Manic Street Preachers at RAH

It wasn't a easy getting tickets for this gig. Which meant I got rather poor ones. I and my two mates were up high and to the side of the stage. From our vantage point we could just make out Editors through a sea of people who were finding their  seats. But for all that it was good to see or at least hear them again. Their lack of rapport with the audience is made up for by the quality of the music.. And they did seem to go for quality not quantity. The set wasn't particularly short but they didn't play many songs. It was just that they played long versions. Best was a long play Papillon.

Fortified with a further drink we found that rather than return to our seats we could instead go up a further tier and stand on the balcony that circles the top of the Hall. This gave us a far better view.The Manics played two halves. The first consisted of playing their finest album, Everything Must Go, in its entirety and in order. It's an album that just bursts with anthemic numbers, including A Design For Life, Kevin Carter, Australia and of course Everything Must Go itself.

The second half was then a showcase of the rest of their work from a twenty plus year career, opening with James Dean Bradfield doing an acoustic version of Suicide is Painless and closing with  If You Tolerate This. Amongst others the set list included a cover version of Feels Like Heaven by the Fiction Factory. It was a terrific show. A top band still at the height of their powers as performing band.