Album launch show at Pryzm on 1st Feb:

https://manicstreetpreachers.lnk.to/...jJoaEiNIxciLgg

Interesting... wonder if there'll be other small record stores or if that's a one off.

That acoustic show they did there a couple of years ago was very much a one off (well, apart from being two of them in one day)

Got my Pryzm ticket! That was tense, looks like it sold out straightaway!

The last time they did this they bumped one of the shows to 8:30 and put in another 6:30 one (and tried to sell lots of CDs at both, naturally)

Yep, I went to both of those :lol: and I would do the same if they add another show to this date!

Got tickets for both Glasgow shows. The second night in Glasgow is myself and my other half's anniversary and it was due to Manics that we met, so it'll be incredibly special. My 10th and 11th shows. Looking forward to them.

First Manics show of 2025 tomorrow (is that an earliest date ever for that to happen?) Anyone made it to Tokyo to see it? Will they throw in much new stuff to the set or will it be the two most recent singles plus the hits?

rockin'on sonic setlist:

01. You Love Us
02. La Tristesse Durera
03. Decline & Fall
04. You Stole The Sun From My Heart
05. No Surface All Feeling
06. Motorcycle Emptiness
07. From Despair To Where
08. Yes
09. A Design For Life
10. Little Baby Nothing
11. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
12. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Yes is a pleasant surprise.

Yes is exciting, hopefully that stays in the setlist. I wish they'd drop LBN though, I do love the song but I feel like we've had it every gig for the last four years.

Setlist.fm is now saying International Blue and Motown Junk were also played after Your Love Alone.

Overall looks quite a nice hour long festival set. Fingers crossed Yes sticks around for a while.

Show how much different fans get things differently - the shows with Suede last summer were the first time I'd heard Little Baby Nothing since the National Treasures gig in 2011 - with fifteen shows without it in between (admittedly there were five full album shows and a couple of shorter support shows in there, but that's still a lot without it)

Christ, one track from the nine albums between TIMT and CT (hope HIPS won't be dropped from the setlist too soon, but it's a Wire track so odds are not good).

I guess it’s just chance, I’ve only seen them four times in the past four years and LBN was on the set list for three of those gigs. I thought it was at all four but I’ve just checked the set list for the Portsmouth 2021 gig and it was actually The Secret He Had Missed that night, so it’s not quite as omnipresent as I imagined.

Is there a pro stream? Just fan videos so far on YouTube.

Nice to see the LP custom, the blonde Eastman and the black LP custom.

Off to Norway to headline a festival on the 23rd August.

James and The Anchoress resurected Dylan and Caitlin last Tuesday at the Senedd:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/owXTJu3DmVo

So I googled manic street preachers tour support 2025 and the AI overview came back with this:

The Manic Street Preachers will not have any support acts on their 2025 UK tour. The band will be promoting their new album, Critical Thinking, which was released on January 31, 2025.

I'm guessing this is bollocks and just AI overview getting confused between support not being announced yet and there not being any support... I note they've still got the wrong album release date!

This date next month and people will be queuing at Glasgow Barrowlands by now.

Do we think they'll forego having a support this time? (Tour poster says nothing about special guests)

I would say no support but I don't know. This seems to be a very particular type of tour (Fri/Sat) that they have designed for themselves and they are doing it how they want to do it (Did they feel obliged to do things as part of the Manics/Suede machine?).

The only time in recent years I can remember going to see a band and there not being a support act was the Flaming Lips, who ended up playing a two and a half hour set, Which I can't see the Manics doing.

I can't remember quite when support acts were announced in the past, but a month before feels a bit late. My money is still on Hope of the States, who are set to put some new material out on the next couple of weeks. And by money I mean wile speciality with little to nothing to back it up.

The THB20 shows (the December 2014 ones at least) had no support from what I remember.

I think it would be difficult or weird to get a support act ot just play a friday and saturdya night and then head home again until the next week.

I think you're right, I can't remember one on the second run of shows. The December run I seem to remember there being a proper break been the Holy Bible and Greatest Hits sets which may have helped split things up.

Now I'm thinking about it, was there a support act for the JFPL gigs - although I think they were the longest sets the Manics have ever done.

It might actually be better for the support act if they've got full time jobs to arrange around the shows.

Has there ever been an explanation for why they've adopted this approach? I can understand less successful bands structuring things like this around jobs, but surely the Manics don't have those pressures.

I thought I read it was to reduce their carbon footprint? They'll probably be the only ones doing that, but who was to know booking the venues that far in advance?

They have sort of, to make the gigs a bit more of an event for people who work the weekdays. Might help with the atmosphere but I'm skeptical, too many people too partial to not risking knee and back pain (yes I'm being unfair).

The JFPL tour had a band called The Answering Machine I think?

Yup

https://www.manicstreetpreachers.com...-tour-support/