Here's a funny story about that: The first formal interview I did for No Manifesto was with Nicky. It was in 2005 on the day of the first gig of the Past Present Future tour. During this interview, Nicky remarked on the Holy Bible-heavy setlist, and said something about how IfWhiteAmerica had never been played live before. Coincidentally, not long before, I had heard the 1994 Astoria recording that, of course, has a performance of IfWhiteAmerica on it. So I said something that came out all wrong about how it must be strange when fans remember things about your band that you don't remember yourself.
Oh boy, he did NOT like that! The temperature in the room dropped by ten degrees (even though we were outside on a balcony
) as he drew himself up and said "No one knows more about the Manics's history than I do!" I fell all over myself trying to explain that I hadn't meant it in a critical way, only that when you've played so many gigs over so many years it must be hard to keep track and blah blah, and somehow we smoothed that moment over and carried on with the interview.
I guess it stayed on Nicky's mind, though, because at the gig that night, he asked the audience whether IfWhiteAmerica had ever been played live before. I don't know exactly what he thought of the fact that many of the faithful enthusiastically informed him that yes, it had (I certainly wasn't about to ask him, I had a film to make!
), but later when I was working with the footage from the dressing room after that show, I kind of got an idea of it. Although he was not in shot or on mic, the room mic had picked him in the background laughing and bitching good-humoredly about having been wrong. I've always loved that Nicky doesn't take himself too seriously
By the way, IfWhiteAmerica was played at every gig on the Past Present Future tour.
26-09-2014, 19:55
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