DISCOGRAPHY:	The Holy Bible
LYRICS:	Nicky Wire and Richey James
MUSIC:	James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore
QUOTES:	"America is still trying to convince itself it is positive, enlightened and absolute. Zapruder the first to saw doubts behind the reality/death of JFK. Bradey Bill typical - glorify gun culture until The Massacre gradually moves from the inner cities to the suburbs. The consequence arrives. Still believe Democrats are an alternative." (Richey James; The Holy Bible-Tour Book) "Tt's not a completely anti-american song. It compares British imperialism to American consumerism. It's just trying to explain the confusion I think most people feel about how the most empty culture in the world can dominate in such a total sense. I've got an ambivalent attitude to America. I can't tell whether I should embrace it or just be confused by it. When we went to New York, I'd watched 'Cagney & Lacey' so much that I felt like I knew New York already when we got there. The last lines (fuck the brady bill/if god made man they say/sam colt made him equal) are about the gun laws that clinton is trying to bring in. It would disenfranchise the black community, who generally don't have licences. The white rednecks in Middle America do have licences, but statistics show they cause as much crime." (Nicky Wire; Melody Maker, 27 August 1994)

BRADY BILL The growing number of gun-related crimes propelled congressional passage (1993) of the Brady bill (named for James Brady, the press secretary seriously wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on Pres. Reagan) after years of controversy. It requires a five-day waiting period and background check before a handgun purchase. Provisions of the bill have been challenged in court. The 1994 federal crime bill banned the manufacture, sale, and possession of certain assault weapons. Richey: "Brady Bill typical - glorify gun culture until The Massacre gradually moves from the inner cities to the suburbs. The consequence arrives." MANICS REFERENCE: 'FUCK THE BRADY BILL' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

COLT, SAM (1814-62) American inventor His revolving breech pistol (patented 1835-36) was one of the standard small arms of the world in the last half of the 19th century. Colt's revolving cylinder permitted his gun to be fired six times without reloading and was invented just before the Civil War. An old West saying goes "God created man and Sam Cornell Colt made them equal". MANICS REFERENCE: 'IF GOD MADE MAN THEY SAY SAM COLT MADE HIM EQUAL' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

COMPTON City in California. Known for violent incidents between two rivalry gangs. Lately in the media for the shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur. MANICS REFERENCE: 'COMPTON - HARLEM - A PIMP FUCKED A PRIEST' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

CUBA (Republic of Cuba, capital Havanna, population 11 mio.) History from 1956 onwards and US-Cuban relations: Fidel Castro Ruz, a tall, bearded attorney in his thirties who had been in exile in Mexico, landed in Cuba on Christmas Day 1956 with a band of 12 fellow revolutionaries, evaded Batista's soldiers, and set up headquarters in the jungled hills of the Sierra Maestra range. By 1958 his force had grown to about 2,000 guerrillas, for the most part young and middle-class. Castro's brother Raul, and Ernesto (Ché) Guevara, an Argentine physician, were his top lieutenants. Businessmen and landowners who opposed the Batista regime gave financial support to the rebels. The United States, meanwhile, cut off arms shipments to Batista's army. The beginning of the end for Batista came when the rebels routed 3,000 government troops and captured Santa Clara, capital of Las Villas province 150 miles from Havana, and a trainload of Batista reinforcements refused to get out of their railroad cars. On New Year's Day 1959, Batista flew to exile in the Dominican Republic and Castro took over the government. Crowds cheered the revolutionaries on their seven-day march to the capital. The United States initially welcomed what looked like the prospect for a democratic Cuba, but a rude awakening came within a few months when Castro established military tribunals for political opponents, jailed hundreds, and began to veer leftward. Castro disavowed Cuba's 1952 military pact with the U.S. He confiscated U.S. investments in banks and industries and seized large U.S. landholdings, turning them first into collective farms and then into Soviet-type state farms. The United States broke relations with Cuba on Jan. 3, 1961. Castro forged an alliance with the Soviet Union. From the ranks of the Cuban exiles who had fled to the U.S., the CIA recruited and trained an expeditionary force, numbering less than 2,000 men, to invade Cuba, with the expectation that the invasion would spark an uprising of the Cuban populace against Castro. Planned under the Eisenhower administration, President John F. Kennedy gave the go-ahead for the invasion in early 1961, but rejected a CIA proposal for U.S. planes to provide air support. The landing at the Bay of Pigs on April 17, 1961, was a fiasco. Not only did the invaders fail to receive any support from the populace, but Castro's tanks and artillery made short work of the small force. A Soviet attempt to change the global power balance by installing medium-range missiles in Cuba-capable of striking targets in the United States with nuclear warheads-provoked a crisis between the superpowers in 1962 that had the potential of touching off World War III. Denouncing the Soviets for "deliberate deception," President Kennedy on Oct. 22 announced that the U.S. Navy would enforce a "quarantine" of shipping to Cuba and search Soviet-bloc ships to prevent the missiles themselves from reaching the island. After six days of tough public statements on both sides and secret diplomacy, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev on Oct. 28 ordered the missile sites dismantled and shipped back to the Soviet Union, in return for a U.S. pledge not to attack Cuba. A Soviet satellite in the 1960s and 1970s, Cuba helped spread the Communist revolution in the Western hemisphere. The U.S. established limited diplomatic ties with Cuba on Sept. 1, 1977. Emigration increased dramatically after April 1, 1980, when Castro, irritated by the granting of asylum to would-be refugees by the Peruvian embassy in Havana, removed guards and allowed 10,000 Cubans to swarm into the embassy grounds. As an airlift began taking the refugees to Costa Rica, Castro opened the port of Mariel to a "freedom flotilla" of ships and yachts from the United States, many of them owned or chartered by Cuban-Americans to bring out relatives. It wasn't until after the refugees had reached the United States that it was discovered that the regime had opened prisons and mental hospitals to permit criminals, homosexuals, and others unwanted by the Cuban government to join the refugees. For most of President Ronald Reagan's first term, U.S.-Cuban relations were frozen. But late in 1984, an agreement was reached between the two countries. Cuba would take back more than 2,700 Cubans who had come to the United States in the Mariel exodus but were not eligible to stay in the country under U.S. immigration law because of criminal or psychiatric disqualification. Castro canceled the agreement when the U.S. began the Radio Marti broadcasts in May 1985 to bring a non-Communist viewpoint to the Cuban people. With the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, Cuba's foreign trade plummeted as did aid from Russia, producing the worst economic crisis in the island's history. The government moved slightly toward a mixed economy in 1993 by permitting limited private enterprise in a number of trades and services and allowing Cubans to possess convertible currencies. In March 1996, the U.S. passed the Helms-Burton Act, which further extended the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba by penalizing non-U.S. companies doing business with Cuba. Reaction to the measure was widespread international condemnation that included the U.S.'s North American neighbors, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean nations. Christmas was declared an official holiday in Cuba in 1997, for the first time since the revolution, in preparation for Pope John Paul II's historic visit to Cuba in Jan. 1998. By Castro's allowing the pope's visit, he raised hopes that the gesture signaled a new openness, easing of restrictions, and increased religious freedom for Cubans. In mid-1999, the U.S. sent negotiators to Havana to begin talks on better communication between the U.S. and Cuba regarding drug shipments in the Caribbean, despite protests from some Cuban-Americans. The U.S. government stated that the action was not part of an effort to normalize relations with Cuba. MANICS REFERENCE: 'CUBA, MEXICO CAN'T CAUTERIZE OUR DISCIPLINE' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics) 'WENT TO CUBA TO MEET CASTRO' (Let Robeson Sing lyrics) 'BUT CUBAN BOXERS STILL WIN' (Baby Elian lyrics) In 2001 the Manics were the first Western rockband who played a gig in Havana, the capital of Cuba. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Cuba Net

GORE, TIPPER Not very popular wife of former US-Vice President Al Gore. Known for her conservative attitude, further also supported the "Explicit Lyrics"-stickers on music-cds. MANICS REFERENCE: 'TIPPER GORE WAS A FRIEND OF MINE' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics) FOR MORE INFORMATION: Mrs. Gore's Homepage

GRENADA (island nation in the West Indies, capital Saint Geoge's, population ca. 94.000) Settlement of Grenada, delayed by hostile Caribs, was begun by the French in 1650, but the island was taken over in 1783 by the British, who established sugar plantations and imported African slaves. Grenada became self-governing in 1967 and an independent state within the Commonwealth in 1974. A coup in 1979 installed a Marxist government headed by Maurice Bishop, who allied the nation with Cuba. In 1983 the overthrow and execution of Bishop led to an invasion by the U.S., with token forces from other Caribbean nations, that restored democratic rule. Nicholas Brathwaite, of the National Democratic Congress, has been prime minister since 1990. MANICS REFERENCE: 'GRENADA - HAITI - POLAND - NICARAGUA' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

HAITI (Republic of Haiti, part of the West Indies, capital Port-au-Prince, population ca. 6,491,000) Haiti has the lowest per-capital income in the Americas, with about 50% of the population unemployed and 75% living in poverty. It has few manufacturing industries and a high rate of emigration. Haiti's subsequent history is one of economic poverty, dictatorship, and occasional anarchy, with a period of U.S. military occupation (1915-34). In 1957 François Papa Doc Duvalier was elected president. Supported by a personal police force, the Tontons Macoutes, he imposed an especially repressive rule, relaxed to some degree only after his death (1971), when he was succeeded by his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier. He fled the country in 1986, and a period of social and political unrest followed. In 1991 Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a popular priest, became president after free elections; the army ousted him later that year. The Organization of American States called for his restoration and imposed an economic embargo, but a series of civilian leaders were appointed while the army retained real power. The UN approved an oil (1993) and near-total trade (1994) embargo and subsequently authorized the use of force to restore Aristide. In 1994 an agreement calling for Aristide's return was negotiated amid invasion preparations by the U.S., and U.S. and Carribean forces oversaw Aristide's restoration to power (Oct. 1994). In 1995 René Préval was elected to succeed Aristide, who was barred from running. (photo: a Haitian soldier chases down a pro-Aristide demonstrator) MANICS REFERENCE: 'GRENADA - HAITI - POLAND - NICARAGUA' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

HARLEM Section of New York City The Dutch settlement of Nieuw Haarlem was established by Peter Stuyvesant in 1658. Harlem remained rural until the 19th cent. when improved transportation facilities linked it with lower Manhattan. It then became a fashionable residential section of New York City. By the turn of the century Harlem had a large Jewish population; starting around 1910 Harlem became the scene of increasing African-American migration from the South. It soon became the largest and most influential African-American community in the nation, one of the centers of innovation in jazz (Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington) and and the home of Malcolm X and author Langston Hughes. In East Harlem, a largely Italian neighborhood-the home of Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia- many Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic-Americans settled after World War II. Seventh Ave. at 125th Street is generally considered the heart of Harlem. Harlem today is a depressed economic area with considerable unemployment. MANICS REFERENCE: 'COMPTON - HARLEM - A PIMP FUCKED A PRIEST' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

MEXICO (United Mexican States, capital Mexico City, population 100 mio.) Relations to the US: Illegal emmigration from Mexico to the US in an ongoing problem and the US' efforts to stem illegal immigration have been controversial. The Mexico-U.S. border is the result of a war that took place over 150 years ago. Violence and the expansionist ambitions of the U.S. shifted the border southward so that in 1848 it was not Mexicans who crossed the border, but the border that crossed them. With that move, the United States began the consolidation of its hemispheric hegemony south of the border. The new geopolitical landscape forever marked the way each country would view itself in relation to the other. From the perspective of these centers, the border is a lawless "no man's land" where illegal activities of all sorts --from undocumented immigration to drug trafficking and prostitution-- take place. While these are certainly issues in the region, the borderland is above all a highly complex and dynamic area where the First and the Third worlds collide. Here, people live, work, and daily reinvent survival strategies to cope with difficult conditions, especially on the Mexican side of the line. MANICS REFERENCE: 'CUBA, MEXICO CAN'T CAUTERIZE OUR DISCIPLINE' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics) FOR MORE INFORMATION: Mexico

NICARAGUA (Republic of Nicaragua, located in Central America capital Managua, population ca. 4,097,000) Nicaragua achieved independence from Spain in 1821. After brief periods as part of the Mexican Empire and the Central American Federation, Nicaragua became a separate republic in 1838. Marked by extreme liberal-conservative antagonism, the country has had an unusually violent history. Foreign interference was frequent, especially by the U.S., which from the early 19th cent. expressed interest in a possible inter-ocean waterway in Nicaragua. U.S. marines intervened in a civil war in 1912, remaining in the country until 1933. The nation was ruled dictatorially by members of the Somoza family until 1979, when their regime was overthrown, after bloody fighting, by the Sandinistas. The Sandinistas formed a government that at first included moderate conservatives, but moved rapidly to the political left in the early 1980s. In 1984, a Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, was elected president. The effects of land redistribution, literacy programs, and other reforms were nullified by costly warfare between the Sandinistas and the contras, right-wing guerrillas based outside the country and supported by the U.S. In 1990 a presidential election resulted in the unexpected defeat of Ortega by opposition candidate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, and the Sandinista government and the contras agreed to a cease-fire. Under Chamorro, the army and police continued to be led by Sandinistas, but economic reforms were instituted and inflation reduced. The economy remained stagnant and unemployment high, however, and tense relations between the Sandinistas and their opponents threatened to undermine Chamorro's government. (photo: anti-marxist manual by the CIA; click for full size picture) MANICS REFERENCE: 'GRENADA - HAITI - POLAND - NICARAGUA' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

PHOENIX, RIVER (1970-1993) US actor Noted for the depth, sensitivity, and intelligence that he brought to his roles during his teens, River Phoenix was on the cusp of becoming a successful adult actor when he overdosed on drugs and died on Halloween Night, 1993. His parents named him after the "river of life" that flowed through Hermann Hesse's novel ~Siddhartha and for the Beatles song "Hey Jude." From the time Phoenix was born, his parents lived the hippie life, moving to several communes until they joined the controversial "Children of God" cult. Along the way, three more children were born: Rain, Joaquin Rafael (who grew up to be actor Joaquin Phoenix), and Libertad Mariposa. Phoenix and his siblings often sang and performed on street corners for food. His family hit their lowest point when Phoenix was seven and the penniless brood was forced to move into a beach hut until a local priest showed mercy and arranged for them to be stowed away on a Florida-bound freighter. The crew discovered the family during the voyage but treated them kindly. Shortly after their arrival in Florida in 1978, the family legally changed its name to Phoenix to commemorate their new lives. River Phoenix had originally wanted to be a musician and did not become interested in acting until 1979, when he and Rain were spotted in a talent show and invited to audition at Hollywood's Paramount studios. Believing that the opportunity was worth more than the possible risks involved, the Phoenix family headed West in a battered station wagon. Their arrival in Burbank was disappointing, as the Paramount people reneged on what the family had believed to be an offer to audition the children. Once again the family was destitute and the children returned to busking for change. Matters improved when agent Iris Burton entered their lives and started finding work for Phoenix in television commercials and in series such as ~Real Kids, for which he and Rain worked as a warm-up act. Phoenix's first real break came when he won a leading role in the TV series ~Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. From there, he made guest appearances on such television series as ~Family Ties and in such TV movies as ~Robert Kennedy: The Man and His Times, in which he played Robert Kennedy Jr. Phoenix made his feature film debut as a young genius in Explorers (1985). The film, which also starred a then-unknown Ethan Hawke. He earned even more acclaim in Rob Reiner's adaptation of Stephen King's bittersweet coming-of-age story, Stand by Me (1986). The same year, he played opposite Harrison Ford in The Mosquito Coast (1986). By the late 1980s, Phoenix found himself a top-ranked teen idol, having added films like Running on Empty (1988), Little Nikita (1988), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) to his resume. His breakthrough as an adult actor came when he was cast as a narcoleptic street hustler opposite Keanu Reeves in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991) Allegedly, it was during production of that film that Phoenix started taking drugs. Before his death, he won further acclaim for roles in Dogfight (1991) and Sneakers (1992). The year that he died, he starred in The Thing Called Love and had a number of other films in the works. Phoenix died in the company of his sister Rain, his reported girlfriend Samantha Mathis, and his brother Joaquin (then known as Leaf) after taking cocaine, heroin, and other drugs at Johnny Depp's Viper Room. He was only twenty-three. MANICS REFERENCE: 'BIG MAC: SMACK: PHOENIX R: PLEASE SMILE Y'ALL (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics) FOR MORE INFORMATION: River Phoenix

POLAND (Republic of Poland, Eastern Europe, capital Warsaw, population ca. 38,655,000) On Sept. 1, 1939, citing as cause Poland's refusal to surrender the port of Danzig, Germany invaded Poland, thus precipitating WWII. On Sept. 17 Russia (then allied with Germany) invaded from the east, and the country was divided between Germany and Russia. When Germany attacked the USSR in 1941, all of Poland came under German rule. Massacres, starvation, and Concentration Camps such as that at in Auschwitz decimated the population; about 6 million Poles, including some 3 million Jews, were killed. The Germans were expelled from Poland in 1945, and a provisional government was set up under Soviet auspices. Government-controlled elections in 1947 gave the Communists full control, and in 1952 Poland became a people's republic on the Soviet model. MANICS REFERENCE: 'GRENADA - HAITI - POLAND - NICARAGUA' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics)

ZAPRUDER, ABRAHAM He filmed the assassination of JFK, which is meanwhile available on video. Everything's for sale. Richey: "Zapruder first to saw doubts behind the reality/death of JFK." (photo, right) MANICS REFERENCE: 'ZAPRUDER THE FIRST TO MASTURBATE' (Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart lyrics) FOR MORE INFORMATION: Dealey Plaza - Zapruder Film