What was your truth?
 

So this re-issue is interesting for a number of reasons. While EMG and The Bible enjoy both cult and critial acclaim from both band and fans, Truth hasn't always fared so well, and (singles aside) it hasn't always had huge representation in the Manics set.

But it's also coming round to the time when many fans were properly aware of their fandom which is arguably just as interesting. There were plenty of MSP fans at college, so (criticisms of the music aside,) Truth was the soundtrack to a pivotal point in lots of MSP fans lives.

So whether it was Too Many Festivals, the Truth booths, Manic Millennium, This is My Bag, or all those telly appearances and Brit awards; what do you remember of the band and their brief moment in the sun, and what role were they playing in your life at that time?

Already wrote a piece in the poetry thread about how the album tied in with my LSD period (do not try to imitate etc).
Only had The Holy Bible on tape which squeaked when listening to it, which took me out of the moment. GATS however on CD sounded like all the instruments were smiling at me, maaan!
I remember Donna Air on MTV being freaked out by the ending of the video when she first saw it.
I remember The Everlasting video having people on fire and how that video got banned when an unconnected incident had someone being set on fire.
I was happy the band were successful.
That said a woman who was one of the biggest mistakes in my life laughed in my face when I said it was their best album. (Fucking Travis fans)
Wasn't around in fandom though. That came later. Most of my Manic gig attendance has been from this century.
Looking back, what a fucking good job that was! (That I wasn't in fandom)
No idea where the huge fandom went. Mondeo Man. I remember reading that description in the music press. Still never took a driving lesson (I may be an imbecile but I'm not an idiot! Nothing against drivers but I wouldn't be safe behind the wheel)
Even bands that came after and got bigger like Coldplay, they never had the backlash the Manics got.

64 views and only two responses? Fucking really?!! (Sorry I broke your thread darkanddivine)

My main memory of that time was the special edition embossed CD case, which I loved, and which I cracked the fuck out of when I dropped it getting out of the car.

It was before my first Manics gig, and before I found the fandom, but I do remember that the album made me cry in the car sometimes.

I was both proud and confused by the fact that the band had become so popular. I could not utter the words 'I like the Manics' without hastily following up with 'I liked them before they became big' :P

I love the album and I went to the Millennium concert with my boyfriend the following year. They played some of the songs and also played Masses Against The Classes, which was amazing. It wasn't available to buy until weeks later though. I bought the single that has Tsunami and Found That Soul on.

TIMTTMY is actually one of my favourite albums though, that reminds me of holidays and the millennium.

Loved the album, wasn’t bothered by whoever had a problem with it. I loved that it won the Brits again, that it was huge in every sense; the sound, the success, the cargo pants, the stacked trainers... ! I have almost nothing but good memories associated with it. I strongly recall sitting in a hotel in Paris seeing the video for Tolerate, still one of their best videos I think. Then watching an episode of the Simpsons with a French dub on it. Good times :lol:

In my mind now, it was the last hurrah, the end of the era for 90s music. I know not actually, technically, but in a general sense, in terms of the albums that are important to me, it was the album before 9/11 2001, New Labour were still new, it was the time when “everything seemed possible” (to quote Golden Platitudes).

For most of that era I was at college, belatedly due to personal health issues. The widescreen vista of TIMTTMY was my soundtrack. Its accompanying tour was my first Manics gig. I remember being particularly happy Tsunami was to be the fourth UK single from the album.

Everything seemed possible.

I guess you mean the Tsunami cassette that had Motown Junk on? I remember buying that too. I really loved the artwork for those singles, riffing off the polaroid photos of the album but with those lovely block colour sleeves. Then shocking pink and dazzling orange of the Tsunami releases was so cool, IMHO.

I actually mean the Masses single with Close My Eyes and Rock and Roll music on. It says it was recorded in Autumn 1999 on the sleeve, though I wonder why they didn't release it before? I also like the Tsunami pink art and videos from that era.

I remember seeing them at Newcastle Arena in Dec ‘98 touring the album and it was the most static standing crowd I’ve ever seen. The performance equalled that. I thought they were on their way out ironically.

It was a strange era for me. I loved Tolerate and was so happy it got to number one, but was very unimpressed with the album on first listen. I couldn't believe how slow and ponderous and just dull it sounded. It didn't help that Mansun had released Six the week before which was a truly, astonishingly inspired album, which TIMTTMY definitely isn't - though I did grow to love it over the next few weeks and it's probably in my top 5 Manics albums now.

My life was in a very strange place in 1998 and it's not a year I remember happily. I was very depressed and very nearly gave up on my dream life living in London to move back to Australia. I went to the two Wembley gigs and they were amazing, and a few days later did fly back to Australia - but only for Christmas, and I came back to London in 1999, which was a much better year for me. And then the Manics seemed to have regained their fire to with Masses Against the Classes, and the Millennium gig was one of the best nights of my life.

So overall, very mixed memories, but I'd love to go back in time to relive the Manic Millennium. Haven't watched the DVD in ages, I feel a rewatch is in order soon! :)

I remember my dad buying the soecial embossed album after seeing them on jools holland. He only really played the singles off it though as he said the rest of it was "a bit weird". I kind of diacovered the album for myself nine years later when SATT came out which I loved. I listen to truth loads still these days and its probably my second favorite manics apbum after THB.

I remember liking the singles and thinking that 'You Stole the Sun' was about the heaviest thing I'd ever heard :lol:

Start of my Manics fandom.

Randomly switched over to a documentary on the band on RTE2 around the time of the Tolerate release and they were showing the ME video. Loved it. I actually didn't hear any of the EMG era stuff so it was all new to me.

I think going to Woolworths and buying the Tolerate single (surely their best in terms of single and b-sides, though maybe Masses runs it close) is in my top 3 Manics moments. Great times. Would kill to go back to summer 1998 and do it all again.

Then my first Manics gig was in June 1999 in Dublin. I was blown away. Remember feeling kinda weird when they turned up Nicky's bass for the last few songs. That was a great gig - we got PCP, Prologue, Yes, Tender and You're Tired, This is Yesterday, Baby Love into Motown Junk.

Loved the album when it was released and still listen to it now. Ready for Drowning and Black Dog on my Shoulder are the ones I always go back to.

It is easily their best b-sides era too.

I don't know if I'll go to any of the anniversary gigs. I'm fed up with the album and then the hits format.

Interesting thread thanks for starting!

The Truth era was when I first got into the Manics so it is a time I remember very fondly. Their gig at Manchester Arena was my first proper gig as well (that I am not ashamed to admit to!) and I remember there being loads of giant video screens behind them. There were 3 plus two others either side of the stage which looked impressive. They opened with EMG and it was a great gig which really opened my eyes to guitar music.

I loved the artwork, and the aesthetic around the whole album/look/theme. I guess I realised I was a fan of melancholia and it really worked with the album being released in the autumn that year. What I did find strange was the moment I started listening to their older output. I really found the Holy Bible un-listenable at first. I rented it out on cassette from the local library and just couldn't get into it. I felt like I had to go back to Truth/EMG just to get some relief haha. Obviously, over time that changed and I came to love THB as well.

I remember there was an advert on TV (can't remember what it was advertising - maybe a credit card?) with these people driving along in an open top car saying that they wanted to do all these life affirming things... "I want to the see the Manics live" being one of them.

I remember buying the NME and Q for the first time when I saw the Manics were on the front cover.

I was very drawn to James as a musician and front man. He looked so cool and had a great voice with a white guitar.

The Tolerate video was everywhere on MTV/VH1. It was a very weird video but really watchable & interesting. I seriously think that the video had a lot to do with their continued success as the music video as a format was hugely popular with more and more people owning satellite/cable TV around that time.

I owned the embossed version of the album as well and I later also bought a special edition which had a 2nd disc with some live tracks on it - Kevin Carter, The Everlasting and another (maybe Motown Junk?).

I was at Manic Millennium - great gig. My one abiding memory of it was Nicky Wire walking right past me and my friend in Cardiff city centre during the day of the gig. I remember him causing quite a stir as more and more people recognised him. Great days!

Just wanted to agree with this - great thread! We should do these for all the albums.

I got into the band during this period, but not because of this album. A good friend lent me THB and GT and that was that. Always liked Tolerate though.

I do have fond memories of the tour as it was my first time seeing them. I was lucky enough to be on holidays in California while the band were on their 99 US tour. So my first gig is still the smallest venue I've seen them in. Less than 400 people. A great gig it was too. I had to pretend to have come all the way over to see them, bring my sister and promise not to drink before they let me in. Got a scarf worn my Wire on stage at the end and gave it to a girl when I got home. Young love eh

This is a great thread, have enjoyed reading other people's memories.

I truly love this record and i'm massively looking forward to the Edinburgh gig next year as it means a lot to me.

In '98 I had just turned 15 and only really starting to get into music. The Manics were my new big thing, having bought EMG the year before (I'd seen them on Buzzcocks and thought they looked cool). I listened to Truth religiously for the next 2-3 years and it helped me get through a few tough times at college.

This was the album that i fell in love with the band to, and it still sits in my top 3 albums, probably purely on this sentiment. After this, i struggled with KYE as i yearned for Truth part II (I eventually saw the error of my ways and now love KYE because it's NOT Truth part II) and went to my first gig on the greatest hits tour in '02.

Love this album. Love this band.

I remember it as a happy time (for a change!).

Genuinely loved the album, but best of all I met someone who was to become one of my closest friends at the Bridlington gig. It was a cracking gig, and have some great memories:

> Sitting on a wall by the beach, 15 yards away from JDB and his roadie eating ice creams. We were tow shy to say hello (nothing has changed!). While we were sitting there being shy, a local resident came up to us and asked us why there were 'so many young people' in town.

> There was a shop which in its window had an advertisement for 'knickers that tie at the knee'.

> Some of the pubs had signs up declaring 'Manics fans welcome':lol:

>Opposite the venue was a retirement home (one of many in the town I think), and when we were all queueing up to get in, the residents were all on the balcony staring at the queue. Obviously not used to seeing 'so many young people' in town, particularly not boys in frocks and make-up (sigh).

> At the gig my then new friend received an accidental cigarette burn from a bloke in a one horned viking helmet. It has become known as the Bridlington Burn, and a bit like Harry Potter's scar in the presence of Voldermort, it throbs in the vicinity of the Manics:lol:

>When we came out of the gig, there were a group of mounted police. I think they expected all of the 'young people' to riot or something, but everyone just wanted to pat the horses:D Danni Minogue was playing the venue the following week, but I don't think she would have caused so much of a stir.

Those were the days when gig itself was just part of a wider fandom 'event'. It is something my friend and I (who have done gigs on every tour since) miss.

ah, this gives me the chance to air a revelation i had about this album over the recent few years...

some background:

got into the band via ADFL at 15/16 years old, and very quickly fell into the whole 'mess of eyeliner and spray paint' side of the band working back from there. despite that, 16 year old me appreciated that EMG was a necessary shift from the events preceding it, but there was still enough there for me to get my angsty adolescent teeth into.

two years later - now 17, at college - Tolerate is announced. my little group of like-minded fans start to get very excited - "it's a full album written by Nicky, it's bound to be all glitter and feather boas, anger and glam rock!" "the lead single's called If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, for heaven's sake, it's gonna sound like Revol or something!"

then we actually hear Tolerate. it's not (obviously) angry. or glittery. or glam rock. it is, to this 17 year old's ears... a bit dull.

building up to the album release, we're still doing all the usual obsessed fan stuff around it... we got into the Radio 1 Cooper's Field thing, we were at the midnight launch in Cardiff that night, went to the Bridlington gig the week of my 18th birthday (my then girlfriend fought tooth and nail to secure JDB's setlist from the night - it's on my wall to this day).

but - my truth is - the album left us cold.

there were highlights that bubbled to the surface over the following weeks - Born A Girl, Tender & Tired, Nobody Loved You - but everything else was either too ploddy and pedestrian (I'm Not Working, My Little Empire, etc), or too overplayed and radio friendly (You Stole The Sun, Everlasting).

it was not an album for an 18 year old who was currently weighing up Idlewild's debut as their album of 1998. we very quickly (arrogantly) decreed it was an album for the 30-something, company car driving, 2.4 kid middle managers of the land - the Mondeo men, as was the common parlance at the time.

it became buried, disowned; we were apologetic for its very existence when the topic of music, bands and favourites came up, especially as we moved on up into Uni life.

for some, it was too much - the glitter, feather boas and glam faded to an embarrassment of their pre-Uni youth.

for me, personally, they were somewhat redeemed with Masses Against The Classes (cue me running from room to room in our student flat - "this! this is what they should sound like!"), then back on (some form of alternative) track when KYE spluttered along a year or so later.

the whole Truth period remained the dip in their catalogue for me. bar the few exceptions above, plus a handful of bsides / remixes / oddities from the era, every cd burnt and playlist made pretty much skipped straight from EMG into KYE. You Stole The Sun, Tolerate, Tsunami became the designated toilet breaks for gigs. Truth was resolutely at the bottom of my "rate the albums" lists, where it would stay forever.

but...

20 years later, guess who's now the 30-something, company car driving, 2.4 kid middle manager? and guess who now has a ticket to see Truth performed in its entirety - and is actually looking forward to it*?

while still not as excessive as other eras, the Truth playlist has been expanded to a solid 18 tracks; i've enjoyed the exposure and re-evaluation Tolerate's had of late... i now even get a little shiver if i hear it on the radio or out and about somewhere.

if there's a moral to this story, it'd be something about the arrogance of youth, the inevitability of aging and softening of tastes - all things that, on review, are actually covered throughout Truth.

bravo, Nicky, bravo.

*apart from You Stole The Sun. seriously, fuck that song.

Company car driving, middle managing....sure the sun has been stolen from your heart no?:)....(I do mean it cheekily...but not rudely...)

typing all that out at work was more a case of I'm Not Working really! :D

I'd love a company Mondeo and I would challenge anyone here to say you wouldn't.

I wouldn’t! But then, I can’t drive so it wouldn’t be of much use to me...

Saw them multi times on this tour such as Wembley both nights with Catatonia supporting and Manic Millemium -the only new years i have really enjoyed ( despite
an incedent of bone crushing dissapoimtment ).
Best was V99 Staffs

Then there was the fan convention in Cardiff !!!

Good thread. Really enjoyed reading everyone's posts in here so thought I would contribute my own memories from this period.

I personally got into the band in 1996, aged 15, when my father bought A Design For Life and rinsed it constantly. I subsequently bought Everything Must Go (album) for him for his birthday and ended up nicking it for myself and playing it to death in my bedroom.

Not long after this came the Nynex concert on Radio 1 which I taped and listened to relentlessly. This was my introduction to much of the earlier stuff ie Yes, Stay Beautiful, Motown Junk, Motorcycle Emptiness etc. After this I went out and bought the three previous albums and my obsession was complete.

When Truth came out I played Tolerate to death and bought the embossed cd the day it came out and bought tickets to see the band at Wembley Arena. My first Manics gig aged 18 in 1998 with Catatonia supporting. Absolute stormer of a gig which I still have fond memories of to this day even after seeing them thirty plus times now. This was pre-camera phone / internet everywhere era so it was an incredible surprise many years later when I was working in a second hand record shop someone brought in a hand held video recording of this gig. I had an enjoyable evening watching that gig again on grainy VHS.

Other than that night at Wembley, my main memories of the Truth era were of reading every single interview in every single music magazine, watching every tv performance and generally becoming completely obsessed with the band. Good times.

Truth was the very first MSP album that I listened to. Before Tolerate and Tsunami videos I had no idea about Manics.

Tolerate is one of my favourite songs/music videos. First impression effect, I guess.

And now Truth's 20th anniversary .. and they fascinate me just like they did in '98. Their talent and uniqueness simply shake the spacetime itself!

I got into Generation Terrorists...then drifted...OK into a heavy metal phase, then grunge...then came The Holy Bible at just the right time...so Truth was along the road and I think for me I maybe had some expectation that it would be the album that might define them now Richey had left. Sure there was the brilliant Everything Must Go album but that was everything must go ... let's see The Truth (or something) and well I'd left university and felt a bit adrift ...I loved how successful it was, how If You Tolerate was so huge and Nicky so proud clearly and I really loved Tsunami about the 'silent twins' - a book I'd read not long before and had resonated so well with but for all the tracks I loved - Tsunami, You Stole the Sun...there were many that drifted...I was expecting it to be more political and provocative too I think with that title....
still unlike other bands they feel a bit like old friends, always there through good and the bad with no pretensions nor ego's (just lots of tongue in cheek) and I've realised you never really know what to expect from one album to the next except there's an honesty that runs through all they do and they're the only band I've clicked with that seem to have backgrounds not a million miles away from my own.....you don't need that to connect with a song of course not but they're always interesting in interviews and it's good to feel that connection....gave me the confidence to apply to university they did, to feel like it's actually OK to enjoy studying and to want to understand the world around you....to want to go to university

Never mastered punctuation however

Yo folks, I expected about 3 responses to this, thanks for all your thoughts! So I suppose I should add my own…

I distinctly remember getting an electric shock down my spine when the “comet” noise came on the first time I heard Tolerate, probably unlike any other reaction I’ve had to a track. After that, to be honest the album could have been 14 hours of Sean Moore trumpet solos and I would still have loved it. I do remember waiting for Top of the Pops to (hopefully) see a plugged in live version, but it was one of those weird live vocals (but with a backing track) only performances.

When the album came out I was literally starting college the same day, so I had to fly into town to buy the one with the fancy silver letters, one that has just about survived until this day. I remember doing that very teenage thing of spending the first night with the thing on repeat poring over the lyrics. I’m pretty sure I thought I’d be able to impress my friends if I knew all the words by the following day. It turns out my level of obsession wasn’t matched by anyone else!

Not long after, I distinctly remember going to a college day out on the train. While my mates all sat around chatting, I went full on anti-social and had the album on. I love the power of particular pieces of music to transport you to a time and a place, and so whenever I hear Black Dog, I’m instantly back on that train with the autumn countryside rolling by.

Like many of you, this was also the moment I finally got to see the band live after a couple of failed efforts on the EMG tours. I didn’t even make the 98 arena tour, but I made it to V99 Staffordshire. I know the footage on Youtube is from the Chelmsford leg, but the feeling around those shows was very similar. Imagine a massive moshpit, even in the VERSES of You Stole The Sun. That’s how massive the guys were at that point. And, as they headed towards KYE it was nice to see that awkward clash between Truth, and them bringing Faster, Of Walking Abortion and Masses into the set. That was a hell of a show (and loud as fuck.) I remember getting back home, and waking up my mum at 2am to come and get me (BT phonecard anyone?) and was in a daydream for about a month.

I did try to get to Manic Millennium but then realised I had about 12p and a BT phonecard to my name, and the idea of sleeping in a train station didn’t sound that appealing. And I had V99 anyway, which was good enough to me.

And that was very much that. Probably more than anything, Truth just fit the mood of the moment at that point in my life. It was an album I could truly escape into. In a way it was almost like a drug I’d been given to help deal with the growing pains of my mid to late teenage years. I’ve probably always overrated it because of that emotional attachment. It clearly has its flaws, but because of the therapeutic qualities it has, and the way the band consumed my brain at that point, none of that seemed to matter. If you get drawn into it there’s no getting out. And I guess for those of us who like it, that might be its greatest strength.

You should have been to Kettering Arena. Really didn’t enjoy that one. Acoustic faster was it for me. Always liked the first half of the album then I feel it tapers off. Luckily they have done some blinding gigs since then.

I don't believe acoustic Faster happened until 2002-3, around the time of Forever Delayed?

I knew ME since 1993. My father and me - we loved the song. In 1997 I found an old cassette with the song and started to play it regulary at home. My father bought EMG und GATS then und I really got into the band.
When TIMTTMY was released, I was already really obsessed with Manics and the first four albums were part of our home. Truth was a shock. It reminded me of Queen in 80s compared to early 70s. But I fell in love with the new style and briefly I really had the feeling, it‘s their best album. I believe a part of it was the really great sound the album has.
Suddenly it was possible to talk with my schoolmates about it. Everyone liked it. I was happy for them to be that succesfull. They were in radio, girls wanted me to show them, how you can play the songs on guitar...
First I really loved almost everything. I never liked Tsunami, whistling solo and Black Dog (saved for the coda) Then I woke up a litte bit and started to prefer My Litte Empire, Nobody Loved You, SYMM and Born a Girl. Then I woke up completely and started to hate the album. For years. Before the horrible Postcards came I considered the album the worst. And only a few years ago I made piece with it. One of them once said in an interview for a czech magazine: „we had had a great success with EMG and we thought it would be great to make it again“ I think you can hear this approach on the album a lot and many bad choices were made just because of it. James‘s songwriting was definitely success-oriented and that clashes with my ears. But it was the last time they got a little bitte genius in it, that‘s why I consider it the best off bad albums they made :-)
Actually the fact I never really listened to this album regulary in this century saved the memories very well - I can really feel it immediatelly - our sound system in the bedroom, the white CD und pom pam pompom pam...theeee gap that.... It was definitely a big part of the most important years of a young man - I was 14 - it influenced me a lot and set me on the path of defining my style....

I only got into music towards the end of 1995 at the height of Britpop. ADFL came out which I liked but the EMG single was actually my first Manics purchase. Soon after that I went to my first concert (Oasis at Loch Lomond) which the Manics were support for. A couple of days later I bought EMG the album and over the next year or so bought up the other albums - as well as the taping the NYNEX gig off the radio which is probably my most listened to tape!

I ended up having a stronger connection to the earlier, rockier sound than the polished EMG sound. Rumours were abound that the next album would return to this (I think the NME described the album as being The Holy Bible part 2). I remember tuning into Jo Whiley's show (I think) to hear the premier of Tolerate, and feeling a little disappointed that it wasn't the rocker that I expected.

Two weeks before going to uni I headed to Dundee to see them at the Caird Hall in what I sitll class as one of my favourite gigs. The next day I bought TIMTTMY and had mixed feelings about... there's still songs on there that I really like (Nobody Loved You, Ready for Drowning, Blackdog on my Shoulder, The Everlasting, Born a Girl), but the mid section of the album is just a bit flat, and whilst I now enjoy the live version of YSTSFMH the guitar sound on the recorded version just doesn't work for me.

And here I am, twenty years later, twenty manics gigs more attended....

Got into the Manics through EMG - was 11/12 at the time I was buying all the singles from the album, got the album itself with Christmas money at the end of '96. Definitely got into them more than the other guitar bands I was listening to at the time (the obligatory Oasis and Blur). My only real source of music news at the time was on ceefax and teletext... I do remember thinking by '98 that maybe the Manics had broken up, it was so long since they'd released anything. My taste had expanded a lot and I was listening to loads of other stuff... still, when Tolerate came out I snapped up the single (borrowed some money off my mum to afford both CDs and the tape). It was totally different from what I was expecting - ambient guitar intro, huge long outro, five minutes long - but I immediately loved the melancholy of it. I remember going for a birdwatching trip with my dad a couple of days later (my 14th birthday - I was a seriously cool kid, obviously). Strangely I persuaded him to listen to the charts on the car radio on the way back, and was over the moon to find they'd hit number 1!

I bought the album on the week of release. My parents had bought a new hi-fi with a MiniDisc deck, and I had a personal MD player / recorder (I made my own music - the idea of being able to record digitally and create an album of skippable tracks like a CD was mindblowing) so I decided to get the MD version of the album. Thought it was absolutely brilliant on listening. I remember coming across a couple of reviews complaining it wasn't like their earlier stuff, not as heavy, James's voice less raw... I hadn't heard the earlier albums, but I just thought "surely this is a good thing... none of that loud screaming rubbish". Although I later bought the Richey-era albums and enjoyed them, I never had a teen angst phase and still prefer the refined, melodic, melancholic approach of much of the band's later stuff.

It was a nice time. I had no real contact with the fanbase, never saw them live, just enjoyed the album in the context of it being an album. The following year I started a new school and met a fan who was into the whole glitter / glam stuff who, along with discovering the internet, helped me learn the error of my ways and prefer the earlier stuff - I was very excited about KYE's rawer sound - and then I moved to university without a minidisc player. I didn't end up with a CD copy of Truth until about ten years ago, so went for quite a few years without listening to the album, at which point it sank to near the bottom of my list based on its reputation alone.

Then a few years ago I listened to it again and realised that, no, my initial impression was right: this is a beautifully crafted, gorgeously melodic, atmospheric album. It became my favourite Manics album again and remains so to this day. I'm a lot more confident in my own opinions these days and discovering how much I love TIMT played a big part of that.

I got into the band during the Truth era because the girl I had a crush on at school showed interest in them. I discovered my dad had bought some of the 7" singles from the GT era. One of my favourite Manics memories is turning Slash and Burn over and discovering Motown Junk for the first time. I liked the Truth era's Manics, but to my young teenage ears, that was something else. I ended up buying the back catalogue (I think my local Asda had most of the albums on sale for a fiver each) and became a much bigger fan. I think Masses and the Know Your Enemy album cemented the divide between my blossoming fandom, and her casual acquaintance with the band.

To this day, I still associate the Truth album with those times and that girl, much like I associate Postcards with the girl I was dating when that album came out.

Lemme copy-paste my story from the post about Motorcycle Emptiness being an overrated song.

I'm a bit young within the Manics fanbase context, being born in 1989, and in Croatia early 1990s historicaly kinda sucked. (Ahem)
My first real memories of the Manics start with Tolerate, which of I've seen the video back when the song was a hit and could be seen/heard everywhere on TV and radio stations. I liked the song (although, it could have been an influence from my elder siblings), but, as you might have noticed, I was too young to care (how old was I? 7? 8?)

When I hit puberty, and chose the punk way, I discovered Generation Terrorists amongst my brother's cassette collection. It was love at first hearing.
Additionally, I couldn't speak any English back then, but I knew the Manics' reputation already, so I genuinely trusted the lyrics must be good, clever etc. However, since I couldn't understand the words due to language barriers, naturally I focused more on James' singing and, man, was it dreamy! ~~~~ ♥
Eventually, the Manics' song lyrics and translated Japanese video games became my favorite English learning boosters.

And your English is perfect! Shakespeare optional but we thankfully don't speak that way.
But yeah, learning English inspired by Manics gives you a better perception of the world than coming to it from Beatles lyrics!

Awwweww! ♥ Thank you!
I actually have a degree in English Linguistics. *wink wink*
Yeah, I'm so glad I grew up with the Manics. And the feelings of affection towards their work and artistic personas. These guys always make me happy.

Wonderful, wonderful thread. I'm sorry I don't have time to contribute properly. Due to the inhuman neoliberal crunch-machine I'm in professionally. But short and dirty version: I didn't like them when Truth came out. In Eastern Europe we'd missed EMG. It just didn't reach there. Truth was the first Manics album to penetrate all of Europe. I didn't have anything against them, when they did -- Tolerate was a nice, slightly boring track playing on MTV.

I now consider it, like, in my top 5 songs ever written. And the best single ever released, so yeah... In my defense, I was like 12. A friend of mine was already into them. He told me they have tremendous album titles: Everything Must Go, This Is My Truth... The Holy Bible. I absolutely agreed. They sounded very cool.

As I became a full-blown teenage delinquent loser and semi-homeless person (in the early aughts), Tolerate found its way on to mine and my friends' hit list, playing in the background. Just, you know, like Billy Idol's Sweet 16 or something. A golden oldie that was on winamp playlists at parties. We all really got into it slowly and started discussing what an amazing song it is. What an incredible opening line and so on. A bit of wikipedia told us what it's about and the admiration grew.

In the meanwhile, they'd also released Know Your Enemy, another very cool title, I thought. I was in love for the first time and Found That Soul -- playing on the radio in Easter-Europe-Land -- went well with that emotion. They'd really pierced the radio playlist by them: Ocean Spray, So Why So Sad, even There By The Grace of God were all in circulation and formed a nice background radiation for that time period. But still only in that "Muse is playing, Muse is an okay band though a whole album of that, I don't know..." kind of way.

The premier of "THe Love Or Richard Nixon" on Nordic MTV was the point where I and a lot of my friends immediately became a fans. We just looked at that on MTV and said: "wow." What a tremendously atmospheric and elegiac joke. These people are fucking high-concept. I was blown away at the audacity, the historicity, all of it. Lifeblood made me into a huge fan. Of the albums before it, Truth was the biggest rediscovery. With fresh eyes all those songs that had seemed boring were suddenly gigantic. The opening 5 tracks, I still think, are the most overbearingly grandiose cycle of music I've ever heard. If not the best then definitley the BIGGEST. I also ended up moving to England. The manics hit really hard here, in situ. Especially stuff like Nobody Loved You...

Sorry for lousy editing on this post, as I said -- I don't have time to chisel the prose :).

Have a nice Sunday y'all.