Hello,

My second time seeing this lot- I felt we owed it to each other as I was a bit pissed and just not into it on the previous occasion in 2007.Mind you, it had been a long, thirsty day Your Honour. Shame on me, nevertheless.

Blackburn on a draughty Saturday night? The Kings Road it ain't, that is for sure, hah-hah! The venue itself was old school and all the better for it and staffed with a friendly, sensible bunch: almost the exception at shows nowadays.

This being a Saturday night and the fact that The Manics are a 'name' band with a sensible ticket price (£27) meant that there would be a beered-up and rowdy element in the 2500 sell-out, but there was only one incident down the front that I saw and the eejit in question was escorted outside pronto. No students were harmed in the process. Shame- I'm joking of course. No, really.

The band's party line for their latest long-player ('Postcards From A Young Man') is that this is their "...last shot at mass communication...", just as 1996's 'Everything Must Go' and 1998's 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours' broke through to a wider audience. In support of this they played 4 songs from it, I think.

The mix in the audience meant that all the anthems were belted right back at the band: I knew about a third of the set-list which surprised me as I don't own any Manic material.
That said, it still surprised me that I at least recognised so many tunes: they have a couple of sure-fire winners in 'A Design For Life' or 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' which had everyone singing their heads off...even the older generation in the balcony, ahem.

James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire seem to alternate who is going to be whirling around or scissor-kicking and they didn't let-up for the entire 100 minutes that they were out front, save for J.D.B.'s short acoustic mini-set towards the end.

Apologies to any Sean Moore fans- I couldn't hardly see the wee man behind his kit: he must need a booster seat. For the rest of you here is the best of a bad job...



























Cheers,

Si.

ps edited due hopeless spelling, hah-hah!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010-10-10 19:01 by SimonN.

love the manics - one of my fave bands...their new one kicks butt, too....

Thank you for the review, Simon. I'm catching them in Brixton the Thursday after next. They're a superb act and, imo, one of the very finest.

Never been the same since The Holy Bible unfortunately.

brilliant, underrated band - great live.
Thanks, as always Si

Fans' reviews are almost always better than critics. Good job Simon

Hello,

Thanks, people!

Just one more thing...I've been trying to post these ropey photos with some Manics fans on one of their forums and while that hasn't worked I read some of their own comments.

They have exactly the same setlist complaints about their band that some of us do here about The Stones!

Fans- are we never happy? Nah!

Cheers,

Si.

Fully agree with the sentiments - I love the Manics!! A truly great band imo, and am seeing them at both Brixton shows the week after next

The new album 'Postcards' is a darn good 'un, I spent the weekend catching up with what I think are their best albums, "Gold against the Soul" & the terrific, dark "Holy Bible".

Great, great band..

The Manics deserve so much credit for pulling themselves together after the disappearance of Richey James in '95. He was their key lyricist, spokesperson and the face of the group. Visually, they never recovered, but musically they changed direction and became the wonderful act we have today. Everything Must Go is a minor masterpiece - and does actually feature some lyrics by Richey: 'Kevin Carter' and 'Small Black Flowers', I think.