if you tolerate this your stationery will be next

Always nice to read an interview with the Manic Street Preachers as in this month's Q magazine - one of the reasons this is such a pleasure is that bassist and de facto band spokesman Nicky Wire is so refreshingly willing to pontificate on all subjects, and generally make an utter tit of himself. I have a sneaky affection for him, but clearly not half as much as he has for himself. I offer you the following jottings, which form some sort of half-cocked manifesto:


You might have to click on it for a larger version if it's illegible. Just a quick trawl though the list:

• Points 1-3 are the usual self-aggrandising bollocks.
• #4 I bet Kubrick could bleedin' spell "stationery" though.
• I've no idea what #5 is about; that's precisely what makes the internet so great. Well, that and the porn.
• #6 is the usual Mr. Benn & Bod nostalgia bollocks. Nothing wrong with a bit of Dik & Dom, it's just that I'm not six any more.
• #7 refutes #5 a bit - log onto the internet, Nicky, there's lots of knowledge just lying around waiting to be picked up. Did you know the gastric-brooding frog is now believed to be extinct? I did.
• #8, well, yes, I agree. The South Bank Show must be starting to suffer from This Is Your Life syndrome, though, i.e. there's no-one left alive who hasn't been done. Me next, I reckon.
• #12, Christ, Tutti Frutti. Great series, I'd snap it up like a shot if it came out on DVD. The "destruction" referred to is of the original film stock, which makes DVD-quality picture a bit tricky. That doesn't rule out a release, though clearly the air of imminence given off by this 2006 article was a bit premature. I was briefly in love with Emma Thompson in her ginger-haired incarnation as feisty guitarist Suzi Kettles around the time the series was shown - she appears briefly in this clip.
• #13 - Simon Jenkins? This Simon Jenkins?
• #14 oooooh, get you with your poetry appreciation skills. And in touch with the feminist struggle as well, right, sisters?

I mock in an affectionate way, of course - it's refreshing to read interviews with people who have actual opinions about things, and sound as if they might have read the odd book. Intelligence is undermined somewhat if you feel the need to keep pointing it out, though. Nonetheless I hereby anoint Nicky Wire Welshman of the day, just because I haven't done one for a while.