When the Manics released Lipstick Traces in 2003 I rushed out to buy a copy. I remember chatting to the guy in HMV that Monday morning about it - the staff had been listening to it before the store opened. He thought the cover of Last Christmas was unnecessary, but I was too much of a fan to question any of their choices. I quickly changed the topic to how excited I was to hear them take on Nirvana, one of the few bands they covered that I was also a fan of. In reality I was, of course, just desperate to hear all of it. I had a reasonable MSP collection by that point (70 or so releases) but still more gaps than gaps-filled, and hearing old Manics b-sides had become a passion of mine.
I won't bore you with the details again, but that all grew from finding a 7" of Motorcycle Emptiness and hearing Bored Out of My Mind on the b-side. I can't emphasise enough what a significant event in my life finding that record was. I can still remember vividly the amazement of hearing this other side of a band whose albums I'd already played to death - to think of Bored Out of My Mind being written around the same time as Generation Terrorists never fails to confuse and amaze me. They did have a secret history, and I wanted to hear all of it. I still do. (Every now and again I wonder where my life would be had I heard Suicide Alley on the b-side to Little Baby Nothing or the New Art Riot EP first and heard their scrappy beginnings instead of that strange little ballad. Best not to think too much about it).
I my teens I'd read Mick Middles' biography of the band, which dwelled on a particular b-side for so long I knew I had to hear it. I bought a copy of the If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next single a short while before this compilation came out and agreed that Prologue to History was a fascinating song. It opens this compilation in excellent style - racing out of the gate with keyboards blaring and lyrics firmly wedged in the 90's, along with not-so-subtle references to Richey. It dominates your attention so much so I had to stop typing this whilst it was playing. Over the years, it has proven such a hit that "opening the b-sides album" is no longer praise enough - the forthcoming reissue of This is My Truth Tell Me Yours has controversially promoted it to album-track, bumping off Nobody Loved You, a song that was a single in Japan. I'll talk more about this revisionist approach to reissues at a later date, I'm sure, but I'm certainly unsure about it; not just because I'm not sure that's what it means to reissue an album, but because if you're putting Prologue to History on an album you can't just squeeze it in near the end, it practically defines the album and need to be considered amongst those huge singles.
I'm pretty sure every Manics fan would have a different ideal track-listing for this album in terms of what was included and excluded. Had they left off Bored Out of My Mind, I'd have been terrified (which sounds so much nicer on deep 12" grooves than the flimsy 7" I've over-played for years). I think Montana/Autumn/78, the other b-side from If You Tolerate This... could easily have made the album. Black Garden and Black Holes for the Young would have been quite nice too (This is My Truth was quite an era for b-sides). Sculpture of Man was always a favourite and one I'm glad they included - one of their most traditional punk songs, and a style I'd love to have seen them try more (I used to put it on mixtapes as if to say "the Manics aren't the band you think they are"). The closing trio of Close My Eyes, Valley Boy and We Her Majesty's Prisoners is a strong way to close out the album.
The album doesn't remotely hold together as an album, but that all the more emphasises the "secret history" part of it - the b-sides were so varied and showed so many different sides of their song-writing. Most of these wouldn't have worked on the albums they belonged to (in the broadest sense) but at the same time fit neatly into their distinct eras. How would Everything Must Go have felt with the instrument interlude of Horses Under Starlight included (and it would have been fully relegated to "interlude"-status had it been on the album)? Or can you imagine Too Cold Here on The Holy Bible? 4 Ever Delayed straddles eras as you might expect - the guitars sound straight off Know Your Enemy, but has the ferocity of their youth.
The last track of the second LP and the third LP are dedicated to the covers that made their way onto the second cd. They're a strange bunch of songs, some of which I still don't know the originals of - something much more easy to remedy these days than it was back in 2003. A review passed comment on the decision to include a disc of covers on the compilation (deeming it money-grabbing), but they fit the title of a "secret history" almost equally well; where Forever Delayed was the best-of for the masses (with a bonus disc of remixes to appeal to an even wider audience) it's a treat for the fans that the b-sides album goes even more obscure with the covers. If they'd tacked the b-sides onto the best-of, as is sometimes done, they'd have missed the mark entirely.
A lot of the covers I already knew as b-sides, although there were a handful of new ones. We Are All Bourgeois Now is a nice addition since I rarely had the patience to fast-forward to it at the end of Know Your Enemy and it's a great cover; I imagine a lot of people knew that one and Rock 'N' Roll Music as I'm sure every Manics fan had Know Your Enemy and The Masses Against the Classes. It's So Easy is a welcome blast back in time (I'd love to see them cover GNR these days). The Nirvana cover went in a different direction to what I was expecting, but it works (the juxtaposition between that and the spangly Out of Time, however, doesn't). Raindrops and Can't Take My Eyes Off You are another pair very familiar to most Manics fans and Last Christmas works much better than the guy in HMV that morning implied it would.
Around the time it was released, they also announced the album was also coming out on triple vinyl and I ordered one straight away. I think they made 1000 copies. The sleeve is a textured leopard print, made with those classic-era fans firmly in mind. I don't remember it selling out straight away, and I saw copies on eBay for around £45 not long afterwards. It's worth noting that £29 was an awful lot for a new record back then, and I nearly had second thoughts about buying it (something I'm very glad I didn't change my mind on). Of course, in 2018, the idea of getting a triple-LP for £29 (including postage!) is hilarious.
For years I didn't think a great deal about the vinyl other than how nice it looked next to my other Manics records - I had the cd copy I'd bought that morning in HMV so that got most of the plays (for reasons I can't remember, this record turned up about two months after the cd came out). Every now and again I'd see comments about how much people wanted a copy and eventually looked on Discogs where the only copy currently available would set you back £350 (although the highest sold price of £260 seems like a more reasonable benchmark)! This makes my Hum record look very cheap indeed. I've been looking at this record in a very different light ever since then; it is increasingly becoming the most valuable record in my collection.
I suspect for some people, part of that desire would be to hear Prologue to History on vinyl, which will soon be easily available. I imagine the vast majority though are, like me, trying in vain to have a reasonably complete Manics collection. There are gaps in my Manics collection of records I regret not buying, and records I'll almost certainly never have the chance to see let alone buy (unless I win the lottery), but I'm pleased this isn't one of them. Manics b-sides are a huge part of the reason I'm sat in a room surrounded by vinyl, so it's only natural that this LP is here with me.
Format: Triple 12", textured leopard print sleeve
Tracks: 35
Cost: £29 new
Bought: Website
When: 16/09/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: None
