Manic Street Preachers, The Ritz. 20th May 2019

I’ll be honest, Manics gigs can be hit or miss. The last time I saw them was the latter and I was fearful for tonight. I needn’t have been though, despite playing ‘This is My Truth Yada Yada’ in full (not one of my favourites), I was pleasantly surprised how these songs came across live. Beautifully sedate, often blistering. It was quite superb. As is always the way with these ‘We’re playing the album in full’ gigs, once the albums done the hits get rolled out... except this is the Manics, so it’s not so much hits as fan favourites as the bluster gets dialled up to eleventy-stupid. Songs of Generation Terrorists and Gold Against the Soul sound the best to me, but it’s hard to argue with this band when they’re on their game and tonight they’re top of the league! I’m bloody shattered though, time for bed!!