Nicky Wire

... you know.

Even more of an example, in, in Nicky Wire in, who's six foot three, James Dean Bradfield's five foot five.

So again, I, I've seen that Manic Street Preachers only once, and I, I, I find it really hard to, to take them in actually [laughs] visually.

I don't know why, because one is so much taller that they don't seem to have any kind of sense of unity.

We were just talking about the Maniccs.

I remember Nicky Wire once saying to me that there's a point in a band's career where the world seems to turn towards them, which have obviously happened to them with Everything Must Go.

But do, with the second album, there definitely seems to be another part, another audience that kind of opened up to you.

Did you feel that at the time? Or did, did it not even occur to you that-

James Dean Bradfield, he hadn't been the main lyricist.

That had been Nicky Wire, their bassist.

And so this gives him his opportunity to say what he really wants to say.

A very personal release, this album, The Great Western by James Dean Bradfield.

Initially, they were a bit scared by the band, who were either too intense, as Richey was, or seemed to not give a shit, like the singer, James.

So they said, "Oh, we'll give them five minutes, and then we'll go." But they liked so much of what they heard of the band that they signed them up, and the rest is UK chart history.

Also didn't help that in the lead-up to the meeting, Nicky Wire had somehow managed to split his head open on a tuning peg of his bass guitar, meaning that he was performing covered in a spattering of blood.

The sort of thing you could get away with in the '90s.

It is.

The, the other three singles from the album are all Nicky Wire tracks.

Um-

Mm

And then a Rockmanic Street feature-reporting song.

The bassist who also wrote lyrics, Nicky Wire.

Second guitarist and vocalist, James Dean Bradfield, noted that the main guitar riff was inspired by Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child O' Mine, and other sections.

Drunken Titans to Queen and Aerosmith.

I've put, so it's the closing track, track 12.

Grumpy Nicky Wire is back.

He gets all sweary.

I love this track, though.

It's kind of things like that.

It shares kind of musical lineage with the band, softer sort of hook, Indie pop era, kind of, you know, postcards, you know, where it emerges acoustic and electric, you know, hybrid textures of Ultra River Lament.

It's a classic Nicky Wire lyricism confronting aging and grief and emotional exhaustion.

Yeah.

The music they were producing has been compared to The Clash meets Guns N' Roses, according to one news article.

Richie Edwards was seen as the leader of the group, but the truth is that it was he and the bass player, Nicky Wire, that shared the responsibilities of songwriting just the same and other production ideas were also shared.

Richie's charisma, intelligence, and artistic voice drew people in and made it easy to interview him.

A seriously introverted person, Edwards was careful with his words in interviews and took that part of fame very seriously.

I want to ask you, you know, what your influence is.

I mean, do you mind if we mention your brother? Because, you know, your brother is, of course, Nicky Wire from the Manic Street Preachers.

Yeah.

And for those who don't know, obviously, and also a very literary person.

No, fuck those guys.

Well, I mean, there's a lot of, especially in the second half of the book that you're describing, there's a lot of love, a lot of humanity, a lot of hope.

um in there as well so i mean you know it's it's a very balanced book like i said which doesn't doesn't pull any punches but i think it's uh it's also beautiful to read as well and it covers the full scope of the the human experience it's an amazing book and on that summary i'm gonna plug it once more time it's antidosis dissolution is out on october the 5th and it's available to pre-order right now i'll put a link in the show notes so you can click it and grab it straight away from there go get it you know you want to uh patrick i know i can't keep you all day i'm sure we could probably talk for another three hours but i know you've got stuff to get on with you're a wonderful gift to our culture humanity and the fighting of the good fight we appreciate you brother and long may your flame continue to burn bright my friend thank you for joining us

Thanks, James.

I like that.

Right, and the album title comes from a lyric written out in gold by Nicky Wire.

It gives the album this artistic flair.

That's such a cool detail.