SELECT JULY 1996

Sean: Every time you bring out a single it's in the back of your mind that it may go to Number One and, of course, it would be brilliant. You don't put out a single to go to number 20.

Talking about playing in Portugal, summer 94:

It was tough. You could see the pressure in people's faces. We went to Portugal and had a terrible time. It's not our favourite place. The first time we went there Philip died. I don't care about the number two single. I'd much prefer it if we were still struggling and they were here now.

What was so bad: James was pissed all the time and was laying in bed til five every day. I had my moments.

And you were playing the songs from The Holy Bible to boot. Good-time stuff - The Intense Humming Of Evil.

(helpless with giggles) We actually did. In Madrid, a great night, a really nice crowd. And we just slipped in good old "Intense Humming Of Evil"

On the last of the Astoria 94 gigs:

It was a blessed release. We smashed ten grand's worth of equipment. It was almost as if we were trying to destroy everything so we could never play another gig.

On The Priory: He had to go there, because there was nothing else we could do. He'd been in Whitchurch NHS where they had no money and they just knock 'em out with drugs. It's not treatment. I don't think he ever saw a psychiatrist.

After he'd gone, how close did you come to splitting up?

Splitting up was perhaps a possibility right up until the first time we practised together.

What was your first practise without Richey like?

Sean: In a way, it was just like the very first one. We were apprehensive and unsure of what would happen. It wasn't like we looked at eachother and said "Hey, it's still there... the magic!" It was just like normal. After 20 minutes we went shopping. Nicky: See, I never consider James or Sean as musicians. They're friends.

A friend of mine said to me that The Holy Bible was a great record but bloody hard work. It was never intended to be anything but.

For all your outrageous remarks, you're a deeply moral band.

The more we've experienced of the outside world the more moral we've become... On the first European tour I remember us going to Frankfurt and seeing the needles at the station and being so shocked. We had never had anything to do with that.

After Richey had gone did you ever consider what he would want you to do?

That was never an issue for me, because it's to do with the three of us, rather than the four of us now. Richey isn't in the band anymore.

Did you find lyrics after his disappearance?

Nicky: four or five weeks before he went missing he produced a folder of 60 lyrics which he gave to me. I gave them to Sean over Christmas. Sean: They were pretty heavy going. There wasn't a lot to pick out, to be honest. Most of it was very fragmented and rambling... The one's we've used on EMG had a lot more structure. They were from a pile of demos we did on the day before he went missing. The last file he gave us was more like poetry of a sort. There was a lot of ranting, to be honest. And because they had never been worked on while he was around, it doesn't feel like the Manic Street Preachers.

Initial reactions are that this is a very expansive, open record after The Holy Bible.

Well, we couldn't physically have made another Holy Bible. But it was also completely natural to do something else. All of our records have changed. It's in the nature of the group.

What made you want to work with Hedges?

It was very nice. Croissants and apricot jam. We tried some stuff at Real World with Stephen Hague and it just didn't work. Stephen was a nice chap, but it was the place. A sterile pop-industry studio.

Everything Must Go is your best album, isn't it?

It would be nice if this was the first single and album, but it hasn't worked out like that.

You could be entering the brightest phase of your career.

Sean: I suppose now it's down to us. It could be halcyon days ahead. Only we can fuck with it. One way or another, things will never be the same... Nicky: James will never go over to that side of the stage. Sean: We did a TV recently and we had to swap around, and Nick was in his space. It was really horrible.

From a 1991 interview, reprinted at the same time as the above. Sean used to work in the civil service, in an office job. He funded the band when they were travelling around in transit vans and paying to play at the Rock Garden.