Manic Street Preachers reveal 'the biggest thrill' about being in the band

They started out when they were just teenagers in the 80s

Ken Bruce with Manic Street Preachers

Author: Anna Sky MagliolaPublished 27th Feb 2025

'A Design for Life' band Manic Street Preachers joined Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio for Golden Years, choosing 1984. During the chat, with James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire, where they chose songs by Thompson Twins, The Pretenders and Van Halen, they opened up about writing their hit songs, and what it is that they love about being in a band.

The Manics started out back in the 80s when they were all at school, with Nicky telling Ken: "It's still a remarkable, (a) remarkable feeling to think of, when we were... me and James wrote our first song together when we were 15 in school and last year comp."

Adding: "It's pretty amazing to still think that we are still resonating in people's lives after all these years."

James explained: "It was always the biggest thrill I think in terms of, you know you can go for playing live, you can go for being on TV or like writing a song is still the most interesting part of being in the band I think and regardless what Nick says, all our words are just fun to sing."

He continued: "Sometimes a bit of a battle, but that's good, I love the physical aspect of what it's being the singer in the band and there's a lot of words there sometimes. Sometimes there's an open disregard for punctuation, and I like it that way. But it's changed and that gave us somewhere. And now, like if you look at lyrics like, ‘If You Tolerate This’ and ‘A Design For Life’, you know they flow so beautifully.

"We've been everything and we've had a chance to go somewhere, but I can have like, yeah, just writing songs has always been just a fascinating thing for us, I think."

New album 'Critical Thinking'

The band have now released their 15th studio album, 'Critical Thinking', and Nicky explained the writing process behind the album, saying it wasn't "really particularly thematic".

"A lot of the time we do start with a bit of a concept which is usually driven by the lyrics and perhaps me with the tight on, certainly previous albums have done that, ‘Futurology’, ‘Ultra Vivid Lament’, ‘This is My Truth’," he explained.

Nicky continued: "But I think with this album it was a much more sort of inspirational record, where wherever we had the moment, we're lucky enough to go our own studio. If we have that moment of inspiration, we just pile in and we create as quickly and as practically as we can. So I don't think it's really particularly thematic, it’s just the joy of still being able to create really at our age and you know. (We) still have people who want to us."

How to listen to Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio

You can listen to Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio between 10am and 1pm Monday to Friday. Download our free Rayo app for iPhone or Android.

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Manic Street Preachers reveal 'the biggest thrill' about being in the band

James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire from Manic Street Preachers joined Ken Bruce on Greatest Hits Radio for Golden Years, choosing 1984. The during the chat they opened up about writing their hit songs, and what it is that they love about being in a band.

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