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Thursday 28 February 2008

Manic Street Preachers at The O2 Arena (London) with Klaxons, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, and The Cribs

4 stars (1 vote). Rate this concert

NME Big Gig

Venue: The O2 Arena

Millennium Way, Greenwich
SE10 0AX
London, UK
20090605-181236-351721

Recent activity

  1. Added to thin_white_line's gigography. 13 days ago
  2. The setlist for Manic Street Preachers was added by Gumgum2804. 17 days ago
  3. Removed from Jodeye's gigography. 23 days ago
  4. Added to hartjm's gigography. about 1 month ago
  5. Added to Max_Fu's gigography. about 1 month ago
  6. 3 people added this to their gigographies: neiljw, robheslop, and imsuth about 1 month ago
  7. A review with 4 stars was added by Gumgum2804. about 1 month ago

    "Organised to coincide with this year's NME Awards which were held earlier in the day in the adjacent O2 Indigo venue this was the magazine's first stab at a gig of this magnitude and it has to be said they almost, very nearly pulled it of.

    Kicking off proceedings were The Cribs, accompanied by rock royalty in the form of the one and only Johnny Marr they blasted through a short seven song set of their usual impressively spiky northern indie pop, with Ryan Jarman quite rightly pointing out that the venue may have cost £1 Billion to build but the sound was nevertheless shit.

    Next up Klaxons, also struggled with the shoddy sound set up, not helped in any small way by the fact that they looked like they would have preferred to be anywhere else in the world at that moment other than attempting to impress 15,000 people in an aircraft hanger in London.

    The atmosphere did start to build with the arrival of Bloc Party to the stage, a huge roar greeting the opening bars of Hunting for Witches before going on to play a mini greatest hits set that included Banquet, The Prayer, So Here we are, Flux (accompanied by a rather fetching laser lightshow) before finishing with Helicopter.

    But it wasn't until the arrival of The Kaiser Chiefs that a band grabbed the venue by the wotsits and made it work properly for them. Their explosion in popularity over the last couple of years has seen then regularly selling out venues of this size so it was not surprise that they weren't intimidated one bit and stormed through a set that included all of their biggest tunes along with two new songs, Never Miss a Beat and You Want Some History which both showed no real progression in the band's sound but if it ain't broke..........

    And so to the moment that about half of the room had been waiting for and the only real reason I bought a ticket, the arrival of tonight's headliners and this year's NME Godlike Genius Award recipients Manic Street Preachers. Preceded onto the stage by a impressive 20 strong band of pipers and drummers the band kicked off with Masses Against The Classes and we were off on a brief history of the Manics as for the next hour we were treated to some of their biggest hits, although sadly only Faster made it into the set from The Holy Bible, but I suppose you can't have everything. Surprise of the night was their brilliant cover of Rhianna's Umbrella which really should come with a health warning as all the way home and all day the next day all I had in my head were the words "Ela Ela Ela Ela Ela" on constant rotation.

    Watching the Manics headline this event was quite strange really, the atmosphere was nowhere near the intensity that you would usually find at one of their gigs as let's face it half of the people who had bought tickets had just come to see the other bands but for me it was like watching your favourite football team win the F.A. Cup after years of being written off.

    An acknowledgment of a band that have never compromised and have remained relevant over the course of their 18 year career. Even today the Manics are the only band out there making music in the UK who really have something to say about the world around them, or perhaps they're the only band that aren't afraid to say what they think.

    The band themselves looked genuinely pleased by it all, perhaps a vindication of their talents by a publication that hasn't always been friendly to them, but then they understand the need for the vicious side of journalism, the need to weed out the mediocre and the irrelevant from today's music scene.

    By the end of it all, glancing around this huge arena it was great to see that the majority of people had stayed right to the end and perhaps the boys had even made some new fans for themselves, as the first strains of A Design for Life signalled the end of this gig and perhaps even this chapter in the career of one of this countries finest, bravest and most intelligent musical forces."

  8. Added to Gumgum2804's gigography. about 1 month ago
  9. Ricey and MrsSloth added this to their gigographies. 2 months ago

Reviews

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  1. 20091006-194543-484429Gumgum2804 (about 1 month ago)

    Organised to coincide with this year's NME Awards which were held earlier in the day in the adjacent O2 Indigo venue this was the magazine's first stab at a gig of this magnitude and it has to be said they almost, very nearly pulled it of.

    Kicking off proceedings were The Cribs, accompanied by rock royalty in the form of the one and only Johnny Marr they blasted through a short seven song set of their usual impressively spiky northern indie pop, with Ryan Jarman quite rightly pointing out that the venue may have cost £1 Billion to build but the sound was nevertheless shit.

    Next up Klaxons, also struggled with the shoddy sound set up, not helped in any small way by the fact that they looked like they would have preferred to be anywhere else in the world at that moment other than attempting to impress 15,000 people in an aircraft hanger in London.

    The atmosphere did start to build with the arrival of Bloc Party to the stage, a huge roar greeting the opening bars of Hunting for Witches before going on to play a mini greatest hits set that included Banquet, The Prayer, So Here we are, Flux (accompanied by a rather fetching laser lightshow) before finishing with Helicopter.

    But it wasn't until the arrival of The Kaiser Chiefs that a band grabbed the venue by the wotsits and made it work properly for them. Their explosion in popularity over the last couple of years has seen then regularly selling out venues of this size so it was not surprise that they weren't intimidated one bit and stormed through a set that included all of their biggest tunes along with two new songs, Never Miss a Beat and You Want Some History which both showed no real progression in the band's sound but if it ain't broke..........

    And so to the moment that about half of the room had been waiting for and the only real reason I bought a ticket, the arrival of tonight's headliners and this year's NME Godlike Genius Award recipients Manic Street Preachers. Preceded onto the stage by a impressive 20 strong band of pipers and drummers the band kicked off with Masses Against The Classes and we were off on a brief history of the Manics as for the next hour we were treated to some of their biggest hits, although sadly only Faster made it into the set from The Holy Bible, but I suppose you can't have everything. Surprise of the night was their brilliant cover of Rhianna's Umbrella which really should come with a health warning as all the way home and all day the next day all I had in my head were the words "Ela Ela Ela Ela Ela" on constant rotation.

    Watching the Manics headline this event was quite strange really, the atmosphere was nowhere near the intensity that you would usually find at one of their gigs as let's face it half of the people who had bought tickets had just come to see the other bands but for me it was like watching your favourite football team win the F.A. Cup after years of being written off.

    An acknowledgment of a band that have never compromised and have remained relevant over the course of their 18 year career. Even today the Manics are the only band out there making music in the UK who really have something to say about the world around them, or perhaps they're the only band that aren't afraid to say what they think.

    The band themselves looked genuinely pleased by it all, perhaps a vindication of their talents by a publication that hasn't always been friendly to them, but then they understand the need for the vicious side of journalism, the need to weed out the mediocre and the irrelevant from today's music scene.

    By the end of it all, glancing around this huge arena it was great to see that the majority of people had stayed right to the end and perhaps the boys had even made some new fans for themselves, as the first strains of A Design for Life signalled the end of this gig and perhaps even this chapter in the career of one of this countries finest, bravest and most intelligent musical forces.

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