• Reviews

• All
• Music
• DVDs
• Live
• Cinema
• TV
• Books
• Comic Books
• Video Games

May 06, 2025 By Dom Gourlay Photography by Adam Houghton Web Exclusive

After a difficult forty-eight hours that saw nearly 700 Reform councillors newly elected - thus confirming the rapid rise of the far right in UK politics - a band like Manic Street Preachers is more relevant than ever in 2025. With a fifteenth album (Critical Thinking) out earlier this year that’s received a wealth of critical acclaim from various publications including a more than respectable 8/10 from Under the Radar, this tour couldn’t have happened at a more appropriate time. It also speaks volumes for the band’s omnipresent popularity that every show sold out within days of tickets going on sale, which is no mean feat during a cost of living crisis that’s seen poverty on the increase with no real light at the end of a very dark tunnel. From despair to where exactly?

With its industrial backdrop and ornate interior decor, Manchester Apollo is the perfect setting for tonight’s show. A venue steeped in history having initially opened its doors in the late 1930s while having hosted pivotal shows by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones among others before its rebranding as the O2 Apollo back in 2010. Every corner of the 3500 capacity room has a clear vantage point, even up in the seated Gods which is where Under the Radar finds itself this evening.

As has so often been the case with the Manics, their choice of supports throughout the Critical Thinking tour has provided an opportunity for several young bands such as Cardiff four-piece Slate and fellow Cardiff-based outfit Adwaith. Tonight is the turn of South London trio Honeyglaze, a band who’ve been hotly tipped to break for a couple of years now. Fronted by singer and guitarist Anouska Sokolow, Honeyglaze are an interesting anomaly. Playing a short set mostly consisting of songs off 2024’s Real Deal long player, there’s actually more going on sonically for a three-piece than many newcomers to their wares would have probably expected. “Don’t” has an air of Pavement about it while the delectable “Pretty Girls” and jaunty “Hide” recall Courtney Barnett and Adrienne Lenker respectively, in structure at least. Before introducing the last song, bass player Tim Curtis nervously thanks the audience for listening attentively. Not that we’d have it any other way, and on this form Honeyglaze might be headlining bigger venues themselves in the not-too-distant future.

While the dust has barely settled on Critical Thinking, there has been talk as to whether this might be Manic Street Preachers last album. Probably due to one of their most recent t-shirt designs, which lists the band’s fifteen albums in chronological order which maybe hints at some kind of finite closure at the end. Nevertheless, the band seems in fine fettle here, reinvigorated even despite the tragic passing of lighting engineer Conor Biddle last month while long-term touring member and keyboard player Nick Naysmith is also absent for these shows, replaced on this tour by another longtime associate and studio wizard Dave Eringa. As the three core members take the stage, singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and bass player Nicky Wire in their customary positions centre and right (facing) respectively, the left hand side left vacant ever since the disappearance of Richey Edwards thirty years ago. Drummer Sean Moore occupying his place behind the kit flanked by touring guitarist Wayne Murray over his right shoulder.

Launching into a celebratory “Decline & Fall” off the new album. The obvious bridge between Critical Thinking and its predecessor The Ultra Vivid Lament, sonically if nothing else. It proves to be a triumphant owner with the chorus being screamed back at Bradfield as is the norm at Manics gigs. “Enola/Alone” off fourth album Everything Must Go follows suit, providing a timely reminder of what a groundbreaking record that was, not to mention timeless considering it celebrates its thirtieth birthday next May. The band’s “baggy” moment comes next, “La Tristessa Durrera (Scream To A Sigh)”, a song that was influenced by the Happy Mondays at a time when the Manics weren’t averse to covering Shaun Ryder and co (“Wrote For Luck” appeared on the b-side of follow-up single “Roses In The Hospital”).

What has been interesting about this tour is the setlist, which has changed every night and at times introduced surprise songs no one expected - for example, last night’s show at the same venue saw “P.C.P.” off third album The Holy Bible returned to the set for the first time in a decade. So, it was a pleasant surprise to hear Everything Must Go favourite “Australia” in the flesh for the first time in a while. So much so that most of those seated around us stood to show their appreciation. With such an extensive back catalogue spanning three-and-a-half decades to choose from, it’s never going to be easy to please fans from all eras. But tonight’s pristine mix of hits, deep cuts and songs from the new album really hits the spot.

As touring musicians Murray and Eringa leave the stage, James Dean Bradfield introduces the next two songs as a tribute to Richey Edwards, playing as a three-piece, “because we’d like to think the four of us were still together playing these songs.” Both “She Is Suffering” off third album The Holy Bible and “Peeled Apples” from 2009’s Journal For Plague Lovers are rapturously received, even by those perhaps more familiar with the band’s more radio friendly moments. Later in the set, Gold Against The Soul opener “Sleepflower” is played with all the ferocity and panache that heralded its arrival back in 1993. While Bradfield’s acoustic segment marries a fiery “This Sullen Welsh Heart” off 2013’s Rewind The Film into a poignant rendition of “This Is Yesterday”, the second and final number given an airing from The Holy Bible this evening.

Struggling with a throat virus, Bradfield battles on regardless. Aided and abetted by an audience that’s in full voice throughout, particularly when “the hits” arrive, which they do at regular intervals in the shape of “You Stole The Sun From My Heart”, “Motorcycle Emptiness”, “Design For Life” (now a mid-set anthem rather than grand finale of previous years) and “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” to name but four. A semi-acoustic rendition of “The Everlasting” - its third verse proving particularly pertinent (“The world is full of refugees/They’re just like you and just like me/But as people we have a choice/To end the void with all its force”) to the present - half of it played solo by Bradfield, the other half joined by the full band ends up being one of the evening’s highlights.

Of the five songs off the new record played this evening, the two featuring Nicky Wire on lead vocals strike a chord. Prefaced by a wistful first verse and chorus of Echo & The Bunnymen’s “Bring On The Dancing Horses”, “Hiding In Plain Sight” might only be a few months old, but it’s already become a firm live favourite with the fans. While the album’s title track “Critical Thinking” finds Wire in sprechgesang mode, reciting lyrics off sheets of A4 paper (a la Mark E Smith) as the music builds up intensely around him. The other two songs off Critical Thinking - “Dear Stephen” and “People Ruin Paintings”, introduced by Wire referencing the recently damaged Rothko painting at Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen - display the Manics at their most plaintive, considered and measured.

For the grand finale, “You Love Us” makes a welcome appearance for the first time on this tour, Wire telling a story about the first time the band played in Manchester back in 1990, and how they’d played sixteen of the city’s venues since. Before a rabble rousing “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” brings the show to a dramatic close.

Fifteen albums in and entering their fortieth year together as a band, Manic Street Preachers are still one of the most potent live forces on the planet.