WHEN they first came amongst us in 1991 we were suffering the "third summer of love", dance music had over-run the indie charts and abominations like Jamiroquai were on the front covers of our magazines. Lyrics ran along the lines of "put your hands in the air", people were popping mind-numbing pills and hippy-dippy "universal love" sentiments were replacing rigorous political thought. It seemed like the children of the bloody Woodstock movement were going to inflict the sins of their parents on us all over again.
Enter The Manic Street Preachers, who had one purpose and one purpose only: to hammer a wooden stake through the heart of neo-hippyism. And how we loved them for it. Despite the fact that they couldn't really play in the early days, they over-compensated with some nifty situationist lyrics and the sort of eloquence that put us in mind of the god-like Clash. With equal measures of anger and angst, The Manics' lyrics held their fans enthralled and when their chief lyric writer went missing in February of last year, - there was an outbreak of grief not seen since the death of Kurt Cobain.
Looking at it coldly and clinically, Richey Edwards' disappearance reads like this: on February 1st, 1995 he walked out of a hotel in London at seven in the morning on the eve of The Manic's US tour. He drove to his flat in Cardiff and was last officially sighted in that area a few days later. On February 18th his car was found near the Severn Bridge, and he hasn't been seen since. Looking at it a bit more deeply, Richey Edwards, who was 27 when he went missing, had just spent some time in hospital suffering from alcoholism, depression and anorexia. He also mutilated his body, habitually cutting himself with knives and razors. His life, it seemed, was imitating the art in the lyrics of the band's Holy Bible album. The three remaining Manics regrouped six months after Richey's disappearance and have just released their first three-piece album, Eveything Must Go.
"Deep down, my gut feeling is that Richey is still alive," says Nicky Wire, the Manics' bass player. "But that's not based on any logical evidence. I just try to tell myself that he's done what he's wanted to do - whatever that is. I've known Richey longer than anyone and I think of him as my best friend but I still can't say that, deep down, I knew him. The week before he disappeared he was in the best spirits I'd seen him in and I thought he was getting better. Sometimes now I think, he was happy because he knew he was going to do something...
Half of the lyrics on Everything Must Go were written by Richey before he disappeared, and quite a stunning album it has turned out to be. From the hit single Design For Life right through the other 11 tracks, there is a brooding brilliance here that is giant leaps away from the somewhat claustrophobic Holy Bible. Clattering punk rock guitars, poignant acoustic bits and the sort of sonic dynamics that you thought had gone out of fashion, make Everything Must Go, sympathy vote or no sympathy vote, one of the albums of the year so far.
THE Manics will be playing in The Point, Dublin on July 12th at the first day of this year's indoor Feile. Also on the unspeakably good bill are Afghan Whigs, Beck, Joyrider, Teenage Fanclub (who recently supported Alex Chilton in Glasgow) and half of Nirvana and half of Sunny Real Day Estate, who go under the name of the Foo Fighters ... Fans of cult Setanta signing Brian (aka Ken Sweeney) will be most pleased to know that Virgin (France) have just put the eight song Understand and the four song Planes on to the same CD. Put your import order in now ... Next week: an in-depth look at the best record label in the world.
