Biggest Manic Folly?

[starstruck]

OK, yes i am bored at verk, but across the threads it seems that many of us comment on "the very worst thing" that the band has done. why not have a go at "consolidating" that to see who thinks what?

i would first like to ask that each and every comment posted here is, and this should go without saying, the opinion of the poster, and no matter how it comes across i would imagine that no one is stating their choice as absolute fact.

if you must select "other", please be so kind as to state which curious event you think is a bigger or more noteworthy folly than the ones i could remember as being conversation pieces listed here.

many thanks, one and all, for taking part. if you do.

edit : i have left out "content and cost of NT Complete Shambles Box Set" as i think it's unfair without it actually being released, but please feel free to cast your "other" vote in that direction if you feel that strongly about it. peace and love.

[Grant]

Not releasing 1985 as a single.
That song is just genius.

[tzb]

Not splitting after JFPL.

[starstruck]

Originally Posted by tzb

Not splitting after JFPL.

that's a damned good answer. it would have been a remarkable bookend to their career.


my choice - no singles from JFPL. if they had released Jackie Collins i am sure it would have charted and got playlisted, and their faith in singles might not have been destroyed. granted, their poor choice and awful marketing of the PFAYM singles didn't exactly help things.

[Takk]

Know Your Enemy.

[MSPKYE]

The whole of Postcards as a whole let alone the singles choices. The whole era was crap from the 'mass communication' bollocks down to gigs where only about 10 people could get into, and 80 quid shoeboxes with nothing much in and a 30 minute DVD

[Son of Stopped]

I know I of all people haven't got the right to see this as a folly, but it amazes me that for all the Manics success, from non-fans a lot of them still mention as offensive Nicky's Stipe comment. After all this time... I know!
I should of voted for my folly out of that list and just mentioned people still got cold over the Stipe comment. No amount of "What he really meant" satisfies them.

[gallafield]

I voted "toiletgate". All the others are artistic choices, whereas "toiletgate" made them seem like absolute arseholes.

The 'no singles from jfpl' thing might be seen as a mistake, but I can understand the thinking that they wanted richey's last lyrics to be heard as one continuous piece of work, which is why the tour consisted of them playing the album as a whole, then playing a hits set. Granted, this theory doesn't work when they played selected songs from the album on the last two tours, but never mind.

[Flint]

Constantly bashing a massive chunk of their past works while blindly believing they can only do two different types of rocking as a band, effectively closing themselves in a very small box with no desire to get out or acknowledge there is a world outside that box.

I still have no idea how the hell the "toiletgate" incident could be seen as something terrible.

[MSPKYE]

Originally Posted by Flint

Constantly bashing a massive chunk of their past works while blindly believing they can only do two different types of rocking as a band, effectively closing themselves in a very small box with no desire to get out or acknowledge there is a world outside that box.

THIS. They constantly attack Lifeblood even though it's their most interesting and listenable music to date.

[Ermintrude the Cow]

Originally Posted by Takk

Know Your Enemy.

THIS.

[LoveMeToDeath]

i would say that KYE is my least fave album, but not sure it is their biggest folly thats just my opinion.

i do wish they wouldnt constantly undrmine some of their previous work but i guess if they constantly praised themselves we would have just had constant reinventions of EMG instead of the varied albums we have had

[starstruck]

Originally Posted by Son of Stopped

I know I of all people haven't got the right to see this as a folly, but it amazes me that for all the Manics success, from non-fans a lot of them still mention as offensive Nicky's Stipe comment. After all this time... I know!
I should of voted for my folly out of that list and just mentioned people still got cold over the Stipe comment. No amount of "What he really meant" satisfies them.

Nicky's rants nearly made it onto the list, but i was pushed for space with 10 options. between the Michael Stipe statement and the phenomenally sexist Anne Robinson comments at the Coal Exchange, they have managed to offend as they have gone on.

Originally Posted by Flint

I still have no idea how the hell the "toiletgate" incident could be seen as something terrible.

in itself, and their reasons for it, it wasn't really. the press and media at the time, however, were not interested in their rational reason for doing it, instead opting to give valuable airspace to the views of Billy Bragg on the matter. i included it because, at face value if nothing else, a "working class" band from Wales insisting on private toilets at a festival, is something of a folly. did Manics fans at Glasto that year also request and get private facilities?

[Ermintrude the Cow]

KYE was released too early. It would have been an excellent post-9/11 album.

[The Quatercircle]

Originally Posted by Ermintrude the Cow

KYE was released too early. It would have been an excellent post-9/11 album.

Should have seen it coming.

If they'd released Lifeblood in early 2001 they'd have done some time in guantanamo bay no doubt.