Manic Street Preachers 23/9/13

I was seriously irritated to find myself with a flat tyre and no spare on the way to the gig but somehow with the help of some gunge sprayed into the tyre we limped to the gig in time to catch the support act. And that was a good thing as they were outstanding. They are called Public Service Broadcasting and their schtick is to play along with black and white public information films, old news reports and similar VT running on a screen behind them whilst using sampled or entire soundtracks from same. One of the band is a very musical drummer and the other plays guitar, banjo and the various bits of electronica that make up the rest of the sound. It was an outstanding set and their CD (Inform, Educate, Entertain) is currently on full time in the car. One of the best tracks was called 'Spitfire' and featured audio from Leslie Howard and his film 'The First of the Few' with some great driving and urgent music behind it. The Manics came on to a roar of acclaim from the enthusiastic crowd. They went straight into the classic 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and it was all pretty outstanding from then on. The sound was not quite right at the start with the drums and bass somehow adding fuzz to the vocal but that got sorted out and there wasn't a foot wrong from then on. The last time I had seen them the conditions were awful so it was great to have a front row balcony seat and to be able to hear and see at close quarters how good the band are as musicians. James Dean Bradfield in particular is an outstanding guitarist (as well as having an amazingly expressive voice). He can lay down high tempo fills and riffs with the best of them and it was a joy to hear it. There was variation from pounding early stuff such as 'Revol', melodic songs such as 'You Stole the Sun from My Heart' and songs from the slower new album. There was a superb acoustic slot from James which featured 'This Sullen Welsh heart', 'The Everlasting' and a requested 'Tokyo Skyline' which he had never played live before and for which he had to spend some time sorting out the tuning. Early on they played '4 Lonely Roads' from the new album with guest vocalist Cate Le Bon - her voice a perfect foil to the backing music. Other highlights for me were all three acoustic tracks, 'If you tolerate this' on which JDB's voice expresses about three emotions at once brilliantly, 'Tsunami', 'It's Not War, Just the End of Love'. I could go on because every song was played with energy and joy and the set was a great combination of old and new until they finished 'Design for Life' and then just went off without a backward look. It was a superb gig from start to finish and worth all the tentative drive in and also the waiting around on the M4 hard shoulder on the way home as the tyre gave up the ghost about half way home. A 2am return from a gig - it's like being young again.