Review: Manic Street Preachers - Leeds Arena

Exactly 20 years to the day of this gig the Manic Street Preachers released the landmark album Everything Must Go, which they play tonight in its entirety.

A lot of bands these days are choosing to play key albums throughout at gigs and it works extremely well, especially tonight.

Everything Must Go was one of their most commercial albums and as the songs unfold you realise that they have stood the test of time: A Design for Life, Kevin Carter, the album title track and Australia are all still powerful tracks. The band perform them with enthusiasm and as you would expect with the Manics, plenty of attitude.

"What a place to be, Leeds on a Friday night" offers bass player Nicky Wire.

With his rock star poses and demeanour, he still adds a touch of glamour to the band. Guitarist James Dean Bradfield seems to have a new lease of life as he sings and moves around the stage with new vigour. The Leeds crowd are not going to be disappointed and in truth the band fed off the fans' energy

After playing all the tracks from Everything Must Go a 5 minute break follows, but it's not long before the music continues: Bradfield with the help of a trumpet player gives us an acoustic version of the Burt Bacharach classic Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. The simple arrangement brought a contrast to the first half of the gig.

They could have played a load of obscure tracks, but instead they decide to give the fans some of those other big tracks from their career: Motorcycle Emptiness, You Stole the Sun From My Heart, Roses in the Hospital and You Love Us, all please the fans. When you hear all these songs back to back you realise what a great catalogue of work the band have.

It will be interesting to see what their next move will be, although the band have recently released the official Welsh Euro 2016 anthem for the European Football games starting in France next month. Stronger Together is the title; tonight in Leeds the band were as strong as ever.