Such is the level of devotion or revulsion inspired by the Manics that near-300 pages’ worth of photos of the band will either be your idea of a feast for the eyes… or a cause for fasting.
In his foreword, Nicky Wire professes a life-long love of the Polaroid as “a truly honest format” and the perfect medium where “colours fade and lines blur but the details of lives caught on camera in that split second are always genuine, honest and truthful”. A man after our analogue heart, then; but, for a band with such a camera-friendly image – especially in their early days – it’s a shame that most of these on tour/in the studio snaps (all Polaroids from Wire’s collection) are from the comparatively plain late 90s.
A few early 00s and Journal For Plague Lovers-era snaps round things out a little – and there are a clutch of photos including Richey Edwards at the front – but, in the main, this family album documents fewer generations than fans would have hoped for. The clutches of too self-consciously arty photos (there 108 Record Collector are an awful lot of clouds taken from the bus window on motorways) also ensure that, at times, this is less a trip down memory lane and more a celebration of the Polaroid medium, whatever’s in front of the lens.
Some of it’s beautiful; some instantly forgettable, but it’s lushly-packaged and, as we say, you’ll either be devoted enough to buy it, or you won’t.
