Did the folks behind Manic Street Preacher’s lastest album Journal For Plague Lovers take a hint from the makers of British ground-breaker Never Mind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols? 32 years ago that album sleeve was banned from stores which only helped its notoriety. Now it seems the Preacher’s new disc is going through some familiar problems with the British supermarkets
The subject of their displeasure is the CD sleeve artwork of Manic Street Preacher’s new album. Tesco is one of four British supermarkets to have decreed that the cover of Journal for Plague Lovers must be displayed behind a blank white sleeve because it objects to its portrait of a child with a birthmark. The market chain calls the image, a painting entitled State by Jenny Saville, as “inappropriate”. In a statement Tesco says: “We are a family retailer and we feel that it is the right thing to do.”
“Bizzare”, responds James Dean Bradfield, frontman of the Welsh band. He says: “We just saw a much more modern version of Lucian Freud-esque brushstrokes. That’s all we saw.”
Luckily, not all music sellers are as narrow-minded as Tesco. “It’s not the retailer’s place to censor the choice that it makes available to its customers,” says HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo. Seems like a good call made by the retail giant.
Still, the publicity should help the Manics boost more people’s interest in an album boasting lyrics written by their former member, the late Richie Edwards.
Check out 20 more controversial album covers here (NSFW)