Nicky Wire

Like many long-term relationships, Manic Street Preachers benefited from some time apart, as their seventh album, Send Away the Tigers, makes plain. Arriving on the heels of 2006 solo albums from both singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and lyricist/bassist Nicky Wire, Send Away the Tigers finds the group recharged and revitalized, achieving the widescreen grandeur of Everything Must Go but infusing it with a harder rock edge that may not be as furious as their earliest work, but is no less committed.

Only in that brief moment in the '90s, when the record industry was grappling with the impact of alternative rock going mainstream and just as Brit-pop was hitting its stride, could the Manics release such a dark, difficult album on a major label, get it played on such pop-oriented programs as Top of the Pops and MTV’s Most Wanted, and make appearances at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals. And then, in a flash, it was over. Richey James went missing on February 1, 1995, and after that The Holy Bible was frozen in amber, forever seen as his last will and testament, just like how In Utero seemed like a suicide note in the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide in April 1994.

A month before the release of their sixth album in early 2001, the Manic Street Preachers organised a one-off gig in Cuba. Louder than War contains footage of the entire concert (famously attended by President Fidel Castro), as well as the group's caper around the island. The country was chosen by the Manics because of Cuba's anti-American stance, a position that band members supported and have drawn upon in their material. Superbly produced and edited, the end result however fails to represent the group's visit and views in a positive light. Reading between the lines, it's obvious that their trip was just as much a challenge to Americanisation as Wham's 1985 tour of China.

”Lifeblood” is the seventh studio album by Manic Street Preachers. It was recorded at studios in New York, Wales and Ireland by Tony Visconti, Tom Elmhirst and frequent collaborator Greg Haver. Released on November 1, 2004 and preceded by the number two single "The Love of Richard Nixon," the album entered the UK Albums Chart at #13 and only spent two weeks in the top 75.