Manics / Suede UK Co-Headline Tour 2024

[Son of Stopped]

Yeah, I was trying to avoid spoilers in case LA Ex saw the thread. Oh well! That's Manicsland for you!
TUVL should have got a point.
I'm glad there's so far been no covers. If the sets were full headlining maybe?

[*Found That Soul*]

Originally Posted by Routine Builder

Should we be treating this as a normal Manics tour? Half the crowd (maybe not so much in Wales) are there for another band, and they have less stage time. It's the reason I'm not bothered for this tour, it's their cashing in on good will tour. Still surprised to see To Repel Ghosts making the cut. Not a bad song, but 1985 is so much more a crowd pleaser. Let's remember the set list at Bath last year and hope for a full tour in the new year!

I also tend to give James a pass on his live singing because even on his worst days he is a top tier guitarist and front man and a lot of bands have neither. He still runs circles around his counterparts and it's very different being in front of him experiencing that than watching a few low quality phone videos from people who should be enjoying the gig than you know, sticking their phones in air blocking people's view.

Still think he’s sounds pretty decent, obviously not like he was but he’s pushing 60!

Nothing compared to how bad Brett is nowadays , loads of energy but his voice is very bad.

[ron the little seal]

Going to Dublin and for a tour of its kind I'm happy with the setlist, I truly do love that walk me to the bridge has stuck around because it's just a great track

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

For me, this tour is more of a bonus before the new album arrives, and an alternative to doing the festival circuit, which is what they would usually be doing at this time of year. So, my expectations are lower in general, but especially for setlist choices. Having said that, I was pleasantly surprised we got To Repel Ghosts rather than 1985, and feel like I hadn't heard Elvis for a long while either. I love Walk Me To the Bridge as well, so was pleased they played that.

James has been adapting the way he sings/missing out lines for years now tbf, so I'm used to it by this point. I would rather he did that than fuck his voice up permanently by attempting notes he can't comfortably hit anymore. Both him and Brett Anderson have way more stamina and energy than I do these days, and they're both a lot older than me lol.

Speaking of Suede...that was my first time seeing them last night and they were engaging enough, but tbh they're not a band I've ever had any interest in, not even in my formative years when I was more open-minded about giving bands a try than I am nowadays. I appreciate there is probably some crossover between fanbases, but I personally didn't witness a great deal of it yesterday. We were mostly surrounded by Suede fans on the left side of the barrier and whilst they stayed for the Manics, with one or two exceptions, they didn't seem to know many of their songs and I heard a few comments in the queue that were along the lines of people saw them once about 20 odd years ago and didn't mind them, but they weren't big fans or anything.

I can't help but think the crossover has been somewhat exaggerated for the purposes of promo for this tour. The same with the whole 'We were outsiders in the 90s' thing that just does not tally with the fact that both bands experienced more than a decent amount of popularity and commercial success in that decade lol (I wasn't even listening to rock/indie music for most of the 90s as I was very young and more interested in pop music, but I still knew several songs by both bands just from listening to the top 40). I know James and Brett had to find a way to sell it that sounded less cynical than what is likely the reality, but it has always felt a bit too contrived for my personal taste.

I also don't think you could have two frontmen at such polar opposite ends of the performance style spectrum either lol. Watching Brett Anderson melodramatically crawling around the stage on his hands and knees or getting (a bit too) up close and personal with the crowd gave me a chuckle when trying to imagine James doing any of those things I kind of like the arm's length relationship the Manics have always had with their fanbase, so the opposite isn't really my cup of tea.

Organisation at the venue was a bit chaotic...and concerning that the band had to stop You Love Us due to a medical incident in the crowd and Nicky had to ask for first aiders to be sent in. I saw The Killers and Green Day in Manchester last week and two of those gigs had to be stopped by the band for the same thing as well. Don't know the circumstances obviously, but it's not good how often it seems to be happening lately.

[Son of Stopped]

Footage online with terrible sound. Not bad angle. You can still see James spin. But I'm calling BS Nicky could hear what James was shouting at him by the amps near the end!
https://youtu.be/niR7VXnIr4w?si=nCLDyAJ-H8BpWtmB

[MSPKYE]

SPOILER: Tour Rehearsal setlist at Cardiff Tramshed (wish they'd play there properly on a tour)

[Son of Stopped]

Originally Posted by MSPKYE

SPOILER: Tour Rehearsal setlist at Cardiff Tramshed (wish they'd play there properly on a tour)

The man in the beanie and sunglasses is Mike Peters of The Alarm! Great to see him out despite his treatments. Really great pictures!

[Oh Nick...!]

Originally Posted by *Found That Soul*

Still think he’s sounds pretty decent, obviously not like he was but he’s pushing 60!

Nothing compared to how bad Brett is nowadays , loads of energy but his voice is very bad.

Can't agree with you - Brett's voice has hit some troughs over the years but it was sensational at LlanG, and even if he struggles to hit the super-high notes on the likes of The Two of Us he's said himself he prioritises giving it his all and doesn't really care. I'm a huge fan of both bands, but I think Suede just pipped the home team on the night.

[someone, somewhere, soon]

Originally Posted by MSPKYE

SPOILER: Tour Rehearsal setlist at Cardiff Tramshed (wish they'd play there properly on a tour)

Rehearsal setlist is in chronological order apart from Elvis chucked in between their KYE and LB options!

[Routine Builder]

Would love to be a gig that started with the same song as the rehearsal. That song is criminally absent from their setlists over the last 10 years.

[Routine Builder]

I'd say the crossover between suede and manic fanbase stopped when Butler left. As good as Oakes is, he fairly or unfairly never had the same zing as Butler's sound on the first two albums. Plus with Suede's diminished synth heavy output of late 90's and 00's meant that new fans of the two bands came from very different tastes.

[Anaconda Vice]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

I know it's just the way things are these days, but the continued emphasis on the '90s material just makes me a bit sad, I think. Musically they haven't yet reached the point of being a legacy band - each album feels like it has a reason to exist more than just to prop up another tour - but setlists like this don't suggest that at all.

I completely agree. The past 10/11 years have shown they can and still do make albums worth listening to, yet the setlists don't reflect this. I still, after almost 30 years of being a fan, still want to hear new music from them. Not that many bands do that for me (although having just gotn back from seeing Green Day perform all of Dookie and American Idiot, I would have still preferred one more new song from Saviors in the middle mini-set)

They never fully toured Futurology. A very well-regarded album that showed they still have something, instead they did the THB20 tour.

I loved that, hearing them play the album as a 3-piece was a treat, but I really think Futurology suffered because of it.

Then came further album tours (EMG & TIMTTMY) and the reissues (although the KYE one has become my preferred version of it now). At least Resistance is Futile got a proper tour, but the nostalgia sometimes overshadows that they're still a band with things to say.

[IntlDebris]

Indeed. And if you look at Suede, they weren't afraid to put in tracks from their reformation era albums. I'm one of a tiny, tiny minority who actually can't get along with their recent records beyond a couple of tracks, but they're clearly records of a group who aren't coasting, and they show their confidence in those records by playing songs from them. Whereas the Manics still throw in the very occasional lead single from one of those records, and perhaps one less well known track ('To Repel Ghosts' this time, it seems), but when the set is almost entirely songs that have been performed several hundred times in the past... I genuinely wonder where they get the enthusiasm from. I just can't imagine spending a year or more writing and recording an album just to go "right, never gonna play those songs again" and just knock out the same songs you could probably perform in your sleep instead.

[Routine Builder]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

. I just can't imagine spending a year or more writing and recording an album just to go "right, never gonna play those songs again" and just knock out the same songs you could probably perform in your sleep instead.

The problem is that a lot of songs on the newer Manics albums are products of silo'd musicmaking, where each member writes and records their bits in isolation. They were quite open about this in interviews about RiF, and obviously applied to TUVL for obvious reasons. I reckon that just about half the songs on a given album are ever rehearsed in full during the recording progress.

Suede are a very different band with fewer albums and some that are complete cack (4th and 5th) that have not been rescued by a re-evaluation with time. I get the impression that the post re-unification albums mean a lot more to the band as they are a product of band that have sort their sh!t out . I get the impression that Brett plays for the front row of die hards where James is playing to the back row of folk who perhaps haven't picked up a Manics record in 20 years.

[Lee]

Really interesting and totally fair points as well.

I think these days I’m just grateful that they’re still going, still making new music and touring but 3 songs representing the last 20 years of their career is mad. I would absolutely love them to be a bit more risky and throw in some real rarities or even non-single album tracks.

Would love some deep cuts on the next tour and by that I don’t mean dusting down Suicide is Painless or Stay Beautiful. They’ve produced some crackers even in recent years but they’ll never hear the light of day sadly. So many good songs overlooked.

Something like Song For The Sadness, In Eternity, or even something from KYE that’s never been played before like Dead Martyrs would really freshen it up a lot.