23/04/18 Newcastle Metro Radio Arena

[Glass Angel]

^ generally no, not at the Sage, I think all their theatres are fully seated. Would be awesome though.

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by Damian

It absolutely is. I'm now sat in a hotel bar looking at it. But I don't think I'd want to see them in a seated venue.

Originally Posted by Glass Angel

^ generally no, not at the Sage, I think all their theatres are fully seated. Would be awesome though.

You could still stand especially as the manics would insist on it

[roi]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

They COULD mix up the songs a lot more per gig but that means rehearsing more songs. Don't think Nicky likes that idea :

Though it was Nicky who was saying in interviews recently about all the songs they’ve been rehearsing. Lifeblood songs and less obvious ones off This is My Truth were definitely mentioned. As a realistic estimate from those, maybe Empty Souls or Ready for Drowning will pop up at some point in the tour.

[Damian]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

You could stand tho no ?

I would certainly want to. But I've been to a seated gig at the Sage (Field Music) where I wanted to stand but nobody else was, and I was in the front row, so I couldn't really do it. On tonight's crowd showing, I could see the same happening with a Manics gig!

[Takk]

Originally Posted by sculptureofabloke

Hoped with them going on earlier and doing less but bigger gigs we’d be looking at longer sets. All over, 40 minutes ahead of curfew, starting to feel a bit ripped off.

Not sure how you justify that, they did 23 songs, that's pretty normal, especially for first tour date.

[Takk]

Originally Posted by Routine Builder

Slash n burn for found that soul
NSAF for EMG
Faster acoustic for This is Yesterday acoustic
Let Robeson sing for My little empire

Probably, get more boring as it goes along

[sculptureofabloke]

Originally Posted by Takk

Not sure how you justify that, they did 23 songs, that's pretty normal, especially for first tour date.

Maybe £50 is less to you than it is to me, I dunno. Yeah, it was a fairly typical Manics set length, and course they’re touring this album, so leaving 17 songs to represent a dozen albums is a big ask. Surely I’m not the only one who wondered if the set would’ve been longer with the earlier start, surely it’s not that unreasonable a thing to think? Finishing 40 minutes ahead of curfew does feel a bit much.

[Frozendiva]

It's a work night. People need to get home.

Hard to find a gig from any decent band here for what would be under $100. The Manics are still pretty affordable.

[ZiZi]

Originally Posted by Damian

Venue capacity is 11000, I'd guess there were about 3000, but they were able to reconfigure the arena setup so it looked fine. Whether they can do that in, say, Manchester (21000 cap) if they need to, I don't know.

Brilliant gig, comatose crowd.

Are you kidding? 3000?

[Glass Angel]

^ I'm no good at estimating crowds, but there were plenty of seats, and I was near the front with lots of personal space. They moved the stage half way along, so I would guess, if full capacity is 11000, then there were less than 5000 there.

[The Crow]

Apart from the New LP, that Set List is pretty poor................

[Damian]

Originally Posted by Glass Angel

^ I'm no good at estimating crowds, but there were plenty of seats, and I was near the front with lots of personal space. They moved the stage half way along, so I would guess, if full capacity is 11000, then there were less than 5000 there.

Yep. A lot of the seats were covered up too. I was at the front as well with loads of room to move. Obviously it would have been more than enough to sell out the Academy, and when they do theatre tours those always sell pretty quickly too. It's no biggie, it's just one of those things... they're one of many bands who garnered a huge following around a certain era and still have a good-sized-but-not-as-big-as-that-anymore crowd now.

[y2kyle16]

bit underwhelmed by the set list. Played it quite safe.

I'd love them to drop YSTSFMH and YLAINE from the sets.... will never happen though.

No lifeblood or JFPL is disappointing - and it seems the tour really hasn't sold well.... They should play the smaller venues.

[Dancing Kirby]

There are numerous complaints to be made, all of which are obvious and things the band has no interest in remedying, so it’s a waste of time to make them.

But the one thing that must condemned by all is JDB and Wayne Murray duetting on Dylan & Caitlin during a show that doesn’t feature In Eternity or Sequels of Forgotten Wars.

It’s a very loyal fanbase but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

I rather enjoyed it. Nice to have a bit of a shake up in the setlist; I was pleased with Forever Delayed, as I’ve never heard that live before. Horses Under Starlight was a very random choice, I have to say At least it was something different, although I would have preferred another new song instead. Hold Me Like a Heaven and People Give In sounded really good (HMLAH was a lot better than on The One Show) and I enjoyed hearing Slash N Burn again too.

It was a bit sad that not that many tickets had been sold and I have to say, I was surprised when they announced a full arena tour. I miss them doing smaller venues and tbh I’m not massively looking forward to the aircraft hangar that is Manchester Arena, but oh well. It is what it is. I wouldn’t ever miss a tour because they played arenas though, but maybe that’s just me.

Can’t say I was expecting a longer-than-usual set either. I’m sure they’ve come on at 8:45pm before, so didn’t expect anything different on that front. We had to drive 2 hours back home last night, so the earlier the finish the better as far as I’m concerned

I’ll try upload some photos later; supposed to be working now (not having the most productive day after getting home at 1am, funnily enough!).