It was a cold 8th October 1994 when the Holy Bible tour arrived at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, fast forward 21 years and it's a cold and wet 1st June 2015 outside the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, inside Manic Street Preachers are performing 'The Holy Bible' album in full. At least a couple of things have changed in 21 years, the quantity of camouflage netting has increased about ten-fold as it now covers four sides of the stage and extends out over the audience and more significantly there is a gap and no microphone stage right, where Richey Edwards once stood.
'The Holy Bible' is largely the words of the troubled, challenging but often astonishing mind of Richey Edwards. It covers themes such as prostitution, racism, suicide, The Holocaust, self-starvation and it contains lots of words, so many that to fit the meter of the songs they are spat out like machine-gun fire which increases the anger and intensity of listening to, and I assume playing it demands.
Rather than a support band tonight we have a DJ set from music journalist and Manics biographer Simon Price. The tracks played appear to be a Manics approved list consisting of Public Enemy, Big Country, The Stones, The Mighty Wah!, Magazine, Dead Kennedys, Guns'n'Roses and as a finale with a little local flavour, Black Sabbath which generates a sing along to 'War Pigs'.
The stage lights turn from blue to red and The Chemical Brothers remix of 'Faster' welcomes the band on stage dressed in a 2015 reboot of the military gear they wore in 1994. James Dean Bradfield approaches the microphone “Hello Wolverhampton. We are Manic Street Preachers and this is The Holy Bible”. The blistering guitar riff which opens 'Yes' starts the enthusiastic leaping down the front, the chorus of ' ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart' is sung back to the band with surprising vigour. James apologises for The Holy Bible not being a party album but promises a more celebratory second half of the show.
'Revol' a song about perceived emotional failings of a list of political leaders is dedicated by Nicky Wire to “ the high cheekbones and brilliant intellect of Richey Edwards who once stood on this very stage”. Richey gets another mention as James informs us that 'This is Yesterday' was written on Richey's guitar which he then uses to play the track.
I should mention the unassuming presence of Sean Moore who hammers away on his drum kit throughout the show, driving the live sound along and leaving space for James to solo over the rhythm. There's a fine example of Sean's playing on 'PCP ', the last track on the album, which is introduced by Nicky “ let's fucking punk this up, PCP”. As the song ends there's a collective exhalation and an emotional and physical escape from the intensity of the first hour as a stream of sweaty bodies head to the bars.
After a 10 minutes break James re-appears dressed in a more sombre jacket, shirt and tie for his regular solo spot, tonight it's 'The Everlasting' from 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', which James strums along to a click track and the audience sing most of the words.
The remainder of the band return now bolstered by regular contributors Nick Nasmyth on keyboards and Wayne Murray on rhythm guitar and backing vocals for the party section of the show. Nicky goes the opposite direction to James on the dress code with glittery face paint, a designer version of your favourite teenage denim jacket with band patches and studs on the shoulders all topped off with a white, sea captain's hat.
'Motorcycle Emptiness' revs the crowd up, Nicky is duck-walking around the stage like Chuck Berry during 'Walk Me To The Bridge'. The first surprise of the party set is the inclusion of 'Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll' which is the final track on their debut album and features a lengthy instrumental with a epic guitar solo.
A double whammy of 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough' and 'You Stole The Sun From My Heart' played live feel superior to the recorded versions as they become more of a celebration of the emotional and physical connection between the band and the audience, whether it's the call and response sing along of the former, or James and Nicky leaping along with the audience during the chorus drop “ but you stole the sun from my heart, you stole the sun from my heart” in the later. In fact the band have talked about “losing it” in the act of performance and these two tracks illustrate this perfectly.
It's an odd choice then to drop the atmosphere with 'Golden Platitudes' from ' Postcards From a Young Man' which is a pleasant, reflective tune , but feels like the party pooper in this set. Fortunately the guitar intro to Ozzy's 'Crazy Train' leads us into the confrontational, attention- demanding, snotty post-punk of 'You Love Us' with Nicky scissor–kicking along to the chorus.
“... may all your gods go with you, this is A Design For Life” inevitably ends the show for the final, arms in the air sing along to the anthem of class conflict and solidarity amongst the working class.
The split set highlights what remains so special about the Manics, that they manage to combine songs with some difficult, or confrontational themes like those on 'The Holy Bible', with the celebratory, big tunes played in the second half . If you can give people something which might make them think or question, and have a celebration whilst doing that, then that's the best of both worlds
Alisdair Whyte
