On Saturday was the rescheduled Manic Street Preachers gig at Brixton Academy. I’ve had the tickets for it since May last year, so to say I was looking forward to it would be an understatement. Honestly I think it was the best Manics gig I’ve ever been to. The venue was ram-packed full of fans, old and new, with some having queued all day in the freezing cold for their spot at the front, and I arrived just in time to see British Sea Power take to the stage. I wasn’t expecting much from them as the last time I saw them I had been bored out of my mind and the singles I had heard on the radio weren’t great. They really took me by surprise with their stage presence and enthusiasm and I found myself really enjoying them. I think I’ll have to check them out properly in the future. Song recommendations please!

Manic Street Preachers came on just after 9pm and spent the next two hours blowing everyone away. The only way the setlist could have been any better, was if they took out ‘Tsunami’ and added in some more tracks from ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’. They only played four songs from their latest album and then the rest was a divine mix of hits and fan favourites. I think the highlights for me were opening with the energetic ‘Slash ‘n’ Burn’, hearing ‘Enola/Alone’ for the first time and the beautiful acoustic rendition of ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart’, which had the whole audience singing along as loudly as they could. I think the band were trying to make up for rescheduling the gig, as they were bounding around the stage even more than usual, getting the audience to sing along and laughing and joking in between songs. It put the crowd in such a good mood and I think everyone left the gig smiling.

A lot of people seem to disregard Manic Street Preachers based on their more recent (and usually rubbish) singles, but if they delved deeper into their back catalogue and live shows they would find a band with some fantastic songs, who are consistently amazing live.

Slash ‘n’ Burn
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Motorcycle Emptiness
(It’s Not War) – Just the End of Love
Everything Must Go
Roses in the Hospital
My Little Empire
Postcards From A Young Man
You Love Us
Suicide Is Painless (Theme from MASH)
Enola/Alone
A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun
Motown Junk
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Small Black Flowers That Grow In the Sky
You Stole the Sun from My Heart
Faster
La Tristessa Durera (Scream to A Sigh)
Some Kind of Nothingness
Me and Stephen Hawking
Tsunami
A Design for Life