New podcast about Manics

[hummingbird]

If memory serves say hello to the pope is about his neighbour ( flat upstairs) when he was living in London. I think she passed away which is why you have the line about seeing the name still on the bell?

Loved that kyffin Williams quote. James needs to stop saying he's not intelligent enough. Oh Yes He Is.

[Son of Stopped]

Yeah, she used to shout that at him. Obviously, after he'd had some success with the band.
From what I remember of interviews at time.

[chieftan mews]

Just a quick update for those not on our socials

On Monday our episode is an interview with actor Michael Sheen. A fascinating and lovely guy, who has some really interesting stuff to say about the Manics.

[hummingbird]

Oh wow Michael sheen ...well done guys
Looking forward to it

[sean_moores_biographer]

Really enjoying the podcast Adam, very funny and informative. Makes my jogs in the park more bearable.

[Tim]

Oh wow, Michael Sheen? How cool is that, big mates have gone big league. I'm so impressed i even capitalised his name. I've a lot of time for him though, he's fronted many a great cause around wales especially, to the point where i kind of hope he'll get into politics one day... if he wants that poisoned chalice. I assume you at least spoke to him about the passion play he performed in port talbot that the manics were a part of.

Then there's simon price...
Nah, he alright. From what i hear anyway, guess he's just got a bit of a history with manics fans, shall we say.

Looking forward to both though.

[Librarian On Fire]

I've been enjoying the podcasts. They are my listening on a Sunday morning while ironing my shirts for the working week. Although I didn't have enough shirts to iron to get me through the Lifeblood cast.

Even though I've been a fan for years and years I'm still picking up little bits of trivia that I didn't know about, so thank you for that. Going forward from Send Away The Tigers will be interesting as these albums are more recent and have existed in a world without music papers being of any influence. Older fans and perhaps less press and interviews. It'll be interesting listening. Thank you for doing them.

Oh yeah, I think Greg Haver lives up the road from me.

[mr bowlase]

Adam/Steve/Lucas....thanks for making the podcasts - very enjoyable.

Decided to rewatch the Empty Souls video after listening to the Greg Haver episode, but can't seem to find it on YouTube....has it been taken down?

Also remember the first live recording of Empty Souls was an absolutle stonker!

[hummingbird]

Michael sheen interview was fabulous. Going to listen to it again later. He wins fuzziest man in Wales award for me cos not only does he still have the beard, but that curly mop hair too.

[Porco]

Yep, loved the Michael Sheen ep, great stuff!

[Tim]

Such a fun episode to listen to, that sheen chap seems like a nice fella doesn't he?
It would do wonders for him though if he just had a bit of self-confidence.
Before going into this i was expecting him to be more of a casual fan so it was a surprise to hear how knowledgeable he is about their music, even mentioning patrick bateman at one point which is kinda wild.
Though i wish he picked anything post-KYE, nothing off rewind the film at least? Which is loaded with that welsh meloncholy/hiraeth/defiance/whatever and is the perfect pairing to TIMTTMY but from a much older perspective.
Anyway, his thoughts on all that and welsh identity and the comparison of his trajectory to that of the manics and their early confrontational attitude and politics coming from both their backgrounds was insightful i thought and echoed some of things i've said in this thread which gives me the warm and fuzzies that mike and i are on the same page.
I can't find it now but i think there are quotes from anthony hopkins regarding the self-destructive urge of the welsh artist - and there's your next pod guest.
Oh and he's a huge philip k dick fan huh? Marvellous.
Passengers though... ugh, what a repulsive film.

[sitdown1985]

Another great episode. I listen while running. Just a few strange looks as I run around grinning like an idiot. I told my girlfriend that Michael Sheen was in it, in case she wanted to listen too and she was utterly surprised that he'd be a fan, untilI emphasised it was Michael Sheen and not Martin Sheen from the West Wing

He really knew his stuff, even referencing obscure B-Sides. I can't believe he also ended up having to take personal financial liability for the Homeless World Cup - what a great bloke. Surprised he didn't reference anything from any of the later albums, but I get what he said about songs taking time to build up an emotional connection.

[darkanddivine]

I love podcasts, but I usually use them to explore people and topics I don't know too much about. Especially with the Manics, where I've already analysed the catalogue to death a billion times myself, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy a lengthy discussion about it. But now I might have to make an exception with Do You Love Us, because this interview is bloody brilliant.

I've always known he was a fan, and it always struck me as bizarre that I'd never heard him speak that much about it. If he showed up on a TV show I was thinking "go on lad, just bung a Manics shirt in there..."

In the end the actual interview was like a therapy session. I really liked the part in the first half where he talked about the "slabs of emotion." That really hit home for me. A great interview; well done folks!

[hummingbird]

SATT episode another good 'un. You've made me look forward to Mondays now woo!

Welcome to the dead zone is probably one of my favourite manics songs. Definitely not just a B-side and missed the deadline for the album cos it wasn't finished. I think Sean wrote most of it? I have it in my head that it's his and YLAINE is Nicky's who gave it to James to finish? Nicky was contributing more to the music from this album on. Fits in with what was said on the solo episode about it being two songs spliced together.

Had no idea they were back till well after the album was released but I liked it enough to want to talk about it and joined this forum. This was also the start of me going to multiple gigs on a tour, though for this one only went to the two Brixton dates in December.

I wasnt offended by the "this one's for the freaks" line in underdogs. Always took freaks to be the name other people call manics fans and not the band themselves. Similar to Pulp's mishapes being about misfits getting their own back. Agree that line "you need to fuck people like me" is a bit shit tho.

Sean's joining this forum to have a pop at people was funny. I hadn't joined yet so missed it but I kinda don't blame him. After the general meh that greeted KYE and even more of a meh for lifeblood he must've thought aaaargh fucking manics fans never happy

HATED the working class hero cover as to me that belongs to John Lennon and no one should touch it ever I didn't know it was played live tho' . That's cool.

Had no idea at all about lifting vocals from the finished tracks for the acoustic versions. Oooh sneaky. Still like them tho

7 out of ten for me this album. I forget how good it is, agree it's too short ..needs a couple more songs. B sides were great. Much prefer it to postcards. Autumnsong I unashamedly love, just makes me smile. The versions I've heard live sounded like a Bryan Adams song ( sorry James) There was one gig where 2 blokes were moshing to it too. Very odd.

Favourite tracks probably SATT Indian summer , YLAINE and the second great depression. Can never pick just two.

[Tim]

Total manics-by-numbers unfortunately but i fully recognise it was the album they had to make at the time or they likely would not have carried on and the commercial success just shows the masses lap this up. It's interesting to hear that confirmed when the two casual fans love the least interesting and safest songs of their back catalogue.
There's a better album hiding here but you'd have to replace a chunk of the tracklisting with superior b-sides, including one of my favourite instrumentals of theirs - the vorticists.
Just insane that love letter to the future wasn't included either, supposedly it almost made the cut.

Send away the tigers - such a hot badger this one, time has only increased my appreciation of it. It's a shame that not much else on the album matches it, certainly in terms of lyrics where a lot of tracks have little to say of any worth.

Underdogs - i didn't much like it back then but it has really improved with time for me and i never quite understood the hatred of it. I certainly think the freaks & geeks thing in the lyrics plays a lot better these days when geeks have taken over culture and have reclaimed such words as a badge of honour, which is the intention i always thought they were aiming for. It's more memorable for happy feet's short-lived reign of terror on here and people losing their minds over that edit, which i still can't bloody hear.

Autumnsong - i only bring it up because there's a moment on no manifesto (i think) where james and nicky are having an argument over whether this song is avant garde or not. It might be, it might not be but this song just isn't the hill you should be willing to die on.

I'm just a pasty - oh, that's been done, there's a whole thread in here somewhere of pastry based song titles. But thanks for playing.

Was gonna add that this album and holy bible aren't the only albums to use the simple minds-esque backward Rs, they also appear on journal for plague lovers and futurology.