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The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Portraits so powerful they override reality – Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting review
The posters and grand title of Jenny Saville's retrospective scream paint! – in red, pink and bruise colours – but you need to look at her exquisite drawings to get the measure of her. In Neck Study II a woman, eyes closed, holds up her head so we can study the curves and dips of flesh on her stretched neck. Saville notes these anatomical realities with a pencil in precise nuances of shading, also observing every contour of her face and the bones under her thin shoulders. It is beautiful. It is true. So what the hell – I thought – was she doing in the adjacent gallery where massively enlarged faces, pummelled by life and her art, are lit as harshly as flash photographs? They include her portrait of a boy with a bloodied beaten face, lip twisted, eyes dazed, used for the cover of a Manic Street Preachers album that was banned from supermarkets for being too disturbing. That was just a small reproduction. Here you are confronted by the colossal real thing, faces that truly get in your face. I ran away, at first, from this massive panorama of damage to look at some lovely drawings of motherhood in charcoal and pastel that take inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to create tender moments between mother and baby, the figures seen through clouds and storms of exploratory drawing suggesting ever-moving life. Through this turmoil she finds monumental moments of intimacy. In Study for Pentimenti IV a baby boy sits cockily on his pregnant mother's naked tummy: he'll always be top child. The tenderness continues, this time between consenting adults in bed. A white woman and her Black lover lie together in naked union, she placing a hand on his bare leg, feeling the flesh. In other scenes it's him holding her, or their heads at opposite ends of the bed, her foot feeling his ribs. In the most beautiful, charcoal is immersed in a pink pastel rain that turns the room into a rose bower. This is a 21st-century Degas – as it obviously wants to be. One artist it does not make you think of is Lucian Freud. Ever since the early 1990s, Saville has been compared with the late British figurative master, hyped as a young female Freud, or criticised as 'just not as good as Freud'. This exhibition proves how utterly different they are. He never drew anything as unabashedly erotic as Saville's Degas daydreams. Saville's drawings and pastels ground her art. If you need your figurative artists to be properly skilful – and if they're depicting the human face and body, you should – here's her diploma art. But when she paints, she knowingly overrides every rule she follows as a draughtswoman. When she paints, she goes wild. It's there in her gargantuan early canvases, epically thrusting nipples, tummies and hips towards your eyes. Seated on a stool with meaty legs protruding, or lying at an angle that puts a great hairy nest of pubic hair right up by you, these women wonderfully overwhelm you. Walking among them, one physical detail after another looms up, expanded, so alive they still seem to be growing. Scale in art can do more than just look impressive, or important, or freakish. It can change the relationship between art and beholder, even magically invert subject and object. When Saville paints big naked people they're alive. And when she paints pain, the effect is terrifying, because she takes you behind the eyes of the injured. I'm ready as I'll ever be, now, to go back and look at her paintings of violence. Witness, painted in 2009, is a brightly lit face with a smashed mouth that gushes blood. A woman has been assaulted. Her eyes are closed, her teeth bared in a bloody scream, but that makes it sound melodramatic and nightmarish, like a Francis Bacon painting, whereas this is real. You know it's no exaggeration. The painting is photorealist. Other faces are similarly troubling. A young woman looks at you, her face horizontal – she could be dead on a slab. All around you, it's equally horrible and real – scarred girls and battered boys. You feel guilty for looking at them. Yet, equally, they are looking at you. Because these faces are so much bigger than you, they seem more real than you. It is not your civilised morning in an art gallery that is real, but their living, or dying, hell. In her mysterious painting Rosetta II, a towering lost face sways as if remembering tragedy, but her eyes are blue, glazed and clouded, the eyes of a prophetess. Looking, suggests Saville, is not really the point. You have to see beyond the details of skin and bone, beyond anatomy, to feel the ungraspable but omnipresent realness of others. When that understanding hits you it's a shock. Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting at the National Portrait Gallery, London, opens 20 June
Local Sweden
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Local Sweden
Summer like a Swede: Discover Sweden's cultural highlights by train
Sweden's long summer days allow you to pack in plenty, making it the perfect time to explore your adopted home and dive deeper into Sweden's culture. But what exactly is Swedishness? It's a question the government set out to answer this year, inviting suggestions from the Swedish public for a 'cultural canon ': a list of activities, sights, and concepts that all contribute to what it means to be 'Swedish'. Train company SJ has matched these ideas to the destinations where you can try them out, so we've picked some of the best spots across the country – all accessible by train – to help you plan your summer. Ready to explore Sweden? Click here to see SJ's routes and book your trip Thank you for the music As everyone's favourite foursome asked, without a song or dance, who are we? And as much as we love ABBA, the country has much more to offer when it comes to music. Each summer, the capital Stockholm plays host to one of Europe's most unique concert series. Theme park Gröna Lund , an institution in its own right, sets the stage for Sweden's 'longest festival' with different artists playing between May and September. In 2025, alongside global names such as Alanis Morisette and Manic Street Preachers, you'll find the likes of Miriam Bryant, Veronica Maggio and Victor Leksell who sing primarily in Swedish – this has to be the most fun way to fit in language practice over the summer. From central Stockholm, you can arrive by commuter boat or by tram, and spend the day trying out the rides before finding your spot in the crowd. Gröna Lund, the home to Sweden's 'longest festival' Another festival with a distinctly Swedish flavour is Gothenburg's Way Out West (August 7-9). With Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, and Swedish band Kite headlining, the international line-up covers a range of genres, and the multi-day tickets allow you to leave and re-enter the festival area, allowing you to explore Sweden's second largest city between your favourite acts. The event wears its eco-friendly credentials proudly, with an all-vegetarian food offering and a policy of using secondhand clothing for staff uniforms and upcycled merch. If you're travelling from Stockholm, consider booking the official festival train to get the party started en route! DJ keeping the vibes going at Way Out West. Looking for something at the more traditional end of the spectrum? Swedish folk dance and music is an entry on the cultural canon that you can experience in Hälsingland, central eastern Sweden. It's a custom with a dark legend attached. The story goes that in one village, Hårga, a local dance was interrupted by a mysterious visitor playing mesmerising tunes on the fiddle. Spoiler alert: he was the devil in disguise. Once people started dancing to his tune, they found they couldn't stop, and danced until all that was left were their skeletons.. Visitors will easily understand how Hälsingland sparked storytellers' imaginations: this off-the-beaten-path region boasts more forest than anywhere else in the country, and you'll find fairytale-esque landscapes around the Ljusnan River and its surrounding beaches, and when walking through the rolling hills – including Hårgaberget, site of the mythical devil's dance. Swedish folk dance Today, the legend has inspired an all-day dancing event, the Hälsingehambo, which starts in Hårga itself and moves through local villages. This year, it marks its 60th anniversary. There are other events in the region devoted to folk dance and music, including the two-day Delsbostämman festival in early July which features a range of performances. Get out there! Start planning your route with SJ and see Sweden like never before Add Swedish flavour to your summer Sometimes the simplest delicacies are the finest, and so it is with the humble hot dog or grillkorv . While these can be sampled at street-side stalls and corner shops the length and breadth of the country, why not elevate the experience? To truly experience Swedish culture, you need to grill the sausage yourself over an open fire, and do it while surrounded by breathtaking natural scenery. Take the train to Abisko to experience some of the most stunning views possible from a train window. There are a wide range of scenic walking routes that feature barbecue spots (do check that you're using one of the designated areas; lighting a fire is only allowed in certain spots). One recommendation: the mountain hut at Lake Abiskojaure, which you can reach by following a moderate trail along the Abiskojåkka River. Another classic food is tunnbröd or Swedish flatbread. It's particularly popular in the central region of Dalarna, where you can work up an appetite with a day of walking along trails where you'll see waterfalls and can stop for a swim in the lakes. Round off the day with a hearty meal highlighting local ingredients, including tunnbröd baked in a wood-fired oven. It can be eaten with savoury fillings like salmon, or something sweeter like berry-filled jams. Tunnbröd and Falafel are popular food options in Sweden These days, Swedish culinary culture also reflects the growing diversity of the population, and is all the better for it. Malmö can probably lay claim to the title of the top spot in the Nordics for falafel , with the highest concentration of restaurants and stalls around Möllevångstorget. Try Jalla Jalla, which featured in classic Scandi crime series The Bridge and is near the police station also recognisable from the show. Like the grillkorv, falafel is best enjoyed with a view – Jalla Jalla is just a short walk from Sweden's oldest public park, Folkets Park. Whatever the final destination, you can begin your culinary journey on the train itself, with SJ's bistro serving up classics like shrimp sandwiches and cinnamon buns. Experience Sweden by train this summer Embrace the outdoor lifestyle The long summer days beg to be spent out in nature, and one entry to the cultural canon is simply, 'a forest walk with a thermos and cheese sandwich'. More than two thirds of Sweden is forested, so you're spoilt for choice with locations. To take on a classic Swedish hiking route, consider a section of the Kinnekulle trail (start from Råbäck station, near Lidköping), or part of island-hopping hike Kuststigen (the Coastal Path) beginning from Hönö in Gothenburg's archipelago. For Swedes, outdoor swimming can be a year-round pastime, best combined with a quick dash to the sauna. For the uninitiated, summer is the time to dip your toe, then your whole body, in this crucial part of Scandi culture. Try out the kallbadshus (literally 'cold bath house') where you dash between open-air pools and saunas. Two of the most historic spots in the country can be found in Varberg, southwestern Sweden, and Ribersborg in Malmö, both just a short walk from the train station. Friluftsliv and kobingo are a unique ways to enjoy a summer in Sweden Our final suggestion for your summer bucket list is perhaps the quirkiest of the list: kobingo (cow bingo). Hosted at farms around the country, it's a rural tradition where fields are divided into a numbered grid, cows are released, and the square where the first cow poops is the winner. Take a look to see if any of the farms in your local area might be hosting it. Sweden's farms are an amazing day out for the family (don't forget to take advantage of SJ's family discounts for your train journey), with farm shops and restaurants, and chances to meet the animals. So there you have it: a selection of perfectly Swedish ways to fill those long summer days – and connect a little more deeply with the country in the process. Book your Swedish summer exploration with SJ today!
Irish Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Putting on an outdoor music festival in Ireland: ‘The bands saw they weren't going to be up on the back of a truck in Portlaoise'
When Philip Meagher, a solicitor and indie-rock fan, set out to create a music festival from scratch, he knew he had a lot to prove. He had no experience organising a big event featuring dozens of acts over multiple days – on a brand new festival site. But he was passionate about music and believed there was space in an already crowded calendar for something different. And so was born Forest Fest , a three-day event at Emo village, in Co Laois, that's laser-focused on concertgoers of a particular vintage. 'We were trying to fill a niche. We thought there was a market for a festival primarily focused on a more mature audience. And while we didn't want to go completely retro, we certainly wanted a nod towards artists on the road for a long time. READ MORE 'But we were very specific that we were only talking about bands that were still match fit – basically that they were bands that were still gigging actively, were producing new music, that were touring.' [ Forest Fest 2024 review: Golden oldies shine, Shane MacGowan's spirit inspires Opens in new window ] Meagher launched Forest Fest in 2022 with a largely Irish line-up. It has since expanded to include international acts such as Suede and James. This year's headliners, over the weekend of July 25th to 27th, include Franz Ferdinand and Manic Street Preachers . The challenge, says Meagher, was to put together a bill that reflected his vision of the festival as an event that appealed to over-30s yet did not wallow in nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. He didn't want to lean into the hellscape of glorified 1980s karaoke: the idea was to celebrate artists who were still forging ahead creatively rather than dining out on faded glories. 'The first year we were concentrating mostly on Irish acts. The good, big names, like The Stunning, Something Happens, the likes of those,' he says. 'In fairness to them, they were very open to taking a risk on a new festival. Obviously, they were taking a leap into the dark. We had to give certain assurances about the level of production and staging we were going to provide. 'When they saw the production team we had put together, and they saw the specification of the sound system, staging, the lighting, etc, that we were going to put in place … that was of huge comfort to them. They weren't going to turn up and be up on the back of a truck in the square in Portlaoise. That's with the greatest of respect to bands that play on the back of a truck.' These are challenging times for music festivals. In the UK last year more than 60 festivals were cancelled or postponed, up from 36 in the previous 12 months. In Ireland, where the circuit is obviously a lot smaller, nine such events were nevertheless cancelled last year amid rising overheads in music and ongoing cost-of-living pressures. Those tensions are felt across the industry. In the case of bigger festivals there is an ever more desperate scramble to secure one of the elite acts seen as having the star power to headline a major outdoor concert – think Lana Del Rey, who played Glastonbury in 2023, or Olivia Rodrigo, a headliner in 2025. It's a short list – and everyone wants them. Elite act: Lana Del Rey at Glastonbury in 2023. Photograph: Joseph Okpako/WireImage 'We're seeing a trend of festivals booking acts earlier. Primavera Sound , in Barcelona, announced its line-up in October, and it takes place in June this year, which means negotiations would have started before their last festival even happened,' Finlay Johnson of the Association for Electronic Music , a New York-based organisation with member companies in more than 40 countries, said in January. 'Others have followed suit. Partly, they want tickets to be on sale for as long as possible, but they also want to secure headliners, as there are fewer acts available.' Those headaches do not apply to smaller festivals – at least not in the same way. Still, regardless of scale, an attractive line-up is more important than ever. It can be the difference between a good year and an underwhelming one. If anything, such decisions are even more crucial when it comes to more intimate festivals. 'We need the headliner name on the board to excite people, get a bit of hype going,' says Katie Twohig, who, with her husband, Eoin Hally, programmes the three-stage, 800-capacity When Next We Meet festival , at Raheen House in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, which this year takes place on June 7th and 8th. Headliners: Pillow Queens are at this year's When Next We Meet. Photograph: Debbie Hickey/Getty The main acts include Villagers , Conor O'Brien's thoughtful indie songwriter project, and the postpunks Pillow Queens, alongside the cult alternative artists Paddy Hanna, Skinner and Morgana. Having a big name is important, and not only in terms of shifting tickets or drawing an audience from outside the locality. They also set the tone for the rest of the bill, Twohig says. The idea is to attract acts that have a complementary sound. If When Next We Meet booked the noisy Dublin postpunks The Scratch, for example, they'd have to ensure the rest of the day's line-up had a similar sensibility. The goal is to mould the feel of the weekend around those headliners. It all starts with them. 'We're absolutely thrilled where things landed this year. Villagers are the main band closing on Sunday. But also Pillow Queens, on the Saturday night, they'll be headlining. We feel like they're strongest line-up to date, and a lovely balance in terms of genres as well. And Pillow Queens probably have a younger audience, so it's a lovely scope there,' Twohig says. 'Sometimes it's hard to get that balance right. There's no end to the amount of great artists that are out there. When you're curating something, it takes time to get that balance right. Once you book one artist it narrows down your choices, I suppose, in the lower tiers on the programming. We're very happy with how it turned out this year. But some years we've been stressing over about getting the right fit.' As with so much else in the music industry, putting together a good festival bill is helped by having a solid network of contacts, says Emmet Condon, who promotes live music under the Homebeat banner and programmes Another Love Story , an intimate festival at the 18th-century Killyon Manor, in Co Meath, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. (This year's festival is on August 23rd and 24th.) In the music business there are people who get involved because of the romance, and then there are people who are hard-nosed businesspeople. We tend to try and work with or find acts and people who have the same heart that we have about doing it — Emmet Condon Having started in 2014, Another Love Story remains the best-kept secret of the Irish festival year, though it has attracted many high-profile artists. This year the headliners are the Barcelona producer and DJ John Talabot and the Co Wicklow songwriter Fionn Regan . 'I have been running shows as Homebeat for 15 or 16 years now. I've been active as a booker and a promoter for a long time. I've worked as a booker for things like Body & Soul,' says Condon, referring to the Westmeath festival last held in 2023. 'Over a span of time you build up contacts, and people trust what you do.' The bigger acts Another Love Story has attracted, according to Condon, include Talabot and, last year, the German electro supergroup Modeselektor. It has also hosted people like Alabaster DePlume, the acclaimed jazz and spoken-word artist, and the famed fiddler Martin Hayes, 'who would be luminaries in their own right'. It takes work to reel in these international artists, who may have festival offers from around the world. 'For us to attract them to the smaller stage, we have to work pretty hard to deliver what we do each year. And then to sell the dream of the thing to those people. 'In the music business there are people who almost inevitably get involved because of the romance, and then there are people who are hard-nosed businesspeople,' who want to make money. 'We tend to try and work with or find those acts and those people who have the same heart that we have about doing it.' With smaller festivals, there are no blockbusting stars to draw the audience. It has to be about something more than that. 'It started as a relatively small thing and has grown into a relatively substantial adventure each year,' Condon says about Another Love Story. 'As it's grown, as a booker, the opportunity has been to increasingly fill the space and create a narrative of sorts through music. 'We're not a massive festival that has massive headline acts, obviously. My favourite thing about the whole thing is the spreadsheet that I get to keep and hone – like my baby – from one September, when one festival ends, and straight over to the next part of the year. 'It's a joy to create a mood piece, using music throughout the whole weekend, and to kind of create an arc of experience and the soundtrack that fits around it.' In the case of Forest Fest, which has a 12,000-person capacity across three stages, Philip Meagher had a clear vision: a festival that would appeal to those whose wayward youth is well behind them and are perhaps starting to weary of megafestivals. He had worked as a solicitor for the late John Reynolds, the much-respected Irish promoter who established Electric Picnic in 2004. It was being at that festival, which has drifted towards a younger audience over the past 15 years, that made Meagher decide there was a niche for music lovers who had aged out of Stradbally weekend. 'The main acts that we have are obviously of a very, very high standard. They have a huge international standing. The curated bands that would support them would be of a similar quality but wouldn't quite have, perhaps, the international standing that the main acts would have. 'And that would filter down into the other supporting stages, where we would have acts slightly smaller in standing and then supported by the best of up-and-coming Irish and international acts,' he says. 'We have very, very strong new acts coming from the UK, coming from Ireland, coming from the US – giving them a chance. And they're appreciative of the fact that a lot of them are getting their first big festival experience – and playing on the same bill as the likes of the Manics and Travis and Dandy Warhols. 'They're going to meet them all and learn from them and see what it's like to be a rock god for the weekend.'
The Guardian
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Pulp: More review – anthems and rage for the next life stage
Time has been particularly kind to Pulp. As Jarvis Cocker points out on Spike Island, the lead single from their first album in 24 years, their 2002 split went largely unlamented: they had already succeeded in considerably reducing the size of their audience with 1998's claustrophobic album This Is Hardcore and 2001's Scott Walker-produced We Love Life. An ostensibly valedictory greatest hits album spent a single week in the lower reaches of the Top 75. And the year after their demise, John Harris's Britpop history The Last Party noted tartly that Pulp's music had 'rather dated'. 'The universe shrugged, then moved on,' sings Cocker, which is a perhaps more poetic reiteration of what he said at the time: the greatest hits album was 'a real silent fart' and 'nobody was that arsed, evidently'. But subsequent years significantly burnished their memory. It was frequently noted that, besides the Manic Street Preachers' A Design for Life, Common People was the only significant hit of the Britpop years that might be described as a protest song, a bulwark against the accusation that the era had nothing more substantial to offer than flag-waving and faux-gorblimey. At a time when ostensibly 'alternative' rock bands had seemed suddenly desperate for mainstream acceptance, Pulp had become huge by sticking up for outsiders and weirdos. Mis-Shapes, for example, hymned the kinds of people one suspected some of Oasis's fans would have happily thumped. They had also been quick to call time on rock's disastrous association with New Labour, releasing the scathing Cocaine Socialism a year after Tony Blair was elected. If there weren't a huge number of takers for Cocker's musical solo projects, his national treasure status seemed to grow and grow. Pulp reformed in 2011 to general rejoicing, and again in 2022, by which point they could reasonably claim to be the only major Britpop band exerting an obvious influence on current artists (clearly Sports Team and, latterly, Welly both have Pulp in their DNA) and note that their infamous flop greatest hits collection had finally gone platinum. But there's a huge difference between playing the old favourites live and making a new album. If you don't want to sully your catalogue with a photocopy of past glories, you'd better have something new to say, something the oddly equivocal tone of Spike Island and indeed the Cocker quote accompanying More – 'this is the best we can do' – seems to acknowledge. In fact, like Blur on last year's acclaimed The Ballad of Darren, Pulp have found a way to successfully apply their longstanding approach to a very different stage of life when, as Cocker puts it on Slow Jam, 'you've gone from all you that could be to all that you once were'. A man who once fantasised about cuckoldry as an act of class rage-fuelled revenge now finds himself addressing how divorce impacts on your potential to find love again on Background Noise (in a characteristic touch, this existential meditation takes place in the middle of a shopping centre). Tina effectively transposes the kind of Pulp song that ruminates on missed romantic opportunities – Babies, Disco 2000, Inside Susan – into middle-age, the frustration sharpened by the fact that it's 40 years since that particular opportunity sailed. Similarly, Cocker was always exceptionally skilled at drawing confused, youthful relationships and at making capital from the grubby mundane aspects of sex. He still is, although on Grown Ups, the relationship is depicted as taking place on a planet now out of reach, 'because the rocket doesn't have enough fuel' to get back – to youth, presumably – and on My Sex, all the grubby mundanity has taken on a pressing tone as libido dims: 'Hurry 'cos with sex, we're running out of time.' Given how strong the imprint of their frontman's voice is, it seems almost pointless to note that the contents of More sound like Pulp – if Cocker was unexpectedly recruited as lead singer of Cannibal Corpse, they'd probably sound like Pulp too – but suffice to say the music here does all the things a longstanding fan might expect. There are melodies derived from Gallic chanson, tinny electronics, rhythms that lean towards disco, sprechgesang verses that build into anthemic choruses and a lot of flourishes that recall 70s pop (there's also a surprising amount of violin redolent of long-departed member Russell Senior). More importantly, it does these things really well: the epic A Hymn of the North is as heart-rending a Scott Walker-influenced ballad as Pulp have ever recorded, while if they had released the joyous Got to Have Love as their post-Different Class comeback single in 1998, rather than Help the Aged, their commercial fortunes might have taken a different shape. More certainly isn't going to convince anyone who doesn't already like Pulp to change their mind, but then anyone who expects a reformed band's first album in nearly 25 years to do that is perhaps grappling with wildly unreasonable expectations. It's more likely that a reformed band's new album might be a placeholder, filled with songs that pad out the hits live, but provoke a rush on the bars and loos in the process. That definitely isn't the case with More. If this is the best Pulp can do, it's more than good enough.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Legendary Welsh rocker looks unrecognisable with a greying beard more than three decades after his iconic band's chart-topping heyday - but do YOU know who he is?
The greying beard wasn't fooling anyone as this celebrated rock icon ventured out over the weekend - at least not those with longer memories. With thick facial hair and a salt and pepper hairline, the 56-year old singer and musician looked vastly different as he stepped out almost thirty years after telling us in no uncertain terms that Everything Must Go. Back in the 1990s his legendary band filled stadiums across Europe while enjoying enormous critical and commercial success with a string of hit albums and singles. But much of that success played out against a tragic backdrop after one of their founding members disappeared without trace in 1995. Three decades on, the mystery surrounding his disappearance remains unsolved, but the band he played such a pivotal role in establishing is still making music. In February the group climbed to number two on the UK Album Chart with their fifteenth LP, Critical Thinking - but can you guess who its bearded front-man is? From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. That's right - it's James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers! Hailing from Blackwood in Wales, the band were an instrumental part of the Cool Cymru movement in the '90s and their albums Everything Must Go in 1996 and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours two years later gained them a cult following. Lead singer and guitarist Bradfield was inspired by the likes of soft rock group ELO and post-punk rockers The Clash when he formed Manic Street Preachers with his cousin Sean Moore and best friends Nicky Wire and Miles Woodward, who left the band in 1988. Guitarist and singer songwriter Richey Edwards joined the following year after originally working as the band's driver and roadie. Edwards famously disappeared without trace on February 1, 1995, the day before he and Bradfield were scheduled to fly to the United States for a promotional tour in support of their then current album, The Holy Bible. To this day his disappearance remains a mystery, with the musician officially declared dead in absentia on 24 November 2008, nine months after his 40th birthday. The group's hits include If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and The Masses Against The Classes, both of which made it to the top of the UK singles charts. Bradfield has released two solo projects alongside his work with the band and has two children with the group's former PR agent who he married in Italy in 2004. Featuring on The Chris Moyles Show in February, the singer joined band-mate Wire in reflecting on the struggles of a band in the modern age and the crazy times they spent touring with Oasis. He said: 'I think it's a famous Orson Welles quote where he kind of said, "Some days acting is like driving a tricycle through a barrel full of molasses." Some days it's just rubbish. It is. 'But you know that if you just hang in there, you know, keep in the game, stay in the game, you know, the good days will just come. It's as simple as that, really. 'I'm not trying to be wise or, you know, I'm not trying to be David Carradine wandering through the desert with a bit of wisdom. But, kind of, if you just hang in there, it comes, you know?' Hailing from Blackwood in Wales, the band were an instrumental part of the Cool Cymru movement in the 90s and Bradfield provided lead vocals Lead singer and guitarist Bradfield was inspired by the likes of soft rock group ELO and post-punk rockers The Clash when he formed Manic Street Preachers
