The Fat Angel Sings

In 2014, to mark 20-years since the release of their landmark album “The Holy Bible”, Manic Street Preachers embarked on a sold-out tour playing the record in full. More than a decade later, “The Holy Bible Live” captures an unforgettable show at London’s Roundhouse, documenting a band revisiting a defining chapter of their history.

In December 2014, Manic Street Preachers set out on a UK tour where they would play their career-defining album “The Holy Bible” in full for the first — and probably last — time. At shows in Glasgow, Manchester and London, James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore propelled themselves through the blackness of the album on the twentieth anniversary of its initial release, and of the band’s legendary Astoria shows played in support of the record.

“The Holy Bible Live” was recorded across the three nights played at the Roundhouse in London. Every track from the original album is returned to here, helping create the perfect document of a band at their creative zenith, and of their unfaltering power.

The recordings on “The Holy Bible Live” were mixed by Dave Eringa in the months following the shows. There are no overdubs — just the sound of a three-piece band tearing through a classic album, and the unified voices of every member of the audience singing it back to them.

Singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield says: “I wanted to prove that we were still a band tough enough to play “The Holy Bible.” I wanted to prove to people that being on stage and hammering it through together like a military unit was still part of us. We still have that muscle memory, that badge of honour. We knew there would be a reflex reaction to doing something like this – people looking at the record and your performance through a prism of the past. ’It’s not quite got the spark I was hoping for.’ Proving those people wrong – disproving cynics- massively powered me on.

“I never had any doubts when we rehearsed the songs in the studio. The most important part of doing something like this is to get back in the groove, find that muscle memory, find that reflex, and go into rehearsal to prove to yourselves that you can still do it. I never doubted that we could do it again even though we knew that it was an incredibly hard album to play.

“I’d had really bad flu at the Roundhouse shows. I’d lost my voice, and the night of the first Roundhouse show I was on steroids. Remarkably, my voice just kept coming back enough as I reached the stage. I don’t know if there was some kind of weird, Venom-esque adrenaline shot that I was getting from the fear of doing “The Holy Bible” with injured vocals, I don’t know where that adrenaline came from, but it was something almost supernatural.

“When we played the album, I felt like I was wearing a different mask. I didn’t feel as if I had to completely connect with all the lyrics, I just needed to mainline into the energy of it all. And that felt good – it felt good for us to be a piece of rock ’n’ roll theatre. It felt good to be close to that power again.” August 2026

Bass player Nicky Wire continues: “”The Holy Bible” took a long time to arrive at a place where we felt we could reinvestigate the songs, after years of simply letting them be, letting them grow, letting them unfold. It almost felt like we had become a little disconnected from the songs themselves.

“I was more than a little reticent about the physical, technical and emotional demands they brought with them. As a collection, the songs required a particular state of mind: a kind of ferocious discipline that I wasn’t sure I still had inside me.

“When the idea of playing the album in its entirety arrived, we were riding high on a critical wave after the release of “Futurology.” Touring that would have been easy, and yet our thoughts turned back to “The Holy Bible.” What it was, what it meant. We knew they would not be easy songs to play together. We’d never had more than five or six of them in a live set before, even when the record had just been released. But the idea grew, and then it was a tour. “Futurology” became part of the second set, and “The Holy Bible” was the savage, ruthless opening.

“James was much more up for the challenge than I was. He seemed to thrive on the amount of willpower, control and horror he had to go through and relearn in order to make it all work. That was never clearer than at the last Roundhouse show, when James lost his voice to a flu bug. On stage, he just charged through the whole thing. There’s an edge and a rawness in his voice that makes the whole thing complete.

“One of the deciding factors in playing “The Holy Bible” from start to finish was wanting those lyrics – Richey’s genius, really – to be heard by a mass audience and to see how those words still resonated with a crowd who had grown up with them. Maybe this live record documents the last time that we – as a band, as friends – could really occupy “The Holy Bible”’s particular state of mind. Listening back, I’m incredibly grateful that we did.

“After playing the gigs, we got to see what Kieran Evans had been working on after shooting every gig on the tour. It’s incredible – intimate, oppressive and weirdly joyous at points. That said, as much as it’s a a film, it’s also Kieran occupying the same state of mind that we were were in.”

Out on 23rd October, this deluxe edition features the complete live show on CD and 2LP Blue Marble vinyl, including a special Side D etching, as well as the Director’s Cut of Kieran Evans’ acclaimed live concert film Be Pure – Be Vigilant – Behave on Blu-Ray.

The package also includes a brand-new Steven Wilson mix of the original album on CD, an exclusive 16-page book and a Pennie Smith photo print; making it an essential addition to any Manics collection.

 “The Holy Bible Live” – which comes out on Friday 23rd October 2026 via Sony Music.