Rating: 
Summary: The Preachers' Fan's Bible
Review: This is definitely the best biography of the Manic Street Preachers. At least, until Nicky Wire tells us his truth, if he ever does. A must for all good Manic-y people to own and read. And re-read!
Rating: 
Summary: Would have been great without author's naked bias
Review: Unbeknownst to nearly all American rock fans, Britain's Manic Street Preachers had already carved out an untouchable place for themselves in rock 'n' roll history by the mid-nineties while the tepid, unthreatening chords of the Dave Matthews Band and Hootie and the Blowfish emanated from placid US airwaves. The Manic Street Preachers originally comprised four childhood friends who'd grown up together in rustic Blackwood, Wales, a mining town beset by constant hard times. The adolescent preachers found solace from small-town boredom in the pages of NME, wherein the escapades of Guns 'n' Roses and Public Enemy were recounted in the kind of star-making grandiose language that spurs fifteen-year-olds from playing air-guitar in the bathroom mirror, into playing the real thing in front of sixty-thousand adoring fans.Sensing that greatness lie ahead, the Manics officially became a band in late 1989 after bassist Nicky Wire and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards completed university. Coining some pungent epigrams along the way ("Smash Hits is more effective in polluting minds than Goebbels ever was"), the Manics boasted to the music press that they'd record one sole album that would outsell Appetite for Destruction, and then split up (neither forecast came true, thankfully). The Manics recorded three classic albums that lyrically captured the Sartrean nausea and valuelessness of post-theistic existence better than any of their predecessors, before Edwards (who's usually credited with writing their bleakest songs) putatively committed suicide. An interesting tale to be certain, if told by an objective biographer, which Simon Price (among other things) isn't. The Manic's biographer Simon Price, whose naked partiality towards the band -- he rarely criticises anything the band says or does, regardless of how stupid it is -- and superfical explications of the albums stand in the way of this biography being considered excellent by any aesthetic standards. For instance, was it absolutely necessary for Price, who coincidentally shares the same leftist proclivities as the band, to uncritically endorse the band's political views every ten pages or so? (Price even describes communism at one point as a "beautiful dream.") Moreover, Price repeatedly hangs on to the words of each band member like they're gold. In short, the fawning Price makes his biography look like a deliberate PR tool for the band rather than an objective account of the band's history, influences and ideas. Price also puts his embarrassing lack of critical analysis on display when he discusses the band's albums. His interpretations of Gold Against the Soul and The Holy Bible are ludicrously simplistic, which he just says were reflections of Edwards' mood at the time. And of course a guy who's a self-mutilating alcoholic isn't going to have nice things running through his head; but the question of why he behaved that way is a subject Price almost completely shuns. About the closest Price comes to providing a window with which to peer into Edwards' tortured mind is a quote by lead vocalist James Dean Bradfield, claiming that Edwards' condition might be linked to the fact that he never had any serious relationship. The real answer, however, lies in Edwards' atheistic worldview, which says that life, ending at the grave, is without ultimate significance (thus explaining the band's frequent use of the word "despair"). That Price didn't make this connection testifies to his poor critical skills. Nevertheless, I recommend this biography for its wealth of information about the band. If there's anything you wanted to know about the band, it's in here.
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