There was a time, in my younger years, when I thought I'd try to collect everything that the Manic Street Preachers had released. Looking back, this was of course wildly ambitious, but for a few years I bought every Manics record, cd and tape that I could find and afford. My collection remains very far from complete but there are some nice releases in there (the Japanese cd of Gold Against the Soul, the Japanese release of the US release of Generation Terrorists, Lipstick Traces on triple vinyl, etc). One of the more redundant records is this white label jukebox 7" of The Masses Against the Classes, which I found at a record fair in 2002. I didn't have the 10" proper release of the single at the time, so thought it would be a nice edition (having bought the cd the day it came out - I was a massive fan-boy after all).
Both sides play the same (why bother pressing it twice?) but there's no denying that The Masses Against the Classes is a stand-out song from that era of fairly sub-par releases by the band. This is My Truth... and Know Your Enemy weren't terrible albums but certainly not my favourites, and time would judge Lifeblood very poorly. Amongst all this, The Masses Against the Classes was shining gem. It was the Manics being a rock band rather than a pop band. It was also delivered in a uniquely Manics way - a single that wasn't cut from an album and released in just run. There were a lot of great things about it, it's no wonder it made it to number 1.
Format: 7", white label jukebox single
Tracks: 2
Cost: £4 second hand
Bought: Record Fair, Southampton
When: 26/01/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
