Manic Street Preachers' 'The Holy Bible' Quiz

Answer: 'Nineteen Eighty Four' by George Orwell

The Manics were inspired by all four of these authors:

A quote from Camus - 'The slave begins by demanding justice, and ends by wanting to wear a crown' can be heard at the end of 'The Masses Against The Classes', and Sylvia Plath is referenced in 'Faster' itself ('I am stronger than MENSA, Miller or Mailer, I spat out Plath and Pinter') - some boast!

Answer: R

The letter 'R' is reversed in the words 'Street' and 'Preachers' on the cover of the album, in the style of the Cyrillic alphabet.
This also occurs with the letters on Simple Minds' 'Empires And Dance'; Manics were fans of Simple Minds, back when, as Keith Cameron put it, 'they were more Eno than Reno'.

MSP have recently revived this typeface for the sleeves of 'Send Away The Tigers' and 'Journal For Plague Lovers'.

Answer: Brezhnev

'Revol' is a fan favourite, often requested at shows but very rarely played (like much of the 'Holy Bible' material) since Richey's disappearance.

Answer: 'all things I like looking at'

Kate and Kristin were the first names of two of the most famous models at the time, Kate Moss and Kristin McMenamy - presumably role models for the song's anorexic first-person narrator.

Answer: Faster

The sleeve for the 7" single featured 'Fliegender Tanga' by artist Martin Kippenberger, an image of a young Chinese 'Socialist Youth', who is, ironically, drinking from a can of Coca-Cola, playing on the idea of globalisation, a running theme in many of Manic Street Preachers' works - for instance 'Madonna drinks Coke and so, you can too, tastes real good not like a sweet poison should' ('Slash And Burn', 1992).

Answer: She Is Suffering

The 'no birds' refrain in 'Mausoleum' refers to many people's claim that no birds fly above Nazi death camps (n.b. I didn't see a single bird when I visited Auschwitz with the Holocaust Memorial Trust).

'The Intense Humming Of Evil' refers a lot more openly to the events of the Holocaust, the 'six million screaming souls' of the lyrics being the approximate six million Jews murdered by the Nazis, and "Revol" briefly mentions their policies, eg. - 'lebensraum' ('living space', a euphemism for invasion of other territories and thus the expansion of Germany)

Answer: 'I'm thinking right now of Hollywood tragedy'

Perhaps because 'Your idols speak so much of the abyss, yet your morals only run as deep as the surface'?

All of the answers were from the relevant song ('Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart') except for 'A morality obedient only to the cleansed repented', which is from 'Faster'.

Answer: Jenny Saville

Jenny Saville painted 'Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face)', infamously used in the cover art of 'The Holy Bible'. Richey James Edwards saw the painting in a magazine and immediately tried to buy it from the Saatchi Collection - only to be told the asking price of £30,000!
When initially contacted about the use of her artwork, Saville refused, but when Richey personally got in touch and explained the concept and lyrics of each track, she enthusiastically agreed.

Saville's painting 'Stare' was used as the front cover for Manic Street Preachers' 2009 album, 'Journal For Plague Lovers'.

Answer: Guns 'N Roses

Although Guns 'N Roses were, particularly on 'Generation Terrorists', previously a musical influence on MSP, the music of 'The Holy Bible' was far more harsh and post-punk influenced than their earlier works.

Answer: Summertime

Despite its seemingly serious themes, bassist Nicky Wire later joked that it was about the Manics' hatred of the summer months, saying 'I'm sure I get the reverse of Seasonal Affective Disorder. I can't f...g stand it and just wish it was dark at six o' clock'.