Matt Monro Forum

It was a very wet and windy day on Thursday 6 December when I arrived with a friend in Cardiff to see the Manic Street Preachers in concert at the Cardiff International Arena but this wasn't going to dampen my spirits. Doors opened at 18:30 and we hung around for almost an hour before the support act, Cherry Ghost, appeared on stage. They played a set of about 40 minutes but the music didn't mean much to me as I had never heard them before (though they seemed perfectly OK). I was there of course for the main event - the Manics themselves.

It was almost three years to the day since I'd last seen them at this venue and there were some changes to their onstage arrival: last time, the support band removed all their equipment from the stage and then stagehands moved the Manics' gear on before the lads themselves appeared. This time there was no sight of the Manics' equipment, only a microphone stand covered in Nicky Wire's trademark feather boa, whose appearance caused a mighty roar of approval from the expectant crowd. Some time passed as we looked up at an almost empty stage and wondered where the Manics could be.

Suddenly there was the familiar opening chords of their classic track, "Motorcycle Emptiness", and the black stage curtain swung back and the band was revealed in all its glory, with an impressive kaleidoscope of lights swirling above them. James Dean Bradfield took centre stage dressed in an unpretentious black shirt and jeans while Nicky Wire sported his familiar skirt and fishnets, replete with eyeliner. Sean Moore, the drummer, was placed quite far at the back of the stage but easily recognisable both in sound and appearance, and there were three or four additional band members, some on guitar and one on saxophone.

The band followed up "Motorcycle" with a couple more classics, "You Love Us" and "Roses From the Hospital", before my friend announced that he thought the band were too loud for his liking and decided to retreat to the back of the hall to protect his eardrums (we were standing in the centre of the hall and I certainly wouldn't have risked going any nearer to the stage myself; goodness what it does to the eardrums of the band themselves).

More great songs followed, accompanied by impressive video footage of the band and of the promotional films made for various tracks such as "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" and "Autumnsong", the singles from their latest album. James interspersed the performances with some witty small talk to the crowd and made it clear that the band were delighted to be performing back on home ground again, and he then gave what were perhaps the most enjoyable performances of the night - acoustic versions of "Suicide is Painless" (theme from MASH) and "The Everlasting" from the "This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours "album.

Following this, the band swung back into the louder numbers, including "The Masses Against the Classes" and a particularly good version of "Kevin Carter" in which the solo trumpet part was replaced by the live saxophone on stage, a performance which earned a separate roar of approval from everyone, though I was disappointed that two of my favourite songs, "From Despair to Where" and "Faster", were not included on this occasion.

The gig finished at about 22:40 with the Manics' signature number, "A Design For Life", getting everyone rocking in the aisles, and I left exhausted but very satisfied: the performance was as good if not better than when I'd seen them before. I made my way through the throng of fans trying to find my friend, but in vain. I assumed he had given up and gone home but later found out he'd stayed till 22:10, so had missed the last half hour: a baptism of fire indeed for his first Manics gig.

Thanks for the review, Jon. I was just thinking the other day that it was time for your concert. It sounds like that you highly enjoyed it, but sorry about your friend. I have a few questions.

I have Cherry Ghost's album. The singles are the best; some of the other tracks just fair. Did they get a good reception to their biggest hit People Help The People? 4am is actually my favourite song. Cherry Ghost is actually one person; did he have a band playing with him?

How long were the Manics on stage? Did they actually perform Your Love Alone Is Not Enough or just play a video? If so, who sang the girl part? Did they perform Empty Souls?

Hi Paul

The Manics were on stage between 21:00 and 22:40. They did perform "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" and James sang Nina Persson's part. They did not perform "Empty Souls", another regrettable omission from my point of view as this is one of my favourite Manics songs, but it comes from their "Lifeblood" album, which is not greatly liked by the fanbase; the only song they performed from "Lifeblood" was "1985". They performed four songs from the new album, including the title track "Send Away The Tigers" and "Indian Summer", in addition to those I mentioned before.

Overall I thought the gig was just as good as the previous three I attended in 2004. The band seemed reinvigorated, and I believe they have plans to make another album with Sony and then (they say) go independent. All good news for us fans.

The Manic Street Preachers have been named winners of the "Godlike Genius" prize for the 2008 Shockwave NME Awards to be held at the O2 Centre (formerly the Dome at Canary Wharf). Previous winners include The Clash, New Order and Primal Scream. They will perform at a Big Gig at the Centre on 28 February together with Kaiser Chiefs, The Klaxons and Bloc Party. No doubt you will all be clamouring for a ticket, as will I.

Thought Jon and Paul might be interested in this...

Manic Street Preachers Banned
Posted Fri 15 May 2009 11:34AM BST by Dave Rumour in Snap, Crackle and Pop
You probably wouldn't know it looking at their rather tired 21st century image but the Manic Street Preachers used to be a quite terrifying prospect for some, full of provoctive teen rage, playing "Top Of The Pops" in balaclavas, while tragic lost member Richey Edwards famously slashed the words "For Real" into his bloody arm in a bid to impress former music journalist Steve Lamacq. They might be a lot older now but that's not stopped their new album being banned by four of the UK's big retail giants, with one supermarket calling the artwork "inappropriate".

The cover for "Journal For Plague Lovers" depicts a girl seemingly with a bloody and battered face and has been painted by acclaimed artist Jenny Saville. The record is considered a follow-up to the Welsh rockers' landmark 1994 album "The Holy Bible", which also featured one of her controversial works. Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons have all refused to stock it with the original image, as Nicola Williamson, music buyer for Sainsbury's explained: "We felt that some customers might consider this particular album cover to be inappropriate if it were prominently displayed on the shelf. "

The Manics have reacted with bafflement at the news, calling their decision "truly bizarre" and pointing to the fact that such shops regularly display products of a similarly graphic nature. "We just thought it was a beautiful painting. We were all in total agreement", explained singer James Dean Bradfield, continuing: "You can have lovely shiny buttocks and guns everywhere in the supermarket on covers of magazines and CDs, but you show a piece of art and people just freak out". "Journal For Plague Lovers" is released on Monday but will only be available in these stores in a special sleeve provided by the publisher.

Hi Marian

Thanks for the post. Yes, I was aware of this; it's been quite a talking point in the music press in the last few days. Indeed the Manics were on Jools Holland's programme on BBC2 last week and Jools himself said he thought the cover of the new album looked like the girl depicted on it had been "duffed up", Nicky Wire of the Manics replying that the image was the result of brushwork and nothing else and describing the artist Jenny Saville as having a "Lucian Freud-like" style of painting. I think it's all a bit of a fuss over nothing myself. I'm looking forward to the new album, which I shall be buying today straight after work, cover or no cover!

They were discussing this this morning on The Wright Stuff Jon.
Matthew Wright and all the panel, including Carol Thatcher, agreed it was a crazy and unacceptable overreaction on the supermarkets' part.
There are many images that are much more likely to cause offence portrayed on all sorts of items, magazines, games etc. that are displayed on supermarket shelves regularly.
However, I looked for the album in Sainsbury's this morning and they were indeed selling it with a different cover with a parental advisory notice attached!
I'm sure you'll enjoy it anyway, and the launch of the album has certainly gained a lot more publicity by being controversial.
Marian

Hi Marian

All publicity is good publicity, ay? Who knows - maybe it was a ploy by the Manics after all.

I bought my copy in HMV Oxford Street, which is selling the album with the Jenny Saville cover on but still with a Parental Advisory label on it as some of the Manics' lyrics can be a bit...uh, controversial. Probably wouldn't be your cup of tea but I'm enjoying it...

I expect the parental advisory label is just there for the lyrics then Jon.
As you say, probably not my cup of tea, but I do have a son who used to be into Rap, so I do know about 'delicate' lyrics.
One of the members of the band should have been on 'Breakfast' either yesterday or today, but he has a bad back apparently, so he didn't appear.
Enjoy your new album.
Marian

It's a couple of weeks since I went to this gig, the final performance of their 2009 'Journal For Plague Lovers' tour (JFPL being the title of their new album). In London they had already done three live gigs at the Camden Roundhouse which unfortunately I was unable to attend and, as on all the other dates, had played every track from their new album in the first half of the evening, followed by a selection of their other songs in the second half. This is quite an unusual approach to take on a tour as most bands perform at most only selected new tracks, usually single releases, as a ploy to encourage sales. However, as they'd declared there were to be no single releases from the album, they decided to perform all the songs live instead.

Slightly disappointingly, though, the Forum gig was different from the Camden ones in that they only played five songs from the new album but they did give a storming set of their back catalogue in the second half which got everyone rocking in the aisles. Sadly we were not treated to Nicky Wire's usual jumping around as he had a prolapsed disc and had to remain in one spot as he played his bass guitar. But James Dean Bradfield was in fine voice and gave several good acoustic peformances, especially of one of their classic tracks, 'From Despair To Where'.

JFPL contains new compositions to the words of Richey Edwards, the band's missing (now officially declared dead) bandmate Richey Edwards and consists of intriguing titles such as 'Jackie Collins Existential Question Time', 'Me and Stephen Hawking' and 'Viriginia State Epileptic Colony'. The album is compact, only lasting about 40 minutes, but every track is a winner and there are no 'fillers' among them; in fact, I prefer it to their previous album, 'Send Away The Tigers'. My favourite tracks are probably 'Peeled Apples' and 'Marlon JD'. No idea what they're about, but, hey, who cares - the music's great.

The band now turn to touring abroad (they're big in Japan) and after that are keen to get back into the studio to record again. Can't wait for their next release.