Your first Manics live experience - Page 3 - Forever Delayed

junkymotown · #31 12-12-2014, 17:02

KYE mini-tour, 2001, Manchester. It was my 16th birthday present (altho I was about two weeks shy of 16). Went with my Mum, seated. We donned feather boas and eyeliner. Nicky came out in a shiny tracksuit and made a joke about looking like Jimmy Savile (oops).

Got a t-shirt, poster and mug. Wore the t-shirt last night, 13 years later, for the Manchester gig. Still fits :-)

Also got a set of little badges - one of which said "braindead motherfucker" and went straight on my school bag, where it remained til the end of 6th form. Good times!

pogo · #32 12-12-2014, 21:41

Middlesbrough Town Hall 1996 it was my first ever gig, 15 and into the NME so the Manic were THE band and with EMG being the comeback album there was a real excitment. I remember watching Wire going bat-shit jumping around like a man possessed. Apart from that the only real memories are getting off with some girl in the crowd for most of the gig and getting served. Oh halcyon days indeed!! Think I've still got the 'Violence for Equality' Tee in the attic somewhere...

Abstract Unknown Girl · #33 14-12-2014, 15:05

MOVE Festival on 11th July 2003 was my first Manics gig. My then-best friend was also a big fan at the time and we skived off a day from 6th form college to go (I think we told college we were going to a university opening day). I recently re-discovered my diary entry from the day and it must have spanned about 10-15 pages...mostly of total cringeworthy, waffling nonsense like, but it obviously meant a hell a lot to me at the time.

Seen as they were pushing Lipstick Traces, my first Manics gig ended up being full of curios that I've never heard again since (Judge Yourself, It's So Easy, Take The Skinheads Bowling and Prologue To History), so not a bad way to start really! We ended up second row bang in the middle and I was such a newbie to gigs in general back then and was quite surprised by how rough the crowd was. God knows how I managed to stay on my feet at some points.

The queuing experience, was er, different as well. I seem to remember someone saying to my friend James was their uncle and said she'd pass on her number to him. That was only one instance in a whole string of bizarre fan encounters that day. I don't think I've ever had any other queuing experiences as strange as that in all my Manics gig going since....I like to think it was an initiation

Scarecrow · #34 14-12-2014, 15:32

That reminds me of this lying sod at Leeds 2008 who tried to claim James was his uncle.

As for a rough crowd during Move, I had a completely 'ARGH' moment. Checked into my hotel earlier that day, but for some absent-minded reason took my bag to the festival. Someone behind me fell, instinctively reached up and grabbed my bag, ripping it apart as he fell. All of my clean clothes and toiletries fell out in the middle of the crowd. Nightmare. Still, had a fantastic day, and ended up at Star and Garter for Manic Street Mania with people I've never seen since.

FDGIRL · #35 15-12-2014, 06:10

September 1996 The Starfish Room Vancouver B.C.
I already owned Everything Must Go and loved it so I decided to go see them at this small club venue. I was blown away and my life was never the same after that show. I kid you not, I bought every Manics CD, CD single, cassette tape and vinyl that I could get my hands on. I will always remember that show because that is where I heard "You Love Us" for the first time. The stage was TINY and the crowd probably 300 people max. (My old brain is fuzzy) I felt like I had discovered gold.. lol

Europa Gluten Free · #36 15-12-2014, 08:10

Dublin 1999. The whole experience of what a gig was blew me away - going with my mates, the nervous energy, the moshing, the volume. I don't really remember that much about it but I remember it was amazing.

Even more amazing was how stupid I was when a girl asked me for a photo randomly and then chatted to me and kinda hung onto me for a while and still I just kept staring at the stage waiting for the Manics to come on. Fecking eejit me!! Don't worry I've made up for it since!

Jimbojambo · #37 15-12-2014, 10:06

I saw them supporting Oasis in Cardiff at whatever the CIA is now called in 1996. It would have been one of their first post-Richey gigs. I didn't know anything about them but can remember hearing Design For Life (one of the first times they'd have played it live) and being impressed by it. By the time they next played in Cardiff less than a year later I owned every album they'd made.

y2kyle16 · #38 15-12-2014, 10:13

Wembley Arena 2004. Nicky famously said worst gig they ever played, Half empty.

However, I fucking loved it. Opened with 1985. Played Die in the summertime and a big chunk of lifeblood. Absolutely superb!

Radiomanic · #39 15-12-2014, 20:31

KYE Mini-tour for me as well. Glasgow Barrowlands 3rd April 2001. 17 years old so way too young to be travelling to Glasgow from London all on my own, but sod it i wouldn't have done it for any other band at the time. Absolutely do not regret it! I remember Starsailor supported and the best job they did was to wind up the crowd, as their music was terrible. I have vivd memories of the mosh pit, to me at the time terrifying i wouldn't go anywhere near it! Crowdsurfing everywhere, people getting thrown upside down etc... nasty business. But the band were thriving off it and ran through the set with such fury! I'd only ever seen tv footage of them performing live and it had always been at festivals or in arenas, so it was difficult to see what they were going to be like out of that comfort zone. This was something completely new to me at the time, the first gig i had ever been to. I'd read stories in the NME about them 'mellowing' and becoming 'fat boring and stale'. I needn't have worried, it was clearly bullshit. It was loud, very fucking loud. At the time i wasn't expecting songs such as Faster, Yes to be played, but Faster and You Love Us were the most intense parts of the night and i remember being thrilled at how fast they played most the songs live.

Obviously that night changed my life.

whiterevolver · #40 15-12-2014, 21:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by hummingbird

Wembley Arena forever delayed tour in 2002 ..Being made to wait in the rain even though the doors had been opened ages before, turning up halfway through Ian brown's set, a couple two rows in front snogging their way through Suicide is Painless, James telling us he was almost thrown out for smoking, and promptly lighting up on stage

Don't remember anything of how the songs sounded but a very good time was had.

This was also my first Manics gig. I don't remember rain, but I do remember it was bitterly cold. We were queuing around the side of the building to get seats up in the gods. I remember three fans from that day - a tall guy in a sheer black lace top who must've lost his nipples from frostbite, a girl with a Welsh flag draped over her shoulders who stood trembling at the front of our queue and a guy in a sailor suit who was the spitting image of Robbie Williams only about a foot shorter.

I don't remember much about the gig except being completely amazed and overwhelmed and having moist eyes during the opening 'Motorcycle Emptiness'. I think James did his 'smoking' skit at every date on that tour

I also remember Ian Brown getting a bad time from the crowd; he got booed pretty soundly at Wembley (which seemed to be a thing support bands went through for a while - not sure if it still happens now.) I think at some of the other, later dates he actually went a bit apeshit and threw stuff into the crowd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abstract Unknown Girl

MOVE Festival on 11th July 2003 was my first Manics gig. My then-best friend was also a big fan at the time and we skived off a day from 6th form college to go (I think we told college we were going to a university opening day). I recently re-discovered my diary entry from the day and it must have spanned about 10-15 pages...mostly of total cringeworthy, waffling nonsense like, but it obviously meant a hell a lot to me at the time.

Seen as they were pushing Lipstick Traces, my first Manics gig ended up being full of curios that I've never heard again since (Judge Yourself, It's So Easy, Take The Skinheads Bowling and Prologue To History), so not a bad way to start really! We ended up second row bang in the middle and I was such a newbie to gigs in general back then and was quite surprised by how rough the crowd was. God knows how I managed to stay on my feet at some points.

The queuing experience, was er, different as well. I seem to remember someone saying to my friend James was their uncle and said she'd pass on her number to him. That was only one instance in a whole string of bizarre fan encounters that day. I don't think I've ever had any other queuing experiences as strange as that in all my Manics gig going since....I like to think it was an initiation

At least one of those fan encounters was, if my memory serves me right, with one of my friends. Something about badgers, I can't remember. The gig was bouncy though - fortunately my friend was (and still is) a large man so I used him as a shield/anchor. Also, when I got out of my car for the gig, a group of school kids on a trip walked past and called me a poofter, and I lost my feather boa to a shrieking drunk as we walked off the field after the gig.

Little Troll · #41 15-12-2014, 22:41

It was 2009. I was 16. I went with my mum because none of my friends liked the manics. She agreed to go because I promised her they'd play Autumnsong and she liked that because she thinks it sounds like Robbie Williams. It was the one night they didn't play it and they played Sorrow 16 instead. I was happy, she wasn't.

I was soooo anxious all the way leading up to it and in the queue because I hadn't joined this forum yet and I'd never met another manics fan before and didn't know what they'd be like and if it'd be rough and all the fans would be scary.

It was the JFPL tour so there was the 2 sets. For the JFPL set, I was in the 2nd or 3rd row and it was cramped and the guy next to me had a rucksack I kept tripping over. My mum hated being near the front and decided I was going to get crushed and die so after the JFPL set finished we agreed to move to the back and got separated and I found her right at the back in tears because she decided I was definitely dead. I had to spend the whole of the second set riiiight at the back and I learnt after this that my mother is really not a very good gig buddy. Now I go with her to see other bands where I don't mind being in the seated section and go to see the manics with my boyfriend or by myself.

DaveR · #42 16-12-2014, 10:35

Well for me, it was just last week!
I posted in the thread about the Manchester Albert Hall gig.

http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/for...=60889&page=13

Short version. Been listening to them for a long time, but feared I'd missed the boat as I really didn't fancy the idea of a mega-arena gig. When these shows came up, it had to be done.

It was incredible. Not only did it meet my expectations of what I hoped for in at that venue, but probably exceeded on every level too

Very possibly the best show I went to in 2014.

Smugsy · #43 16-12-2014, 14:23

25th May 1996 Wolverhampton Civic Hall. Five days after the release of Everything Must Go which I'd bought on the Monday and played on repeat for five days trying to learn the lyrics. A gig that changed my life because I wore glasses and they were knocked off within the first two songs. I foolishly tried to bend down to pick them up but was pulled up as someone thought I was going down. Had a whale of a time whilst seeing a blurred image in front of me and I started wearing contact lenses a week later. The gig also received glowing reviews in the NME and Melody Maker which made it even more special.

The Holy Bum-Bum · #44 23-12-2014, 18:54

Leeds Town & Country Club, April '96.

I'd been too young to catch them before, but I went-a-travellin' to get to this one. I had never been so excited to go to a gig as much as this, to the point where I was actually *nervous*.

Was it the best gig? Nah, course not. But for me, it was amazing, lump-in-the-throat stuff. I would go nuts during the songs I knew, but would stop and listen intently to the new songs (Enola / Alone, Australia and Everything Must Go).

When I got home, my younger brother had taped the gig off Radio One, and I wore that fucker right out.

The Holy Bum-Bum · #45 23-12-2014, 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by junkymotown

KYE mini-tour, 2001, Manchester. It was my 16th birthday present (altho I was about two weeks shy of 16). Went with my Mum, seated. We donned feather boas and eyeliner. Nicky came out in a shiny tracksuit and made a joke about looking like Jimmy Savile (oops).

Got a t-shirt, poster and mug. Wore the t-shirt last night, 13 years later, for the Manchester gig. Still fits :-)

I was at both of the 2001 Apollo gigs, and they were immense. The band was on fire for those.

Oddly enough, I too wore my t-shirt (Braindead Motherfucker) from that night at one of the Manchester THB gigs the other week.