This was the final night of the Manics’ Forever Delayed tour in December 2002. And it just happened to be one of the best nights of my life.
The second night of 2002’s Christmas Manics weekend. A much smaller venue, and a much grumpier Wire.
Christmas 2002. The most wonderful time of the year, and the most wonderful time to be a Manics fan.
The three Manics gigs I went to in 2001 are all memorable for reasons other than the music.
Day two of 2001’s Manics Weekend is one I will never forget, but for all the wrong reasons.
My first Manics gig since the turn of the Millennium, on the eve of a turning point in my own life.
On Millennium Eve, there was no place I would have rather celebrated the dawning of a new era than in Cardiff, with 75,000 strangers, and the band I loved more than anything else in the world.
“Oh the Manics, my Manics, how easy it is for them to become Everything again.” The Manics were back, and in universe-conquering form. As usual.
“All I can say is, “All we love are lonely RECORDS!!!!” Oh yes.” My last gig of 1998. An overwhelmingly emotional and perfect way to draw the first chapter of my life in London to a close.
SCRUFFY STORMS 