Niki N. Phaser

              So, the rumours were wrong… Manic Street Preachers‘ next album will not be titled It’s Not War – Just the End of Love, but Postcards From A Young Man. It will be their 10th, due to be released this September, and even though they call it “one last shot at mass communication” let’s hope they are not getting crazy ideas like retiring. They might also mean just that this new album will be more radio-friendly than Journal for Plague Lovers, last year’s ultimate alternative masterpiece. At least, that’s what James Dean Bradfield told NME. Their last pop-oriented release was Lifeblood (which is, btw, the album that made me fall in love with this band), so things are looking good. And if you are in the UK, your luck is double, because that is where they start the tour promoting this new one. September through November will see them taking new material to the major joints on the island. Till then, keep your eyes on the Manics’ site:

INFO MANIC

              Well, we can all sigh with relief, Manic Street Preachers are brave enough to do a follow-up to their Richey Edwards written album, Journal for Plague Lovers. In a letter to fans posted on their official website, the three Manics are talking about working on new material: “We have been writing/demoing in Cardiff, songs, ideas and coffee have been flowing”. They also mentioning the movies and the music they are currently into, but that’s less important.

             Some reports say that the working title is It’s Not War – Just the End of Love, which sounds pretty Wire-esque (I mean, it’s long enough). It will be the band’s tenth album and it will have the difficult task of following this year’s acclaimed Journal for Plague Lovers, which has the Manics feature in about every Best Albums of 2009 Top there is. And they deserve it, no doubt about it. If you still wonder why…

Question Time

The legend grows… A new documentary about Manic Street Preachers has reached its final stages and is… “coming soon”, to quote the latest trailer. No Manifesto is directed by Elizabeth Marcus, produced and (most importantly with documentaries) edited by Kurt Engfehr, who has quite some experience with editing documentaries: Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11. It promises to change the world of rockumentaries, focusing both on the band and the fans. It doesn’t really sound so new, but what’s important is that this film goes to show once more what modern rock legends Manic Street Preachers really are. They deserve all the attention and all the movies one can make about them, though, to be entirely honest, I am still waiting for a biopic about them or, at least, about Richey. The 2002 Sidney J. Furie comedy Global Heresy seemed like a nod to the whole Richey disappearance episode, even though no one admits it officially. Still, No Manifesto does offer some enticing material, like the band’s time in the studio working on Send Away the Tigers. That alone promises to be very interesting.

No Manifesto TRAILER