The Manics’ bassist on why The Smiths’ 1984 compilation is so important to him.
“Two records changed my life and this is one. Hatful Of Hollow has stuck with me to this day. I can put it on and I remember everything about it, the artwork, the shortness of William, It Was Really Nothing, These Things Take Time, Still Ill. It’s all the best versions of their tracks, I think. James and I used to go busking in Cardiff and earn enough to buy records from the Spillers record shop there. I remember getting Velocity Girl by Primal Scream that way. Where was the best place to busk in Cardiff? There’s an apocryphal but true story of when we were in The Hayes, round by St David’s Hall, where we were busking things like [Echo & The Bunnymen’s] Villiers Terrace, [The Jesus & Mary Chain’s] Just Like Honey, La Bamba and various bits and bobs. Anyway, we saw [producer] Steve Albini walk past and he gave us a complete scowl and sneer. We told him this when we recorded with him years later and he nicely went, `That kinda sounds like me!’”
