I love Sleepflower and am curious to hear it live acoustic but 99% of me wants a full band version. It's the ONLY way to play it.
Wish they'd leave out Robeson and OS, I like Robeson but I'd much rather hear something else from that album like FTS or something totally different that they never play.
Hopefully as the tour goes on they'll get more into it and so too will the crowds.
The Guardian gave this gig 3 / 5 in their review: https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...-hydro-glasgow

From my photos and memory, standing and the seating blocks 50-58 and 201-218 were occupied (though seating was only 2/3 full). I could have misjudged the tiers though but it looks right to me. All the rest was blacked out behind a curtain. Really not good :S

https://www.hydroglasgow.com/wp-cont...ating-plan.png

Doesn’t sound great but I guess 4000 or so people in one night might be more cost effective than 2000 over 2 nights?

It won't be more cost effective when poor ticket sales and bad live reviews impact on their career. It should have been a tour of smaller venues like Barrowlands, which would have sold out no bother and been intimate enough to create a half decent atmosphere instead of singing without spirit into a soulless cavern and begging people to pretend they're in King Tuts. When you have to say 'thank you for your patience' to the audience after an acoustic section it's really not a good sign, and in places like the Barras the acoustic section is usually received amazingly. Glasgow crowds are famous for always being up for it and the lack of effort on the band's part was mirrored by the audience last night.

I sincerely hope they learn from this mistake of a tour and stick to smaller venues in future (if there is a future). It made me so sad last night to watch such a lacklustre performance from both band and audience, especially juxtaposed with all the old early 90s footage of the band when they were young on the screens behind them. It felt like watching Spinal Tap desperately play to an uninterested arena.

The other thing is - if they do tour in future how often will we see rarities after this? The excuse will be 'well we brought out rarities on the RIF tour and nobody knew them or was singing so we won't do it again'.

I've been a fan for 17 years at this point and never been this upset so I'm saying none of this lightly.

This thread has PROPER bummed me out

Can't wait for Sat in Manchester now :-/

You're Telling Me!!!

Certainly, the best I've ever seen them in all honesty

I understand what he means. There have been lots of dodgy quotes recently, one of which being 'jobs give us meaning' which, actually, no they don't, and is veering close to a 'work your way out of poverty' Tory attitude. They could have worded it differently if that wasn't their intention (which I'm sure it wasn't, but why say it at all?). Plus Nicky not helping himself at all with his 'kids these days just don't understand, back in my day etc etc' attitude. Remember when you were young, Nicky, and your elders said things like that to you? Doubt you liked it :rolleyes: The whole tone of this new album has been condescending and dismissive and they're alienating diehard fans with it, a number of people I know are not impressed.

Seems they can’t be fucked with this

Maybe the label are forcing the tour

This. I have been to every tour (apart from PPF and LB) since TIMT as well as several festival appearances, and reading all of the above disappointment has kind of consolidated my initial scepticism of this arena tour. It's the first one since LB I haven't felt excited about or bought tickets for.

I couldn't quite put my finger on why but this thread has nailed it. They simply aren't popular enough for arenas any more, despite the album being decent and selling well. And to hear that they are using backing tracks is bad enough, but JDB relying on falsettos and giving Murray more lead and louder guitar parts is just wrong and, without sounding too melodramatic, a little heartbreaking. JDB's immense sheer POWER is one of the most impressive things about the band in general. At live gigs it is the number one important aspect of the show.

I hope it was a temporary blip. Maybe he has just been under the weather and it was a case of 'the show must go on' situation.

Feel bad for those of you who were/are disappointed. I'm still jealous you went at all. I think it looked great, but I'm sure photos and clips online don't convey the actual experience. Oh well.

I'm just going to go to Manchester with low expectations and hope that the lacklustre response the boys had last night is partly down to it being midweek (not sure big arena gigs work anyway when it isn't a weekend and everyone is more relaxed *tipsy* / doesn't have one eye on getting up for work the next day)

So many folk I saw last night were pie-eyed from drinking. It's not really an excuse to say there was no atmosphere due to it being midweek, I've been in gigs there midweek with it packed full and an amazing atmosphere. It was down to the band being completely wrong for the venue.

Good advice. I've never had tinnitus last more than 24 hours before, it's a bit scarey!

But for anyone who knows anything about the manics will know that growing up where they did jobs did give people meaning, the
"presbyterian work ethic" they've spoken about many times so to ascribe it to a tory attitude when we know what they believe in and have
written music about for 30 years baffles me. I can't imagine it would apply to many people now though, granted, when you have
zero hours, stagnating wages and no job security.

To whom is this album condescending and dismissive? As far as i can see there are a lot of legitimate targets in there like the establishment
and particularly tech companies, whereas on an album like postcards and songs like engage with your shadow i just felt nicky was
condescending to people using social media with no nuance. On this album you have songs like people give in which sometimes i see
as dismissive of people and other times i see as a great anthem to the resilience of people and that theme runs right through the album.
I've seen a lot of people getting positive energy from it but ymmv i guess.

Yes I am aware of the Manics' history and the history of their locality, but as you said, it's not a progressive outlook to be begging for heavy industry to come back with the way the world is now. I didn't ascribe it to a Tory attitude, I said it was veering close to a similar outlook on the perception of people's enterprising and worth. It's also insulting for them to be talking about 'proper, blue collar jobs' - so other jobs aren't proper? Thank you for your opinion when only one of you has ever held a typical job.

I misspoke regarding the second part, I meant the tone of the interviews surrounding the album. It's condescending to younger generations. The Manics don't want to move with the times and would rather say they 'pity' younger generations instead of making an effort themselves to join in with the world as it is now. Lamenting the loss of cassettes, the print NME, and 'tangible' things I do understand on one level, but on another level I find it a bit ridiculous. On a limited budget I would rather pay £10 a month to Spotify for all the music I could consume, than have to pay £16 for one CD which will eventually just wind up contributing to plastics pollution and landfill anyway.

Added on to that, fairly sure in one interview they were insinuating (or simply stating) that the youth of today aren't as passionate about music, which is just plain wrong. They're just not passionate about a group of older white men who are making no effort to engage with modern times and who like to say they're political but who have recently conveniently dodged questions about pressing political matters like Brexit and Labour's future. I said to my husband at the gig last night that seeing a teenager at a Manics gig is a rarity now.

A last bugbear I have is that Nicky always talks about being 'burnt out' after endless writing and researching for albums but I see no evidence in his lyrics of anything worthy of burnout; not compared to the likes of someone like Janelle Monae who has released several intricate concept albums in a row. This album and all the press surrounding it has just reeked of completely phoning it in with bland lyrics and bland music, and of externalising blame via the 'computers are bad and we're confused' bandwagon.

As someone pointed out to me, the mixture of ego and apathy on the band's part re:the album and arena tour has been staggering and it was brutally visible last night at the gig.

Christ, barely have I read so much utter bollocks.

With regards to which part of the thread? What I said? That's not only my opinion but the opinion of a number of fans I know who have been following the band for years. It might be bollocks to you but not to some. I know you can't please all of the people all of the time but there's a real sense for a lot of us that they're sliding into what they said they would never become. After last night I'd rather not see them again than go back to another arena gig.

Yes, & I’ve been reading that same shit for 20 years.

Well good for you. I’ve also read comments for nearly 20 years. I haven’t felt that way myself before but I feel that way now and I’m entitled to express my dissatisfaction as much as you’re entitled to disagree.

For those who are mentioning the PPF tour as the best they've seen the band, give the extras on No Manifesto dvd / blu ray a look, there's about 4 songs on there from that tour :) I watched them the other day along with the film. I'm hoping the band have some inclination as to how the crowds are at their gigs and what they could do to change things up, etc. Maybe Sean needs to get on here and read stuff.

So edgy...

Why bother engaging with an argument when a snarky one liner will do...

I thought the fact that the emphasis in chorus is put on the lyric “people stay strong” rather than the title gives it more of an optimistic edge than if it was the other way round.

But then I enjoyed the Glasgow gig, so what do I know. I get the criticism about the venue being far too big for them, but from where we were (about ten rows from the front at Nicky’s side) I thought it was better than the EMG gig in the same venue two years ago.

The Guardian live review was very middling and it led to a lot of negativity towards the band in the on-line comments. The review seemed to set the tone; the paper did a much more positive article about them recently and the comments were much brighter.

The views on here about the shows so far also seem less than enthusiastic and I can't help but think it's about half full cavernous venues which don't help the band or the audience. Arena shows seem to have been a serious miscalculation.

Glad to hear someone enjoyed it!

+1 for this feeling.

The last time I saw them in an arena was 2004 for the LB tour in Nottingham and Razorlight, the support act got a bigger reaction.

I absolutely hate backing tracks in live shows. I always used to joke with my other half that her 'pop' acts always needed them to fill out the sound. You would think with SIX musicians onstage there would be ways of limiting backing to a necessary minimum.

I'm also going to see James, Nicky and Sean. I don't really care if Wayne can play the lead to all the songs without fault - I'm there to see James play them as he's the spectacle.

Also, there aren't enough complex songs to warrant 3 guitar players. Most the of the Manics core sound is a strong rhythm part and strong lead.

I really hope my mood perks up for Manchester as at the moment I'm expecting to come away not wanting to see them again 😢

I feel really bad for helping to put folk on a downer but it's not as if I *want* to be feeling like this or saying these things either :( I honestly hope people can enjoy the gigs, it's just a sad fact that I didn't.

I think you’ve made some fair points - we hold this band to some very high standards. Maybe they’re just getting into their stride.

This may be long so apologies in advance...

I was at the Glasgow show on Wed night and thought it was decent but I wasn’t blown away by any means. I’m no fan of the Hydro as a venue and the sound was awful where I was sitting off to the side so that may have slightly tainted my view. I really enjoyed the EMG show in the same venue a couple of years ago.

The band themselves were really tight and on form as always but I got a feeling they weren’t massively enjoying the show for some reason. I know Nicky has personal stuff going on at the moment, which has meant him keeping a lower profile than normal at shows. I’ve been getting a feeling of general malaise from the band during the promotion of this album. It feels similar to the Lifeblood era, where the band maybe feel like they’ve lost a little bit of direction? They’ve bounced back from plenty in the past and i’m sure they will again but for this album I think they’re maybe going through the motions a little (with regard to promotional duties).

For context, the Manics are my favourite band by a million miles and always will be so it’s not enjoyable to see them in a bit of a funk at the moment. I’ve seen them 16 times now and while this gig wasn’t the best by any means, I think some of the comments on this thread have been a little harsh and maybe we just need to go a bit easier on the boys, who it’s been pointed out previously, are held to a VERY high standard both in the studio and live due to being consistently excellent in the past.

Comment of the year.

Interesting conversation, I have seen the Manics 5 times, the last time was the Everything Must Go anniversary tour. I saw them at the Hydro, I didn’t really enjoy the gig that much. I put it down to the venue as an arena that size just wasn’t the right venue for them. Everything must go is my favourite album so thought I’d love it, but I left feeling the performance was a bit flat.

I didn’t go this time partly because they were playing there again but also because I think RIF is pretty poor to be honest. It is just very lightweight to my ears and I have struggled to listen all the way through more than a couple of times. It’s not a patch on Futurology.

Second part of you point - yes. There's no need (technically) for a backing track with that number of people onstage - and anyway playing them that way gives the songs a different feel to the record.

That said, I cannot think of a show (rock, metal, pop, dance or otherwise) that I've seen in the last decade where tracks weren't used. I know there was a movement back in the 70's to "keep music live," from people who thought backing tapes would put musicians out of work.

For guitar bands, there is an argument that there's no reason not to play the tunes. But the way music is going, pads and textures are part of a show for almost any band, and in some cases it is part of the signature sound. Compared to the 90's a rock gig these days is almost all for show. The amps aren't on, half the song is on a tape, and it's all about that big screen. Whether that's cool for you or not is obviously down to personal taste. But the days of a band turning up with nothing but some amps, cranking it to full pelt and playing (in big venues at least) are long gone.

Personally it bothers me not a jot, because for every band playing to a track - there is a band who cranks it up to 11 and keeps it simple. Different strokes etc....

I think this link was posted in the Manics Newspaper thread.

In the Ebbw Vale paragraph, post explitives Nicky mentions his political views and that he voted to stay in the EU
http:// https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/manic-street-preachers-interview-nicky-wire-resistance-is-futile-album-tour-dates-a8306256.html

Damned if they do, damned if they don't

my videos from glasgow
Horses Under Starlight https://youtu.be/66tM60o4Ft8
Forever Delayed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE7VU0YTW94