MANIC STREET PREACHERS & SUEDE LIVE AT EDINBURGH CASTLE

★★★★★ (5/5)

MANIC STREET PREACHERS PERFORMING AT EDINBURGH CASTLE
PHOTOCREDIT: CALUM BUCHAN

This double headlining tour was my first time ever at Edinburgh Castle as a venue, I’ve never even been to the tattoo before!

It’s probably the most impressive walk up to a venue I think I’ve ever had, perched high above the city at the end of the Royal Mile, as settings go it takes a lot to beat.

Suede and the Manic Street Preachers rolled into town on their joint headline tour. They have been taking it in turns to be the opening and closing act. For this venue Suede were on first the Manics second (did Suede want to watch the end of the football? Who knows?). Both these bands feel a common affinity with each other, having come out in the 90’s but never having been part of the Britpop scene they have both built their own unique identity and following. They’ve both suffered their well-documented setbacks, with the Manics still playing homage to Richey Edwards and Suede losing Bernard Butler who didn’t want to be in the band anymore just as they were really taking off.

I’ve seen both bands before so I knew how good this would be, but this was an interesting opportunity to contrast their styles in the same show. I like this idea of two big bands touring together as its great value for the fans, who’s next? A reformed Oasis with Blur? Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet? The possibilities are endless!

Anyway, the one set back I can see to this approach is not everyone is a fan of both bands, the people next to me were highly animated when Suede were on but mostly just sat there during the Manics. Some people weren’t so up for Suede but loved the Manics. Most were there for both but not everyone.

Before I go any further, I have to be clear that I think Brett Anderson is one of the best frontmen this country has ever produced, he confirmed this again at this gig. He works incredibly hard to bring the crowd in, make them part of the show and to try and make sure everyone is having a great time, he was everywhere, singing, dancing, twirling his mike around, going in the crowd (literally, he was probably 15 deep at one point) leaning on the crowd and, on two occasions going round the side of the crowd between the stands and the standing. Luckily for me this was my side of the crowd. He is a showman but he’s also, and let’s not forget this, a fantastic singer and the band write some excellent songs. When you have Trash, Animal Nitrate, Filmstar, The Wild Ones, So Young, and Beautiful Ones as well as countless others you are already on a winner. The band are the prefect foil for Brett, knowing when to take it up, when to slow it down, when to let him have his space and when to bring him back into the fold. The whole show was a thing of beauty. I, and many of the crowd, were in ecstasy enjoying what was the consummate front man performance.

After Suede thrilled us and Brett worked incredibly hard to get the crowd up for the night, there was a brief break while the stage was rearranged for the Manics.

They strolled out and didn’t mess about, treating us to what pretty much amounted to a greatest hits show. I don’t think they were quite as animated as Suede, but Brett is hard to live up to. Hitting us with a triple whammy opening of You Love Us, Everything Must Go and my own personal favourite, Motorcycle Emptiness they got the crowd instantly up for it. It was probably the best three songs to open a show I’ve seen in a long time, but they didn’t finish there, the next two songs were a well known theme from my Mash, you know the one, and You stole the sun from my heart. They also played Little Baby Nothing, Your love alone is not enough, A design for life, La tristesse durera, Walk me to the bridge (another favourite of mine) Tsunami and If you tolerate this then your children will be next among many others brilliant songs. There was a tribute to Richey, there was brilliant playing and singing, lots of crowd interaction and generally yet another brilliant show.

If I had to call it, I would give the night to Suede and Brett as I haven’t seen a front man put in that much work in a long time. His shirt was drenched by the end, his demands for the crowd to get involved got more insistent and he just blew me away. It is, however, a very tough call as both acts were excellent, and this was tremendous value for money. People I know in Edinburgh could clearly hear it from their gardens.

A fantastic venue (apart from the crush under the stands between the two acts), two brilliant bands at the top of their game and the forecast rain didn’t appear. Life doesn’t get much better than this!