Manics Set To Rewind The Film

Manic Street Preachers return this Autumn with their first studio album since 2010. ‘Rewind The Film’ is released on 16th September 2013 for Columbia Records and is preceded with a single ‘Show Me The Wonder’ the week before. A taster for the album is revealed online today (8th July) with the title track featuring Richard Hawley being made available for instant download with an album pre-order on iTunes. The album is released almost three years to the day since ‘Postcards From A Young Man’ and sees the band with a more reflective, stripped-back sound whilst maintaining the classic Manics melody and unique lyricism. The band have also announced their first UK headlining shows since the incredible 38 single show at the O2 Arena in London in December 2011 which celebrated the release of ‘National Treasures’ (singles collection).

The two first songs available show the different sides of the album, with ‘Rewind The Film’ being a brooding, cinematic 6.30 mins track, atmospheric and climactic with Richard Hawley and James Dean Bradfield trading vocals. Hawley commented “I am so chuffed to have been asked to sing with the mighty Manics, can’t tell you what it means to me. The whole experience is something I’ll treasure forever – I love the Manics and what they stand for and to be a tiny part of that means the world to me.” ‘Show Me The Wonder’ is an upbeat, positive pop song but with questioning lyrics. Soaring horns and a joyous chorus makes it a stand out track on what is otherwise a delicate record.

Recorded in their own studio Faster in Cardiff, Rockfield in Monmouthshire and Hansa in Berlin (the first time the band have recorded there), ‘Rewind The Film’ features 12 tracks of classic musicianship and lyrical themes which include the rock ‘n’ roll dream, Thatcherism and inspiration from subjects as varied as Manorbier Castle, Skids/Big Country’s late singer/guitarist Stuart Adamson, ‘Werner Herzog’s ‘Burden of Dreams’ and Welsh poet RS Thomas. The Manics describe it as “(If) this record has a relation in the Manics back catalogue, it’s probably the sedate coming of age that was ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’.”

Following in the tradition of inspired collaborations (Nina Persson from The Cardigans on ‘Your Love Alone’ / Ian McCulloch ‘Some Kind of Nothingness’ amongst others) opening track ‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’ features Lucy Rose and ‘4 Lonely Roads’ has lead vocals from Cate Le Bon – as well as of course the title track with Richard Hawley.

The band have just returned from a trip to Australia and New Zealand where they played several shows to tie in with the British and Irish Lions rugby tour. The band will headline the Festival Number 6 in Portmeirion, Wales in September and then head out for a short intimate UK tour with support from Public Service Broadcasting.

‘Rewind the Film’ is the group’s eleventh studio album for the label, making them the longest signed artists to Columbia having joined them in 1991 and released their debut album ‘Generation Terrorists’ the following year.

Rewind The Film tracklisting:
This Sullen Welsh Heart
Show Me The Wonder
Rewind The Film
Builder of Routines
4 Lonely Roads
(I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline
Anthem For A Lost Cause
As Holy As The Soil (That Buries Your Skin)
3 Ways To See Despair
Running Out Of Fantasy
Manorbier
30 Year War

9th September – ‘Show Me The Wonder’ – new single
16th September – Rewind The Film – new album

Live:
September
13th Newport, Centre
20th Dublin, Olympia
23rd Bristol, Colston Hall
24th London, Shepherds Bush Empire
27th Manchester, Ritz
29th Glasgow, Barrowland

Tickets go on sale on Friday 12th July at 9.30pm priced £29.50 in adv except London (£32.50)
Belfast (£25/£27.50) and Dublin (€30 / €35)
Gigsandtours.com / ticketmaster.co.uk / 0844 811 0051 / 0844 826 2826 / gigsinscotland.com / 08444 999 990
Dublin – http://www.ticketmaster.ie/venueartist/198239/741429
Ticketmaster: 0818 903 001 (Republic of Ireland) 00 353 818 903001 (International customers)