James Dean Bradfield

HE STARTED OUT PLAYING A LES PAUL TO SOUND LIKE THE SEX PISTOLS’ STEVE JONES. NOW, HE’S CHANNELING ABBA ON THE NEW MANIC STREET PREACHERS ALBUM AND DECLARING, “I LOVE MY STRAT!” JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD OPENS HIS ‘GUITAR DIARY’ TO TG AND EXPLAINS THE ORIGINS OF HIS SOUND. “IT’S NOT MAGIC,” HE SAYS. “THERE’S NO THEORY. IT’S JUST F*CKING AROUND!”

- Grant Moon

For the past few Manic Street Preachers albums James Dean Bradfield has kept a ‘guitar diary’, detailing the instruments he’s used on every track. The entries for the Manics’ 14th record, The Ultra Vivid Lament, mention his trusty white Les Paul Custom (signed by his Sex Pistols hero Steve Jones), a Troublemaker Tele from Fender’s ‘Parallel Universe’ collection, a cool-if-clunky vintage Roland GR-500 synth guitar, a Burns baritone guitar, and Bradfield’s one bespoke acoustic, made by Welsh luthier Richard Meyrick.

Also on the list is a ’62 Strat, an oddity for this noted Gibson player. “What is it about getting older,” the 52 year-old wonders aloud. “You start thinking, ‘I think I’ll try some gin! I might go on a cruise! I really like playing Strats!’ I was always religiously against them when I was young. In my head, Strats were more for serious, nuanced players, whereas Gibsons just had that strident, classic rock edge. Now though, I love my Strat.”

Written mainly on piano, The Ultra Vivid Lament sees Bradfield, bassist Nicky Wire and drummer Sean Moore in melodic and relatively nonconfrontational mode. “I didn’t want to listen to something that was going to bludgeon me after what’s gone on in the last few years,” he says.

“I wanted something with a lot more light and shade. I was finding comfort in music, rather than just music telling me an undeniable truth. We decided that if we didn’t want that from music during lockdown, during COVID, what gives us the right to foist that upon somebody?”