Manic Street Preachers set to release live version of iconic third album
Amelia Jones
The Manic Street Preachers are set to release a live version of their iconic third album The Holy Bible this autumn, capturing the Welsh band’s performance of the record at London’s Roundhouse.
The live album, titled The Holy Bible Live, is due for release on October 23 and will feature the complete live show from the band’s 2014 anniversary performances at the London venue. It will be available on CD and 2LP.
It has gone on to become one of the Manic Street Preachers’ most celebrated records. By 2014, it had sold more than 600,000 copies worldwide.
The album is also notable for being the final Manic Street Preachers record made with Richey Edwards, who disappeared in February 1995. Edwards wrote much of the album’s lyrics, contributing to its distinctive and often intensely dark subject matter.
Its songs tackle subjects including political violence, consumerism, anorexia, prostitution and the Holocaust, while the band’s music drew heavily on the abrasive sound of post-punk.
Acts including Wire, Public Image Ltd and Joy Division were among the influences on the record, while its sound has also been linked to bands such as Magazine, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Gang of Four.
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Speaking to NME, bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire said: “’The Holy Bible’ is a record that still sort of scares me at times as an investigation of the soul.
“I never wanted to go that far, but it’s a good thing to feel and to revisit that at times. A lot of the live album is a tribute to Richey. When you think back to that point, we’d done three albums in three years, and then his lyrics also hang over ‘Everything Must Go’, and we were working with such speed of intensity. It gives me such a special feeling that people are hearing these words 30 years later.”
The album’s legacy has continued to grow in the decades since its release, with British music publications including NME, Q and Melody Maker regularly placing it highly in lists of the greatest albums of all time.
When the Manics returned to the record for its 20th anniversary, the decision was not simply an exercise in nostalgia. Reviews of the Roundhouse shows highlighted the intensity of hearing the album performed in full, more than two decades after its original release.
The album will offer fans who didn’t make it to the live shows in 2014 a glimpse into the anniversary performance.
You can pre-order the album here.
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