The start of a glorious spring and summer of Manics adventures.

It was the Easter weekend of 2025. Spring was in the air, I had a great new job, I’d celebrated my 50th birthday the month previously, and the Manics were on tour. Could life get any better?

Since seeing the boys at PRYZM in February, their new album “Critical Thinking” had finally been released. I will admit that though finding it perfectly enjoyable, for me it didn’t match up to the heights of their previous record, the stirring and serene “The Ultra Vivid Lament”. “Critical Thinking” seemed less cohesive in comparison, with some sparkling highlights like the title track and the first two singles, but a lot of songs that just meandered pleasantly along without much to distinguish them.

But whatever energy and inspiration the album lacked, the tour made up for in droves. All my Manics gigs of 2025 saw the band in peak form, making it one of the best Manics eras I’ve ever participated in. My note in my diary after the first Shepherd’s Bush gig was indicative of the whole experience of being a Manics fan in 2025: ‘pure, solid, uncomplicated Manics thrills from start to finish’.

For the Good Friday gig, I took my usual spot in a Manics crowd, a few rows back Nicky-side. It took a few songs for me to warm up to the thrills of the evening, but that had nothing to do with the band. In my continued attempts to stave off the ravages of tinnitus and vertigo that had assailed me after seeing Liam Gallagher the previous year, I’d got myself some high end Loop earplugs, using the Amazon voucher I’d received as a parting gift from colleagues at the job I’d recently left. This was my first time using them at a gig, and they took a little getting used to, as I recorded later: ‘For the first bunch of songs I was getting my bearings with my new earplugs – they worked fantastically but could occasionally cause my own singing along voice to sound louder to me than the band themselves, a little disconcerting when you’re hollering along to “Decline and Fall” or “Tristesse” or “You Stole The Sun”.’

I got to grips with them in time to properly take in the two songs that they performed as a three-piece, reprising “She is Suffering” and “Peeled Apples” which had come across so well at PRYZM. Hearing these songs performed just by James, Nicky and Sean was a thrilling reminder of the power of the true Manics three, as well the spirit of Richey that remains a core part of the band.

After this came more forays into early Manics with “Motorcycle Emptiness” and “Little Baby Nothing”, but “Hiding In Plain Sight” was ‘the first mega highlight‘ for me. It sounded much better here than at PRYZM, where it had come across slightly awkward, but on this night it felt like a cosy moment of connection between the fans and Nicky, with his sheepish reluctance to take centre stage increasing his charm to maximum.

Another thrilling highlight for me was “Autumnsong” – a song so reviled in some quarters of the fandom I truly never expected to hear it live again, but then, the opinions of the hardcore are very often at odds with those of the general fandom, for it was well received by the crowd. This has become one of my all-time favourite Manics songs in recent years. When I’ve found myself feeling worn down by the complexities of close relationships, the line ‘wear your love like it is made of hate, born to destroy and born to create‘ became something of a personal mantra. To be able to holler those words along with the boys, something I never expected to get the chance to do again, was truly glorious.

“A Design For Life” ended the first half with an ecstatic confetti storm, and then it was The Acoustic Bit, and another glorious surprise – “Ready For Drowning”, half sung in Welsh. Another old favourite of mine which I never anticipated hearing again following the anniversary tour for “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours”, it always takes me back to the Reading Festival of 1997 when I heard it for the first time, and knew for sure that the Manics would continue to release more albums in the post-Richey world. It was truly stunning hearing it this night in Shepherd’s Bush.

“Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky” was darkly gorgeous as ever, but then “The Everlasting” took the gig into a new level, starting as an acoustic rendition but with the rest of the band joining half way through, building up the atmosphere into that soaring, aching guitar solo. It was truly breathtaking.

“Dear Stephen” was next, ‘the dreariest song from the new album, but fine’. But soon we were back into the classics with “Sleepflower”, that dark and dirty riff pummelling us all back awake, and “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough”, always much better when performed as a James solo vocal as on this night. I noted that “International Blue” was ‘a shiny gem‘, and “People Ruin Paintings” ‘kinda nice’. “Motown Junk” got extra points from me for being introduced with James giving us a bit of the “Rebel Rebel” riff (and I wonder, just what it would take for the boys to do a full Bowie cover? Surely they could rock a storming rendition of “Heroes” or “Moonage Daydream” one day!)

And then it was “Tolerate” to close, with the new singalong of the “ah oh oh oh oh oh” ending pummelling us towards another euphoric confetti explosion. I left this gig feeling so happy to be there where I belong, in a crowd in front of James and Nicky and Sean, shouting and pointing and hollering along to the soundtrack of my life, knowing that this was just the start of a spring and summer of Manics adventures.

Which of course continued the very next night. For Saturday’s gig I turned up a little later when the floor was mostly full, so I found myself a spot by the bar at the left. It was a little pocket of space I’d discovered at the packed Suede gig I attended there in 2019, and it turned out to be the perfect spot to enjoy this stunning gig. I had much more room to leap and dance than at my usual Nicky-side front rows, and a cool breeze wafted through at intervals, presumably from some unseen aircon unit. My view varied with crowd movements but most of the time I could see either James or Nicky clearly.

The crowd in my area was a bit subdued initially but I didn’t mind, I just enjoyed being there, immersing myself in song after song. “Tristesse” started to breathe life into the throng, and then we got “Australia”, always a shout and bounce monster, taking me back to my very first Manics gig December ’96, where it was the first Manics song I ever heard live.

Then things got a little bit exciting. From my diary: ‘Nicky suddenly had a large sheet of paper in his hands and was telling us with a coy sheepishness that just for us they’d do “Critical Thinking”. Massive cheers and bloody hell did it sound great, all of us shouting “what happened to your CRITICAL THINKING!” in between Nicky reading the verses off the sheet. As with “HIPS” the night before these Nicky songs really feel like they are for US, the faithful, bringing us all together as a united, dysfunctional family. To follow that with “Sun” was sheer genius, escalating the crowed into pure euphoria at only six songs in.’

The three piece section was next, dark and powerful as the night before before. Then “Motorcycle Emptiness”, “Hiding In Plain Sight”, “Autumnsong”, “A Design For Life” all came blasting to us at full arms-out point- and-shout glory. One slight downside to my side position was not being engulfed in the confetti storm for “Design”, but it was worth it to have such a great view of the crowd going wild.

The quietness of the acoustic set highlighted the other slight downside to my position in the crowd, which was that I could hear people behind me carrying on loud conversations during “Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky”. It got me thinking again of December ’96 and my first gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, where I got annoyed by someone singing along loudly to the very same song. But was still gorgeous, and “The Everlasting” immense and divine.

In the final stretch of the gig, the new songs provided a bit of a breather in between the escalating euphoria: the raw thrills of “Sleepflower”, spiky shininess of “International Blue” and utter pogoing mayhem of “Motown Junk”. Then it was “Tolerate”, and well, I’ll just let my one year younger self, fresh from the gig, describe it:

‘Then “Tolerate” may have been the greatest moment of my life, certainly the greatest of this year so far, so fully engulfed in the tune, like a jolt of energy that has lain dormant within finally being set free to join in with the same thing emanating from everyone else in the crowd. The escalating joy as you know the confetti explosion is near. So, so perfect. I thought to myself as I weaved my way out to the exit, this is as happy as I can possibly be. And I’m doing it all again in 19 days. This is truly turning out to be quite a year.’

I was very, very right about that.