17/12/11 - 02 Arena, London Gig News

[theb00radley]

PPS was it just me or did Nicky look a bit upset that Nina just walked off and didn't go over and hug him?![/QUOTE]

Yeah I thought I noticed that too. He was looking towards her as she was walking off stage and she just seemed to blank him. I got the impression she was a little disinterested in the whole thing.

[Kieslowski]

Originally Posted by gallafield

Arena staff taking tickets away. This really pisses me off. I, like many others, am a nostalgic person, and I like to keep mementos of events like gigs. This is partly why I always buy a t-shirt, not so much to wear it, but so I can remember the gig. Tickets are a part of this nostalgia. So what good is it for them to take my ticket away, drop it into a fucking bin bag, and then give me a shitty generic plastic wristband.

Aside from those bits, All in all, it was fucking wonderful. Such a shame that I'll never hear some of those songs live again, but it was a wonderful gig to be at. The band were on form, aside from what sounded like a slight fuck up during 'it's not war', great banter from james and nicky, and even wayne and sean's backing vocals couldn't ruin the evening, even if they're getting the chorus to 'slash n burn' wrong (pretty sure it's 'kill to live, kill for kicks' not 'live to kill, kill for kicks').

They handed them back out again at the end! Although it was an awful system - I got one from a guy who had been handed three, despite only needing one. You have to wonder if the people who decide these things understand the internet - people take a handful and shove them on eBay, just like the God Save The Manics EP and the Empty Souls 3 CD casing. I don't understand why they couldn't let people keep the tickets and still give them a wristband - anyone know?

I noticed the INW fuck up too, although they rescued it pretty well. I'm glad a few other people noticed the "live to kill" silliness too - I was starting to doubt my knowledge of Manics lyrics at that point!

Originally Posted by Industrial Symphony No.1

Was it just me or did all the KYE songs sound fantastic? Robeson was just so so beautiful, Gruff can come on and duet with James on that every time as far as I'm concerned. Just a gorgeous moment.

Yes, I thought FTS sounded the best it ever has; Ocean Spray was almost as good as the Cuba gig version; and LRS seemed to have a new lease of life - I thought it had established itself well and truly in "only good for wasting one of the acoustic slots" territory. As for SWSS, absolutely loved it!

Originally Posted by proevpete

But seriously I cannot praise Jimbo's guitar playing enough. He obviously treated this as a physical test and had done his homework, listening to the recordings of the old tracks. His guitar work was impeccable. The trills and fills that he would never normally play were all there. Loved all the guitar changes too, especially the Gibson for YLU and the surf coloured Fender.

Final thought: There wasn't that much mention of Richey throughout the gig - apart from a half compliment before Faster. Thoughts?

(Oh and p.p.s - I saw Nick Naysmyth in the foyer with his wife after the gig - nearly went over and strangled him for the fucking carnivalesque keyboards on Faster and YLU during the 90s!)

Yeah, I got the impression JDB had (quite rightly) made an especially concerted effort to get everything right. None of this "okay we'll chuck in Sleepflower to shut them up, but I'm not doing the solo properly" nonsense. To be honest though, it should always be like that - 60% of their setlists are permanent songs, with another 20% made up of regular songs. There's no excuse for not being able to relearn three or four oldies properly for a tour! But yes, whether it was due to the one-off nature of the event (not like he could say "oh well, I'll get it right tomorrow night") or because they're maybe going to be putting it out on DVD, either way, JDB was pretty much as flawless as one could ask of him. Bravo, Bradders!!!

I thought they mentioned Richey quite a bit though, and he got the usual special mention at the end. I'm fairly sure they said something about him always being part of the group, or words to that effect.

I was actually wondering beforehand if Naysmyth might make an appearance onstage

Originally Posted by Midlands_Junk

Oh, and This Is The Day was a nice little beast wasn't it? Very surprising that.
Also, it didn't strike me at the time, but there was no acoustic interval at any point - very refreshing. Well done to them.

YES!!! Death to the acoustic interval. It's either a substandard version of a great song (Faster, Stay Beautiful) or a song that I don't care about hearing anyway and therefore could be replaced by a rocking version of a better song! Wasn't too fussed with This Is The Day, mind - the video was easily the best thing about it. Maybe they should have just played The Vorticists on the PA and got us all to "consider the footage" on the screens.

Originally Posted by mrdavidj

I left that show wanting to start a band. That is what I love about really good live shows and performers. I see them and get insanely jealous, because I feel that, however hard I try, I'll never be able to write or perform as good as they do.

Yeah, I was standing there thinking "is 29 really too late? Could I give it another bash?"

Failing that, I also realised that I have enough savings in the bank (and a good enough salary to replenish them...) to be able to just buy myself an alpine white custom Gibson Les Paul anytime I feel like it! Not sure I can hold out for long now the idea's in my head...

Originally Posted by everlasting

There was one guy next to me for a while until the end, I think he was on his own, and was singing along word for word passionately and rocking away in his own little world. I was gonna grab him and jump around on Design For Life but thought he might think I was a weirdo so just jumped about on my own

That sounds an awful lot like me, if you were near the left-hand side of the mixing desk!

Originally Posted by The Crow

Usually anything being recorded requires a good 5/6 cameras & I didn't see that many at all 2 if that.

If not that a digital MP3 version of the gig would be the next best thing.

Yeah, as others have said, there were two at the mixing desk alone, and half the footage on the screens couldn't possibly have come from them, particularly the ones facing the crowd (obviously). There was easily enough cameras for a DVD (and they could even "crowdsource" like NIN have done in the past...)

Originally Posted by Jelly Mumbo

Great gig. I've loved this band for twenty years and last night just reminds me why. On a completely separate issue, did anyone think the merchandise was a load of over priced crap? Apart from Nickys book which is a thing of beauty.

Yeah, I wasn't keen on the merch, although I rarely am these days. A JFPL cover t-shirt and khaki THB-style writing t-shirt from the PPF gigs are the only merchandise I've bought at MSP gigs over the past 10 years. Not helped by the fact I never wear white t-shirts, and the black t-shirts last night just didn't tempt me. I have no intention of walking about with a "greatest hits" album cover on display - only great albums adorn this 44" chest

Originally Posted by relic

I'm hoping that dusting off some of the less commonly played singles for this gig means that we'll hear them more often in subsequent setlists.

Yes, PLEASE!!!! I'd like to think they might have been surprised at how well some of them turned out, and the crowd reactions, particularly to Revol and Empty Souls, which just sounded superb. I would love for LSE and TBTGOG to get some more outings.

[Scarecrow]

Originally Posted by Kieslowski

Yeah, I got the impression JDB had (quite rightly) made an especially concerted effort to get everything right. None of this "okay we'll chuck in Sleepflower to shut them up, but I'm not doing the solo properly" nonsense. To be honest though, it should always be like that - 60% of their setlists are permanent songs, with another 20% made up of regular songs. There's no excuse for not being able to relearn three or four oldies properly for a tour! But yes, whether it was due to the one-off nature of the event (not like he could say "oh well, I'll get it right tomorrow night") or because they're maybe going to be putting it out on DVD, either way, JDB was pretty much as flawless as one could ask of him. Bravo, Bradders!!!

The man knows his bastard onions. Doesn't get much better.

[amay]

I just want to apologise for any upset the queue situation caused, I got there at about 10-11am but I felt so terrible about so many people joining and I wanted to try and move back a bit but when they started giving out the wristbands and moving us into the pens, everything just went chaotic and pushed forward. I hope everyone got the place they deserved despite this

[Kieslowski]

Oh, and it was nice that Simon Price took his daughter with him to the gig. Cute wee thing. She'll be a stunner when she's legal.

[franny]

Well I was aiming for the barrier having turned up at 9.30, 3rd row was still fun but I was pretty pissed off. I'm going to blame the Nikki girl for everything though, I enjoy doing that.

[foundthatsoul]

Originally Posted by Abstract Unknown Girl

Don't want to dwell on the negative too much, but I'd also like to dedicate a particular line from Stay Beautiful to the O2 security staff for basically accusing me of stealing my boyfriend's wallet (not going to clog this thread up with that story, but I've already ranted about it here). Absolute fucking CUNTFACES and make no mistake, I will be writing a very strongly worded letter of complaint to them tomorrow.

The security were complete losers. This woman searched me on the way in, and did a pure hardcore search on my bag- she started opening my makeup bag and opening up my purse and looking through it like a nosy bitch, i was like for the love of jesus cos everyone else went through security quickly and I was just stuck outside and it was like after 7.30! Then I'm taking the piss being all, 'jesus this is a bit hardcore, like Fort Knox to get in here' or some crap to her and she goes 'just looking for drugs, do you have any, I'm wanting some myself for later on!' and I'm all 'whaaaaa? there's deffo no drugs in there!' I know I was half cut but clearly I looked like either a terrorist or a druggie, she didn't say this to anyone else!

[Ken Korda]

I felt particularily sorry for a really nice girl we met who had been queuing since half 8 because she gets panic attacks when squished in against people from all sides. She was pushed in front of by a ridiculous amount of people and so didn't get barrier and had to stand at the side for the gig. T'was lame.

[franny]

Yeah that sort of ruined it a bit for her, real shame, lovely lass and that's a long time to queue.

[Bobafettish]

The more I think about this... It's probably the best gig ive ever been to. Greater than the Blur reunion. Revol live > touching Damon's face in Advert

[culture of destruction]

I've never for one second doubted that I love the manics and they are the single most important band in my life.

But to sum up the gig for me, it made me realise just how in love I am with them & their music (it felt like OUR music) and how I always will be.

Not just a gig, but an emotional experience. Thankyou, MSP, for a night I will never forget

[everlasting]

The Manics keep me going to a large degree, I've had this gig to look forward to for a while and now....nothing. Oh Christmas. This will be a long two years without them, hopefully No Manifesto will finally come out and Nicky's 2nd book.

[m0drnmoonlight]

All the comments in here about how everyone loved the concert and how important the band is to them makes me so happy to be a Manics fan :') So happy I discovered this band last year.

[exopotamie]

Originally Posted by m0drnmoonlight

All the comments in here about how everyone loved the concert and how important the band is to them makes me so happy to be a Manics fan :') So happy I discovered this band last year.

Also, that Revol video was RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING. Revol has never been a song I've liked particularly and I knew they hadn't played it in years so I wasn't expecting much, but I...kind of think I like it now!

[tuckedaway]

Just in case people don't check the tube thread...
Youtube video roundup

Hopefully footage of the rest of the gig pops up soon!