Manics And Shirley Bassey: Another Woeful Collaboration?

Who's excited by the prospect of Cardiff's very own Dame Shirley Bassey singing the Manic Street Preachers penned "The Girl From Tiger Bay"? Yes, believe it people; the 72 year old cabaret singer and Bond theme girl is aiming for contemporary street "cred" with the kids by performing a song written especially for her by Mr Wire and cohorts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8242716.stm

Now I've got a lot of respect for the Manic Street Preachers, but the last time they wrote a song for someone desperate for indie appeal (or anyone's for that matter), it was the diminutive Australian diva Kylie Minogue. "Some Kind Of Bliss" from 1997 was so bad it virtually de-railed her career completely until she found those golden Hot pants, got the cameraman to focus in on her from behind and began spinning around.

What's Shirley gonna do if this one's a pile of poop? She's 72 remember.

Kylie Minogue - Some Kind Of Bliss

Supermarkets Cover Up New Manics Album

The decision by four major supermarket chains to cover up the brilliant front cover of the latest Manic Street Preachers album shows not only bewildering "political correctness", but incredible naivety.

Jenny Saville's intense portrait of a young Richey Edwards look-alike perfectly serves as an accompaniment to the contents of the album. Edwards presented Bass guitarist Nicky Wire with a set of lyrics and prose just weeks before his disappearance. 14 years on, and with Edwards now declared officially deceased, the band set to work on creating a musical backdrop to his words.

I haven't purchased the album yet, but as a long time Manics fan I look forward to hearing what has been heralded by many critics as the best complete recording since 1994's "The Holy Bible".

The naivety of the shopping chains is that by covering up the album artwork only serves to bring more attention to it. There's also a certain amount of hypocrisy in my view. If this is deemed "inappropriate" then surely they should have considered covering up a number of other albums with a similar, if inferior theme.

I didn't see this get the plain white cover.Or this?