Consider what third album The Holy Bible means to Manic Street Preachers and their fans, and it’s somewhat shocking they didn’t release a live version of it earlier. Arguably their best work can be found here, and we wouldn’t have gotten this if the band had stuck to their promise of making debut album, Generation Terrorists, a one-and-done experience. They had something special on their hands with The Holy Bible that showed in flickers on the first album. They’re a great band. Maybe they would’ve been had they’d bowed out after The Holy Bible. Revisiting it some twenty years later for a Roundhouse live recording (that has since been remastered a decade later) is a fantastic way to reintroduce yourself to the charms of their third album. Things have changed since The Holy Bible was released, not just outside of the band but within. What The Holy Bible Live finds is that these songs still work brilliantly; the political fury still lingers even with the tragedy surrounding Richey Edwards’ disappearance.
Manic Street Preachers continued long after Edwards’ disappearance, but it must be tough to perform songs from an album seen as a reflection of his worldview at the time. They’ve tried to keep that downcast look in their recent releases, but nothing will ever come close to what Edwards found with Of Walking Abortion. The mid-1990s are a time of musical jubilation in the UK, or at least those who fly the Britpop flag would have you think so. The songs worth listening to from the time remain socially conscious putdowns of the country they were written in. Not rejected, but they don’t match up with the pop thrills of the time. Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit’sworldwouldfallapart is a staggering song, be it in the studio or this live version. James Dean Bradfield still has a handle on the core of its message, as evidenced by it and the Of Walking Abortion performance to follow. The Holy Bible Live is an album of reminders. Not just of Edwards’ impact on the band, but on how lost Manic Street Preachers now sound.
Albums that age as well as The Holy Bible are always worth celebrating. She is Suffering is a remarkable example of a band getting more out of an old release the longer they spend touring. Manic Street Preachers has enjoyed a bounty of success on the albums to follow but around the time of this performance is when they lost their nerve and edge in the studio. Listen to a modern Manic Street Preachers song and you’ll wonder what happened to the band’s spine, or search for truth that Edwards put them on the path of with this release. It’s not as though they lost interest in socially conscious songwriting after The Holy Bible, just they got worse at making it. Hardly a comparison worth making but take any song from this live version and contrast it with the mediocrity of Critical Thinking. Staggering, truly. A chasm of difference at play. Fans will always have The Holy Bible, though, and now they have an exceptional live version.
Nice to hear booing when Margaret Thatcher is mentioned, irrespective of the context, too. Some outstanding live versions can be found on The Holy Bible Live. Revol relies on that constant, electric guitar thrill, and the punchy vocal work from Bradfield. A powerhouse of a frontman and a performance worthy of all the album’s nuance. He keeps that alive here, though the band as a stage presence feels a touch lacking. “We need it as loud as fucking possible,” is the instruction to the crowd before Mausoleum. It kills the momentum of what could be a loud moment. No need to announce it, and count the crowd in. But then Manic Street Preachers, as well as their co-headliners of late, Suede, have a habit of not trusting their audience to react accordingly to the so-called big moments. Great bands, and The Holy Bible Live proves that for Manic Street Preachers. Instrumentally slick, joyous renditions of songs that are as relevant now as they ever were.
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