01/06/15 Wolverhampton Civic Hall

[darkanddivine]

Enjoyed the gig, the feeling is definitely different from the old days, but it was still fun and very nostalgic. The Holy Bible was obviously the most brilliant part of the night; there was a nice venom to the performance. Hearing the 4 songs I'd never heard live before was super cool.

I did notice a few people who didn't get what was going on dotted throughout the venue. I guess if people just see the name Manic Street Preachers they might go to a show; but the show was advertised as the Holy Bible. I was a little perturbed to see James almost half apologise for it in the "thanks for getting through it" comment; that's what I came mostly to see! Wire was funny when he said "have the BBC listened to this fucking album?" referring to the broadcast at the weekend.

The Everlasting was interesting in the backing track form, although given that all that was missing was the drums, bass and that towering guitar solo, I think full band would have been the way to go. I thought when it started like that they might do a "walk on" style performance when they all came on at different times in the song.

The rest of the set was obviously a bit of pure nostalgia, Removables was cool and the obvious songs were nice to hear again. I noticed James had a bit of "equipment" on stage with his drinks, and looked like he was chewing one of those menthol singer sweets to help him, so maybe he has a cold coming on. However, compared to 4-5 years ago, he's missing bits of songs out, or singing in a lower register, so perhaps they need to look at playing some songs a step down to keep things ticking over.

Still, all in all it was really good fun to see the guys again; and nice to tick The Holy Bible box once and for all!