke that “during shitpop I was wearing skirts and eyeliner”.
Fashion-wise, that 90s era saw Wire cross-dressing for gigs and singer James Dean Bradfield sparking controversy by wearing a military-type balaclava on the 1994 performance of ‘Faster’ on Top of the Pops, garnering thousands of complaints. Earlier, in 1991, guitarist Richey Edwards had publicly carved ‘4REAL’ into his arm with a razor in answer to queries over the band’s authenticity. He was open in interviews about his depression and self-harm, inflicted through cuts, cigarette burns on his skin and alcohol. As a relatively introverted person, Edwards, like many, took his pain out on himself. The album was his last before his disappearance.
The album itself is shot through with themes of genocide, anorexia, the glorification of serial killers, capital punishment, a rampant sense of bankruptcy in many ideologies, suicide and self-harm. And it’s not for the attention. Both Nicky Wire and Richey Edwards graduated with degrees in political history, had vociferous appetites for reading and channelled a huge amount of their intellect through their creativity in a way which music fans don’t see much of anymore. It could be said that the years of the Manic Street Preachers’ guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain really raised the profile of issues such as mental health and self-harm and brought it into the public consciousness. The anniversaries this year honour the debt society owes them and their brilliant, honest, however flawed, minds.
Wire has spoken about how the band had spent their time on the The Holy Bible European tour visiting Holocaust death camps. Songs like ‘The Intense Humming of Evil’ and ‘Mausoleum’ allude to the Nazi atrocities. ‘4st 7lb’ (the weight at which you’re supposedly on the brink of death) documents a descent further into anorexia with haunting lyrics like “days since I last pissed”, “such beautiful dignity in self-abuse” and “I want to walk in the snow and not leave a footprint”. The scything guitars create a crazed atmosphere of a descent into self-destruction and there is a raspy desperation to the vocals. ‘Revol’ (‘lover’ backwards) is a song of complete disillusionment in all leaders of men, in love and in the possibility of change, while ‘Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart’ lambasts the total domination of a culture the band perceive to be the emptiest of all.
The album cover is artwork by Jenny Saville, showing three angles of an obese woman, while songs are introduced with or contain samples of dialogue, either from news reports, films or trial tapes. There is an excerpt from the film of Orwell’s ‘1984’ (the album feels a bit dystopian itself), but one of the most telling is a quote from J.G. Ballard at the beginning of ‘Mausoleum’:
“I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit, and force it to look in the mirror.”
It paraphrases the ethos of The Holy Bible. The album title itself has implications of absolute truth. It may have been twenty years since its release but the fervour and passion that the tracks have generated at gigs is testament to its unique and enduring relevance. Even though there have been elements of nostalgia back in a couple of their recent albums, The Manics have always been more about taking the things that matter with you into the future. They bring the memory and impact of Richey James Edwards with them as they evolve. The upcoming release of ‘Futurology’ heralds a new chapter, but this is a band that will always have something to say that others may not dare, and it will always be important to listen.
