Influence and Reach
The English language version of The Manual has had at least 3 print runs (see ISBNs below), being reissued in 1989 and - with a new foreword by Drummond - in 1998. The book has also been translated into German, and was released as an audiobook (read by Bela B., drummer of the punk band Die Ärzte) in Germany in 2003, with Drummond voicing the foreword, a motivational piece about reaching out for one's dreams today - "tomorrow is always too late". In 2010, the book has been published in Czech.
The Austrian Eurotrash band Edelweiss took the book as a primary influence: they read the book, borrowed ABBA's "S.O.S.", and sold five million copies worldwide with "Bring Me Edelweiss". It also proved to be an influence on 2000s British girl group The Pipettes who formed after reading the book in order to explore "the idea of being a pop machine."
In the liner photographs of the Chumbawamba album Readymades, Boff Whalley is seen to be reading a copy of The Manual. It is a reference to Chumbawamba's earlier success with their hit single, "Tubthumping".
Jamie Reynolds of The Klaxons admitted in an interview to reading The Manual and stated that he "took direct instructions from it.... Get yourself a studio, get a groove going, sing some absolute nonsense over the top, put a breakbeat behind it, and you're away! That's what I did! That's genuinely it. I read that, I noted down the golden rules of pop, and applied that to what we're doing and made sure that that always applies to everything we do. That way, we always come out with a sort of catchy hit number."
Read more about this topic: The Manual
Famous quotes containing the words influence and, influence and/or reach:
“... even I am growing accustomed to slavery; so much so that I cease to think of its accursed influence and calmly eat from the hands of the bondman without being mindful that he is such. O, Slavery, hateful thing that thou art thus to blunt the keen edge of conscience!”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1907)
“The improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man’s existence: as our skeletons, probably, are not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.”
—Rachel Carson (20th century)