Manics honour Richey Edwards as Suede look to the future at London co-headline show

Manic Street Preachers honoured Richey Edwards while Suede aired new material and looked to the future as their UK co-headline tour rolled into The O2 in London last night (Friday November 6).

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Earlier this spring the two bands confirmed that they would be joining forces once again – having first hit the road together in 1994, and later embarking on a run of joint North American shows in 2022 and a UK trek in 2024.

Com a ordem de apresentação alternando ao longo da turnê, os Manics subiram ao palco primeiro quando a turnê chegou à capital, abrindo com a euforia agridoce de 'Motorcycle Emptiness' – a primeira das quatro músicas de 'Generation Terrorists', enquanto a banda continua a provocar um anúncio futuro para marcar o 35º aniversário do álbum de estreia.

Pumped up to be playing in “fucking London Town on a Friday night”, the Welsh rock veterans leant heavily into their treasure trove of ’90s hit singles and took the time to pay tribute to missing former lyricist and guitarist Richey Edwards.

Bassist Nicky Wire introduced early single ‘Little Baby Nothing’ as “one of Richey’s best lyrics”, recalling fond memories of penning the song at the Askew Road home of late manager Philip Hall.

Another tribute came when Wire remembered the band’s first ever London gig at The Horse & Groom pub in London, telling the crowd that “there are three of us tonight, but are always fucking four”.

They then marked the recent release of their ‘The Holy Bible’ live album by performing the post-punk-noir ‘Die In The Summertime’ as a trio, without live backing musicians Wayne Murray and Dave Eringa.

Frontman James Dean Bradfield introduced Wire to the crowd as the man “in the red, white and green corner, in the title fight between him and the rest of the world” as he took over lead vocals for ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ from latest album ‘Critical Thinking‘, including a brief cover of Echo & The Bunnymen‘s ‘Bring on the Dancing Horses’.

The set concluded with the crowd uniting to clap-along to the band’s first Number One single ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’.

Suede made an explosive opening with the one-two punch of new album highlights ‘Disintegrate’ and ‘Antidepressants’ before the glam-punk rush of the iconic ‘Trash’, ‘Animal Nitrate’ and ‘We Are The Pigs’ ignited The O2 as the animated and elastic frontman Brett Anderson squared up to the front rows and performed some astounding acrobatics by swinging his mic around to Olympic standards.

Other surprises came with the tour debuts of ‘Everything Will Flow’ and ‘Still Life’ – the latter delivered stripped back with just Anderson on vocals and guitarist Neil Codling on piano, introduced as a fond look to the past despite being an “anti-nostalgia band”.

That sentiment was echoed as they aired the punk-driven new song ‘Tribe’.

Falando com a NME no mês passado, Anderson explicou que seu próximo disco aborda fortemente “tribes and belonging”.

Ele continuou: Quando começamos a escrever, foi um pouco como o anarcho-punk na verdade. Foi isso que achei que era a paralela, mas ainda não sei. Acho que é importante transmitir de forma ampla e dizer que é um gênero porque ajuda as pessoas a entenderem essas coisas.

When you’re talking about a record, when you’re messaging a record, it’s got to be in very simplistic terms. It’s a very broad brush, it’s a very blunt instrument.

Other set highlights came with the epic ‘She Still Leads Me On’ being dedicated to all the mothers and sons in the audience, along with the huge sing-along closing of ‘Metal Mickey’ into ‘Beautiful Ones’.

Manics and Suede’s remaining UK co-headline dates are below. Visit here for tickets and more information.

NOVEMBER 7 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham 11 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham 12 – International Centre, Bournemouth.

Speaking to NME ahead of their North American tour with Suede in 2022, the Manics’ James Dean Bradfield recalled their joint 1994 trek, when the Manics were promoting their seminal third album ‘The Holy Bible’, and said that the collaboration worked as the two bands “shared the same DNA”.

Last year, Suede frontman Anderson told NME: “The Manics are lovely boys and I’m very, very fond of them. They’re a fantastic band and it was a wonderful tour. There’s something very complimentary about the bands and their fans.

Nós tesselamos de forma bastante bonita, mas ao mesmo tempo não parece ser algum tipo de festa nostálgica de Britpop dos anos 90. Ocupamos território semelhante, mas diferentes o suficiente para serem complementares.

As well as talking to NME about revisiting ‘The Holy Bible’ last month, Manics also told us about plans for new material and what they’ve been working on in the studio.

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