Astoria gigs

[oldfan]

Greetings all,
New here - I have been enjoying reading the reviews of the THB tour gigs so much, I signed up and wanted to post. Apologies in advance if there is already a thread on this - i searched but didnt see one specifically.
So - oldfan - is what I am, I confess to not listening to/seeing Manics much post EMG - but prior to this I had a high level obsession! As the title of this suggests..I was at the 94 Astoria gigs at the end of THB tour. I had to post as I have been reminiscing heavily on that time whilst reading about in particular the Roundhouse gigs. I was tempted to attend, but eventually decided the memories were perfect and I was happy to let them remain in my head. Though I did feel twinges of "should I have gone.."??!
Firstly a big thank you to everyone for posting your thoughts, reviews, experiences, pictures of your 2014 THB gigs.
So much of the Astoria gigs held true to these it seems - I guess the queue/rush to the front hasnt changed a beat! I recall this being a huge deal back then as well! Lots of posts on here about crowd behaviour, pushing, queue stuff - not much has changed! I remember Manics gigs always being unfeasibly hot, so many people wearing leopard fur coats/heavy camo army jackets which generated quite the steam!
I have many many memories of the Astoria gigs - I was 17 and travelled all the way from scotland to stay in a youth hostel in soho for 4 days and went to all 3 shows. I had a ticket for one night in hand and as soon as I arrived, bought tickets for the other two. I took photos (with my instant kodak camera! - some came out!), got james's set list on the last night (hand written words to last xmas on the back), invited to after show party (which we felt very awkward and out of place at), lived and breathed manics for those 3 days, in that queue every day making friends and soaking up every beat every evening! it was a world of carefully handmade fanzines that were faithfully posted to the faithful, photos shared in such a different way than we do now. I trawled magazines for months looking for bootleggers who could send me a tape (cassette and VHS yes!) of any of the shows. but most of all, of course, i remember the music. That goddamn album.... still find it hauntingly mesmerising - so many emotions.
I have a few questions for those who attended the London gigs that I didnt see in the posts (sorry if I missed)
- did the band verbally reference the astoria gigs onstage? (i loved that they got the old camo netting on the amps out again!)
- Did they play the THB portion as a 3 piece ( extra member joined for the second half of the show?)
- Were many people wearing vintage manics merch? (I am still looking for the Of Walking Abortion t-shirt from the 94 tour - "who's responsible/you fucking are")
- what THB songs got the biggest reactions from the crowd (singalong, emotionally either)
Apolgies again if this is not new thread worthy, just over excited at the THB love on here and wanted to join in!
All the best to all

/oldfan

[Takk]

Welcome!

some answers from my impressions:

- Nicky did mention the astoria, as he said they chose the roundhouse as being closest to the astoria (or words to that effect).

-Yep, a three piece for thb set.

- Wasn't that much vintage stuff/dressed up as I remember, but they were selling that t shirt as merch.

- Biggest reaction I noticed was for Mausoleum .

[masquerade]

But the new Who's Responsible T-shirt isn't the same as the 94 one, is it? Doesn't seem to be from what I can remember. Wish I'd got one, but I plumped for Cunt-Cock instead.

[Takk]

I don't remember, as I didn't buy one - I thought it looked similar to the ones you could buy in around 2001...but don't know if they were the same as 1994.

[masquerade]

I think the text was smaller on the old ones.

[Valley_Girl]

Originally Posted by masquerade

I think the text was smaller on the old ones.

That's the original:


The new one can be seen on the picture in this post

[oldfan]

Thanks for the welcome Takk! This seems a great forum.
Can imagine Mausoleum having a great reaction, its so rousing. Awesome to be able to get an idea of it from youtube. I like the Roundhouse, it has good sound and atmosphere. I was really happy to see the band went back to the Barrowlands in Glasgow too, they were awesome there when i saw them on THB tour, love that venue.
Did anyone from here go to Astoria gigs and gig/s from this THB anniv tour? Be really interested in your thoughts.
Hopefully I'll find a Who's responsible t shirt - I didnt remember the original having the band name on it, thanks for the pic Valley Girl.
Cheers all, nice to be here..

[framedadolescence]

Originally Posted by oldfan

Greetings all,
- did the band verbally reference the astoria gigs onstage? (i loved that they got the old camo netting on the amps out again!)
- Did they play the THB portion as a 3 piece ( extra member joined for the second half of the show?)
- Were many people wearing vintage manics merch? (I am still looking for the Of Walking Abortion t-shirt from the 94 tour - "who's responsible/you fucking are")
- what THB songs got the biggest reactions from the crowd (singalong, emotionally either)
Apolgies again if this is not new thread worthy, just over excited at the THB love on here and wanted to join in!
All the best to all

/oldfan

- Nicky made reference to wanting to trash the set up again and James was having none of it
- Not that I noticed. There was more feather boa and eyeliner than recent Manic gigs tho. Including me :-)
- Mausoleum was insane. PCP went down a storm too. Whiteamerica as well :-)

[allisvanity]

Originally Posted by framedadolescence

Whiteamerica as well :-)

The higlight for me. Had never heard it live, but always wanted to. It did not disappoint!

[starfucker]

Welcome, oldfan!

I went on the last night. Unbelievable. Something went wrong with Sean's drums after whiteamerica and Nicky made a quip about how his plan is coming to fruition (referencing earlier threats to trash the equipment). Mausoleum blew the fucking roof off. Introducing it, Nicky said, "This one's being recorded so make it as fucking loud as possible". Hopefully it will be released as a bonus track / b-side at some point, been listening to the bootleg today and it deserves to be mixed and released properly. Yeah, as a 3 piece for the first set then the usual suspects for the second set. Also whiteamerica was jaw-droppingly good, fantastic night.