Arrived at the venue at 8:40, having been stuck on the North Circular for nearly an hour.
Managed to offload my mate's tickets to a tout, but with the support band having already finished I was only able to get a tenner for them.
As per the Rattus gig, the place was full, though Manics audiences tend to be a little younger and thinner than a Stranglers crowd.
The format for the gig was announced in advance, to save any confusion. First up they would play the whole of the new album, in order. Then after a 10 minute break we would get another hour of "hits".
Great idea and I can't imagine many other bands being able to do this.
The Journal For Plague Lovers set was well received - despite only being out a couple of weeks, everyone around me at the front seemed to know all of the lyrics.
James told us that this part of the evening was only possible thanks to Richey - huge cheer.
Stand out tracks were Jackie Collins, Virginia State, and the most Holy Bible-esque track All Is Vanity, which was stunning.
James played Richey's old guitar for this song - quite a poignant gesture.
Nicky Wire smiled from time to time, but was clearly in a lot of pain (which he later told us would be eased by champagne). Fair play to him for carrying on with the tour with a prolapsed disc.
The final track of this set is sung by Nicky - he did explain why he gets vocal duties, but some gobshite was shouting in my ear at the time so I didn't catch a word of it. I suspect the subject matter (suicide note) may have something to do with it.
After a brief re-jig of the stage and backdrop, off we go again, Motorcycle Emptiness, Australia, If You Tolerate This, Tsunami, Your Love Alone, You Love Us, Faster, and loads more.
Ocean Spray and Motown Junk were both superb, and the finale of A Design For Life with The South Wales String Quartet was truly rousing.
I'd love to see the view from the stage of a couple of thousand people singing "we only want to get drunk", and equally when James stands there and sings with just an acoustic guitar- very talented man with an amazing voice.
Bumped into Owen for a brief chat on the way out - both of us agreed this was the best we'd seen the Manics for many years, and the new songs sound even better live.
Top top band, back on blistering form. The standard has been set for Gig Of The Year - let's see if anyone can beat it.
