MANIC STREET PREACHERS | LIVE REVIEW

Newport Centre

Fri 13 Sept

With the final notes of the anthemic A Design For Life fading out to be replaced by one more blast of feverish adulation from the masses, James Dean Bradfield sighs in mock exasperation “Newport, Newport… so much to answer for…” A fittingly fond farewell to a homecoming which always felt destined to be triumphant, and to the surprise of no one whatsoever turned out to be exactly that and then some.

The elder statesmen of Welsh rock music began the evening precisely an hour and a half earlier, striding onstage with purpose and brimming with the type of confidence that lead to them unleashing the majestic riffing of the immensely popular Motorcycle Emptiness at the beginning of their performance. The instantaneous mass singalong that followed allowed James the opportunity to cede vocal duties to the throng at the onset of each chorus, one of many special moments that were commonplace as the night progressed.

Peppered throughout the set were the choicest cuts from newbie Rewind The Film, the Manics’ 11th studio album. The likes of A Sullen Welsh Heart, As Holy As The Soil (with Nicky Wire on vocals), lead single Show Me The Wonder and Anthem For A Lost Cause exhibit a more mature and reflective sound – before, in another of those aforementioned special moments, the legendary Richard Hawley was welcomed onstage to add guitar and duet with James on the new album’s beautiful title track.

Alongside new material the slew of hits continued unabated. You Stole The Sun From My Heart, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, The Everlasting, You Love Us and If You Tolerate This…, each rattled off with a scintillating intensity, the band still clearly getting as much of a kick as ever in playing their music to a room full of people in thrall to them for doing just that. As the distinguished middle-aged gentlemen onstage unashamedly pogo and posture their way through the clatter and crash of Revol (dedicated to Richey Edwards) and the white-hot fury of Motown Junk, the intensity is ratcheted up and up until their epoch, the generation-defining A Design For Life sends the assembled into an unabashed delirium, leaving the local heroes to disappear, universally praised to the rafters.

words NICK MERRIMAN
photos MIKE LEWIS