Saturday was the penultimate day before the deadline and there were four charts submitted, first up is Mark who submitted along with two colleagues from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire who will follow on later blogs. Mark scored the first 50 point haul for his number 1 selection, which features in his Manics story below:
I saw my favourite band, Manic Street Preachers, live for the seventh time last night. It was also the culmination of a two month process of working out my fifty favourite songs of theirs to submit for an overall top 50.
But first, a prologue of history. I first became aware of the band when my sister got me Everything Must Go for Christmas in 1996. I used to listen to the singles on the first side, then turn it over and fast forward to Australia. Safe to say, I was not so in to music then.
Then in 1999 I had an existential crisis. I felt, at 25, I’d done nothing with my life; never had a holiday, couldn’t drive, first girlfriend had just dumped me, I’d never been to a new year party or a gig for any band. So when I saw the advert, it felt an unmissable opportunity. Of course it was sold out, so I ended up buying two tickets from a guy in a pub near Bristol Temple Meads station three days before Christmas. But then I, and my Manics loving recently ex-girlfriend, had the best New Year’s Eve ever.
I next saw them with a work colleague in 2002 at the Nottingham Arena. It was the day my leg came out of plaster after a double break / dislocation of my ankle. I walked from the train station to the gig, and had to be moved to the seats because I couldn’t stand up! While I still loved the band I didn’t see them live during my first marriage. When that ended, I heard a Manics track in the car and had to pull over to a lay-by to bawl my eyes out; the emotion of thirteen years of my life coming to an end poured out through one piece of music.
The following summer I saw the band live again at Cardiff Castle. Not only was this the first time I’d made a true connection with The Holy Bible, as they played the whole thing, but JDB also played an acoustic / string quartet arrangement of the song which nearly broke me. Since then I’ve seen them another four times live, each time accompanied by the incredible lady that married me earlier this year. The first time was at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016, probably the best gig I’ve ever been to. But the others have all been superb as well.
So the process of putting together a top fifty involved a lot of personal history with songs. I’ve also presented classical and folk music programmes for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire - those styles of music have undoubtedly influenced my choices as well. But now my list is done and ready to share. Here it is, after two months of deliberation. I’m also a film critic, so as well as acoustic guitar and string arrangements, there’s film references and all sorts. But the number one is that song I heard in the car and at Cardiff Castle, and can still break me.
I hope this inspires you to make a selection of your own, or just to go and listen to your favourite band for a bit. All opinions are valid, but all music is fabulous, and hearing it live again, from the safety of the back of Wembley Arena, was emotional and brilliant.
Mark Walsh @MovieEvangelist
By Era
Generation Terrorists 5
Gold Against The Soul 5
The Holy Bible 5
Everything Must Go 8
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 7
Know Your Enemy 3
Lifeblood 1
Send Away The Tigers 3
Journal For Plague Lovers 3
Postcards From A Young Man 1
Rewind The Film 3
Futurology 1
Resistance Is Futile 2
The Ultra Vivid Lament 2
Others 1
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Next up is Jen, transatlantic Manics-watcher extraordinaire, having hopped back and forth a few times this year to see our boys! Jen explains her selections, in particular her number 1 below:
Jen @jennifer_eileen
1. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
2. You're Tender And You're Tired
3. Some Kind Of Nothingness
4. Walk Me To The Bridge
5. Little Baby Nothing
6. Everything Must Go
7. You Stole The Sun From My Heart
8. Show Me The Wonder
9. No Surface All Feeling
10. Australia
11. Motorcycle Emptiness
12. A Design For Life
13. Complicated Illusions
14. International Blue
15. Afterending
16. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
17. Still Snowing In Sapporo
18. This Is The Day
19. Prologue To History
20. Autumnsong
21. Ocean Spray
22. The Love Of Richard Nixon
23. The Masses Against The Classes
24. Tsunami
25. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head
26. Welcome To The Dead Zone
27. Ready For Drowning
28. From Despair To Where
29. Sleepflower
30. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
31. Orwellian
32. The Everlasting
33. The Secret He Had Missed
34. Enola/Alone
35. People Give In
36. Gold Against The Soul
37. Let Robeson Sing
38. Indian Summer
39. You Love Us
40. Europa Geht Durch Mich
41. Faster
42. Motown Junk
43. Born A Girl
44. Solitude Sometimes Is
45. Slash N' Burn
46. Send Away The Tigers
47. Don't Let The Night Divide Us
48. Hold Me Like A Heaven
49. I'm Just A Patsy
50. Futurology
By Era
Generation Terrorists 5
Gold Against The Soul 4
The Holy Bible 1
Everything Must Go 6
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 8
Know Your Enemy 2
Lifeblood 2
Send Away The Tigers 6
Journal For Plague Lovers 0
Postcards From A Young Man 1
Rewind The Film 1
Futurology 3
Resistance Is Futile 3
The Ultra Vivid Lament 6
Others 2
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Third in this batch is Holly who has gone for Faster at number 1, closely followed at number 2 by Comfort Comes in its highest placing so far. Looking at the By Era chart, the first four albums take the lion's share of the picks, with Generation Terrorists (and before) leading the way with eleven.
Holly Baleen @HollyBaleen
1. Faster
2. Comfort Comes
3. You Love Us
4. A Design For Life
5. Revol
6. Motorcycle Emptiness
7. Roses In The Hospital
8. Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll
9. Symphony Of Tourette
10. Sculpture Of Man
11. Us Against You
12. Everything Must Go
13. Vision Blurred
14. Peeled Apples
15. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
16. Found That Soul
17. Europa Geht Durch Mich
18. Yes
19. Mausoleum
20. Motown Junk
21. Born To End
22. Patrick Bateman
23. Kevin Carter
24. PCP
25. New Art Riot
26. Love's Sweet Exile
27. Let's Go To War
28. Stay Beautiful
29. The Masses Against The Classes
30. Australia
31. Tsunami
32. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky
33. Born A Girl
34. Judge Yr'self
35. Sepia
36. Empty Souls
37. Intravenous Agnostic
38. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
39. Broken Algorithms
40. Gold Against The Soul
41. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
42. Dylan & Caitlin
43. Black Garden
44. Charles Windsor
45. Sleepflower
46. Repeat
47. Slash N' Burn
48. Too Cold Here
49. Of Walking Abortion
50. Theme From MASH (Suicide Is Painless)
By Era
Generation Terrorists 11
Gold Against The Soul 9
The Holy Bible 9
Everything Must Go 7
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 2
Know Your Enemy 3
Lifeblood 1
Send Away The Tigers 0
Journal For Plague Lovers 2
Postcards From A Young Man 0
Rewind The Film 0
Futurology 2
Resistance Is Futile 2
The Ultra Vivid Lament 0
Others 2
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Finally in this batch is Tracey, who recently contributed a chapter to Marc Burrows' book 'Manic Street Preachers Album by Album', which will be given away as a prize to the person who shares the most entries with the final fans' top 50 (assuming that person doesn't have it already!).
A Design For Life took the number 1 spot, while Misguided Missile made it into the top 10 for the first time. Generation Terrorists led the By Era chart with eight entries.
Tracey Wise #saveourvenues @traceyw1981
1. A Design For Life
2. Motorcycle Emptiness
3. Of Walking Abortion
4. Motown Junk
5. Everything Must Go
6. Little Baby Nothing
7. Misguided Missile
8. Hold Me Like A Heaven
9. Faster
10. This Is Yesterday
11. Yes
12. No Surface All Feeling
13. Cardiff Afterlife
14. Stay Beautiful
15. You Love Us
16. Judge Yr'self
17. Complicated Illusions
18. Anthem For A Lost Cause
19. Nobody Loved You
20. Bag Lady
21. Life Becoming A Landslide
22. From Despair To Where
23. The Masses Against The Classes
24. Still Snowing In Sapporo
25. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
26. Show Me The Wonder
27. Walk Me To The Bridge
28. Golden Platitudes
29. Roses In The Hospital
30. Further Away
31. The Everlasting
32. As Holy As The Soil (That Buries Your Skin)
33. All Is Vanity
34. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
35. Revol
36. Peeled Apples
37. Repeat
38. Out Of Time
39. Prologue To History
40. Sepia
41. Hibernation
42. New Art Riot
43. Condemned To Rock 'N' Roll
44. The Second Great Depression
45. Epicentre
46. Found That Soul
47. No One Knows What It's Like To Be Me
48. 30-Year War
49. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
50. Door To The River
By Era
Generation Terrorists 8
Gold Against The Soul 5
The Holy Bible 6
Everything Must Go 6
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 4
Know Your Enemy 2
Lifeblood 1
Send Away The Tigers 2
Journal For Plague Lovers 3
Postcards From A Young Man 1
Rewind The Film 4
Futurology 2
Resistance Is Futile 1
The Ultra Vivid Lament 2
Others 3
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