Niki N. Phaser

NME is informing us about a new Manic Street Preachers tour in the United States and Canada, after a decade since their last official visit there. The first gig will be in Seattle in September and it will be an occasion for the Manics to take their new album, the already legendary Journal for Plague Lovers, to new crowds. The response to the new material has been more than positive in Europe, both in concerts and in the musical press, though their tour has been a bit jinxed by illness. In the beginning, Nicky Wire had some back problems due to a prolapsed disc, which limited his stage movements dramatically. Also, their Japan appearance at the Nano Mugen Festival had to be cancelled because of Wire’s bacterial gastroenteritis. Hopefully, their US shows will go as planned.

NME has provided some staggering information about the state of the UK charts. La Roux scored her first number 1 with pop-power track Bulletproof, but that hardly seems important (unfortunately for her) in the light of another artist’s impressive evolution, both in the album and the singles charts. It seems Michael Jackson’s demise has reminded people of the great music he is responsible for. So much that the number one album in UK is his best of collection, entitled Number Ones. Seven of his albums are in the top 75, with five of them reigning in the top 20. On the singles front, the situation is just as legend-in-the-making. His 1988 hit Man in the Mirror is at 11 right now, with other 19 MJ songs in the Top 75, five of them being in the Top 30. This is just one more detail contributing to the legend of Michael Jackson and when they’ll make that biopic that everyone is waiting for, no doubt we’ll see these facts and figures written on the screen, before the end titles. One thing is sure, we should no longer feel inferior to those who were alive when Elvis or John Lennon died. This is pop history and we are right in the middle of it.