Throughout the latter, he’s backed by wonderful footage of missing-presumed-dead guitarist and manifesto maker Richey Edwards at his most divine and youthful. Lead single ‘Orwellian’ feels as ready-made a classic as anything else, the aching ABBA Scandi-pop pomp of ‘The Secret He Had Missed’ lands well in a room of this scale and Wire’s ear-to-ear grin proves infectious during the Berlin-era Bowie space-age melancholy of ‘Still Snowing In Sapporo’. The big numbers are used to compliment and showcase the neighbouring melody-soaked cuts from 2021’s acclaimed ‘ The Ultra Vivid Lament’, their first Number One album in 23 years.
That said, the Manics are far from their Christmas panto circuit yet. Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers performs at The SSE Arena on Decemin London, England. “Fuck it,” smiles Bradfield, “let’s stay in the ‘90s,” before bursting into autumnal grace of the best-single-they-never-had of ‘Everything Must Go’ album track ‘Enola/Alone’. The Manics are playing to their people-pleasing strengths tonight. Opening with wailing 1992 epic ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, the show’s first quarter that also sees them throw in bittersweet 2007 resurrection single ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ and the poptastic ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart’. As a mark of gratitude, tonight’s set is largely filled with the bangers and driven by their inimitable arena energy. “Thank you for being through all the shit you’ve been through and still coming out”. “You look good, you smell good – do you move good?” questions frontman James Dean Bradfield.
They’re a band all about connection – albeit in their own literate, punk and cliché-free manner. Wire has clearly been missing this: you might imagine the famed former misanthrope with a penchant for solitude to be well-suited to lockdown – but that’s not what the Manics were built for. READ MORE: Manic Street Preachers: “We talked ourselves through oblivion”.“Thank you for giving me a reason to get out of my fucking tracksuit and slap on my make-up and white jeans. “Good evening, Wembley,” beams a glammed-up Manic Street Preachers bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire.
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