James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore will play a series of shows in December, celebrating 20 years since their third album was released

Manic Street Preachers have confirmed that they will perform their album The Holy Bible in its entirety this year.

20 years since their third album was released, James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore will play a series of shows in December, beginning in Glasgow on 8 December and culminating in three nights at Camden’s Roundhouse venue.

Not only do the shows mark two decades since the album’s release, but also nearly 20 years since their famous run at the London Astoria; which culminated in their frenzied last live show with guitarist Richey Edwards who disappeared some months after the Christmas performance. The gig ended with the Manics smashing up not just their equipment, but the venue’s lighting, causing £26,000 of damage.

The Holy Bible remains one of the most visceral albums in rock’n’roll history, from the self-loathing of 4st 7lbs to The Intense Humming of Evil; “Can’t shout, can’t scream, hurt myself to get pain out,” reads one lyric on the track Yes. While the band were promoting the album, Edwards’ drinking and self-harming escalated, from a tour of Thailand, where he slashed his chest onstage with a knife, to an incident in Britain, where he cut himself so brutally that he ended up on an NHS psychiatric ward.

“From Thailand to the smashing up of the Astoria, it was hospitalisation, no money, drudgery, hateful, miserable, awful,” Wire told the Guardian in 2009. “It felt like Richey was drifting away. I’d just lost him. Couldn’t talk about rugby or cricket or football. He’d call you up at strange times about some documentary he’d just seen or something he’d tracked down. It was hard work, it was baffling at times. He was finding it really hard to sleep. When people talk about the wounds or the blood, the only real tragedy is when you lose someone kinetically, someone you’ve known since he was five, you’ve done all those things with and you feel you can’t communicate.”



To go alongside their Holy Bible dates, there will also be a 20th anniversary edition of the record, details of which are not yet announced. This is not the first time this album has been reworked since its original release - to celebrate its 10th anniversary it was given a digital remastering including a previously unheard American mix with an additional DVD featuring interviews and footage of live performances.

The band recently released their critically lauded 12th studio album, Futurology, which debuted at No 2 in the charts.



The Holy Bible dates:

8 December - Glasgow, Barrowland

10 December Manchester, Albert Hall

11 December Manchester, Albert Hall

13 December Dublin, Olympia Theatre,

15 London, Roundhouse

16 London, Roundhouse

17 London, Roundhouse

Tickets are on sale from 25 Septmeber at 9am