Welsh rock icons Manic Street Preachers are set to be profiled by Channel 4 in an upcoming documentary.
Manic Street Preachers formed in the small South Wales town of Blackwood, fired up by left wing politics and Gun ‘N’ Roses. Promising to sell twelve million copies of their debut album and then split up, the group have instead forged a long lasting career that has seen them become elder statesmen of British rock.
New album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ sees the band return to an unhappy episode in their lives. Following the release of their notoriously difficult album ‘The Holy Bible’ in 1994 guitarist Richey Edwards entered a downward spiral of depression, culminating in his disappearance the next year.
As the visual and lyrical focal point for the band, his loss transformed the band. Manic Street Preachers adopted a hugely different songwriting stance, which resulted in the massively successful ‘Everything Must Go’ album.
However the spectre of Richey Edwards still lingers over the band, who have now decided to use the lyricist’s left over notebooks to construct a new album. Said to be a return to the distorted industrial sound of ‘The Holy Bible’, forthcoming record ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ is one of the group’s most keenly anticipated moves in some time.
Produced by Steve Albini in a tiny Welsh studio, it is a remarkable about turn from the commercial renaissance that was ‘Send Away The Tigers’. Sparse, and far from easy going, the album may be one of the group’s grandest gestures yet. However Nicky Wire was actually opposed to releasing it, claiming in a new interview that it should have been shelved as part of an art stunt.
This Saturday (May 16th) Channel 4 will run a documentary on Manic Street Preachers titled ‘Shadows And Words’. Telling the history of the group it also features the band in conversation with John Niven, revealing the inspiration behind their new album.
A unique chance to re-visit the story of this iconic group, the forthcoming documentary will see the band revealing some secrets and putting paid to myths and rumours surrounding their forthcoming album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’.
Channel 4 will broadcast a documentary about Manic Street Preachers on May 16th. The group will release their new album ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ on May 18th.
