The Masses Against the Classes

"The Masses Against the Classes"
Single by Manic Street Preachers
Released	January 10, 2000
Format	CD, Vinyl record (10")
Recorded	Rockfield Studios, Wales and Rak Studios, London Autumn 1999
Genre	Alternative rock, hard rock
Length	10:46
Label	Epic
Producer	Dave Eringa
Manic Street Preachers singles chronology
"Tsunami" (1999) "The Masses Against the Classes" (2000) "Found That Soul" (2001)

"The Masses Against the Classes" is a song by Manic Street Preachers, released as a limited-edition single in January 2000. It was a stand-alone single, not featured on any studio album, (although it appeared as a bonus track on international releases) and was deleted (removed from wholesale supply) on the day of release.

The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 16 January 2000 without any promotion by the band and without the aid of an official promo video.^{[citation needed]} It was their second number-one single (the first was "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next"), and knocked Westlife's "I Have a Dream/Seasons in the Sun" off the top spot after four weeks.

"The Masses Against the Classes" was released both as a CD single and numbered 10"; each version also featured the songs "Close My Eyes" and a cover of Chuck Berry’s "Rock and Roll Music".

It was included on Forever Delayed, Manic Street Preachers' Greatest Hits album, as track eleven. A live version of the song has also appeared as a B-side on "Found That Soul".

The single begins with a Noam Chomsky quotation and ends with a quotation from Albert Camus. The record sleeve features the Cuban flag albeit without the star, a mark of the band's socialist political ideology. They were to play in Havana in February 2001 to a sold-out Karl Marx theatre with Fidel Castro in the audience, whom they met when he arrived just thirty minutes before they were due to play.

The song appears to be a musical reply to criticism of the band's This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours album, seen by many fans as a shift in style from the usual angry alternative rock produced by the band in the early to mid nineties, as it is noticeably harsher and louder than most of the material the band had recorded in the years leading up to the release of the single, most of the lyrics confirm this. The song was debuted on the festival circuit late in the summer of 1999.

Chart performance

Chart (1999/2000)	Peak position
Finnish Singles Chart	4
Irish Singles Chart	7
Norwegian Singles Chart	12
UK Singles Chart	1

Track listing

CD / 10"

1. "The Masses Against the Classes" - 3:23
2. "Close My Eyes" - 4:27
3. "Rock And Roll Music" (Chuck Berry cover) - 2:53

See also

• List of number-one singles from the 2000s (UK)