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Review by Rob.

Fan's set played at Sheffield's best venue .

Firstly we missed the support act yet again so let me tell you a bit about Johnny Boy. They take their name from a character in a Martin Scorsese film. they are a boy girl two piece who use drum loops and the like over guitars. Their music is poppy sixties influenced stuff and i quite like the quirky track 'You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve'. They have an eponymous album out on a minor label. There you go, I feel less guilty now. And just to flesh out this bit, why in Wacky Races did Dastardly and Mutley resort to trying to fix the races when they had the fastest car and always got miles in front before stopping to do their evil work. Surely they could just have carried on and won every race?

Sheffield Octagon is a great place to see a band. As a venue it does what it says on the tin. A large eight sided building is great for the acoustics and everyone gets a great view as the stage is quite high. I was alarmed to see in the daytime it is used as a venue for corporate roadshows, seminars etc. and has seats in. Well at 9.15 tonight no one was sitting as the Manic Street Preachers took the stage and launched straight into early classic 'You Love us'. The excellent title track of 'Send away the Tigers' follows. Third song in is 'Motorcycle Emptiness, its arguably their best song and its beautifully played tonight. Quite some start then. They settle down to a pattern of playing an old classic followed by a new song. This works well as the songs from the new album sound excellent and are well received by the audience, especially 'Autumnsong' and 'Rendition'. The new single 'Your Love Alone' sparks a mass singalong with its poppy refrains, though sadly there is no Cardigans guest appearance.

There are a few extra members onstage tonight. The regular keyboardist Nick Naysmith is still there and the band employ a second guitarist to free up James a bit. There is even a saxophonist at one point. The main players are in good form, Sean Moore does his usual solid yet quiet job behind the kit, and Nicky Wire is a blur of poses and pogos, as he eggs the audience to give a bit more. Mercifully he keeps his gob shut tonight for the large part. The star of the show however is very much James now a totally confident frontman. His guitar playing is excellent and he develops a neat line of banter with an audience member who shouts for some of their rarer tunes. His voice seems to get stronger with every tour.

Here is a question for you. How many top ten hits have the Manics had? Seven, Eight, Nine... No where near. It is actually 15, including 2 number ones and two number twos. It is testimony to the strength of their catalogue then that they only play four of these tonight. In their place come more select album tracks and early cult singles, such as 'Faster' and 'From Despair to Where?'. The traditional James 2 song acoustic set is special tonight. He gives us one of my top 3 manics tunes, 'This is Yesterday' and follows it up with a gem from 'Everything must go', 'Small black flowers that grow in the sky'. Then the band return and plough through a glorious version of the rarely played 'Sleepflower' and a cutting 'Little Baby Nothing', one of four tunes lifted from the seminal debut album. 'You stole the sun..' gets everyone jumping around and great 'lost' single 'Motown Junk' satisfies the bands older fans. 22 songs in and all too soon its over. They don't and never have done encores so after a quick introduction of the band 'Design for life' finishes the show off. This tune to my ears is the best song of the nineties and it still sounds fresh, frustrated and angry 12 years after its release. It is a great way to finish off a set that featured songs from all the band's albums, save the disappointing 'Lifeblood' I have seen a lot of gigs, but not many featuring a set list of this quality. Long may they continue to treat us.

The Manic Street Preachers played:-
You love Us
Send away the Tigers
Motorcycle Emptiness
Winterlovers
Faster
La trisessa Durera
Rendition
Ocean Spray
From despair to Where?
The second great Depression
Born to End
Freedom of speech won't feed my Children
Your love Alone
If you tolerate this your children will be Next
This is Yesterday (acoustic)
Small black flowers that grow in the Sky (acoustic)
Sleepflower
Autumnsong
You stole the sun from my Heart
Little baby Nothing
Condemned to rock'n'roll/Mowtown Junk
Design for Life

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