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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMANIC STREET PREACHERSUK punk revival band: Richey James Edwards, vocals and rhythm guitar (b 27 Dec. '69; disappeared 1 Feb. '95); James Dean Bradfield, vocals and lead guitar (b 21 Feb. '69), Nicky Wire, bass; Sean Moore, drums. First single was 'Motown Junk'. They began with the tired old punk stuff: snotty Welsh kids (lifelong friends), no musical skills, insulting everybody; bands should make one explosive album and disappear. Richey James dropped his last name; he was the writer and epitomized the band from the beginning, when in '91 he carved '4 real' on his arm for the benefit of a journalist from New Musical Express. They signed with Sony, on Epic in UK, Columbia USA; Generation Terrorists '92 pleased people who are pleased by that sort of thing, followed by Gold Against The Soul '93 and The Holy Bible '94, and then the alcoholic and anorexic James kept his word and vanished, perhaps affected by Kurt Cobain's suicide (see Nirvana). If he is dead he did it in such a way that his body has not been found (perhaps jumping off the Severn Bridge into fast-flowing currents), ensuring the pop fame to which he should have been opposed. The first post-Edwards album Everything Must Go '96 seemed like business as usual; they had acquired some skill after practising in public for several years, and like most punk bands lasting longer than one or two albums seemed to edge towards the mainstream: Wire's writing was adequate and Bradfield's singing always better than James's. But the three songs on the album written by Edwards ('The Girl Who Wanted', 'Elvis Impersonator', 'Small Black Flowers That Bloom In The Sky') were reminders of the darkness that had set them apart. Wire speculates that James's childhood was so happy that he hated being grown up, and that he felt pressure to live his songs. One of the last ones is about a photographer who became famous for a picture of a child dying in Rwanda, and killed himself. |