Nicky Wire: Last News

Manic Street Preachers have announced details of a new book of previously unseen Valerie Phillips photographs of the band, titled Little Baby Nothings.The book will feature over 200 photographs taken by the artist in 1991 and 1992, around the time of the release of their debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’.It’ll be released on June 28 via Longer Moon Farther and limited to 2000 copies, with the first 100 orders receiving a signed copy. There will also be a limited t-shirt bundle available.

Manic Street Preachers have announced a huge outdoor UK show for this summer, with support coming from The Charlatans and Ash. Find all the details below.The Welsh band will head out on the road this spring in support of their 15th album ‘Critical Thinking’, which was released last Friday (February 14) and is currently vying for this week’s UK Number One.This morning (February 21), the Manics confirmed that they’ll be taking to the stage at Audley End in Saffron Walden, Essex on Saturday August 2.

Manic Street Preachers have spoken to NME about their song ‘Dear Stephen’, inspired by Morrissey, the road to their new album ‘Critical Thinking’, and how they’re already thinking about their next move.Released today (February 14), the Welsh rock veterans’ acclaimed 15th album was said to be born of “eternal uncertainty, doubt and desire”. Bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire told NME how that allowed for “a different kind of record” to what you may have heard from the Manics before.“Albums are a reflection of where your mind is at – certainly in the Manics’ world,” said Wire.

Manic Street Preachers have dropped the reflective new single ‘Brushstrokes Of Reunion’. Check it out below.Shared today (January 31), the track marks the latest single from the group’s forthcoming album.

Manic Street Preachers have shared their euphoric new single ‘People Ruin Paintings’.The track, which follows previous singles ‘Decline & Fall‘ and the Nicky Wire-fronted ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ is taken from their forthcoming new album ‘Critical Thinking’.Much like the former, the new single is a rousing widescreen anthem which sees frontman James Dean Bradfield explore the “destruction of truth” as he sings: “People ruin paintings, faces for the view / People destroy the truth.” You can listen to it below.Due for release on January 31, ‘Critical Thinking’ has been described as “a record of opposites colliding – of dialectics trying to find a path of resolution”.“While the music has an effervescence and an elegiac uplift, most of the words deal with the cold analysis of the self, the exception being the three lyrics by James [Dean Bradfield, frontman] which look for and hopefully find answers in people, their memories, language and beliefs,” Wire recently told NME.“The music is energised and at times euphoric. Recording could sometimes be sporadic and isolated, at other times we played live in a band setting, again the opposites making sense with each other.

Manic Street Preachers have shared the Nicky Wire-fronted single ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’, and announced details of new album ‘Critical Thinking’ and a UK tour. Check it all out below, along with Wire telling us about the LP’s artwork.Following on from lead single ‘Decline & Fall‘, the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed chart-topping 14th album ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’ comes teased by ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ – with bassist and lyricist Wire taking up lead vocals.The band said that the song was initially inspired by a line from the poet Anne Sexton (“I am a collection of dismantled almosts“) and draws on a “fearful midlife nostalgia” set against typical Manics bittersweet arena euphoria – inspired by the “classic ’70s rock’n’roll” of The Only Ones and Cockney Rebel and alongside Dinosaur Jr’s ‘Freak Scene’.Wire’s vocal adds his usual Echo & The Bunnymen-esque melancholy as he mourns “the man I used to be, in a decade I felt free” and takes centre-stage in the fittingly nostalgic video directed by longtime collaborator Kieran Evans – drawing on the band’s many literary influences and aesthetic touchstones.

Manic Street Preachers have returned with their triumphant new single, ‘Decline & Fall’. Check it out below.Having been teased throughout the week, the song comes on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the band’s seminal 1994 album ‘The Holy Bible’, and marks their first new material since 2021’s acclaimed chart-topping 14th album ‘The Ultra Vivid Lament’.The single adopts some of the retro-futuristic ABBA-esque sounds of their previous record met with the arena euphoria of ‘Resistance Is Futile’ and ‘Everything Must Go’ – but driven forward by the Manics’ influences of The Skids, ‘Gran Turismo’-era The Cardigans and The War On Drugs.“Musically with ‘Decline & Fall’ we tried to create forward motion – a song which harnesses the past to propel it into the future – the lyric is one of realisation and understanding – of celebrating the tiny miracles that still exist whilst accepting and embracing managed decline,” said the band of ‘Decline & Fall’.The song was recorded at the band’s Door To The River studio in Newport and the legendary Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, and was produced by regular collaborators Dave Eringa and Loz Williams and mixed by Caesar Edmunds (Beach House, Suede, Wet Leg).The band discussed their upcoming 15th album in an interview with Louder Sound in June, which they described at the time as “90 per cent done” and likely to come out in January or February 2025.“It has a lot of energy, even though I don’t feel particularly energised,” said bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire.

Manic Street Preachers have teased new material with a clip of new music on their social media – check out the snippet and its accompanying visual below.The band captioned the post on Monday (August 26) with the words, “So much for the Decline & Fall’.The 20-second clip features a triumphant, rising guitar riff and frenzied drumming, while the video clip opens with a quote from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas: “The highest hymns of the sun are written in the dark”.The instrumental clip, which stutters with static interruptions, also includes phrases that follow a similar pattern to the caption: “So much for calculations”, “So much for standing tall”, “So much for implications”, before finally concluding with the same words: “So much for the Decline & Fall”. Watch below.A post shared by Manic Street Preachers (@manics)The band discussed their upcoming 15th album in an interview with Louder Sound in June, which they described at the time as “90 per cent done” and likely to come out in January or February 2025.“It has a lot of energy, even though I don’t feel particularly energised,” said bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire.

Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire has announced a new art exhibition, My Little Empire, to be displayed in a Welsh museum.From August 6 until December 13 at Narberth Museum in Pembrokeshire, the exhibition will feature 26 new pieces that showcase Wire’s love of the Polaroid image.My Little Empire, named after a song from the 1998 album ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’, will include several self-portraits, as well as subjects including Welsh film actor Richard Burton, Marilyn Monroe, Albert Camus and Jean Paul Basquiat.A post shared by Manic Street Preachers (@manics)The show has been curated by Mark Lewis, who has said (via South Wales Argus): “The exhibition came about after I contacted Nicky to say that one of his pictures was being used in the Dylan Thomas exhibition at Narberth Museum. He said he had always liked Narberth and would love to show his work there.

Manic Street Preachers will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1994 album ‘The Holy Bible’ with a one-off screening of their concert film BePure-BeVigilant-Behave.The album was the band’s third studio record, written during a period when guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards was struggling with addiction, depression and anorexia nervosa.For the 20th anniversary in 2014, the Manics played the album in full on a ten-date tour, including at London’s Roundhouse. The string of gigs were captured and pieced together by the BAFTA-winning director Kieron Evans for the concert film, and now the band are preparing to screen the movie once again.See a trailer for the film below.On August 30, on the exact anniversary of the album’s original release, the film will be shown at the Picturehouse Central cinema in London.

Chumbawamba‘s Dunstan Bruce had opened up about their feud with Manic Street Preachers saying: “I realise it’s totally justified that they hated us!”In a new interview with NME, the frontman of the anarcho-pop band was asked to name the Welsh indie icon who once ranged of Chumbawamba: “The worst group that has ever been created. If you’re going to wear a skirt, at least make an effort to look like a woman! You can’t just put on a fucking bit of rag on and look like an ugly bloke at a stag night!”Bruce responded correctly with Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire.”Oh my God! You’d think the Manic Street Preachers, whose subject matter was concerned with the state of the world and were from industrial working class towns, would have lots in common with us, but they hated us,” he said.He continued: “They once did guest singles reviews for the NME as well, and really slagged us off in that as well.

Manic Street Preachers‘ Nicky Wire has surprise released his new solo album ‘Intimism’  – check it out below.Having recently dropped the launch single ‘Contact Sheets‘, the Manics’ bassist and lyricist has shared his second solo record in full via BandCamp.“This record is a collage pieced together over the last decade,” said Wire. “It’s as me as me can be – a distillation of my purest indie fantasies, a place where all those broken lists of regret have found themselves realigned. I found a musical and lyrical language I could call my own.

Manic Street Preachers‘ bassist Nicky Wire has shared a new solo track ‘Contact Sheets’. Check it out below.The bassist, lyricist and polaroid artist of the Welsh rock veterans released his solo debut ‘I Killed The Zeitgeist’, and fans have been expecting news of the “modern, electronic, soothsaying” follow-up record for some years now.“It’s done,” Wire told NME in 2021. “Whatever, I might bury it in a fucking pond somewhere, I might burn it, I might do it mail order, I might do it on Bandcamp.

Manic Street Preachers covered Madonna‘s ‘Borderline’ during their set at BBC 6 Music Festival last night (March 31) – watch below.As announced last week, the band kicked off this year’s festival by playing an exclusive, intimate show at Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff. It marked their first-ever appearance at the famous Welsh venue, despite having been set to perform there back in 1990.Towards the end of their career-spanning 16-track set, the Manics debuted a rendition of Madonna’s 1984 single ‘Borderline’, which appeared on her self-titled debut studio album (1983).James Dean Bradfield and co.

Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire has admitted that he would rather “fucking stab my eyes out with a pencil” than accept a knighthood or OBE.Speaking in a new interview with MOJO magazine, Wire criticised “left-leaning actors and pop stars” for “queuing up” to accept honours from the monarchy.“I’m so riddled with doubts and contradictions now, even though I still kept to those principles,” he said.“My kids have been through comprehensive education, I still believe in high taxation and all those kind of things, I stay close to my roots … I haven’t abandoned any of those things at all.

The band have penned a new song called 'Orwellian'