By his own admission, Nicky Wire is more nervous than when he met Fidel Castro. Rush are on stage sound-checking for the first of two shows at Wembley Arena. The Manic Street Preachers – James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore – are walking into the auditorium when the long black drapes at the rear of hall part momentarily to reveal Geddy Lee hunched over his keyboard.
As someone once said, music makes teenagers of us all. And as Nicky and James sit down to interview Rush for Classic Rock, both Manics look very fresh-faced indeed. James has his questions scrawled on the back of a newspaper; Wire has pages of A4 neatly anointed with questions and notes. James says that Wire has four obsessions in life: sport, certain painters, stationery and Rush. Given the Manics’ famously dogmatic stance you might imagine that they have more in common with The Clash than Canada’s favourite sons.
