Short album tour = Truth 20?
 

Looking at the album tour dates, there's only UK. Nothing in ROI or Northern Ireland either, or Europe.

Does this mean, there's going to be some Truth 20 shows at the end of next year?

Would be great, but we'll know if Resistance Is Futile is a big enough success to be able to afford such a tour?
I'm more into what their next album is going to be like to hope for Truth20 dates.

You'd imagine that (given the humongous lead time) the tour will expand into Europe at some point. But this also looks like an attempt to play fewer, but bigger shows with breathing room in between them rather than loads of little consecutive ones. (Which is common sense really.) But otherwise you'd think it'll be a few dates book-ending the year, rather than tonnes of dates.

I doubt they’d do a US tour for Truth, like they did for The Holy Bible, but I would absolutely love another box set, the album over two LPs, finally, lots of extra artwork and some of the bsides on vinyl. It’s be absolutely glorious and I’d buy it the second it’s released.

Agreed.

The band were very quick to point out that they felt they could do the THB20 tour because RTF and Futurology did well enough that they proved they were not creatively redundant.

A Truth20 tour would be taking the piss, frankly. I don't mind a few songs making their way back into the set when they tour next year, but does ANYONE really want SYMM live?

I'm definitely up for a box set but not an album tour..no interest at all in hearing symm live

Would absolutely love a box set and I bet they’ve got plenty of material for one. As far as gigs, don’t think they need to do a full tour but I’d either like them to headline Festival No.6 and do the album in full there or do a one off gig with an orchestra at Cardiff Millenniun Centre.

No chance of a Truth 20 tour. I'd say there will be a fair smattering of Truth songs in 2018 sets though. Would love to see a full band version of Black dog on my Shoulder. More likely to see RFD and Prologue as the main Truth era "curios".

Ah! I love that song. My favorite on the album still.

I’m definitely not yearning to hear SYMM live, but there are plenty of songs on that album I’d love to see them play again, like Ready for drowning, My Little Empire, Black Dog etc. Also I never saw them do Nobody Loved You, my favourite from the album (did they ever play it live?) So I’d love a Truth20 gig. I like MSPKYE’s idea of a show at the Millennium Centre - I love that venue!

If they actually put their hearts into it and acknowledged how majestic that song could sound if they focused on bringing its gorgeous atmospheric touch into the live setting, yeah I'd like to see it happen. Given the band's allergy for the song and for doing anything beyond a standard rock sound live I doubt it'd ever happen like in my daydreams, but hey.

A Truth 20 boxset would be really fantastic but that would mean they'd have to acknowledge Truth beyond its singles, so I'm not really expecting it to actually happen. I think the short tour is just that, a short tour - with enough manouver room to take the tour to Europe after the album release.

I want to hear SYMM live. Always liked it. Fail to understand the hate toward it.

The lyrics, probably. But musically it is fantastic and I'd love to hear a good attempt at a full band version.

I dont see the problem with the lyrics.

There’s that one live SYMM version, I don’t mind it at all

Thirty times according to setlist.fm.... and pleasingly I got to hear one of the performances :-)

So, box set plus a few more from Truth in the live set - sounds sensible. I don't think they could pull off the whole thing live.

Great to hear that more Lifeblood is coming!

Sounds like a perfect tour: More Lifeblood, some Truth rarities, new album material, less EMG + THB (because they've been done to death now). I might regret only buying tickets for one date! It will be interesting to see if they do a autumn/winter tour as well.

Really hoping for a box set, could be pretty amazing, if only for that version of Tsunami alone. I wonder if they have any unused songs in the archive.

If we use the template below, we can probably predict the setlist:

Almost Guaranteed (pick all 8):
Motorcycle Emptiness
You Stole The Sun
You Love Us
A Design For Life
Tolerate
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Walk Me To The Bridge
Show Me The Wonder

Lifeblood songs (pick 1 or 2):

Truth songs (pick 3):

New Stuff (pick 4):

Total: 16 or 17

Pick 5 or 6 other random Manics tracks to bring it to a total of 22 songs.

I like your template :) According to NME, I added some extra information.

Almost Guaranteed (pick all 8):

• Motorcycle Emptiness
• You Stole The Sun
• You Love Us
• A Design For Life
• Tolerate
• Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
• Walk Me To The Bridge
• Show Me The Wonder

Lifeblood songs (pick 1 or 2):

Truth songs (pick 3):

New Stuff (pick 4):

• International Blue

Mentioned by Nicky in NME

• Slash 'N Burn
• Prologue to History

Total: 18 or 19

Pick 3 or 4 other Manics tracks to bring it to a total of 22 songs.

Good point, forgot about the additional stuff they mentioned!! Need to take those into account.

Lifeblood and prologue? :O

Hmmmmm, I think I may go to this now.....

It seems like they are possibly doing a tour like the did in 2014, promotes the New LP, then in December The Truth, personally its a weak LP but I would love to hear some of the songs off it again.

Although it's not cool to say, I do think that TIMT is overall their strongest song era. The album is of it's time, i.e. late 90s 70+ min over produced post-britpop depression, but there are some fantastic songs on it (Black Dog on my Shoulder must get a play surely....) plus even better b-sides that were simply rejected as they didn't fit the aesthetic of the album. It's not cool to like TIMT, even the band never mention it, no doubt guilty over the success of it, but I still listen to TIMT more than most albums.

EMG & TIMT are very much in the same era in terms of lyrics/music then disaster struck with KYE which fine because the band mocks the LP too in a nice way.

We're getting the impression that there is no TIMT tour, but those songs will feature heavily at the festival headline spots that will get announced soon.

Do we think they will "tinker", er, I mean "Reimagine" the TIMTTMY tracklisting for the reissue (a la SATT) and sneak "Prologue" in place of something less popular?

They better not touch the tracklist.

Prologue would be really ill-fitting on the album as well. Incredible song but would not work with the other songs.

Lifeblood tracks for an arena tour.... That'll end well. They've been teasing Prologue for years now though it might be the be Comfort Comes....

They've played Prologue on and off throughout the years - not sure if it's been back since the Lipstick Traces tour though! I don't believe Comfort Comes has ever been played live, aside from James teasing the riff once at (i think) CDUK?!

More of promising to play the song on tour and then not playing it. Comfort comes was supposed to be played last tour but never made the set list.

In terms of the albums production, I'm not sure I agree with you on this one. You certainly wouldn't listen to it and say "wow this album is sooo 90's!". In fact I would go as far as saying that it is their best album (TIMTTMY) in terms of production. You could argue that it sounds a bit overproduced/saturated on Tsunami/SYMM/NLY but the other tracks I feel are balanced perfectly with some really nice subtleties that can only be heard through listening to it on headphones.

It's also their best album in terms of how good James' voice sounds. I think the only album they have that sounds 90's from that era is EMG.

I'm really excited about the prospect of a reissue for this album. It's really heartening to hear that there is a lot of unheard/unseen content coming our way too. 2018 is going to be a good year to be a Manics fan!

When The Everlasting came out I recall a number of critics cringing at the refugees verse, comparing it to Phil Collins among others. It didn’t overly bother me like so many of their lyrics since have managed to do.

I wonder if time and circumstance will now show it in a different light? It probably fits in with the current political climate more than anything on the new album, even if by chance.

I did play it all the way through yesterday but it starts skipping on My Little Empire.
But despite having to turn the volume up which equals a need for a huge remaster I was reminded what a great album it is. It doesn't sound like anything they did before and even since. Lifeblood included.
James does his best singing agreed.
I want them to make new stuff, but a TIMTTMY20 would be another sale. Going to have to clean desk to accommodate.
Hope you've started listening to it more recently as well.

Probably the biggest joy of TIMT is the soundscaping. Each song has feel if it's own and it's one of the few albums where the music is allowed to breathe and direct the movement of the song rather than be at the whim if the lyrics. There's some masterful stuff on this album for you have to work to get at it.

Perhaps it'll finally appear on this tour - it took years for the calls for 'Sleepflower!' to translate in to the song being played live again!

Who's 'we'. That doesn't really sound like something they tend to make clear this far in advance?

Got to take Wire with a pinch of salt, can be quite the salesman. I'd love for him not to be talking shite but can't say with any real confidence that he isn't. Would love to see Prologue live. If the pattern's owt like recent years, they should chuck a couple of Truth rarities in the tour then hopefully a few dedicated dates at the end of the year. I'd absolutely love to see the album in full. I know they've said about not wanting to be a heritage band, but really this'll be the last anniversary there'll be a commercial demand for. Alright, us lot would go to a Know Your Enemy gig but we're not enough for it to be worthwhile.

They'll do Prologue. Maybe My Little Empire or Ready for Drowning as well.

In terms of rarities, there's a good chance of Black Dog acoustically.

Would love to see Nobody Loved You. And maybe some other b-sides. Socialist Serenade?