Suicide Is Painless – Manic Street Preachers

Now I don’t want to give you the impression that most of the Britpop era was about us all sitting around watching Alan Alda and Hot Lips Houlihan but the Theme From M*A*S*H was a big hit in the middle of the 90’s for perhaps the most undervalued of all the British punk bands of the last 35 years.

My Manic Street Preachers put this out as a charity single way before the decade really got going. Famously less than 100 English pounds were spent on a single day in a recording studio for The Welsh National Punk Band to go in, lay down a track for the compilation album Ruby Trax (a play on popular 90’s shock journalist Ruby Wax) and it was off to the pressing plant. Put out there as a split 7″ with Fatima Mansions on the flip covering Bryan Adams Everything I Do (I do It For You) which was still number one at that point and had been for 17 months previously. It was only knocked off the top spot three years later by British Teatime TV Mascot Mr Blobby doing a cover of Love Is All Around.

The band’s debut album era was about to give way to Gold Against The Soul and big big time stuff. It would not have been right that the band who hit out with Motown Junk and You Love Us had a cover of Johnny Mandel’s 70’s soft rock TV theme as their biggest hit. If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next saw to that. Perhaps the greatest title of a song to ever take the top spot in the popular hit parade.

Part of their early suicide trilogy with Suicide Alley and Spectators Of Suicide it was a recurring theme that bled from their instruments to the loss of their rhythm guitarist. The signs were all there I guess.

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