{"id":1572,"date":"2009-05-28T17:57:39","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T16:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcrrview.web.its.manchester.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=436"},"modified":"2009-05-28T17:57:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T16:57:39","slug":"manic-street-preachers-venue-cymru-llandudno-26-may-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=1572","title":{"rendered":"Manic Street Preachers, Venue Cymru Llandudno, 26 May 09"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about living in Manchester is its closeness to contrasting\u00a0day-trip destinations.\u00a0 So when the trend for big bands to tour less obvious, often seaside, locations offered the option of The Manic Street Preachers plus afternoon tea in genteel Llandudno, I didn\u2019t take much convincing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arriving just as the band took the stage it was immediately obvious that all wasn’t well in the Manics’ camp.\u00a0 While lusty singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield got quickly into his stride his usually buoyant sidekick Nicky Wire was noticeably subdued, his trademark scissor kicks and lip-synching completely absent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sound-wise the band made a great job of the show’s opening half, a complete run-through of stirring new album Journal for Plague Lovers.\u00a0 The Manics have never had any trouble making a lot of noise live, and with an additional guitarist and keyboardist on stage tonight was no exception.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leading with a lot of new material is a brave decision for any band with more than a decade behind them, highlighting as it does the number of ‘legacy fans’ in the crowd waiting patiently for those greatest hits, but the album received a politely warm reception (and, of course,\u00a0cheers for its missing-presumed-dead lyricist Richey Edwards).<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

From my vantage point, though, which put both Bradfield and Wire in my line of sight throughout,\u00a0the contrast between the singer’s frenetic activity and bassist’s inertia set a strange tone.\u00a0 Only as Wire took over vocals for the album’s final track did Bradfield reveal that he was suffering with a prolapsed spinal disk (which thankfully didn’t prevent a more tuneful rendition of ‘William’s Last Words’ than the album’s).<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a convention-breaking interval the band returned to churn out an hour of those crowd-pleasers, from the joyfully received \u2018Motorcycle Emptiness\u2019 and \u2018Faster\u2019 to the stadium pomp of \u2018Australia\u2019 and \u2018If You Tolerate This\u2019 (we did).\u00a0 Bradfield, drummer Sean Moore and the (kind of) home crowd were all on top form, but the weird sensation of watching two different gigs continued with Wire standing with his back to the audience several metres from his mic stand.\u00a0 Half an hour later he was sitting on a hastily-procured chair, clearly in a lot of pain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Audience anthem ‘You Love Us’ and the soaring ‘Design for Life’ were the unsurprising hits of the night, but every song hit the spot and Bradfield’s enthusiasm and undeniable talent carried the day.\u00a0 Sadly Mr Wire left the stage without any words for his fans but apologised online the next day; the absence of\u00a0his familiar stage persona\u00a0having cast a palpable shadow over\u00a0the band’s live return.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jo Nightingale<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

www.jonightingale.co.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the great things about living in Manchester is its closeness to contrasting\u00a0day-trip destinations.\u00a0 So when the trend for big bands to tour less obvious, often seaside, locations offered the option of The Manic Street Preachers plus afternoon tea in genteel Llandudno, I didn\u2019t take much convincing.\u00a0 Arriving just as the band took the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nManic Street Preachers, Venue Cymru Llandudno, 26 May 09 - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=1572\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manic Street Preachers, Venue Cymru Llandudno, 26 May 09 - 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