Manic Street Preachers' Nicky Wire on their new album The Ultra Vivid Lament and learning to drive

Virgin Radio

14 May 2021, 10:34

The bassist, lyricist and vocalist joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about their fabulous 14th studio album The Ultra Vivid Lament set for release this September, multiple tour dates and feeling like he's falling apart after hitting 50. 

Nicky told Chris about finally getting behind the wheel of a car: “I only learnt when I was 50 and I wish I never had. It’s really painful. I've been petrified of driving. I used to book a lesson, cancel it and not tell anyone and just walk around where I live for two hours... Basically my wife made me."

On the Manic's new music, he said: “A lot of the album’s been written on the piano. We really like listening to our old records from the 70s. There’s a big ABBA influence, lyrics influenced by The Jam’s Going Underground, that kind of onslaught of information and culture wars and just trying to navigate your way through it as you hit 50."

On hitting the milestone, he said: “Everything went. Everything was destroyed; body, memory. I think when you're young you want to save the world and you hit 50 and you just want to save yourself from yourself and from others - especially when I’m driving. Literally the short term memory just disappears overnight, just gone... I still do my brain training on Countdown."

On their 14th studio album, he said: “We’re racking them up. It's pretty unhealthy to think I was in the same class with James at the age of five. That's about 47 years together. We've got a certain telepathy now. 

“Hearing your record on the radio just transports us to being 20 again it still gives us a spine-tingling moment when we think we've communicated to people in a different way."

On Brett Anderson's recent Sky documentary, he shared: "It kind of took me back to an era where everything to me at that point felt incredibly natural and energised and powerful. "We all have our moments, our imperial period shall we say, and that was one of theirs. I mean, luckily for us, we've had a few lives. We've had an early one, a middle one and a sort of late blooming so we're pretty grateful for that."

On their upcoming range of tour dates, he said: “Fingers crossed, it's all gonna happen from Dundee to Brighton and lots in between, Manchester and Edinburgh, some over Christmas as well. Fingers crossed it happens. If there's any safety issues or something, then that's just the way it is.”

The Ultra Vivid Lament will be the Welsh band’s 14th studio album - you can watch the trailer here...  

Find out more at manicstreetpreachers.com