Manics & Drugs

[zaza_3121]

I've been wondering..Did they ever take drugs? I know Nicky said he didn't, but what about James and Sean?

[Bathtub]

Richey smoked weed with the tour crew apparantly.

I'd be very surprised if they didn't all have a dabble in their younger days.

[tzb]

James doesn't strike me as the type though. More of a cigs and booze kinda guy, but that's just an impression I get.

[sculptureofabloke]

All I've heard about is James, Nicky and Richey hitting the booze hard back in the day. Was Sean ever that much of a drinker? I dunno.

Course, with stuff like Drug Drug Druggy and Another Invented Disease they were quite aggressively anti-drugs but I wonder if they'd be all that anti-drugs without any personal experience of any? I suppose they'll have been seeing what it was doing to other bands at the time and the industry's always been pretty rife, but I don't know how far that's going to get you. Even the government doesn't tar all drugs with the same brush, there are different classes, some are addictive, others aren't, some can be fatal, other's far less likely to be, some you can retain self-control, others you can't etc.

But no, I've never heard any rumours about any of them taking anything illegal, which I suppose is where people draw the line seeing as alcohol, nicotine and steroids are fine.

[aivil]

The election manicfesto

Nicky: “We weren’t on that scale, but when James moved to London for three years it was a fairly decadent period, one has to say. You didn’t do much other than drink and… the other.”

James contemplates this as he stands by the window having a smoke and gazing out at the Liffey.

“It was only drink,” he says. “I didn’t take any drugs.”

The Manics singer invites TV viewers into his London Bachelor Pad

HEROIN "I've got to admit, for some reason, even though I've never taken heroin and I would hate any of my friends who took heroin ... But whenever I see a heroin band and an E band, I always go for the heroin band. And I don't think it's a good drug, it's just what I was reading when I was young."

DRINK NOT DRUGS "I think it's cowardice to a degree. I'd worry about my heart packing up if I took drug, and I would rather do it on an slower level and drink, I think. I prefer thinking you come up with a pearl of wisdom at the bar, rather than coming up with a pearl of wisdom in the middle of a field in Somerset."

[The Gutless Wonder]

That last quote was the one that came to my mind.

[m0drnmoonlight]

I've never heard stories or rumors about any of them doing drugs. I've seen Richey's time in the Priory sometimes described as being for "drug and alcohol problems," but I figure drugs just got lumped in there with everything else.

Considering Crappergate started because Nicky said he didn't want to share a bathroom with people lighting up, I take it he's quite anti-drugs. He gave up drinking because it was making him sick, and you have all those stories from the early days of him puking after like one cocktail, so he's a delicate flower as it is heh.

[The Gutless Wonder]

James thoughts on the crappergate thing was that he didn't want to share a toilet with 'grubby musicians doing lines of coke', or words to that effect!

[m0drnmoonlight]

Originally Posted by The Gutless Wonder

James thoughts on the crappergate thing was that he didn't want to share a toilet with 'grubby musicians doing lines of coke', or words to that effect!

Yeah, that's the explanation Nicky gave when he was asked to explain himself LOL. How he knows what goes on at music festivals and he didn't want to share a toilet with people doing drugs inside.

[Deets]

I think Bathub's right and Richey smoked weed but I suppose it was more kind of experiment than addictive thing.

edit

QUOTES!! From "In Their Own Words" 1998 edition, page 31

Nicky, 1996
Drugs are the biggest get-out clause in the world. Dope enhances your creativity? Bollocks! It destroys your brain cells. When we came to London it was 'hey, chill out, spliff out man'. But our calling-card was 'Anxiety is freedom'. (deets' disclaimer - dear Nicky, it's not a full Kierkegaard quote: 'Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom')

Richey, 1992
I think we're going to have drug problems and end up living in a squat in south London.

Nicky, 1996
On our first European tour I remember us going to Frankfurt and seeing the needles at the station and being so shocked. We had never had anything to do with that. (deets' disclaimer no2 - dear Nicky, thanks for sickening me Germany, but I'm really looking forward to my exchange during summer semester)

Nicky, 1996
I could have never see the argument that Trainspotting glamorised heroin, 'cos I think that's incredibly seedy, but the very fact that handsomeactors are making loads of money doing a brilliant film is obviously glamorous. Drugs, for me, I just find them incredibly boring and I find the people that take them incredibly boring. (deets' disclaimer no. 3 - oh yes, Ewan McGregor is very handsome - except the toilet scene)

Nicky, 1996
I must admit, in all my years in the industry, cocaine seems back with a vengeance. It hardly breeds reasoned behaviour, but it sometimes breeds good records...


that's all folks, but would we really trust Wire A.D. 1996???

[rory]

Don't tell me the davina interview James ain't off his face

[m0drnmoonlight]

Originally Posted by rory

Don't tell me the davina interview James ain't off his face

The one where he calls her racist? He always seemed massively hungover to me heh.

[Deets]

Originally Posted by m0drnmoonlight

The one where he calls her racist? He always seemed massively hungover to me heh.

why I don't remember that interview? YT link pls?

[Tom]

Of course they did!

[Son of Stopped]

I don't think the band have ever had the chance to comment on those modern legal drugs like salvia divinorum?
They'd probably dismiss it and say they've answered this question in 96.
Despite the legal "drugs" stuff emerging during the bands lifespan, not before or when growing up with Richey.
Damn, and we'll never get the chance to ask them before or after a gig again!
And no, I personally don't take divinorum. I hardly notice the difference.