I was really looking forward to seeing Wolf Alice who are support for selected dates on the current tour. Approximately one minute before curtain up there's a loud bang from the stage and the PA dies. Twenty minutes later Wolf Alice finally appear and put in a stormer. Lead singer Ellie Rowsell has a Chrissie Hynde-like cool about her and the tunes remind you, topically as we're apparently celebrating 20 years since Brit Pop, of a heavier Lush. Everything positive you've read about Wolf Alice is correct so go check them out at your earliest opportunity (on tour in May).
“ I hate purity, I hate goodness, I don't want virtue to exist anywhere” John Hurt as Winston Smith from the film of George Orwell's 1984; the intro to the squealing guitars of 'Faster' from 'The Holy Bible' also celebrating its 20th birthday this year, starts the Manic Street Preachers set tonight. The stage has a giant video screen behind the (5 piece live) band, there's the usual Welsh flags on the bass amps but for the first time I can recall no feather boas on bass player Nicky Wire's mic stand.
After 3 singles 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough', 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and '(It's Not War) Just The End of Love', we get the first of two tracks from upcoming album 'Futurology' called 'Europa Geht Durch Mich' an electronic, industrial Depeche Mode-like track and the album's title track, both indicate that 'Futurology' could be the nasty post punk, disco, rock antithesis to the largely acoustic, tender and reflective 'Rewind the Film' which has been promised.
With the screen showing the videos to early singles 'Motorcycle Emptiness' and 'You Love Us' you are reminded of the lyrical and physical space left by Richey Edwards as stage left has remained unoccupied since his disappearance. Nicky dedicates 'Archives Of Pain' “some of the greatest lyrics ever written” to the absent guitarist and it's good to see his dedication is met with warm applause from those sections of the audience with pre-'Everything Must Go' memories.
The set closes with '30 Year War' the most obviously political song from 'Rewind The Film', “..and the endless parade of old Etonian scum, line the front benches “so what is to be done” ”, the riff from The Skids 'Into The Valley' is used as the intro to a blistering version of 'Motown Junk', and as usual 'A Design For Life',with James and Nicky hopping and scissor-kicking along to footage of Royal Ascot, the Miner's Strike, and The Last Night of The Proms used to illustrate the song's lyrics.
As the years go by there may be less animal print, eye-liner and feather boas in the audience and on stage, but unlike other bands of a similar vintage the Manics happily celebrate and embrace their past, present and future(ology).
Alisdair Whyte
