Despite obviously being much more hard rock, the Manics feel like true spiritual successors to the clash. For fucks sake they even had words about the Clash. By 1992 I feel like the Manics had managed to shit talk every current rock band imaginable. Yeah the mega city four-manics rivalry is pretty infamous. It showed how their mindset changed to going from begging a support slot to playing way bigger venues.
A good way of getting the 'Suicide Alley/Tennessee single. They appeared on the compilation album "Underground Rockers" together.
The Manics had sent them begging letters to be their support band very early on. They would have a blow up sheep on stage with the words 4 REAL written on it. I remember going to see Mega City Four a lot around this time who I really liked. Originally they just went against the grain of all those bands that were happy to play their local venue. But it was short sighted as it didn't take into account that they just might be a great rock n roll band. The Manics original remit of being a mish mash of Guns n Roses and Public Enemy then going out in a blaze of glory after one album made for good copy. A couple of years US bands then UK bands. The NME et all would have their weekly darlings they would hype. And some true masterpiece records came out of that movement. Britpop for all its faults returned a sense of fun and adventure to rock albeit without the pseudo macho posturing of late 80s cock rock. To the point where jocks started playing mopey music (Limp Bizkit, Creed, etc.). I just feel like mainstream US rock became way too dour after nirvana got big. Now perhaps there would be no THB if grunge hadn’t crashed the party. But bands like the Manics, Wildhearts, X Japan were really making true art with that sound. The only issue I ever had with glam metal was how brainded the lyrics were. X Japan tried coming over to the US around the same time. I think it was more the fairly common case of a big UK fish just not catching on in the American pond, though the timing certainly didn't help. And Generation Terrorists was only released like 5 months later. Big riff metal bands didn't immediately disappear. Use Your Illusion I & II were HUGE sellers in the US, and they were released literally a week before Nevermind. I don't know if conventional wisdom is 100% correct here. Yeah against all the grunge hype you are correct. Released a year after never mind, had they come out in 89. It did get decent rotation here on release. Motorcycle Emptiness should be a radio staple in the US. Honestly Slash N Burn, Motorcycle Emptiness, Sleepflower, and Faster are some of the greatest guitar riffs ever.