‘International Blue’ is the first new release from MANIC STREET PREACHERS in four years and is available from today (8th December 2017). It is taken from the band’s 13th studio album ‘Resistance Is Futile’ out on Columbia/Sony on 6th April 2017. The single is unfiltered, classic Manic Street Preachers. Inspired by the city of Nice in the mid winter sun and the life’s work of French Nouveau realisme artist Yves Klein, the song is built over an immense riff that echoes the twin Manics peaks of ‘Generation Terrorists’ and ‘Everything Must Go’.
Nicky Wire explained “I’d been digesting the lyric for five years, since being in Nice and finally joining the dots between Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue and the vast open blue of the Mediterranean Sea. It was a moment of connection that felt perfectly natural – not forced or intellectualised. A different kind of enrichment that feels increasingly difficult to find. The track itself is carried by the kind of naïve energy that powered ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’”.
James Dean Bradfield added “Often I just need a great title to set me off. Seeing the word blue struck a chord and set off memories of pure pop records we grew up with – things like the ‘Story of the Blues’ by Wah!, ‘Moon is Blue’ by Colourbox, Orange Juice’s ‘Blue Boy’ and’ In Bluer Skies’ by Echo and the Bunnymen. I immediately thought of the kind of shiny freedom pop we used to hear on the radio as kids and that quickly became the MO in my head when writing. I just wanted to make a great Manic Street Preachers driving song; something that evoked the heat haze you see on empty open roads in America. I wanted to channel a Springsteen/War on Drugs sensibility, but through our European filter. Sometimes, aiming for a feeling is enough to make it work”.
To coincide with the release of ‘Resistance Is Futile’, the band have announced their biggest series of UK live shows in over a decade. Support on all dates comes from very special guests The Coral.
Tour Dates:
23 April NEWCASTLE, Metro Radio Arena
25 April GLASGOW, The SSE Hydro Arena
27 April BIRMINGHAM, Arena
28 April MANCHESTER, Arena
1 May LLANDUDNO, Venue Cymru Arena
2 May LEEDS, First Direct Arena
4 May LONDON, The SSE Arena Wembley
5 May CARDIFF, Motorpoint Arena
