Maida Vale 2004

[Europa Gluten Free]

Just listening to this now.

It really is the best live session that the Manics have done. Ok, so this is the Lifeblood era and this might turn off a few people but all the LB songs on this sounds sooooo beautiful. TLORN sounds mega with JDBs guitar turned up slightly louder than the record and he really hits those power chords. Plus they play TRG and Fragments (ok where was SSI!?!?)

Then you get into the other tracks with the best live version of This Is Yesterday there is. Perfect tempo. Sounds great. The best solo I've heard plus JDB really getting into it after the solo and GROWLING the next line while hitting the power chords. Love it.

This really is the perfect cold afternoon/evening winter session and reminds me of good times in December 2004 with my beautiful wife. Fucking listen to it!! (It's in S&V)

[Jackie Collins]

I've still got this somewhere. Although LB isn't one of my favourite albums it was a bloody good session. I still find Fragments intolerable though.

[nic]

I won a competition to go to the Maida Vale gig and i think it is one of the best live sessions they have done.
James voice even sounded good on TLORN.It was a great night

[Littlesue]

Originally Posted by nic

I won a competition to go to the Maida Vale gig and i think it is one of the best live sessions they have done.
James voice even sounded good on TLORN.It was a great night

Plus James telling you to have a 'naughty night out' while you were in London

[The Gutless Wonder]

Remember listening to this on the radio. Wrote to The Void on Teletext to say how brilliant it was!

[Donkey]

Solitude Sometimes Is was missing and that spoil the session for me a lot. But still it was great

[Flint]

Yeah, it's a fantastic session. Really does show how strong Lifeblood tracks can be live.

[Ben]

I remember listening to it at the time and being so incredibly excited! I almost fell down the stairs in my student house trying to get to the radio to plug my mini-disc in before it started. Good times.

Originally Posted by proevpete

This really is the perfect cold afternoon/evening winter session and reminds me of good times in December 2004 with my beautiful wife. Fucking listen to it!! (It's in S&V)

Definitely. Today was definitely a "Lifeblood day". Clear, sunny but cold; exactly like it was on the day I bought the album.

[deadmartyr]

Originally Posted by BradfieldsLoveChild

I remember listening to it at the time and being so incredibly excited! I almost fell down the stairs in my student house trying to get to the radio to plug my mini-disc in before it started. Good times.

I also recorded onto Minidisc - have a recorder deck to do that though. I've not listened to it in ages. I remember To Repel Ghosts standing out for me the most in that session. At least it got a radio session outing amongst the handful of tour outings.

[Beat Poet]

Boring session I think, sterile. Funny how the tour has stirred up all this widespread love for LB on here.

[hibbytam]

Originally Posted by Beat Poet

Boring session I think, sterile. Funny how the tour has stirred up all this widespread love for LB on here.

it's because Lifeblood has some good songs on it. Doesn't quite work as a complete album, too mellow, but doesn't stop the songs being good.

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Beat Poet

Funny how the tour has stirred up all this widespread love for LB on here.

They gave us Empty Souls and we've got all GIDDYEXCITED because of their decision to acknowledge the Glorious Lifeblood live again!

[Europa Gluten Free]

Originally Posted by Beat Poet

Boring session I think, sterile. Funny how the tour has stirred up all this widespread love for LB on here.

*shakes heads*

When its all over everyone will look back and realise that actually LB was their 2nd best album. I don't really know why I have so much love for LB - maybe its the memories of the time or I actually just quite like the aesthetic of the album. I prob listen to LB more than HB or JFPL.

[scott_laconia]

Yeah this session is brilliant. Lifeblood is a truely beautiful record.

[Marwood]

I've never heard this session but have downloaded it to listen to over the weekend. Looking forward to it. I'm not ashamed to say that Lifeblood is my favourite Manics album. Well, maybe after THB...though actually I think we should be allowed to differentiate between "my favourite" and "their best", so yeah I'll stick with my original statement.

Anyway... I do think that to a certain extent Lifeblood has become the "fan's album", in light of the band's apparent critical/commercial revival with SATT.

Back in 2004 I found this forum a much more positive place, and whilst many people weren't overwhelmed by LB, people were quite positive in their attitudes about the album and looking for the best in it...and then the album bombed, the LB tour was a little miserable at times, and there was a real sense that the wider world had forgotten about the band, so I think there was a return to "cult status", and a much greater sense of the group being "ours", a feeling which was then enhanced by the rather glorious PPF tour and "free for the fans" 'God Save The Manics' - undeniably the band speaking to their core audience.

Then SATT actually goes down well with critics and a wider audience, the band start selling records and getting awards, and new people start showing up at gigs. The effect on the people who'd stayed loyal through LB remains obvious. A few years years later and the level of negativity and bitter loathing that many people on these boards direct at SATT, PFAYM, "radio-friendly Greatest Hits setlists" and just about anything the band say or do is frankly astonishing, and I suspect that the "us and them" mentality plays a big part in that - fans had gotten comfortable with their small church and suddenly find themselves lost in the crowd. Quite natural then that Lifeblood - released during a more positive and "cult" period and generally disliked or more commonly unheard-of by the wider audience - becomes a cherished and lauded icon of the days before the new kids came along.

Y'know, just an idea...

Regards,
Marwood.