How many times is too many to have seen your favourite band live? I’m not sure there is a universally agreed answer, although I do remember the look of horror on the face of a girl I was on date with by telling them that I’d seen the Manic Street Preachers live twenty-four times, who couldn’t believe any band was worth seeing more than a few times. Heaven only knows how she’d respond now if she knew that that number had just reached thirty-three.
With album number fifteen Critical Thinking securing the band their fourth successive top two charting UK album earlier in 2025, it was in confident frame of mind that they approached their spring tour to support its release. The decision to perform only on Fridays and Saturdays meant that not only were audiences more energised for the shows, it also meant planning weekends around the gigs was far easier. So after seeing show thirty-two at Wolverhampton Civic Halls the previous weekend (also the location where shows seven, eleven and thirteen took place many years ago) I was then also able to attend the second night of two at Manchester’s O2 Apollo (which was also where my sixth and twenty-sixth Manics gigs took place).
I’m sure I wasn’t the only audience member in the Apollo whose adult life can be mapped out alongside Manics concerts they’d attended, meaning in a strange way we’d grown older together, with the side effect that the crowd now featured more grey hairs, far fewer mosh pits and a gradual fade out of glamorous dressing that once characterised the audiences. However, whether it was the impact of the concert taking place on a Bank Holiday weekend or the fact that I was closer to the barrier than I’d been in many a year there seemed to be a welcome resurgence in the levels of leopard print, feather boas and glitter on display as well as far more younger faces than seemed to have been present at recent shows.
The challenge for any band of the Manics’ longevity is how to balance their setlists; with over three decades worth of back catalogue to pick from finding the balance between the present, the hits and the obscurities for the hardcore is a balance that can be hard to reach. But over the current tour the correct alchemy seems to have been struck to keep all sections of the fanbase happy, alongside enough songs being switched in and out there were enough surprises to keep those attending multiple dates entertained – despite this being the eighth night of the tour the forever incendiary You Love Us and the sublime This is Yesterday were brought into the set list for the first time.
Of the five new songs performed it was album title track Critical Thinking that stood out as the freshest and most urgent song the Manics have written in many a year. A Nicky Wire sung rant-rap set to the increasingly frantic backing beat and guitar riff may not sound like the recipe for a Manic Street Preachers classic, but having the anger and rage of the early years distilled into a new format saw the song rapturously received by the audience for which the song is rapidly becoming a cult classic.
The truth though is that despite occasionally being unfairly labelled as musically conservative the Manics have always been at their best when they’ve broken away from their template. Motorcycle Emptiness was guitar playing elegance against Generational Terrorist‘s battlefield of chugging power chords. La Tristesse Durera was a lost baggy classic when they were targeting stadium rock polish. Faster… is indescrible except to say that is Faster. A Design For Life captured the bombast of last night of the proms as an escape from the claustrophobia of The Holy Bible. And the ice cold veneer of If You Tolerate This your Children will be Next still feels like a kick back against the band’s increasing popularity, yet at the same time resulted in one of the most unlikely number one singles of the past thirty years.
Of course the mainstay hits were all on display, but such is the band’s back catalogue that they were able to shuffle around their other well known songs and not feel like anything was missing. Despite omitting over half of their top ten hits there was still plenty for the casual fan to get their teeth into, with the welcome return of Australia to the setlist after many years absence proving a noticeable highlight early on, whilst the likes of International Blue and This Sullen Welsh Heart meant that latter albums still had their moment in the spotlight.
For the hardcore fans there was plenty to be excited about, with She is Suffering and Sleepflower making welcome returns to setlists. But it was Peeled Apples that proved to be the deepest of cuts on show, marking the first performance of any material from the seemingly forgotten Journal for Plague Lovers in almost a decade. Such was the growl of feedback that James forced out of his amp going into the final chorus it posed the question of what could the Manics be now if they’d spent the past decade chasing the Planet Rock following rather than the Radio 2 crowd.
Watching the Manics its not just the songs that gave a warm sense of familiarity, but the band’s mere presence on stage; whilst Nicky’s scissor jumps and James’ trademark mid-solo spins are rarely seen nowadays, they still know how to work the crowd. The way Nicky reached into his jacket pocket to retrieve a handful of confetti before proceeding to shower himself with it at the climax of Hiding in Plain Sight was as endearing as it was the lowest possible of production values. And if there’s another band as popular who would pause to give updates of the snooker results mid set I’ve yet to see them live.
By the time the confetti canons fired one final time to mark the outro of finale If You Tolerate this Your Children will be Next (I realise the need for change, but it’s still not as good a closer as A Design for Life was for so many years before it) a sense of joy washed over me that I’ve managed to witness them live as many times as I have. Whilst the band are in all likeliness closer to their end than the beginning there’ll still hopefully be plenty of opportunities to see them again in the future.
Were you at the show? Make sure to leave your thoughts and comments below!
The Manic Street Preachers performed:
Decline & Fall
Enola/Alone
La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh)
Australia
Hiding in Plain Sight
You Stole the Sun From My Heart
She Is Suffering
Peeled Apples
Motorcycle Emptiness
Critical Thinking
Autumnsong
A Design for Life
This Sullen Welsh Heart
This Is Yesterday
The Everlasting
Dear Stephen
Sleepflower
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
International Blue
People Ruin Paintings
You Love Us
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Alex Reviews Gigs 
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