Manics Tour Will Go Ahead

Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire issued a statement via Myspace today explaining his lack of movement onstage at the band’s show in Llandudno last night and said that the band’s shows at London’s Roundhouse this week would go ahead. Rumours spread on fansites that the band’s tour would be cancelled after Wire, not one to shy away from a starjump or two onstage, appeared somber and statuesque at the group’s Llandudno Arena gig, at one point suggesting that those who were planning on going to see the band at London’s Roundhouse, where they’re due to play a three night run from tomorrow (28th) until Saturday, might want to reconsider.

Wire, though, today issued this statement via the band’s Myspace:

Hello everyone,

I would just like to apologise for the gig last night in Llandudno. I am trying to nurse a prolapsed disc through the tour and last night it went into spasm on stage. This made it virtually impossible for me to move, let alone jump. I desperately want to carry on the tour but it will mean a combination of standing still, sitting down on stage, back braces and painkillers. As you know standing still is utterly alien to me on stage I don’t want any sympathy but hopefully this will explain my lack of movement and general mood.
Thank you for your understanding

See you all at the Roundhouse.

Love from Nicky Wire

The shows sees the Manics perform two sets; one with ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’ performed in its entirety and then a Greatest Hits set following it. Last night they played:

Set One:
Peeled Apples
Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
Me and Stephen Hawking
This Joke Sport Severed
Journal for Plague Lovers
She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach
Facing Page: Top Left
Marlon J.D.
Doors Closing Slowly
All Is Vanity
Pretension/Repulsion
Virginia State Epileptic Colony
William’s Last Words

Set Two:
Motorcycle Emptiness
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
No Surface All Feeling
You Love Us
Tsunami
La Tristesse Durera
Faster
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Little Baby Nothing
Australia
Autumnsong
You Stole The Sun From My Heart
Motown Junk
A Design For Life

To read our review of ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’, click here. We’ll have a bunch of Manics goodies up on the site over the next week or so as they feature rather prominently in our upcoming issue… Ahem…