Tales from The Manic Street

Coming Soon!

Laugh, weep, reach for the stars (and a bucket), as we track the early career of the Manics through the anecdotes of those who knew the members, not the image.

Link to the Manics First Record Producer

Just for starters. I knew all the Manics (except Ritchie) for quite a while. In fact I have been with them on three 'firsts'. Shaun Moore played in my first band on keyboards, I made their first ever demo tape, and the Manics played their first ever gig, as support to the band I was playing with at the time.

Initially, I was introduced to Shaun by the drummer of my band. He joined because he had a keyboard. It was a Roland SH101, and I sold it years later forgetting it held extra value. So someone out there owns Shaun's first synth -and they don't know it!!.

Shaun was quite quiet, and very keen. When the band asked him to leave, he was gutted. He packed up his gear, and left. We all felt a little awkward, as he was genuinely nice to know. There was that moment of silence, before a knock, and the door to the room opened again. Shaun popped his head around the door, and said "You don't want a cornet player, do you?". I guess it shows how keen he was to be in a band.

I met Shaun months later during a gig at the Pentwynmawr Working Mens Club. It was 'our' gig, and we'd given them support. In those days they had a bass player called 'Flicker', Miles Woodward. Politeness means that I can't tell you how he got the knickname, but if you know what the slang word means, then you can have a good guess! In those days you had to take any gig you could get (nothing's changed), and if it meant playing Punk in front of 30 elderly miners, so what! I think that the Manics sensed that the crowd weren't behind them after the first song. Requests for Elvis went down like a lead balloon. Miles, and James tried to smash their guitars up, but failed, 'cose the stage was too soft. The empty stage resembled the aftermath of a Jesus and MaryChain song, with guitars feeding back through amps that hadn't been turned off, while the Manics stormed out. They came back in later, and the Chairman, and Flicker's dad, had a pop at them for disrupting the smooth running of their club. I still have the original poster for that gig.

When they asked me to do the demo, I went to Nick's house. As Shaun hadn't been playing too long, James played most of the drums. By drums I mean a high-hat, a snare drum, and a low tom, that was being used as a bass drum. A little unorthodox, granted, but we all thought we were 'cutting edge' in those heady, post-punk days.

The vocals were recorded in my bedroom. James sung very, very loud, but had to sing the swear words quieter, 'cose my parents were downstairs. Yeah, Anarchy! No sell-out there. Anyway, two months later they came and asked for the demo tape master to record new copies. I had a bad feeling as I handed it over, and it proved true. I never saw the tape again, and I never got paid. On the tape were early versions of one or two songs that they played for quite some time. Seminal 'Suicide Alley', and a song called 'Love in a Make-Up Bag', which sounded quite mellow for them, but had a good hook.

I was also present at the riot in the Little Theatre in Blackwood. It wasn't caused by the pent-up energy of the audience, but by Miles, and James, casting doubts upon the 'rugby boys' sexuality. The air was suddenly filled with bottles, and cans -some full, so you can tell how angry the first three rows of rugby boys were! The stage filled rapidly with scuffling bodies.

At this time Shaun would play with his drums partially hidden with boxes, as he was using pots, and pans, to supplement his kit. I kid you not. Sometimes it looked like the prop-room for 'Can't Cook, Won't Cook'.

Over the next few weeks I intend to get some tales from Brewer of 100,000 BodyBags. his band were supposed to be headlining the Little Theatre gig, but the cops refused to let them on, after the Manics 'little scuffle'.

Last modified on 31 March 1999