Crazy Sked Moaners

Manic Street Preachers currently have an album in the shops entitled National Treasures, a run through of their back catalogue of singles. Given the amount of scorn heaped upon them by some sections of the music press/media down the years I can’t help but think that the title is somewhat ironic. Take this toe-curling interview by Rhona Cameron, for instance. Or the Melody Maker’s Manic Street Preachers Fan: A Diary – in which your average MSP fan was depicted as a pretentious, misery-obsessed, teenaged brat. Admittedly the column was actually quite funny but you get the picture. A combination of MSP's anachronistic sound and their intentionally provocative public statements have regularly invited derision. One of the more imaginative parodies of the band appeared in a Judge Dredd story (Muzak Killer: Live! Part 3) in June 1993. In the strip we observe Clarence of the Crazy Sked Moaners lasering 4 RALE (sic) into his forehead (see pic) on a TV show. It is, of course, a parody of the infamous incident in 1991 when Richey Edwards razored 4 REAL into his forearm for the benefit of NME journalist Steve Lamacq, who had suggested MSP were a cartoon band. By all accounts Edwards was a big fan of Judge Dredd and even had a drawing published in 2000AD when he was still a kid. The band’s song Judge Yr’Self was also influenced by the comic. Furthermore the character of Domino in the 2000AD story Zenith Phase IV Part 2: Blind Justice (Aug 1992) was based upon Nicky Wire. Seems like MSP might just have been a cartoon band after all.