The Manics were a weird band in the early days. There was a lot of desperation and attention seeking but the music was still raw and appealing to me. To be honest I didn’t have much time for the Glamour Twins, Richey and Nicky Wire, playing dress up and posturing. It felt like their looking the part was more important to them than actually being the part. Luckily James and Sean held the whole thing together musically and live. I saw them a few times leading up to this gig and a few times afterwards. Notably in Bournemouth, October 92 something clicked and the blueprint for future gigs seemed to be established. JDBs guitar was immense. A solid slab of noise that had enough mid and bass in the mix to ensure that Richey and Nickys shortcomings did not distract from the new material. And of course, Sean was rock steady on the drums. All that said - Richey was clearly struggling with his own demons and did well to keep it together for as long as he did. His disappearance clearly has impacted the band and the families. Respect to them all.
I was there and remember seeing JDB walking along the river Thames at the 94 festival on his own looking very down the nineties were a amazing time the acid and the xtc lol
Yeah I was thinking Richey actually was decent on guitar but Nicky sounds very sloppy on you love us, borderline car crash stuff. Not sure why as on suicide is painless he suddenly can play lol
He also looked focused on actually playing rather than throwing the rock poses - quite different to what he did in their promo videos back then (and to Nicky at that gig, for that matter). In contrast to his anti-muso statements at that time, Richey seemed to be really interested in learning how to play guitar properly.
@@samuelbarrett9403 Back in ‘90/‘91 the music audience was very different to as it is now. The UK has always been snobbish about what it listens to regarding RnR albeit it has got better - look at European festivals, they always have such a varied lineup but that doesn’t happen in the UK. The Manics turned up with a honking Clash-like sound and with intelligent young men who already knew how to handle the very influential music press. Back then Cardiff wasn’t always on the touring radar, most bands would go as far as Bristol, and yet you had this band from South Wales who were a force of nature, flirted with androgynous imagery and were highly articulate. They just seemed to generate reactions from people, which ultimately is what they wanted, who would rubbish them. Unbelievably Wales wasn’t viewed as the potent hotbed for musical talent it always has been - things are very different now thankfully and the Manics are part of that. Long answer but just trying to give you a snapshot of how it was in ‘91. We were called ‘indie-kids’ but we were just all just music heads. I still remember hearing Motown Junk & Stay Beautiful for the first time, seeing them in the madness that was Singleton Park, the disturbing interviews Richy gave before his disappearance, the first time I heard Design For Life on radio on my Walkman going to art college in south Wales thinking what a huge song it was and how this will change everything for them and it did. They became loved and accepted by many more people and it was their music that did it. Really interesting journey they’ve had and I can tell you from experience that they’re really decent blokes too.
Cracking performance. A lot of folks are under the misapprehension that Richey couldn't play. He could, he just didn't want to. He thought guitar was ridiculous. Furthermore, I find his use of a BOSS fuzz pedal rather than the natural sound of the Marshall JCM-900 as some sort of piss take that he would find funny.
Greateast rock band ever with the brightest and irritating and handsome dead member ever seen Richey :) And I really love to hear when a new album is out that they still think about a band member lost decades ago :)
Also one of the most audible accounts of Richie playing. Gotta thank the sound engineers not totally familiar with how far down the mix he was at a typical show. But it just proves that even though he wasn’t up to the level he wanted to be, and by ‘95 he was perfectly acceptable live.
Wonder what and who James took a dislike to in the audience enough to come down and spit at them right at the end. Fuckin brilliant band man. South Wales is the place to be!!
@@philipnoblethe3rd695 I was in Wales before a few years ago but that was north. Got the boat over and drove to Snowdonia and stayed in llanberis. Did Snowdon. Beautiful it was 😎
Richey doesn’t actually sound that bad on guitar- I think the “not being able to play” thing has been overblown a bit. His strumming is off but he’s hitting the right chords
It's funny how James never liked nirvana and they were making waves the same time. I always saw parallels in the sound of some of manics songs and nirvana. Maybe it's just me that sees the parallels. I just always thought JDB would have respected Kurt as a musician and songwriter but he said in some magazine he hated them 😆😆
' I was jealous of ‘Nevermind’ for a long time, and always will be. A truly great rock record is one of the hardest things to achieve.”' JDB Interview with NME , 25th September 2021.
Great drummer. Covers up for the fact that Nicky Wire is a shit bassist at this point. Richey can't play much either. Odd band. You got a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer covering the music, and two half-musicians doing the rest.
True to a point. Richey never played on the early albums, but that was partly because he was far more focussed on writing lyrics. At this point he wrote most of the band's lyrics. He never actually wanted to be a guitarist.
Also playing completely the wrong notes at times too. James and the drummer were the two in the band who were actually talented. Oh and Nicky is a massive bellend too..... always banging on about how "he's got a politics degree" and how most other musicians are "probably only interested in their plectrums" Wanker.
@@richardlloyd166 My critiq was merley on the left itself, having becommed themselfs what they hated: authoritarian powerfreaks. Glad that you also dislake that.... I fear however you may fail me here
the only politician i have time for is eammon mccann derry mla who is as socialist left t on a panel with sin fein and dup after leaving the eu 2016 said it is a rich mans club, it is not the eu that is corrupt but the whole of politics The eu refuses to regulate zero hours contracts for workers and in the 1 party state of Wales Labour veto'd to abolish zero hours contracts but we are brain-washed to believe the eu an labour left uphold workers rights.
@@garrychivers4807 "A 'zero-hour contract' is a type of contract between an employer and a worker according to which the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum working hours and the worker is not obliged to accept any work offered.[1] The term 'zero-hour contract' is primarily used in the United Kingdom. The employee may sign an agreement to be available for work as and when required, so that no particular number of hours or times of work are specified.[2] " Thats so F-updt.
Richey Edwards....... a lovely guy greatly missed but jeez he was an awful guitarists. Like, literally I'm surprised he could even plug the thing in. Anyone notice you can only hear one guitar here? (James's) ..... there's a reason for that. Good lyricist though.
@@dls3939Yeah I'm kind of surprised to find recordings on here where he's audibly in the mix (I thought they always just muted him). I'm glad he features musically somewhere other than those couple of album tracks (even if it's just on these rough live recordings).
Such a shame he was also such a bad songwriter aswell. He was the godhead of the band 89-94. The guitar was a prop, nothing more. nothing less. Read the guys lyrics.......
I just find this performance so exciting and visceral. Something that is sorely lacking in music these days (and was also lacking in many of their peers at the time)
their not really overrated lol, it'd be different if thwy were, thwy just have a loyal fanbase and also this was live so ofc its gonna not gonna sound as good as the studio version
