168 Songs of Hatred and Failure: A History of Manic Street Preachers

Keith Cameron

168 Songs of Hatred and Failure: A History of Manic Street Preachers

Sale price18.99 Regular price23.74 RRP
20% Off
SKU: 9781399607414

This item is available for PRE-ORDER only and will not be dispatched until official release date.
Please note: Regular and Pre-order items cannot be purchased at the same time. These will need to be ordered separately.

Release Date: 2025-09-11
Quantity:
Free, fast & tracked delivery over €10 Free, fast & tracked delivery over €10
Ireland's best value books. Why pay more? Ireland's best value books. Why pay more?
Same great price online and in-store Same great price online and in-store
Proudly Irish and family-run since 1989 Proudly Irish and family-run since 1989

'No one understands the inner workings and shared aesthetics of Manic Street Preachers like Keith Cameron . . . phenomenal' NICKY WIRE

'A forensic exploration of their compositions and recordings, and everything that has been poured into them . . . completely definitive' MOJO ★★★★★

The story of Manic Street Preachers is unique in pop. Raging out of the stricken mining communities of south Wales in the late 80s, they were seemingly condemned to mere cult status by a cruel juncture of artistic triumph, commercial failure and personal despair. The story took a further agonising twist when the tragedy of Richey Edwards' 1995 disappearance was followed by a remarkable rebirth, built upon 'A Design For Life' - a hymn to the band's working-class roots - and then the award-winning, multi-million-selling album Everything Must Go, a majestic soundtrack to history and loss. Within five years, Manic Street Preachers were playing to 60,000 at the national stadium of Wales and had their second UK Number 1 single. Subsequent output has confirmed the band as both a wellspring of restless creativity and a barometer of the cultural conversation.

Because it was music that saved them, it's through the prism of their music that Keith Cameron tells the definitive history of Manic Street Preachers, drawing on many hours of new interviews to dive deep into 168 songs, from 1988 debut single 'Suicide Alley' to the late day peaks of 2025 album Critical Thinking. Writing with the band's full co-operation, his book charts the dynamic evolution of a universe in which Karl Marx and Kylie Minogue happily co-exist, that accords Rush and The Clash equal favour, and where Morrissey & Marr meet Torvill & Dean via Nietzsche and New Order in a single four-minute pop song - all in the name of what Nicky Wire himself calls 'the fabulous disaster' of Manic Street Preachers.