Manic Street Preachers to celebrate 30th anniversary of ‘The Holy Bible’ with special film screening
Manic Street Preachers will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1994 album ‘The Holy Bible’ with a one-off screening of their concert film BePure-BeVigilant-Behave.
The album was the band’s third studio record, written during a period when guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards was struggling with addiction, depression and anorexia nervosa.
For the 20th anniversary in 2014, the Manics played the album in full on a ten-date tour, including at London’s Roundhouse. The string of gigs were captured and pieced together by the BAFTA-winning director Kieron Evans for the concert film, and now the band are preparing to screen the movie once again.
See a trailer for the film below.
On August 30, on the exact anniversary of the album’s original release, the film will be shown at the Picturehouse Central cinema in London. It will then be followed by a Q&A with bassist Nicky Wire alongside Evans. You can get your tickets here.
Speaking about the film, Wire has said: “We wanted to transfer the intense claustrophobia of the record onto film to reflect the sheer emotional intensity and physical demands of playing those songs. Armed with just one camera, dug in on stage, we knew Kieran could capture that energy.”
Ahead of the film’s original premiere in 2016, NME spoke to Evans about the process of making it. “Wire and I were discussing how we’d pitch it, and we settled on ‘The Sex Pistols directed by Gaspar Noé’,” he said, referring to the controversial French director of Irreversible, Enter The Void and Climax.
“The whole premise was me with a low-end, lo-fi camera, shooting one member of the band each night, going round them each gig from a different angle and shooting the audience,” he continued. “That was it – the golden rule. There wasn’t an intention to release anything, it was more about a document of the tour, but then a friend of mine edited some stuff together and we realised we had something.”
“Wire phoned me today and said he still had a headache from watching the film. I didn’t know whether to be chuffed or worried.”
In other Manics anniversary news, they re-issued their album ‘Lifeblood’ earlier this year, to mark 20 years since its original release.
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Max Pilley
NME
