NME 1 August 1998
... Today, Sean’s in chipper mood, pitching in comments with a rueful charm. Sean’s comments are...
“And we probably would’ve done exactly the same thing in the situation” (on nme giving award to Beck)
“When you look at the Holy Bible” says Sean, “you know that’s as far as Richey’s character could go”
On their trip to Bangkok: “Talking and singing about the issues we were, in a way I felt ten times worse in that we couldn’t really justify ourselves. We felt like fakes, in a way. Talking about all this deprivation and misery and alienation and, yeah, Blackwood was a bad place to live in but wait ‘til you see something like that”
Nicky says his I Love Hoovering T-shirt is subverting rock ‘n’ roll more than anything else. Sean: “More than Knob-a-cons pail of water over Prescott...”
Mithering old people (or three observations taken from market research of persons who cannot let the olden days die)
1. You’re strolling relentlessly down the huge power ballad overkill highway named Bryan Adams...
Sean (miffed) It’s hardly Everything I Do, I Do It For You is it? We’re never gonna go onstage and go “hello to the left and hello to the right”
2. The live experience vibe is being monopolised by the new fan “scary bloke in a cagoule” element.
Sean: There’s always been that going on. Gurrock Bay, the crowd ploughed into the stage on the Motown Junk tour.
And when Nicky is reminded he once said they’d ban all Charlatans fans from their gigs for having moustaches...
Sean (knowingly) Mind you, you see a lot less moustaches these days.
On Richey’s disappearance... they talk about him as if he is dead because there’s no other way to do so, but exist under the premise he’s simply “gone”. And it will stay like that forever, nods Sean, unless some event causes it to change. Sean goes on to say “But then again it’s what he wanted”
The second part was printed on the 8 August 1998
Nick: I hate summer.
Sean: I remember one summer years ago, me and James just closed the curtains every day and didn’t go out at all. We stayed in. We watched Wimbledon and played records until the sun went down. And then? And then we still stayed in.
Nick: I hate late nights. I hate when it’s still light at ten o’clock. I’m sure I get the reverse of the seasonal disorder; I can’t fucking stand it and just wish it was dark at six o’clock.
Sean: Dark and pissing down.
Nick: Much prefer that. So no-one can come and visit.
Sean: I hate visitors. I can’t stand visitors.
Nick: We’ve made no friends since we’ve been in a band.
Sean: The only friend I’ve got is Nick. He’s the only person who ever rings up. Can’t count James ‘cos he’s family.
Nick: Apart from Martin (Hall, manager) and Psycho, my old mate from college, that’s it. And I’m quite happy with that!
Sean: Quite happy, yeah!
Sean lives on the outskirts of Bristol with Rhian, his girlfriend of 14 years: I’m obsessed with everything being parallel. Parallel and in its place.
Later on in the interview: "There’s not much left, really, is there? To say. I don’t feel like I’ve got much left to say" Unintentional dramatic pause. "Not that I said much anyway!" (that’s one of my favourite quotes)
What’s the worst thing that could happen to the Manics now? That they become just another rock band?
Sean: I don’t think we will though, to be honest, in my heart of hearts.
And so it is that the Manics look genuinely bamboozled by the implication they’ve now ascended into the Britrock Aristocracy. “No” says Sean “because we can still walk down the street and not be recognised”
Sean: Put it this way, I can’t wait for the German radio announcer having to say “This is Manic Street Preachers, from the album “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the new single “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next”