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Manic Street Preachers' bassist Nicky Wire has slammed Russell Brand's attempts to urge the British public not to vote.
Wire, one of the most politically outspoken figures in music, was speaking to NME where he revealed that he was a fan's of Brand's personality and comedy, but not his politics.
"There's a bit of me that just loves people being dickheads and being absolutely contrary," said Wire. "But then I spent most of my life thinking that democracy is one of the greatest things about living in this country. So there's the ying and the yang of the great Situationist spectacle, and reality."
He continued: "I think reality won in the end. I think voting should be compulsory under law, anyway. The bottom line was he didn't seem to have any policy apart from 'drug rehabilitation for all'!"
Wire also discussed the rise of UKIP in Britain claiming that their success stems from the failings of the coalition government: "When you strip it down, they're not anti-establishment.
"They've just found themselves to be an alternative to the eternal status quo of the three main political parties. In my dreams I'd like to think an extreme-left wing political party fronted by me could do similar, but they just fucking got in there!"
Watch the video for 'Walk Me To The Bridge' by Manic Street Preachers below
In an interview with Gigwise, frontman James Dean Bradfield said that it was the band's uniquely political outlook that drove them to make their recent, and brilliant, album Futurology.
"(We needed to prove) that we could still trade in a language that is still exclusively ours, that we could still want to write songs that other people are just never going to go near," replies Bradfield. "Whether it be 'Between The Clock And The Bed', 'Europa Geht Durch Mich', 'Dreaming A City' or 'Mayakovsky' - I just don't think that anyone else would go near that subject matter. We never laid claim to being the most 'original' band, but I think we're unique in that sense."
- Read our full and frank interview with Manic Street Preachers here
The band play V Festival next month. For more information visit Gigwise Tickets.
Below: Exclusive photos of Manic Street Preachers at Manchester Academy
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