17/12/11 - 02 Arena, London Gig News

[Refresher]

Originally Posted by cricri

Nicky, I love you.
Right, I'll write a proper comment when I come back home.

yes we know you love Nicky Have a safe journey home

[be_found]

Such a great gig, loved hearing Found That Soul and the Lifeblood singles (yeah I know the band hate that album but I adore it)

They really pulled it of, Nicky was very proud of James for remembering all the words.

[UEF]

Did anyone go to the pre-show/afterparty?

[Manicben]

All I have to say is, I'm sorry but they're still the best band around. I don't care it they've made a few songs I don't like so much, I'm with them all the way.

Lovely night.

Revol, James in sailor garb and Nicky smashing equipment made my night. Great to finally see Gruff too.

[markreed]

For me, the best Manics show I've seen since T In The Park 1999.

The setlist was immense : but did need some tweaks. It very much felt that they were trying to put the popular songs inbetween the unpopular/not-very-good-live numbers to keep the energy up, but it resulted in a stuttering audience reaction of "Shit Yes! FROM DESPAIR TO WHERE!" followed by "Empty Souls" and the boring "Indian Summer".

I can see why some of these songs aren't played often though : at the time stuff like "There By the Grace of God" was more tolerated than loved.

James missed out a lot of words presumably to keep his voice : I particularly noticed it on "Little Baby Nothing" and "Life Becoming A Landslide". Most of the pit were screaming "I Don't Wanna Be A man!" where JDB was keeping his mouth shut.

Audience for the first half was quite restrained. Lively for the second half. And it was the best "Motown Junk" I have ever heard. The down-the-front crowd was bonkers batshite bugnuts for it. And rightly so.

Best Manics gig I've seen this millenium, and, I think, there should be a DVD of it.

[Nikolai]

I thought it was a fucking triumph, even from up in the seats!

18,000 folks going ape shit to You Love Us was a sight to behold and nearly took the roof off the place and I can die happy, in another 100 years or so, now that I've seen/heard Revol live - it was fucking incredible. Ripped through the arena like a magnificent, malevolent, metallic motherfucker. Slash N Burn was ten tons of fun live too.

Some lovely banter and chatting from the boys too and I especially chuckled at Bradders little reminiscence about being in some dodgy B&B when they heard they'd got their first top 10 hit with MASH, hearing a couple 'banging away' in the next room and thinking, 'you might be getting laid, but I'm in the top 10 of the charts!'. Lovely stuff.

JDB in a sailor top was brilliant to see too and maybe it's time to put to bed any nonsense about the fuckers voice being 'gone' now eh? His singing was incredible last night and filled the 02 as if it was the Horse and Groom. Brilliant.

In terms of MSP arena gigs, that's my fourth and easily the best, definitely trumping the Nynex '97 show and about a million times better than seeing them at Wembley Arena on the Truth tour.

Snaffled some lovely merch in the form of a 'Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair' t and one with the Suicide Alley cover shot too. Nice mementoes from a night of Manic magic.

PS: surely they filmed that for a blu-ray/dvd? I saw cameras dotted around that might not just have been for the big screens, but not the normal filmed gig staple of, and forgive me for going all technical here, one of those mahoosive sticks with a camera stuck on the end wafting and panning over the mosh pit. Or don't film crews tend to use them anymore? Answers on the back of a postcard (for a 33 year old man).

[Industrial Symphony No.1]

Originally Posted by UEF

I really liked SWSS. It reminds me if the early days of me getting into the Manics

Was it just me or did all the KYE songs sound fantastic? Robeson was just so so beautiful, Gruff can come on and duet with James on that every time as far as I'm concerned. Just a gorgeous moment.

[Manicben]

I refuse to believe that the O2 arena is only 20,000 capacity. It feels the same as a 50,000 seater football stadium but with people on the pitch.

We stayed in the pub a little longer than usual and the queue was beyond belief. More people in it than I've ever seen at a normal Manics gig.

So proud of the band to have pulled such a crowd. There were many moments where I turned away from the band just to take in such a crowd singing along to such lyrics.

[dolphin]

I have to agree with this analysis, some huge triumphs and just a few ones that didn't quite work. SWSS did sound awkward while Nixon should have been played as a straight rock song as it went awry on the choruses when the drum machine sound kicked in.

As a generality, they seemed to me to play the faster songs at about the same tempo as the recorded versions. Usually, they speed up songs like You Love Us and Motown Junk quite considerably.

I loved the show!

Originally Posted by LA ex

Well, last night was pretty damn special. I had tickets right at the back and was slightly worried about the view, and whilst the band were obviously tiny (and the screens not big enough really), it did afford a great view of the light show which was spectacular at times (Faster, The Everlasting, etc).

All the live staples (ME, Faster, You Love Us, etc) were solid and amazing as always, although I do enjoy the additional orchestral intro to Motorcycle Emptiness.

Highlight of the night for me was definitely Revol, fifteen years and fourteen Manics gigs to see that! The extended breakdown and video were brilliant, and couldn't stop grinning throughout.

Empty Souls was great, I enjoyed She is Suffering and There by the Grace of God. Slash n Burn was the best I've ever heard live, although I half expected Bruce Dickinson to walk on stage and demand more cowbell!

Loves Sweet Exile was a bit disappointing really despite Bradders nailing the solo (and everything else he played), can be put back into hibernation for another seventeen years. TLORN didn't work, So Why So Sad was just wierd.

Roll on the DVD please....

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Manicben

So proud of the band to have pulled such a crowd. There were many moments where I turned away from the band just to take in such a crowd singing along to such lyrics.

I couldn't agree more. For a band as lyrically challenging as MSP to still be filling places like the 02 in their 40s is remarkable. This isn't Kasabian style nonsense rock! How many other bands would have the name 'Stalin' popping up behind them in huge letters on the big screen in an arena?!

Love 'em!

[Manicben]

I just remembered, I'm pretty sure I walked past the guy that is always in the line ups on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in the crowd last night.

[meganslastwords]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJbKz...ature=youtu.be
sorry that the picture is shaky

[tzb]

Originally Posted by Nikolai

PS: surely they filmed that for a blu-ray/dvd? I saw cameras dotted around that might not just have been for the big screens, but not the normal filmed gig staple of, and forgive me for going all technical here, one of those mahoosive sticks with a camera stuck on the end wafting and panning over the mosh pit. Or don't film crews tend to use them anymore? Answers on the back of a postcard (for a 33 year old man).

I can only speak for festival shows and the Biffy DVD, but they all use camera cranes. I don't know how else you'd get dynamic crowd shots (ie not just the same 20 people for the whole gig).

Glad everyone enjoyed it.

[gallafield]

Originally Posted by Manicben

I just remembered, I'm pretty sure I walked past the guy that is always in the line ups on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in the crowd last night.

Yes! You did. Somewhere on twitter is a photo that my flatmate took, of me but taken wide enough to sneak the buzzcocks man in. He smiles more when he's not in a line-up.

[Manicben]

Karen got one like that of me with a guy that looked liked Bob from Twin Peaks.