GIG NUMBER TWO
Who
The Manics came onstage to an insane welcome with an explosive moshpit for then-current single If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. This was followed by what was largely an excellent greatest hits set, with only the four (soon to be) singles from This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours played in the new material department. The moshpit was truly insane, never relenting to the end. It was my first pit, and it had rarely been so mental since! The band also seemed to be on fine form, although apparently Nicky wasn't very well and spent some of the set "crawling on the stage on all fours due to being sick six times the previous night" according to something I've read in a biography. In all the havoc though, I never noticed! It may have been just a "low-key warm-up", but this was a fine show indeed.
Mark: 8.5/10
Manic Street Preachers
Support
Mogwai
Where
Stoke Trentham Gardens
When
21st September 1998
Price
£14.00
Who with
Holty
Position
In the moshpit
Comments
And so the Manics were the only band deemed good enough to get me out again after SFA in 1997. Stoke is quite local and I figured that this show was a rare opportunity to see the MSP in a small venue so I was thrilled to actually get tickets with no problems! After getting there and realising the gig would take place indoors rather than in the grounds we joined the queue and got a fairly decent spot around the middle. Mogwai, despite their amazing name, opened the show with what remains one of the poorest performances I've ever witnessed. It took about ten minutes to realise that it was their set and they weren't just soundchecking, and that nicely sums up the pointless meandering nature of their live show. Heckles of "fuck off Mogwai" quite rightly circled around the venue, apart from a few nuts who were going mental to it! They didn't even play Summer, the one track of theirs which I knew and, even if they might be good on record, this show has put me off them for life! And to think how closely linked with SFA they are too.
Setlist
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Australia
The Everlasting
Faster
La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
You Stole The Sun From My Heart
Kevin Carter
Tsunami
Motown Junk
No Surface All Feeling
Stay Beautiful
Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
This Is Yesterday
Yes
Motorcycle Emptiness
Everything Must Go
You Love Us
A Design For Life
n.b. This isn't strictly in the correct order
