I remember the first time I heard the Manic Street Preachers. It was the summer, I think, and it must have been the early ’00s. We were in the car, and my parents were listening to a CBC show called The Vinyl Cafe on the radio. Stuart McLean was a family favourite, and even now I can hear his voice. I can’t help but think how instantly recognisable it is, both in tone and cadence.

This particular day must have been a Sunday afternoon when new recordings of The Vinyl Cafe would air. Maybe we were on one of our after-church drives. My parents preferred the 9 AM church service, and once it was finished, they’d go for coffee, and we’d all go for a drive (we kids didn’t have much choice in the matter!).

Memory is a strange thing. I don’t remember anything else about that day, including the rest of that particular recording of The Vinyl Cafe. All I remember is a song. The Manic Street Preachers aren’t well known in Canada, and at the time, I wondered if they were a Christian band. After all, the song was called There By the Grace of God, and the lyrics stuck with me:

And all the drugs in the world
Can’t save us from ourselves
Victims with the saddest hearts
Passing by the grace of God
There by the grace of God

With grace we will suffer
With grace we shall recover
There by the grace of God
There by the grace of God

I wanted to hear more, and little did I know just how much I’d lean into the Manics over the coming years. And oh, they aren’t a Christian band.