GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT
Who
In the end I did find the time to plan Lincoln and to identify the best attractions, although the weekend was almost derailed when my brother threw an almighty strop when he found out the train back would be going via Doncaster instead of Nottingham and almost pulled out of the whole thing for that reason?! Lincoln is hardly the easiest place to get to but we managed it in the end without too much fuss and the hotel was very nice, even letting us check in several hours early so we could get a head start on the sightseeing. When the advertised check-in time was a criminally late 3pm it does reduce your gratitude levels though! We went round several museums and the stunning cathedral and got a really good feel for the town and even tried finding the venue to avoid encountering any problems later. Maybe I should have learned my lesson by now and should stop trusting Google Maps for navigation but I'd like to know just how the hell somebody could have deliberately marked a venue on the map in a totally unrelated place! We went to the hotel to get changed then headed out again for tea, struggling to find somewhere suitable. As good as Wetherspoons may be, it now feels a little like going to McDonald's to me when I wanted a genuine Lincoln culinary experience! Nevertheless, a huge plate of nachos followed by a surf and turf is hard to complain about, and I then decided to dash up the hill back to the cathedral to take some night photos before it got too dark. Getting photos at sunset is a trick I've only recently learned as my camera simply can't cope with total darkness and I get much better shots at sunset. I was slightly later than I'd wanted but was still very pleased with the quality of photos. The cathedral was beautifully lit up and it saved us from having to go back there after the show. Also as we were only there for the one night I just didn't want to miss out! Despite being out of breath after climbing the steep hill (Steep Hill is actually the name of the road!) we made our way down quite comfortably. We'd located and scoped out the venue before tea and was frustrated to see a long queue outside despite the fact doors had been open for around 20 minutes.
I assumed this queue was due to a retarded policy as mentioned on their website of IDing everyone, which was doubly meaningless as the venue let in over 16s so everyone would still need IDing a second time before buying drinks anyway. The only people who'd get turned away on the door are huge fans of the band who happen to be on the wrong side of 16 and those who didn't think of bringing ID. I'm thoroughly sick of being ID'd all of a sudden, as it never used to happen when I actually was underage! I'd specially brought an ID with me to avoid being caught out by the venue and in fact I've taken to carrying it with me all the time to make my life a bit easier. Frankly I shouldn't have to do it, they should focus on troublemakers, not on your birth date or, even worse, what kind of shoes you may be wearing! Anyway, that's enough about getting ID'd, in fact they didn't even do it and waved us straight in without a search. However they did enforce an even gayer (and completely unadvertised!) policy of confiscating our tickets on arrival, mumbling that we'd get them back at the end... Once we actually got in we took a quick look at the merchandise stand, and British Sea Power had upstaged the Manics by offering table mats with wildlife photos on them! The venue truly was an engine shed and there was a standing balcony area at the back for fuckwits who wanted to stand as far away from the action as possible, and it also appeared to be a bar area open to all. However the room itself was rather nice, being a fair size and having decent views from every angle, and fortunately British Sea Power had yet to start so our timing had been impeccable! My brother got lost in the toilets though after somehow misunderstanding my instruction to "wait outside" after finding a sink area which, at a stretch, could be termed as outside, and proceeding to wait there for ten minutes! In fact he didn't reappear until after BSP took to the stage with a pre-recorded rendition of All In It. We still found a reasonable spot and it was now in the hands of the musicians to make it all worthwhile. However, I couldn't help but mourn the loss of BSP gimmicks such as the foliage, marching band bit and the hard hat, and in particular the moment when the fake owl is dropped on the guys head! This was in fact the third time I'd seen BSP and I was really starting to warm to them, in particular Remember Me! I'd even purchased the movie A Matter Of Life And Death after they'd opened their Flaming Lips support slot with a 10 minute segment of it. The good bits were a really cool song I didn't know, an impressive rendition of Waving Flags and when they all swapped places to sing No Lucifer. However, they seemed a bit miffed when their opportunistic shout-out to the Manics was received with barely a whimper and I was gutted when they left the stage after 20 minutes, having not even played Remember Me!
I mean seriously, what is the point in bringing a well regarded big name support band on tour with you if you're only going to let them play 20 minutes? Also the band could have done more to win us over if they'd played their finest song, and after I'd gone to the effort of learning their tunes I was shocked to only hear two I knew. In fact Do You Like Rock Music? was being treated as their "current" album so I do wonder what it was that they were playing! Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh on them, it probably wasn't their choice to play such a short set and the crowd seemed to have no interest anyway. Also, it was a damned sight better than Elbow or Mogwai, the previous Manics supports, had been, although they do form an intriguing trilogy of bands considered to be "creditable" but who were pretty darned poor when wheeled out in front of a Manics crowd! After BSP finished we decided to head a bit further forwards and to the right so we'd be closer to Nicky. We also realised that there was a curtain in place and wondered what would be behind it, as well as what song the Manics would choose to open their set with. It was pleasant that the DJing was quiet so you could actually have a conversation, but the wait was rather dull, and the best song played was Out Of Time by Blur. A cheer greeted the arrival of Nicky's feather boa draped mic stand and after a lengthy period of waiting and unnecessary fiddling with the instruments by the roadies the lights finally went down and the curtain dropped to reveal an amazing theatrical backdrop featuring glass-covered mannequins, two Welsh flags and general niceness. In fact due to the light show throughout we wouldn't really see this backdrop properly again! The band quickly launched into You Love Us which was a powerful choice and it went down a storm. Sadly they cut the original "we live in urban hell" ending off it but it was still a strong statement of intent. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough saw James duet with himself before Motorcycle Emptiness kept up the momentum. It was also the first of numerous videos I took thanks to my camera. The trick had worked very nicely for Macca but because the Manics were rather loud and it was indoors most of the footage came out badly with poor sound quality. Also many of the photos I took came out blurred as it was too dark. I had a camera with me largely to take photos of Lincoln but I've now learned a valuable lesson that it's not really worth trying to film a band at a gig! Jackie Collins Existential Question Time was the first non-single played but it definitely deserved its place at the adults table, being the best song from the Manics strongest L.P. since The Holy Bible! Roses In The Hospital was the first completely unexpected delight and I only remembered afterwards that it had been a single at the time.
This Is Yesterday was drawn out into a bit of a drone whereas From Despair To Where was another pleasant surprise from the well-represented Gold Against The Soul album. James spoke about how he'd wanted to look like Springsteen back in '93 whereas Nicky used to wear a rather fetching Dorothy Perkins dress. Annoyingly for me (but perhaps thankfully for anyone reading this!) I haven't got round to writing this review until several weeks after the event so my record of the banter has already faded. I recall that James had had a walk around so praised Lincoln as a lovely place which the band had never been to before. Also Nicky told us that he and Sean had had the idea of letting James go back to Cardiff to shoot the new video all by himself, leaving them in Manchester to hang around. In fact he ended up buying James a guitar as compensation ("£1000 worth of guilt!") which was given its first ever public airing for the amazing Autumnsong, which is probably the best Manics song of the last decade. Sadly they didn't tell us what the next single would be, but I later learned it was to be Some Kind of Nothingness, which was the next tune played. James also sung this as a duet with himself, proclaiming that Ian McCullough was in South America or somewhere, making me wonder how he appeared in the video apparently walking around Liverpool! The Masses Against The Classes was introduced as their other number 1 single and was shorn of both its intro and its outro, the evening generally being one of few flourishes beyond what was on the record. Hazelton Avenue was the first truly unnecessary tune but it's hard to begrudge the band a few newbies amongst this tidal wave of hits, and they more than made up for it with a powerful If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next which featured all of the expected instrumental noises. The time had now come for the band to leave the stage so James could do a customary acoustic section. I may have preferred to hear a full-on rendition of La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) but it was also the only decent quality video I filmed in the whole night thanks to it being acoustic! You Stole The Sun From My Heart was the other acoustic cut and I still simply do not like it, but it was good to hear a different take on it. The band returned for a turbo-charged Faster which was dedicated to Richey and remains a mandatory element of any decent Manics gig. Ocean Spray was the sole representative of Know Your Enemy and simply was a waste of space, the only point of interest being that the keyboardist did the trumpet solo. Still, I think Kevin Carter would have been a better choice, yes? Golden Platitudes was another unnecessary choice from the new album, and I suspect that A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun or Don't Be Evil would have been much more appreciated? Suicide Is Painless (Theme From MASH) was a delightful surprise and it strangely enough seems to have become one of my favourite Manics songs. It's particularly interesting as I simply hated the film and have never watched the TV series, yet I intend to watch it all someday and see what all the fuss is about.
Motown Junk would have been an excellent set closer and I hope the band never tire of playing it. However the band continued with Tsunami which saw a couple of twats push in front of us to ruin the atmosphere. There of course had been plenty of big heads in the way but up to that point we'd stopped most twats from pushing in, and in fact these may have been the same guys who'd tried pushing in earlier then, when we only let one of them in then closed ranks, they had retreated. James took a moment out to introduce the band, including a young guitarist who was hidden at the back and a keyboardist on the right, all of them being sure to leave Richey's space empty. James also explained how the band had never in their twenty years done encores. This strictly wasn't true as they'd done encores in Cuba and at the Millennium stadium but it helped to make us understand that they wouldn't be coming back. Indeed it's hard to argue with this policy, as they'd played a reasonable length of time and pretending to finish then coming back onstage is pretty tedious, even if getting a breather can be nice sometimes! Nevertheless, they closed predictably (but quite rightly so) with A Design For Life, which amazingly enough was the only cut from Everything Must Go. For some reason James wished us a great Christmas several times over but it was a nice way to finish. Sadly though the good feeling was wiped out by the incompetence of the venue. At first I wondered why they hadn't simply opened all the fire doors to let us out. The queue and wait was tiresome but I then remembered that I needed to get our tickets back. After gradually edging forwards and reaching the exit I was abruptly told that they had no more tickets and think I showed great restraint in not punching anyone. I mean, seriously, how the fuck can they have no more tickets, unless they'd been handing them out by the fistful to those who went out first? And who would be selfish enough to grab more tickets than what they'd had? And why the hell did they insist on taking the tickets from us in the first place?!? The incompetence of the Nazi cunts and their pointless rules put me in a foul mood which completely soured my enjoyment of the event. It was even more unfair as it would be the biggest fans (standing at the front) that'd leave the venue last and all of them would miss out on getting their tickets back! This would have been doubly unbearable if I had a full set of gig tickets, thankfully as I'd thrown away my first ever ticket (for SFA) and had had a few taken from me (fuck you Leeds and Reading festivals!) it was a collection which was incomplete anyway.
I dread to think how gutted I'd had been if I had maintained a full set and this incompetence had taken that record from me. If anybody from Lincoln Engine Shed is reading this I'd just like to say fuck you and your policies which served no purpose and distracted us from an otherwise good show! As well as the aforementioned ID issue and queues, another annoyance was that a 10pm curfew had been in effect. This made no sense at all as it was a Saturday night and there appeared to be no residents anywhere near the university buildings of the Engine Shed. This made me wonder whether BSP had been forced to cut their set short to accommodate this similarly pointless rule. As it was so early we grabbed a McFlurry then watched Live At The Apollo on TV and the memory of the gig has quickly faded, although my ears were whistling for a while. Although the Manics barely put a foot wrong, annoyances had taken the shine off the evening. Also the band hadn't truly inspired me as better acts (The Flaming Lips, Gogol Bordello etc etc) do live, as they'd pretty much just turned up, played lots of fairly good songs then finished. In fact their setlist was pretty amazing considering this wasn't a greatest hits tour. The most frustrating omissions were P.C.P. and Australia. Although I can't fathom why they don't play Australia every night, it was a bloody good setlist for a band with so many hit singles and a stonking ten albums to choose from. It was surprising that Everything Must Go, Know Your Enemy and Journal For Plague Lovers had been represented by just one song each, but perhaps less shocking that nothing from Lifeblood had been played! The next day the city of Lincoln was shrouded in a layer of fog and we paid a visit to the castle before embarking on the epic train journey back. First we went south to Newark. Then we waited an hour and had a quick look round, noting that Newark has an impressive town square. Next we went north to Doncaster. Then we waited an hour and had a quick look round, being shocked that Doncaster has a lovely shopping centre and a Minster! We then headed south to Birmingham before finally catching a train north and to home! I then typed up some notes for the review and it is only three weeks later that I'm now typing it all up to form a (hopefully) coherent review. The photos of the city had all turned out rather beautifully, although the same can't be said of those from the gig. In fact the best one I took appears above. The combination of Lincoln sightseeing and Manics gig had worked a treat and the two events together had helped to make this a fantastically worthwhile weekend. It's a shame about the fuckwits at the venue detracting from the occasion, but it is only right to speak out about bad policies as only by speaking out can we have any hope in standing up to the man!
Mark: 8.0/10
Manic Street Preachers
Support
British Sea Power
Where
Lincoln Engine Shed
When
16th October 2010
Price
£26.50
Who with
Alex
Position
Towards the front
Comments
Amazingly I hadn't seen the Manics since 2001, even missing the chance to see them play Wolverhampton touring the rather excellent Journal For Plague Lovers album. They'd been rather disappointing last time around and I just wasn't motivated by the thought of seeing them and I felt I needed a break from the band. I figured that the time had now come to see them for a fourth show and for what I fully expect to be the last time. Nevertheless I wasn't keen on a trip to Birmingham, and it's a damned good thing I didn't take the easy option, as MSP cancelled the Brum show due to illness and rescheduled it for a date I'd be out of the country anyway! Seeing Gogol Bordello in Nottingham and HMHB in Shrewsbury had given me a taste of combining travel with live music but proved quite frustrating as I didn't have time to see the places. However I reversed my logic and looked at the shows which were on Friday or Saturday nights then asked myself if I was interested in travelling to those places. Lincoln was an excellent choice, being a city quite far out of the way and arguably not worth visiting specially. I could say the same about seeing the Manics too, but when the ideas were combined the scheme seemed hugely enticing, and it certainly proved an excellent choice. We booked months in advance and I'd quickly set my heart on the idea to the extent where even the rip-off hotel prices didn't put me off. The compromise made was simply to travel on the Saturday and stay only one night, but I felt that could be done without having to rush. In fact I didn't have much time to prepare, as my thoughts were firmly focused on a trip to Poland which itself I hadn't really had much time to organise! I concentrated on hearing the last three albums (Send Away The Tigers, Journal For Plague Lovers and Postcards From A Young Man) and was impressed with how the Manics had re-energised themselves, if slightly miffed that Know Your Enemy is now talked about as a flop when the bloated This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours was the real low point. Lifeblood is harder to judge as it had real beauty to it, yet at the same time I acknowledge it's not an album to get excited about. Nevertheless, even Postcards From A Young Man had failed to set the chart alight and "to feel forgiveness, you gotta forgive" is a truly awful lyric which almost derailed the whole album in my eyes!
Setlist
You Love Us
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Motorcycle Emptiness
(It's Not War) Just The End Of Love
Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
Roses In The Hospital
Postcards From A Young Man
This Is Yesterday
From Despair To Where
Autumnsong
Some Kind Of Nothingness
The Masses Against The Classes
Hazelton Avenue
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh) (Acoustic)
You Stole The Sun From My Heart (Acoustic)
Faster
Ocean Spray
Golden Platitudes
Suicide Is Painless (Theme From MASH)
Motown Junk
Tsunami
A Design For Life
