Manic Street Preachers played their final show of 2021 at Wembley Arena last night (Friday December 3), where they played a cover of The Cult’s classic ‘She Sells Sanctuary’.
With a setlist heavy on their 2021 14th studio album ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament‘ – which scored the band their first Number One album in 23 years back in September – the Welsh rock icons also took the time to air a rendition of The Cult’s iconic single from 1985.
Introducing the track following a brief acoustic interlude in the set, frontman James Dean Bradfield dedicated their cover to the late, great record producer Steve Brown, who died back in January aged 65. Among his lauded work, he produced the band’s 1992 debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’.
“This next song is dedicated to a man who produced Wham!, he produced The Boomtown Rats, he produced [1992 single] ‘Motorcycle Empti-fucking-ness’,” said Bradfield. “He passed away this year – a dear, dear friend of ours and an amazing producer, Mr Steve Brown. He also produced this fucking song.”
Check back at NME soon for our full review of the Manics at Wembley.
Manics fans are now eagerly awaiting news of the band’s long-mooted 20th anniversary reissue of their divisive 2001 album ‘Know Your Enemy‘, as well as bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire’s “jazz-meets-C86” solo album.
Asked about the progress on the reissue during a recent conversation with NME, Wire replied: “It is staring at me right now! There are two boxes of stuff. I’m sat in the studio with our engineer and it’s there, confronting me.”
He continued: “It was quite exciting because I’ve actually discovered two songs that have never been released. Unless I’ve made a fuck-up somewhere, there’s a song called ‘Rosebud’, which no-one has ever heard, and another called ‘Studies In Paralysis’ which has never been heard, plus a completely different version of ‘Let Robeson Sing’ that James [Dean Bradfield, frontman] did in his flat in London on a keyboard, and bares no resemblance to what it became.
“There are actually a lot of goodies. Even I’m quite giddy with excitement. James and Sean [Moore, drummer] weren’t arsed though…”
In terms of other activity in the Manic Street Preachers’ camp, Wire also revealed more about his new “modern, electronic, soothsaying” solo album.
“It’s done,” he told NME. “Whatever, I might bury it in a fucking pond somewhere, I might burn it, I might do it mail order, I might do it on Bandcamp. It’s very fucking fragile. It’s got some very off-kilter modern jazz and some C-86 indie vibes to it.”
This would follow Wire’s 2006 solo debut ‘I Killed The Zeitgeist’. Asked how it compared, Wire replied: “It’s a lot better than that. There’s some ‘Bitches Brew’-era Miles Davis in there, some obscure trumpet-led, and some songs that just sound like The Shop Assistants.
“It features Gav [Fitzjohn] on the trumpet. Sean [Moore, drums and trumpet] refuses to play. He says his lip has gone.”
Earlier this week, they shared the digital album ‘I Live Through These Moments Again And Again’, collecting their long run of duets throughout their career.
The Manics will return to the road in 2022 with a run of festival shows, as well as supporting The Killers as select UK stadium dates.
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