Findings
| When | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” was written around the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and is openly anti-fascist. This isn't just inferred from the lyrics: when the English Defence League later used the song to promote one of its demonstrations, the Manics said they were horrified and took legal action to have the material removed. | Source |
| 1995 | The band contributed to the original 1995 Help album for War Child, which raised more than £1 million for projects assisting people affected by the war in Bosnia. They subsequently participated in further War Child projects, including 1 Love. | Source |
| 2011 | In 1989, 97 Liverpool football supporters died in a crush at Hillsborough stadium. Police failures contributed to the disaster, but the police and parts of the media blamed the supporters themselves, leading to a decades-long campaign by the victims' families to uncover the truth and hold those responsible accountable. In 2011, Manic Street Preachers' singer James Dean Bradfield joined the Justice Tonight concert tour, which raised money and public awareness for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign. | Source |
| Early 90's | In the early 1990s, bassist Nicky Wire said he hoped R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe would die of AIDS, comparing his hoped-for death to that of Freddie Mercury. Wire later said he deeply regretted the comment, calling it spiteful and saying there was no excuse for it. | Source |
| 1994 | During a trip to Bangkok, members of the band participated in sexual activity around the city's go-go bars. Two men in their group paid a young woman to let them squeeze her breasts, then complained about her body. James Dean Bradfield also bet the band's press officer £40 that she would dance onstage with the women, and later acknowledged that he had behaved like a “complete brainless idiot.” Richey Edwards separately paid a prostitute for a sexual act and acknowledged that people could view this as exploiting the women involved. | Source |
| 2001 | Manic Street Preachers became the first major Western rock band in decades to perform in Cuba and met Fidel Castro afterwards. James Dean Bradfield called meeting Castro “the greatest honour” of his life, while Nicky Wire praised Castro's efforts to create an alternative to American influence. The band knew the Cuban government would use their visit as propaganda, but went ahead with it. Cuba was then a one-party state that imprisoned political opponents and restricted freedom of expression. | Source |
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