‘THE GREATEST ROCK ALBUM EVER!’
Celebrating 25 years since the Manic Street Preacherss debut album Generation Terrorist was released
IT was the ar tistic sta tement that in troduced four young punks from Blackwood to the world and which was mean t to sell 16 million copies and go down as the “greatest rock album ever”. TheManic Street Preachers’ debut album G eneration T errorists celebrated its 25th anniversar y this month. While the M anics themselves went on to bigger and better things, G eneration T errorists is their most guitar solo- strewn and lyrically ambitious offer ing and challenged a n ation to sit up and take notice. Coming fr om a sm all to wn in the Valleys, the band alr eady had their backs ag ainst the wall, but lyricists Richey Edwar ds and Nicky W ire wer e h appy to m ake confrontational r emarks about themselves, other bands and even their hometown. Speaking in 1994, Richey said: “If you build a m useum to r epresent Blackwood, all you could put in it would be s***.” Following the band ’s singles Suicide Alley and the New Art Riot EP, the band joined pr oducer Steve Brown in B lackbarn Studios in Guildford to r ecord wh at would become their controversial debut. While contributing significantlyy to the lyr ics, in terviews and the band’s im age, Edwar ds did not t appear on the r ecord as a m usician, spending his spare time perfecting Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Megadrive. He said: “That’s all I ’ve done while others h ave been m aking the LP. “It took me a couple of weeks to get to the end and kill Doctor Robotnik. Then everyday I couldn’t live w ith myself unless I tr ied to finish Sonic in a short time. “I should be interested in learning to play my guitar but Sonic the Hedgehog rules my life. I find that very sad.” Singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield played the m ajority of the instr uments on G eneration Terrorists, while tr ying to fit in intricate lines such as ‘Worms in the garden more r eal th an a M cDonalds/Drain your blood and let the Exxon spill in’ into a melodic rock song. Album opener Slash N Burn was a Guns N Roses-inspir ed glammetal song w ith the swag of Axl and Co while Br adfield spat out streams of an ti-consumerist slo - gans. Natwest-Barclays-MidlandsLloyds, n amed in the or der they appeared in B lackwood H igh
Street, was another an ti-capitalist assault which predicted the global r ecession in 2008, although it was inspired by Edwards’ inability to get a bank loan.
The crown jewel of the album, and the band’s enduring single from this period, Motorcycle Emptiness, was a soar ing anthem for Generation X and dispossessed youth, with Bradfield’s guitar solo wailing and not drowning.
“Drive away and it ’s the same/E verywhere death row, everyone’s a victim” is as moving a couplet as any produced by the Manics and pierces the heart of anyone who has felt teenage angst. While a modest hit in the UK, the song never got r eleased in the S tates, whic which h deprived it of being the hit it could h ave been .
Speaking in 1996, W ire said: “The record company never even released it in America – they didn’t want it on the album they said it was too AOR. “So our wer e shattered straight away and that was our universal song. If anything could do it , that could.”could. ” While Repeat featured in it spunky version on the album, a remixed version produced by Public Enemy helped to showcase the Manics’ hip-hop influences.
Perhaps the master-stroke of the album was the beautiful Little Baby Nothing, featuring vocals from former porn star Traci Lords.
The song rag es against male exploitation of women with the line “You are pure you are snow/ We are the useless sluts that they mould” cutting deep.
Bradfield said the band chose Lords as she could “symbolise the lyrics”.
He added :“Traci was more than happy to do it. She saw the lyrics and she had anim media immediate te affinity with them.
“It was easy to incor incorpor porate ate her personality into the lyrics.” Inspired by their he her roes oes The Clash, the Manics decid-decid - ed to make their debut a double album, to be sold at the same price as a single album, a move considered career suicide by record executives.
Stretching to 18 tr acks, G eneration Terrorists closed w ith epic Condemned To Rock N Roll, with the final couplet signifying the band’s hatred of the world a t that time: “There’s nothing I wanna see/ There’s nowhere I wanna go.”
Upon the album’s release, theth Manics proclaimed they hoped the albumalbu would sell 16 million copies ar ound theth world, “from Bangkok to Senegal”, bef before splitting up.
These predicted sales figures w were wide of the mark and the album was criticised by some members of the m usic press for being too long, but the sheer ambition and cockiness of the Manics ens ensured they would become one of the most articulate and loved rocked bands ever.
Speaking about Generation TerroristsT after its release, Nicky said: “It would be wrong to sas ay y we regretted it . WeW could have sold a lot more records if w we’d done a debut album that was 10 songssong just like Motown Junk and played the gameg a bit more carefully, but I pr efer ban bands when they’ re messy and sprawling anda epic, and they make mistakes.
“We’ve made indie bands nds realise – even on the smallest level – thattha you can be stars again... that’s all down to us.
“Musically and lyrically t they’ re not gonna take anything fr om us . I know th at – they’re e too scared.”