The wisdom of Manic Street Preachers

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On ambition: “We’ll release one double album that goes to Number One worldwide. One album, then we split. If it doesn’t work, we split anyway. Either way, after one album, we’re finished.” (James Dean Bradfield, 1991)

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On shoegaze: “I will always hate Slowdive more than Hitler.” (Richey Edwards, 1991)

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On Glastonbury: “Someone should build a bypass over this shithole.” (Nicky Wire, NME Stage, 1994).

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On calling Glastonbury a ‘shithole’: “It was supposed to be a joke – then this deathly silence descended on the place. It was painful but glorious.” (Nicky Wire, 2004).

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MANIC STREET PREACHERS

British Pop Group

(Left to Right: SEAN MOORE; JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD and NICKY WIRE)

Bandphoto Agency Photo

B98 055997 14.10.1998

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MANIC STREET PREACHERSBritish Pop GroupBandphoto Agency PhotoB98 054744 19.08.1998

On their contemporaries: “The Pet Shop Boys make the worst kind of English pop, like when you’re walking home from the pub and you’re down on your knees staring into a pile of your own sick, that’s how they always make me feel.” (Richey Edwards, 1992) Pic: Photoshot

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On the environment: “In three generations’ time 75% of the animal species of the world will be wiped out. And it’s all our fault. We’ve only got five generations of man left, and maybe it’s just as well – mankind is the worst thing that’s ever happened to this planet.” (Richey Edwards, 1994)

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Manic Street Preachers concert

On middling indie bands: “Rick Astley, Tom Jones and Cliff Richard are all better pop than the fucking Charlatans. Bands shouldn’t be held up as important if they haven’t sold any records.” (Nicky Wire, 1992) Pic: PA Photos

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On the early-’90s indie scene: “There’s so much self-indulgence. Bands like Electronic are just fat, bloated, hideous bastards who deserve shooting. It’s a massive rich-boy wank.” (Nicky Wire, 1992)

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On Radiohead’s honesty-box album release: “I think it demeans music. The free download phenomenon is ruining the industry.” (Nicky Wire, 2008)

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On giving interviews: “There’s no point. I always say the same thing.” (Sean Moore, 2004)

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On being bland: “I don’t mind if people think [Manics’ seventh album] ‘Lifeblood’ is a bit coffee-table. I see that as a compliment. I think Dido’s ‘White Flag’ is a brilliant record.” (Nicky Wire, 2004) Pic: Tim Chester

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On video games: “You know the myth of Stagger Lee, that he would kill for a stetson? Manic Street Preachers would kill for a Sega Megadrive. Computer games are much more exciting than bands.” (Richey Edwards, 1991) Pic: Andy Willsher

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Reading Festival

On growing up: “Our manifesto is: ‘Don’t do it, kids. Never get past the age of 13’.” (Richey Edwards, 1994) Pic: PA Photos

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On musicianship: “I dislike my guitar intensely, I can’t even be bothered to smash the fucking thing. It doesn’t deserve death.” (Richey Edwards, 1994)

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THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS IN CONCERT AT BRIXTON ACADEMY IN LONDON

On the power of branding: “The most beautiful thing in London is McDonalds.” (Richey Edwards, 1992) Pic: PA Photos

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Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 – London

On Wales: “We didn’t learn anything from other Welsh bands. And the Welsh language was never important to us at all. I mean, what’s the point in resurrecting something that’s completely dead? Dead culture doesn’t interest us.” (Richey Edwards, 1994) Pic: PA Photos

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Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 – London

On their hometown: “If Blackwood was a museum it’d be full of rubble and shit.” (Richey Edwards, 1992) Pic: PA Photos

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On suicide: “In terms of the S-word, that does not enter my mind. And it never has done, in terms of an attempt. Because I am stronger than that.” (Richey Edwards, 1995).

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Nicky Wire signs copies of his album I Killed The Zeitgeist

On education: “I thought university would be full of people who wanted to sit around and talk about books and it wasn’t like that at all. For most people, it was about getting laid.” (Richey Edwards, 1993) Pic: PA Photos

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Shockwaves NME Awards 2008 – London

On Richey’s lyrics: “He wasn’t looking for an Ivor Novello, was he, the boy? He was looking for a Pulitzer Prize.” (Nicky Wire, 2009) Pic: PA Photos

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On Richey’s stint in rehab: “The Priory is a mixture of all pseudo-God and religious bollocks and doctors trying to cure you. He quickly realised that the cure means having to destroy the entire entity that you are.” (Nicky Wire, 2009) Pic: Mitch Ikeda

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On the one benefit of rehab: “Although when he was in The Priory and Eric Clapton was there and he offered to come round and jam, that was one of those moments where you couldn’t write anything funnier, in a tragic situation.” (Nicky Wire, 2009)

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