It is always a good gig with the Manics and this was top notch. It's 33 years since I first saw them and they have a huge back catalogue to choose from.
First up were Slate a Cardiff based foursome playing high energy dense indie music. I liked the sound and the band particularly the guitarist but the singer was a bit of a dick.
The Manics came on after a vid mix of 'Critical Thinking' with some ultra widescreen footage on a screen at the back of the stage which featured during the whole set.
There was one rhythm guitarist and a keyboards player to add to the original core of three.
I was expecting the new album to feature largely in the first half of the gig but instead the gig was a trawl through their catalogue. There were five songs from the new album but actually the majority of the tracks were released in the 1990s.
Throughout James Dean Bradfield's guitar playing and singing were exemplaryand Nicky Wire and Sean Moore were excellent as ever. The other two members of the band fitted right in and the whole sound was flawless. After half a dozen tracks the band went to a three piuece for a couple of songs and a few songs after that the rest of the band went off leaving JDB to play solo for a few tracks with the band rejoining to finish off 'The Everlasting' from 'This is my truth tell me yours'
Of course they finished with 'If you tolerate this your children will be next' and went off eschewing encores as they do.
The gig was enhanced by the vids at the back of the stage and also the enthusiasm of the audience. Looking down on the standing masses you could see how much they were enjoying the gig. I dislike it when artists try to get an audience to sing along but this audience required no encouragement to chip in ion various choruses of the most well known songs and it actually sounded and felt good.
Decline & Fall
Enola/Alone
La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh)
Australia
Critical Thinking
You Stole the Sun From My Heart
She Is Suffering (Performed as a three piece)
Peeled Apples(Performed as a three piece)
Motorcycle Emptiness
Ocean Rain(Echo & the Bunnymen cover
Hiding in Plain Sight
Autumnsong
A Design for Life
From Despair to Where(Acoustic - first two verses+first chorus
Ready for Drowning(Acoustic - first verse/second chorus in Welsh)
Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky(Acoustic)
The Everlasting(James solo, joined by full band towards the end)
Dear Stephen
Sleepflower
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
International Blue
People Ruin Paintings
Motown Junk(Rebel, Rebel intro.)
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
