I was 10 and Dad bought it for me on CD on the old mail order 'Britannia' music catalogue (surely that's not still around?). I love every track but would pick this. A beautiful song about the importance of your own experience of life. I think it offers hope that you might be able to sort things out after all. "As good as it can get" - I remember Nicky saying once he was satisfied with a few hours happiness a week. Manics are still the most sincere music I've ever heard and changed my life.

The song that introduced me to the Manics via a Q magazine sampler. Throw in a free CD of TIMTTMY from a friend who worked at Sony and we were off on a journey that has now lasted 20+ years.

There are songs that you wish you've written them - or that they were wrote for you. My teenage years were basically made of feeling always like I was "second best" and accompanied by some sort of sometimes soothing, sometimes numbing melancholy. Yet I was extremely pleased with who I felt I was deep inside and with the way I saw things. So it was like it made sense that both "sides" coexisted.This song captures my feelings and sensations of that time so well. Like many Manics songs do!

Shed your skins of hatred shed your skins of colours, shed your blind sight , shed your posh, shed the shed you thrive in... when love calls , fondle in its ways of pure immunity, see with eyes within,then share an ounce of its radiation.. touch of love... everywhere you seep into.. don't master the politicians... master yourself .. do it yourself ... don't point at another... your will your power your little empire...

My Little Empire got me over my both my parents passing (they passed very close in time to each other). The whole album (indeed the entire MSP album catalogue to that point) became my sanctuary from a dark place in my soul. James seemed to be talking to me, and I just felt a connection to the music, and the band, that I've never had with any band before or since. Thank you MSP, forever a fan. You guys are 4 REAL.

This album was the very first I reviewed as an 18 year old. I wrote it in my school text book to kill time during a particularly dull chemistry lesson. It's likely I got the meaning of the songs all wrong, but what struck me was how direct and brutally honest the lyrics were. My Little Empire allowed me a safe space to be unhappy but also helped me realise that much of what I was feeling was a self made construct and that I too was tired of being tired, done with being dumb.

Best of times, building my little empire and watching it grow.

Only one PM this century (Blair) has been elected to office through winning a general election; the next is about to be chosen by less than 150,000 tory party members - a party that failed to gain a majoirty and hold power by a sordid alliance bunch of bigots. This is our democracy... a total sham. We must resist, we must rise up we must get rid of this charade. Aaron Banks = the enemy of the poeple.

I'm always drawn back to the first (more positive) verse of this song after it ends. It's sung softly, allowing for thoughts to flow freely without interruption while the guitar coaxes trapped emotions to the surface. All of the joys of life I currently don't have; family, friends, love, support, a career plan, purpose... I'll find them. It's difficult but I'll build my own little empire from scratch.

This album sparked something in me, a light that never went out again. Musically, politically, emotionally... I think there is still no other record I put on as often. It made me start playing the bass, it helped me deal with pain - for years it was the compass of a young girl navigating through a life she didn't fully understand.

Due to domestic violence I had to leave my house and life behind. The bruises and the trauma heal, but accepting that it changed you as a person is the most difficult. It took time to know and accept the new me. Now I'm at the point that I've built a new life, appreciate it and look at the sunny side. It made me stronger than ever, no longer accept bullshit and know what I want. My new little empire, thanks to accepting the new me I can be happy being sad instead of just sad. I love my life.

My life changed forever when I saw the video If You Tolerate This (only North American single). I had to find out everything thing I could about this band and I felt like I was the only one in Canada that really appreciated and got this band. Until years later getting to see you in Toronto and being in a room full of folks singing along it was so powerful. This album got me through some very hard times and is truly special especially my Little Empire. Thank you for everything come back to Canada

He promised my heart was safe with him. He made me brave enough to pick up the pieces of my broken self and trust it in his hands. Fragile. Lost. I thought you had saved me. My hero. But you broke me the most. Now I'm tired of being tired. I've lost faith in all humanity and my existence is lonely. My little empire.

It´s not joyful, not mourning, it´s just there in some way - my life and this song. I´m happy, that it´s there, because it reflects the state I´m in, even though the state may be stagnation most days. And yes btw: I´m quite happy being sad.

I think the guitar on My Little Empire is beautiful. The music matches the lyric — there’s poise and dignity in its resignation, and its allusions to the domestic. That’s where I was when I was 17 — I accepted that I was happy being sad, and I grew up a little bit.

My sister and I love the Manics. We recently lost her. When I got the reissue My little empire spoke to me more than it ever had before. It made me realise that other people have felt their world is crumbling. I found comfort to know I wasn’t alone feeling that way.

I done a Jobby in a bin at a recording studio. The smell brought tears to my eyes and I pity the old man who found it and had to pick it out.

I decided to just move away and try and go just be alone and pursue knowledge.In the modern age in particular, people tend to find you quite strange if you shy away from community or company a lot, but preceding events and losses made that quite hard.The song makes me feel a little less of a weird person and gives me a sense of contentment that its okay to just be quietly there and happy with the little things, instead of either arguing or partying or living an extreme all the time.

The first Manics album I loved

As someone for whom happy is boring, and sometimes rare, 'My Little Empire' is a perfect accompaniment when seeking happiness in the foreign country that is the past - be it 1998 or thereabouts.

I was gutted I missed out on tickets for the Sheffield gig, but my friend managed to get us spares from the student union. The gig was so powerful and uplifting. My Little Empire was my favourite song and I bought the “sick of being sick, tired of being tired, bored of being bored” t-shirt. When I wore it to my next politics lecture, the lecturer paused to point at it and remarked “I hope that isn’t an indictment of my teaching”!

20 years later I’m still happy being sad. Or maybe I’ve just learnt to tolerate it a bit more.

Back in 1999, I was at the university and although I'm open and friendly person, I felt that I'm all alone. One evening, there was a screening of your concert, and I stood there with my mouth open, completely numb. My soul recognised you. Till this day I'm never alone. You-the bend are my soulmates. Life has sense whenever your album comes out. This photo was on my wall for so long. I still have it and I'm 41 now. It said: Hello petals. With your music in my life I created my little empire.

Thank you for writing words that speak so deeply to me. Thank you for writing music that sits so deeply in me. The Manics came to me in the loneliest time of my life, and completed a part of me that helped me push through. I've laughed, cried, smiled, scoffed, fucked, and danced to your music many times. Thank you.

I can relate to this song and it has kept me going through many dark times x