Manic Street Preachers

fantastic you're doing a Todd doing a Prince doing a Stevie Wonder doing a Paul McCartney well I did it

on the last album too on The Art of Losing it was just I've always loved working on my own and obviously when you're starting out you kind of you need a little bit of that sort of um a leg up I guess to some extent in the industry and I do enjoy collaborating with people you know there's a lot of collaboration on this new record in terms of i've got a lot of friends come and sing bits with me like hannah peel james dean bradfield from the manics gueno um eves wilder um so it was in a way it was sort of the most collaborative record that i've made but also at the end of the day i'm a control freak and i like to do things my way

my ears pricked up when i saw when i heard du temps perdu the introduction and then i saw that there was uh a bit of a prologue, Happiness Don't Show Up Like It Should, and then there's a reprise of Do Tom's Prayer Do.

It made me think, is this a concept album? And if so, what's the concept?

So it's ready, steady, go.

Catherine, what is, would you say, I know it's impossible to say, but one of your favourite records of all time?

Well, I wanted to change my mind this morning when I heard that the Mannix were re-releasing Home Bible as a live album, because obviously that is also one of my favourite records of all time.

So I say this with the caveat that There's no one record.

I've, uh, obviously-

Um, so they played with Billy Idol, The Little Angels, and Manic Street Preachers were the opening band.

So I saw, in 1993, I saw Bon Jovi twice.

So it's fair to say that 14-year-old me was fucking...

… through, you know, kind of Pete Doherty lineage, and they were a, they were like pale, pale shadows of, of The Clash.

I was never really, uh, much attracted to the Manic Street Preachers, which might have been a more obvious way to go.

But I was always looking for that.

And then, you know, more latterly I found it difficult, and I suppose, uh, you know, now that I'm approaching 60, I'll be 60 next year, I feel a bit like the old kind of curmudgeon who, who kind of is, doesn't want to but is forced to say, "Well, it was never as good now as it was back in the day." [laughs]

Yeah, but it is not beloved.

Allegedly, Manic Street Preacher's guitarist, Richie Edwards, says that, quote, well, not quote, because it's an alleged quote, but he says that he hates slow dive more than Hitler.

Jeez.

Wow.

Okay, I just read that Manic Street Preachers are releasing a live album of the Holy Bible.

That's huge, right?

Wait, seriously.

You know, we got to open for Iggy Pop.

We did a run with the Manic Street Preachers.

We had, still to this day, probably the most idyllic, um, uh, dreamscape level recording experience I've ever had in my life.

And I've been into a lot of studios in my time.

[laughs] Um, but yeah, like it was definitely we wanted to be different.

You know, we 100% wanted to be different.

What was touring with the Manic Street Preachers like?

Amazing, because, you know, I had, I had, uh, let go of any, um...