Manic Street Preachers

This gig, the big business . . . The Manic Street Preachers confiming themselves as the best Rock'n'Roll band in Britain. They always were a unique band, but seeing them span over four albums worth of material in a stunning live show cements their position up there with the likes of The Clash, The Smiths and Joy Division. Amazing too that they managed to stir up such an energetic and electric atmosphere, despite James' voice being shot through with a cold. He was still his usual self on the guitar licks, faultless even while spinning round the stage on one leg and running back and forth, and Nicky looking as relaxed as ever on bass, whether sitting or crouching down or pogoing. The new, temporary keyboard player seemed ok, though he didn't feature much on most of the songs. I couldn't see him well from my shitty seat but he seemed pretty inanimate, I almost forgot he was there.
The light show too was something, with a large projection screen flashing up images, videos and the famous quotes throughout the entire show.
The set mostly consisted of material from the latest LP "Everything Must Go". They came ontstage to the orchestral mix of "Design For Life", with the screen showing a short film illustrating riots and class struggle. They then launched into "Enola/Alone" for an openener, the guitar sounding great from the start and James' vocals pretty good despite his cold. He did skip many of the harder notes through the evening, but it never seemed to matter with the crowd joining in throughout and the energy of the music. Second they did "Everything Must Go", one of the most popular songs of the evening, James bouncing on the spot, and Nicky wandering around stage like he was window shopping. Then came "Faster", sadly the only song from "The Holy Bible" LP that they played, but it was easily the best sounding of the whole set, the lyrics flashing up in black and white on the screen allowed the crowd to just about keep up.
After blasting their way through "From Despair to Where", "Kevin Carter" (the trumpet solo played note for note on guitar sounded a little strange) and "La Tristesse Durera" they made their first trip into "Generation Terrorists" (my personal fave manics lp) and played "Little Baby Nothing". Sadly, the sound let them down a little here, though James did the female parts pretty well (the song was originally a duet with Tracy Lords). The guitar sound was a little subdued and sounded somehow detatched from the thin piano piece. Soon back to normal though, with "Further Away" and "Australia", James voice showing its first real flaws but he apologised for croaking his way through the chorus - "I want to fly and run 'til it hurts". Then followed the trio of "Interiors", the biggest crowd pleaser "Motorcycle Emptiness" and a short rendition of the intro to "Babylove" before launching into the old favourite "Motown Junk". Leading into James' own acoustic bit, they played "No Surface All Feeling", speeded up from the recorded version which, for me, is all the better for a live show.
So, guitars were swapped and James played alone, providing the second greatest moment of the evening with the acoustic "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky", following with an upbeat "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", which saw the vigour return in his performance.
Back came Nicky and Sean and the electric performance resumed with "Elvis Impersonator/Blackpool Pier" and a turbo charged romp through "Stay Beautiful", complete with `Guess what the next line is...', "f*** off!". A change down in gear came for the penultimate song, "Design For Life", which only added to the effect the blisteringly energetic finale of "You Love Us" brought. The band left the stage as the instrumental "Horses Under Starlight" sounded from the PA. They weren't to return. We left the city buzzing like a live wire. A special show from a very special band.

Back to Index Page
Back to Live Page
Back to Manics Page

Go to Geocities...