Manic Street Preachers are national treasures

Manic Street Preachers

Birmingham O2 Academy

review by Chris Leggett

NEARLY 25 years after the Manic Street Preachers formed, the once controversial Welsh trio are close to becoming national treasures.

Nearly all their contemporaries have faded away but the Manics still release records of a consistently high standard and put on a memorable live show.

Last night's storming set in Birmingham was rescheduled from October when singer James Bradfield was too ill to perform.

This time he was suffering from the flu but still put in a powerful performance as his band mixed their impressive back catalogue with the best of new album Postcards From A Young Man.

A rattling run through opening number and early single You Love Us set the standard for the crowd pleasing set.

Fans then got the chance to sing along to favourites such as Your Love Alone Is Not Enough and Motorcycle Emptiness.

New songs (It's Not War) Just the End of Love, Golden Platitudes and Some Kind Of Nothingness sounded strong live, fitting in alongside older favourites such as Roses In The Hospital, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and Ocean Spray.

Almost every album in their career was covered as the band played a greatest hits set, taking in the likes of Faster, Motown Junk, Autumn Song and Everything Must Go.

Bradfield's solo acoustic version of You Stole The Sun From My Heart was among the highlights, although the band's dull cover of Suicide Is Painless (Theme from MASH) has not stood the test of time.

Bradfield even performed an acoustic version of Wham's Last Christmas to raise the festive spirits.

To the delight of the audience, bassist Nicky Wire reminisced about the band's early show at Birmingham University in 1990 before later showing off a T-shirt he had bought in a pre-show shopping trip to Selfridges.

The band closed with their defining single Design For Life, which provided a triumphant cue for another mass singalong.