Manic Street Preachers were on fine form for their show at the Brighton Centre. As I collected my ticket I remembered having seen the band for the first time at the same venue 18 years ago when they were touring ‘Everything Must Go’. Back then, at the height of their Britpop era powers and poorest wardrobe choices (James reminisces tonight about Fila tracksuit tops he never should have worn), the room erupted as the drums kicked in on the opening number ‘Elvis Impersonator Blackpool Pier’ and never really settled down. I'd not seen anything quite like it and I was totally hooked.
Tonight, as the Brighton Centre’s house lights are lit to remove Scritti Politti's gear from the stage, I gaze from my south balcony seat down at the auditorium and notice a distinct lack of eyeliner and spray paint. Instead the masses are sporting denim, check shirts and bald patches, so I wonder what to expect from the band. Their set seems upside down tonight as the Manics open with the epic hit ‘Design For Life’ which has ended many an arena set. They continue in the same vein, taking us on a cheerful career spanning tour of the hits, only detouring to pay tribute to their missing comrade Richey Edwards. ‘The Holy Bible’, their last album before Edwards' disappearance, is 20 years old this year and the band are toying with the idea of playing the album in full for this year's Glastonbury set. Tonight we get treated to ‘Archives of Pain’ and ‘Die in the Summertime’ but they don't seem to quite capture the intensity they once had on these songs. However, it’s there in droves when they pull out ‘The Masses Against The Classes’, accompanied by red strobes and close up projections of silhouetted insects. ‘Motown Junk’ and ‘You Love Us’ are also vital and powerful as ever.
The Manics are known for their contrasts and a restless creativity which is on full display tonight as this tour catches them between two willfully disparate albums. Tonight they preview two new songs from their forthcoming album, the forward looking (and Eurocentric) ‘Futurology’, which features a rare lead vocal from bassist Nicky Wire on the title track and catches them rocking out, albeit in a high-camp kraut-rock referencing fashion.
Their last album ‘Rewind The Film’ saw the band at their most nostalgic, celebrating their Welsh heritage with reflective, largely acoustic songs accompanied by a trilogy of fantastic films directed by Kieran Evans, which get screened behind the band during the relevant songs. Tonight James Dean Bradfield sings Richard Hawley’s baritone vocal parts on title track ‘Rewind The Film’ and, for someone who we’re so used to hearing screaming at the top of his range, he sounds great down low. However it is on the soaring choruses and blistering guitar solos of their older material that the band really hit home and tonight it feels like they really are home, at least for touring guitarist Wayne Murray, who gets a special mention as a tax-paying resident of Brighton & Hove.
It’s great to see that the Manics still know how to rock and seem to have lost little energy in the last two decades. It’s impressive, for a band so often viewed through the lens of their tumultuous past, that their recent run of releases has been so consistent and constant: they’ve barely broken stride between these two records and are now looking forward to another summer packed with festivals. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still nailing it 20 years from now.
Adam Kidd