Saturday September 8th 2001

After the Manic Street Preachers launched their last album with a concert in Cuba, Fosca are launcing the new EP with a tour of Sweden.

I am reminded of my disappointment at watching the documentary “Our Manics In Havana”, and seeing Nicky Wire dress down for his excursion, eschewing his usual dress and make up. Any fool can wear panstick and drag on an English rock festival stage. Many fools do just that. Surely it’s far more interesting to do it, if you have a fleet of journalists and camera crews to record the occasion, in a country where despite the improvements made in the last ten years, homosexuals and transvestites are still regularly detained by the Cuban police. Dressing down with a bad beard to meet a dictator who once commented approvingly on rural life that “in the countryside, there are no homosexuals”, seems to me a wasted opportunity. Apparently Mr Wire is aware of Cuba’s record on such issues, yet deliberately refused to ‘Stay Beautiful’ in Castro’s presence because “that would be disrespectful” to the dictator. Pity. I will not forgive him.