Spectators of Suicide 2020 ft. Gwenno
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000p61g

Skip to 1:49 or a bit earlier to hear the story

Nice. Very nice.

Similar to when they played it live at the Heavenly gig 10 years ago or whenever it was.

Fantastic! I love Gwenno, she was brilliant at the TIMTTMY gigs. Her voice works really well on this. It's really nice to have something new from the Manics this year too, even if it is an old song!

Beautiful

Hope this will be a available to download.

I love it, we need a proper release somewhere!

Honestly it made me want them to re-record all of GT immediately... (!) Not that I would ever want them to replace the original(s), but as an alternate version (and even on the radio) it was just breathing so much more with modern production.

I've been thinking this for a few years now. Wouldn't be the first time it's been done, John Cale recently re-imagined Music for a New Society. I'd love to hear a heavenly version of Generation Terrorist, making the album sound like an 80's glam band was pretty much the worst musical decision they've ever made. Would take an acoustic version as well, the Rough Trade session is worth a listen to validate the awesomeness of that prospect.

I'm warm on this version, has shades of Echo & The Bunnymen, nice big drum sound on the intro, but the dual vocals on the bridge and outro kill the build-up and catharsis of the original.

Sounds like it'll be released next week (or is it this week now?)

The closest thing we have is that GT acoustic show. The first time I actually heard the music

https://youtu.be/95zWf0_DeZA

I really like her voice....and hoping Mr Bradfield isn't reading...think she should have sung the whole song...maybe Bradfield coming in to join on the chorus.....that works for me...yes

Lyrically it's a bit of a lockdown anthem....


80's glam rock GT :) Good point thinking on it...when it came out it was refreshing ...and I loved Motorcycle Emptiness I remember but probably struggled to find its place without being quite distinct enough to fashion its own....yep I erm was listening to the likes of Poison (who I loved...I confess...) and erm Tigertailz, Warrant ...I was very young..(still love a bit o Dogs D'Amour though...and...shall I stop...OK) ..and erm yes before dropping into thrash/death metal for a time...before they saved me with the Holy Bible (but of course)....

what lockdown does to a brain

Well now, that's the second pleasant surprise of the day. :D

Sounds superb i think even though i still prefer the heavenly version. This also sounds slower to me and i agree the build-up towards the end is robbed a bit but i have zero problem with gwenno's voice and james sounds bloody fantastic. I hope this isn't going to be another hidden gem that we don't get a high quality download of.

Wow, another vote for this being commercially available please !

Her voice works great on this. The Heavenly version has always been head and shoulders above the GT version (can we just forget that exists now please?) but the demo version on the GT reissue hinted that they were frustratingly close to getting a good album version before they tried to do a bad GN'R Lies impression (owim o way owin o way etc.) Glad they've had a chance to come back to it as it remains one of their best early songs.

Slight shame it's lost the Bobby Seale intro (my vote for best Manics sample in a very crowded race) but the extra guitar fills and that outro more than make up for it. Would almost have thought it was the same drum track but Sean is just a machine isn't he ? (GT aside where ironically he actually was!)

Can they do a decent version of Faceless Sense of Void next please ?

The house in the woods demo is great and a punchier version that is most comparable to this new one but that's no real surprise. I would have liked the guitar solo outro from that as well as the bobby seale quote of course.

Yep, that's the one. Astounding to me that they went from that, to ending up what's on GT. A polished version of that have been a good 'epic' counterpoint to Motorcycle Emptiness on the album, I would say.

*Conjecture Alert* I personally suspect it may have been self sabotage, as from memory James was a bit embarrassed about the song being very old (Colt 45 Rusty James being one of their earliest songs I think?). It was certainly suggested on a documentary that James was completely nonplussed ,to the point of being rather annoyed ,about how much the head of Heavenly liked SoS. It probably is quite hard to be confident of a song you wrote when very young, but it's a shame as it's a great tune.

Manic Street Preachers: *prefers Hitler over Slowdive*

Also Manic Street Preachers: *makes world's two best post-shoegaze tracks*

(Original SoS and Motorcycle Emptiness.)

Ah, well. They never promised to be logically consistent, did they?

They should go wild for GT’s 30th and do remixed and reimagined versions of the album. One version with proper drums and more organic production and another of completely new versions like this.

Also, sorry to Nick Nasmyth and Wayne Murray, but they should finally get a female voice in the touring band too. JDB has obviously wanted that in the music for a while.