A View From The Back Of The Room: Manic Street Preachers & Suede (Alex Swift)

Manic Street Preachers & Suede, Utilita Arena, Cardiff, 04.11.26

At a time when Oasis are selling out stadiums, a co-headline tour with Suede and The Manic Street Preachers seems apt. Alongside Pulp, both bands appealed to a desire for cynical anti-pop that directly contrasted the braggadocios over-optimism of Brit-Pop.

If Definitely Maybe is where you went for escapism, then Dog Man Star and The Holy Bible were where you’d go to remind yourself that you were still being stamped on constantly from on high (Blur, perhaps naively, sought to court both camps).

The former spoke to lad-culture, while the latter two spoke to wallflowers, and outsiders. While they were all tarred, at first, with the flag-waving ‘brit-pop’ label, they reportedly came to despise the term. Theirs was a fiercely militant act, rooted in queer spaces and libraries. It should be no surprise then, that the acts performing tonight comprise two of my favourite 1990’s bands.

Suede (10) bear all the swagger and confidence of a band who have total confidence in their performance and songs. Brett Anderson is a vivacious presence, constantly jumping off stage to interact with the crowd, or leading the audience in a joyous choir of voices. 

While they barely address the crowd between songs, Animal Nitrate and Trash speak for themselves as yearning anthems about existing on the fringes of society, impervious to the sneering looks of strangers or the stories they tell behind your back.

That being said, Suede’s newer songs are equally affecting. While they are not as well renowned, they might as well be considering how much passion is poured into the performances of tracks like Disintegrate. One of the most moving moments comes with She Still Leads Me On. 

Taken from 2022’s excellent Autofiction record, the song is a moving tribute to Brett Anderson’s mother who died from cancer just as he was forming the band. It’s a piece that speaks to the messy, complicated nature of how love and grief persist in spite of a person’s imperfections. 

This, alongside the piano led performance of The Wild One’s makes this half of tonight’s show incredibly emotional. A sentiment that pays off in the closing moments of The Beautiful Ones where we are invited to sing along to the sardonic, yet euphoric chorus of ‘La La La’ which closes the song and the set. A difficult act to follow.

Manic Street Preachers (8) provide a brilliant show. Tearing through anthems like You Stole The Sun From My Heart and A Design For Life, there’s an elated feel to their set. James Dean Bradfield has long been one of my favourite frontmen, and he performs these songs perfectly, his remarkable range eloquently giving life to songs like Everything Must Go.

While many of these songs are reframed and given new meaning by political ongoings, they bear out as exemplary tributes to Welsh identity. The culture, places and people we all grew up with bleeds into these songs, imbuing every singalong with a sense of friendship in the face of adversity.

That being said, as you can probably tell from my score, this was not a perfect experience. To be absolutely clear, Nicky Wire is an icon, an incredible songwriter, and the Manics longevity is in no small part, due to him. All of that being said, he has grown far too confident in his (very limited) ability to sing with later releases. 

For this reason, the decision of the band perform Hiding In Plain Sight from their most recent album - the frankly underwhelming Critical Thinking – leaves many shrugging their shoulders and wondering what they are hearing. This reception, I hope, will be taken as an indication of the bands limits next time they visit Cardiff.

Paying tribute to Richie Edwards, at one point of the show James stands in the centre of the stage and plays the eternally sad This Is Yesterday, before transitioning into the mournful Everlasting. 

“There may only be three of us up here tonight, but we will always be a four-piece” Wire remarks at one point, signalling the permanence with which their fallen bandmate lives in these musicians’ minds. His presence is there in every moment from the visceral Slash And Burn to the spine-tinging Die In The Summertime.

As per tradition, The Manics close of If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. Its another song that feels increasingly relevant, with each passing injustice, and a reminder to carry the messaging in these lyrics into the world outside of concert arena’s. 

Indeed, while I began this review by talking about these bands place as anti-pop artists, it’s difficult to ignore the reality that they are now legacy acts. They would be the first to admit that. And yet, in spite of the time that’s passed since both bands sought to defy convention.

There’s something that rings true to people like me about their ability to capture experiences of struggling to find your voice, in some of the most beautiful songs ever committed to paper! Besides, if the beautiful ones get to cash in on their nostalgia, then so do we!