It is said that the best music comes from conflict – them and us, from the slave songs of old through the civil rights movement into punk and then the fury at modernity unleashed at the beginning of the nineties with the likes of Nirvana and The Manic Street Preachers. The sloganeering, the razzamatazz, the mess of eyeliner and destruction – what was not to love? But after the disappearance of lyricist Richey James and the release of their cathartic opus Everything Must Go, something died in the Manics. The righteous anger, the lyrical fury, the screaming anguish – it all seemed to fade away, bit by bit. They broke the one and only commandment of rock music – thou shall ne’er be dullards. The sad thing is that we have never needed the Manics more. As the world rips itself apart at the seams, all we have to turn to for support are the pedestrian ballads of Coldplay or Bono’s smug rhetoric. The Arctic Monkeys might be fuming over ‘trackie bottoms tucked in socks’, but there is a big empty hole in the social consciousness of British rock music. And so that potted history of the Manic Street Preacher brings us right up to date with tonight’s gig – a James Dean Bradfield solo effort. Well, not ‘that’ solo – he has session musicians – lots of them! The Welsh crooner kicks of the night with Émigré, which, (like the Manics’ musical career) started so well but then went, ahem, a trifle dreary towards the end. After a few more decent solo efforts – singles That’s No Way To Tell A Lie and An English Gentleman, we get the lamentable Ocean Spray, one of the few Manics songs whose lyrics were written by Bradfield himself. Humble and unassuming..But I can’t claim that it isn’t rapidly turning into a damn enjoyable evening. Bradfield, who had been looking a bit haggard of late, now looks like he’s just stepped out of a health spa, his voice – that incredible One-Man-Welsh-Male-Voice-Choir of a voice – frequently borders on the sublime, and his unusually friendly banter with the crowd is a sure sign of a 37 year old at ease with his surroundings. Although his powerful vocals can easily fill up the Millennium Stadium, it’s at the intimate Masque Theatre that gives us a glimpse of the real James Dean Bradfield – humble and unassuming. A timely reminder that you don’t have to act like some brain dead moron to be a rock star. After ploughing through The Wrong Beginning, Bradfield covers Clampdown by The Clash - but all does not go according to plan. After the song, he apologises profusely for singing it incorrectly, before the rest of the band leave the stage for the acoustic section of the evening. | "We, the lucky few, are indulged with a solo acoustic version of 1996 classic Design For Life." | | Graham Hughes |
Solo versions of Manics classics This Is Yesterday and Kevin Carter follow - at this point, you’ve got to stop being such a folded-armed the-last-three-albums-were-crap critic and just bloody well start loving the fact that The Guy From The Manics is playing those classic songs in a venue smaller than the Glastonbury camera pit. Again apologising for his mistake on Clampdown (that most of us didn’t even notice!), we then get an extra special treat. Instead of set-listed Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky, we, the lucky few, are indulged with a solo acoustic version of 1996 classic Design For Life. Utterly wonderful - a special gig memory that’ll remain with the audience and I for years to come. Finishing off with From Despair To Where, Which Way To Kyfffin and the ethereal No Surface All Feeling, James Dean Bradfield demonstrated, if it was ever in doubt, that The Manic Street Preachers, were, in their day, the best band in Britain. More consequential than Oasis, more essential than Blur, more visceral than Pulp, more conscious than Suede and more commanding than Radiohead. Hell, maybe the Manics will return triumphant in the new year with a stack of new tracks that will blow our Arcade Fire-loving socks off. You never know... SETLISTÉmigré
That’s No Way To Tell A Lie
An English Gentlemen
On Saturday Morning We Will Rule The World
Ocean Spray
Run Romeo Run
The Wrong Beginning
Clampdown
This Is Yesterday
Kevin Carter
Design for Life
Still A Long Way To Go
From Despair To Where
Which Way To Kyffin
No Surface All Feeling | 
