Manic Street Preachers tell us about their “vicious” ‘The Holy Bible’ live album and film

Manic Street Preachers have announced details of a new live album celebrating their seminal ‘The Holy Bible’, along with the long-awaited release of Kieran Evans’ concert film Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave and a Steven Wilson spatial audio remix of the original record.

1. READ MORE: Manic Street Preachers: “We talked ourselves through oblivion”.
2. President – ‘Blood Of Your Empire’ review: polarising pop-metallers serve up an arty and versatile debut.
3. Bad Bunny shook up Chuwi’s world. Now they’re harnessing the moment.
4. Radio Free Alice tell us about supporting Geese and their “coming of age” debut album.
5. Lancey Foux on ‘The Time Of Our Lives’ and legacy: “I’m signing out of everything I’ve built”.
6. Daine is stepping into self-aware popstardom: “It’s embarrassing in a delicious way”.

Check out all the details below along with our interview with Nicky Wire.

In 2014, off the back of the huge success and acclaim of their 12th album ‘Futurology’, the Welsh rock icons finally felt they had licence to revisit their cult classic third LP ‘The Holy Bible’ by playing it in full for the first (and probably last) time.

In full military garb as they were in ’94, the Manics were on fine and furious form. The UK shows were captured by their now longtime visual collaborator and BAFTA-winning director Kieran Evans for the film Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave – its title taken from a lyric to closing track ‘P.

Now, the Manics have announced that they’ll be releasing ‘The Holy Bible Live’ on October 23 across various formats, with the live album accompanied by Evans’ concert film and a new Steven Wilson spatial audio mix of the original 1994 album.

The release will be available as a 2 x 12” and 3 CD deluxe edition, 2 x blue marble 12” vinyl, CD+video BluRay and on digital platforms, and is available to pre-order here.

To match the album’s darkly poetic lyrics and shocking subject matter about the Holocaust, eating disorders, prostitution of the self, the evils of man and the spiralling mental health of guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards, the gigs were shot and edited with a brutal intensity.

The film originally premiered back in 2016 but has not received a full release until now.

Speaking about the challenge of the shows, frontman James Dean Bradfield said he “wanted to prove that we were still a band tough enough to play ‘The Holy Bible'”.

Bradfield added: “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.”.

NME caught up with Nicky Wire earlier this week, in the midst of a “quiet year” off the back of their 2025 album ‘Critical Thinking’ and ahead of their winter co-headline UK tour with Suede.

Check out the rest of our interview with Wire below, where he told NME about the new release, memories of 1994, and what to expect from new material in the works.

NME. Hello Nicky. Seeing as we’ve just had Reading Festival and you played a legendary show there for ‘The Holy Bible’ back in ’94, what do you remember about your time in that field.

Nicky Wire: “It was incredibly tense and slightly stressful that we had to do it as a three-piece because Richey was in The Priory at that point and we did need to pay bills, but we did have such a sense of wild abandon and ferocious discipline that it was an amazing show.

The crowd was massive. It did feel something had happened; I don’t know what. ‘Faster’ had been out, ‘Revol’ had been out, the album was coming out, but people seemed to want to be there.

We had the full ‘The Holy Bible’ regalia, and it was just fucking vicious. It was a peak of sorts.”.

What was it like to be in that version of the Manics in ’94, going to war on stage and every night.

There was official footage from the Astoria shows in 1994 that was made into music videos Do you have the rest and do you think it’ll ever see the light of day.

To decide to play the album in full in 2014, what was it like as a band to embody that mindset and recreate these songs and be in ‘Bible’ mode.

Are you still finding new generations of fans getting into the Manics via this album, just as they might with Joy Division‘s ‘Unknown Pleasures’, Nirvana‘s ‘In Utero’ and other dark albums like that.

You’ve worked solely with Kieran Evans for your music videos, documentaries and stage production for over a decade now. What is it about your shared aesthetic language, and how does that translate into this film.

It certainly feels like an onslaught of images and noise, with a sort of Clockwork Orange effect.

It’s rare for a band make a live album from an anniversary tour. What made you decide to do so.

And you’ve been sitting on it for all this time.

What can you tell us about the Steven Wilson spatial audio remix.

Do you imagine we’ll be getting a bit more of the ‘Bible’ on the upcoming dates with Suede.

You’ve shared on social media that you’ve been writing new songs. How’s that going.

The last time we spoke, James said he wanted to make a “cold and European” album and record it in Hamburg. Is that still the plan.

Do you fancy a winter in Hamburg then.

Perhaps you should let Steven Wilson produce the album.

Do you think we’ll get some new songs on the Suede tour.

Manic Street Preachers release ‘The Holy Bible Live’ on October 24 before their UK co-headline arena tour with Suede kicks off, calling at Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bournemouth.

Visit here for tickets and more information.

The world's defining voice in music and pop culture: breaking what's new and what's next since 1952.

When you purchase through affiliate links on NME.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn More.

NME Networks, a part of Caldecott Music Group. All rights reserved.