Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield has told UK digital station XFM they want their new singles collection ‘National Treasures‘ to reflect a time when bands enjoyed genuine hit singles, something he feels is a rarity in the current musical climate.
“You kind of get a sense that guitar bands don’t really have hit singles any more,” he told XFM. “Because the Top 40 is so full of pop records now. We just want to show what the era was before this era. We want to be positive about it and say: this is what happened in the Indie Wars.”
Bradfield also looked ahead to the Welsh band’s upcoming December show at London’s O2 Arena, where they plan to perform the compilation in its entirety.
“This is going to be the only time we play every major single we’ve ever released,” he continued. “We’ll be playing chronologically, mostly. We’ll be playing for about four hours!”
In addition to the long list of singles, the Manics have released a new video for their cover of ‘This Is The Day‘, which will also be included on the retrospective LP.
