Manic Street Preachers Diss Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien

Why can’t everyone just get along? Last night, Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers decided to publicly diss Radiohead‘s Ed O’ Brien. The Welsh band was playing a show at the legendary, Scottish 300-capacity venue for the first time since 1991 to celebrate the club’s 20th birthday when Wire told the audience:

“Apparently Ed O’ Brien called me a wanker, I’m really fucking scared, go back to your boarding school you cunt!”

O’Brien made the ‘wanker’ comment in an interview in which he said Wire’s views on file-sharing were ‘bollocks.’ This comment was a response to Wire’s first comment (the one that started the feud), when he said Radiohead only started caring about file-sharing after they’d made millions — this comment was made in December 2007:

“Fair play to Radiohead for doing something different. It’s certainly great for publicity, but I think it kind of demeans music.”

This isn’t the first time that Radiohead has been publicly criticized for the way they promote music. Lily Allen, another British musician, said during Britain’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2008 that she thought Radiohead’s way of releasing In Rainbows “devalued music.” Personally, anyone who takes a public shot at Radiohead is looking for media coverage, and that’s just low.

Radiohead are members of the Featured Artists’ Coalition which says file-sharing should be legal and the British government should be examining how best to monetize it. Wire and company, oppose this view. However, before you write this off as another dumb feud between musicians, attention must be paid to Wire’s track record — the man is known for having one loud mouth.

In 1992, Wire told his audience during a show:

“Here’s hoping Michael Stipe goes the same way as Freddie Mercury.”

Many assumed that Wire was saying he hoped Stipe would die of AIDS, since there were rumors of it at the time. Wire later denied this interpretation of his comment. Later in 1994, during a gig at Glastonbury Wire made the famous comment heard-round the festival:

“Build some more bypasses over this fucking shithole.”

Is Wire hungry for attention? 9 out of 10 times I would say that he’s just a punk expressing his opinion, but after two years of feuding with one of the most influential bands of this generation, the whole ‘punk’ act comes into question. Wouldn’t you say?

What do you think?

via Spinner