(no subject)
So I went to see the Manics on Monday, with my ex-girlfriend.
I find it hard to talk about the Manics without talking about Stacey. They're linked in my mind because they were linked so much in my teenage years. Stacey and I got into each other at the same time we got into the band. I can't hear The Girl Who Wanted To Be God without thinking of her. We had a happy relationship generally - she was my girlfriend as well as my best friend, if you didn't know - but it wasn't without its fraught parts. We broke up a few times in Year 11 (aged 15/16) but finally split for good in the March, and then I went out with Kate and then met Himself in the June.
We fell out when we were 17, due to a number of things but not least her drippy boyfriend Tom who irritated the everliving fuck out of me. His favourite band was the Dave Matthews Band, which I believe says everything you need to know about him. He is now a writer for the NME. Ha. Ha. Ha.
In 2005 Stacey found me on MySpace and I wrote about her here a couple of times, simply calling her S. I was still angry with her and was basically a bitch on my journal, while not having much to do with her in person. She was living with a minor indie celebrity at the time, but it broke up in the beginning of 2008. And then my dad died.
Funny how my life sometimes seems divided by that, into 'before' and 'after'. So many things that mattered before don't matter now. I suppose that's true for a lot of people.
Stacey didn't find out he'd died until the day of his funeral when she read about it in the paper. I didn't have Facebook at the time and she messaged me on MySpace saying basically, "I'm so sorry, I wish I'd known before because I'd have come to the funeral". I felt bad but in the confusion of the time I hadn't even thought to let her know. She then went on to say about how my dad was basically a dad for her too, since her own wasn't around, and that is really true, my parents had a lot of time for her.
We met up in person about two months after my dad died. It was a bit awkward but not bad and I remembered all the things I loved about her. Since then we hadn't actually seen each other but we text quite a lot and talk on Facebook. I'd say we're more than acquaintances but less than friends, if that makes sense? I'm one of only a few people from school she has on Facebook. When I decided a few months ago that I'd really like to see the Manics again, I wanted to go with her. We saw them together 3 times as teenagers, so it seemed only right. She said yes, and off we went.
We met in front of Leeds O2 Academy, which when I were a lass was Leeds Town & Country Club, where I saw my first ever gig. Blur, Feb 1997, tyvm. Stacey and I saw a few gigs together there, not least of whom was Mansun, who I'd forgotten all about until she mentioned it. It closed down for a few years and is now an O2 Academy, all blue lights and row seating upstairs. It isn't a bad venue, actually. It was the last place Sam and I saw Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, so it's special to me because of that.
Already waiting in the queue when we met, weirdly, was a girl we went to school with. She's now married and has a son named James, which is hilarious because of the Manics thing. She liked the Manics back then but she never seemed quite as hardXcore as us, so we bitched about her later. She wanted to get to the barrier and by the looks of her Facebook, she did. Stacey and I went for tea, because the support was British Fucking Sea Fucking Power who have about five too many members and from what we did hear played one song that only slightly varied in tempo for 30 minutes. Burgers and a drink were better than that shit.
Then! MSP! They came on about 9.15 and played constantly until 11pm except for two songs where Nicky and Sean went off, leaving James to play two songs acoustically. It was a nice mix of songs. They'd NEVER play my 'fantasy' setlist (because that would include Die In The Summertime and IfWhiteAmerica..., amongst other things) but it was a good mix for me. I enjoyed the gig SO much, it's one of the best gigs I've seen in AGES. I'd missed the familiarity of seeing a band that you've loved for fully half your life.
Set list:
(I did a Rachael [avriisme] and took the setlist and other babble down)
You Love Us (which I swear I've never heard live before)
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Motorcycle Emptiness (anyone else think James must be fucking sick of playing that riff by now?)
It's Not War, It's Just The End of Love
Jackie Collins' Existential Question Time (better live than on record)
Roses In the Hospital (ROSES! IN! THE! HOSPITAL! OMG!) (which Nicky dedicated to "the great man himself, mister Richard Edwards")
Postcards From A Young Man (which I LOVE!)
This Is Yesterday (!!!)
Everything Must Go
Autumnsong
Some Kind of Nothingness (to be honest all Manics songs could be called this, y/y?)
Into the Valley (a Skids song, it's a classic punk song that Graham Coxon ripped off in "Freakin' Out")
Motown Junk (where James now sings "I lauuuuuughed!" instead of "I laughed when Lennon got shot". Coward!)
Something I didn't know but it was melodic
[Some guys asking for PCP. James: "Fuck off, I'm not playing PCP". Lads: "Boo!" James: "Don't you fucking boo me! Fuckers!"]
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
[Nicky and Sean and the other people who are in MSP these days off for a nice cup of tea and a sit down, leaving James to be his lovely adorable self]
Stay Beautiful acoustic (ugh I nearly cried. I love Stay Beautiful so fucking much)
You Stole The Sun From My Heart (which reminds me of Himself :D )
[Nicky and Sean and others back on]
Faster (Faster!)
From Despair to Where (ugh, again, my HEART!)
Golden Platitudes
Suicide Is Painless (which I find painful, somewhat obviously. Stacey cuddled me)
Masses Against the Classes
Tsunami
A Design for Life
It was a hell of a set! James and Nicky still leap about like mad things (Stacey: "James is going to put his hip out one of these days") and they still love each other when doing the introductions, and they introduce those other people now, and there were a couple of nods to Richey which is nice, and and and. And I still love this stupid band.
This was Nicky's mic stand:
Image stolen shamelessly off Tumblr.
Simon Price had it right in his biography Everything when he said, "For those to whom the Manics mean anything, they mean everything".
Afterwards, Stacey had it perfect when she said, "I never stopped being a Manics fan, I just took a sabbatical." That's so, so true. I still love them and their loveliness.
I find it hard to talk about the Manics without talking about Stacey. They're linked in my mind because they were linked so much in my teenage years. Stacey and I got into each other at the same time we got into the band. I can't hear The Girl Who Wanted To Be God without thinking of her. We had a happy relationship generally - she was my girlfriend as well as my best friend, if you didn't know - but it wasn't without its fraught parts. We broke up a few times in Year 11 (aged 15/16) but finally split for good in the March, and then I went out with Kate and then met Himself in the June.
We fell out when we were 17, due to a number of things but not least her drippy boyfriend Tom who irritated the everliving fuck out of me. His favourite band was the Dave Matthews Band, which I believe says everything you need to know about him. He is now a writer for the NME. Ha. Ha. Ha.
In 2005 Stacey found me on MySpace and I wrote about her here a couple of times, simply calling her S. I was still angry with her and was basically a bitch on my journal, while not having much to do with her in person. She was living with a minor indie celebrity at the time, but it broke up in the beginning of 2008. And then my dad died.
Funny how my life sometimes seems divided by that, into 'before' and 'after'. So many things that mattered before don't matter now. I suppose that's true for a lot of people.
Stacey didn't find out he'd died until the day of his funeral when she read about it in the paper. I didn't have Facebook at the time and she messaged me on MySpace saying basically, "I'm so sorry, I wish I'd known before because I'd have come to the funeral". I felt bad but in the confusion of the time I hadn't even thought to let her know. She then went on to say about how my dad was basically a dad for her too, since her own wasn't around, and that is really true, my parents had a lot of time for her.
We met up in person about two months after my dad died. It was a bit awkward but not bad and I remembered all the things I loved about her. Since then we hadn't actually seen each other but we text quite a lot and talk on Facebook. I'd say we're more than acquaintances but less than friends, if that makes sense? I'm one of only a few people from school she has on Facebook. When I decided a few months ago that I'd really like to see the Manics again, I wanted to go with her. We saw them together 3 times as teenagers, so it seemed only right. She said yes, and off we went.
We met in front of Leeds O2 Academy, which when I were a lass was Leeds Town & Country Club, where I saw my first ever gig. Blur, Feb 1997, tyvm. Stacey and I saw a few gigs together there, not least of whom was Mansun, who I'd forgotten all about until she mentioned it. It closed down for a few years and is now an O2 Academy, all blue lights and row seating upstairs. It isn't a bad venue, actually. It was the last place Sam and I saw Ryan Adams & the Cardinals, so it's special to me because of that.
Already waiting in the queue when we met, weirdly, was a girl we went to school with. She's now married and has a son named James, which is hilarious because of the Manics thing. She liked the Manics back then but she never seemed quite as hardXcore as us, so we bitched about her later. She wanted to get to the barrier and by the looks of her Facebook, she did. Stacey and I went for tea, because the support was British Fucking Sea Fucking Power who have about five too many members and from what we did hear played one song that only slightly varied in tempo for 30 minutes. Burgers and a drink were better than that shit.
Then! MSP! They came on about 9.15 and played constantly until 11pm except for two songs where Nicky and Sean went off, leaving James to play two songs acoustically. It was a nice mix of songs. They'd NEVER play my 'fantasy' setlist (because that would include Die In The Summertime and IfWhiteAmerica..., amongst other things) but it was a good mix for me. I enjoyed the gig SO much, it's one of the best gigs I've seen in AGES. I'd missed the familiarity of seeing a band that you've loved for fully half your life.
Set list:
(I did a Rachael [avriisme] and took the setlist and other babble down)
You Love Us (which I swear I've never heard live before)
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Motorcycle Emptiness (anyone else think James must be fucking sick of playing that riff by now?)
It's Not War, It's Just The End of Love
Jackie Collins' Existential Question Time (better live than on record)
Roses In the Hospital (ROSES! IN! THE! HOSPITAL! OMG!) (which Nicky dedicated to "the great man himself, mister Richard Edwards")
Postcards From A Young Man (which I LOVE!)
This Is Yesterday (!!!)
Everything Must Go
Autumnsong
Some Kind of Nothingness (to be honest all Manics songs could be called this, y/y?)
Into the Valley (a Skids song, it's a classic punk song that Graham Coxon ripped off in "Freakin' Out")
Motown Junk (where James now sings "I lauuuuuughed!" instead of "I laughed when Lennon got shot". Coward!)
Something I didn't know but it was melodic
[Some guys asking for PCP. James: "Fuck off, I'm not playing PCP". Lads: "Boo!" James: "Don't you fucking boo me! Fuckers!"]
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
[Nicky and Sean and the other people who are in MSP these days off for a nice cup of tea and a sit down, leaving James to be his lovely adorable self]
Stay Beautiful acoustic (ugh I nearly cried. I love Stay Beautiful so fucking much)
You Stole The Sun From My Heart (which reminds me of Himself :D )
[Nicky and Sean and others back on]
Faster (Faster!)
From Despair to Where (ugh, again, my HEART!)
Golden Platitudes
Suicide Is Painless (which I find painful, somewhat obviously. Stacey cuddled me)
Masses Against the Classes
Tsunami
A Design for Life
It was a hell of a set! James and Nicky still leap about like mad things (Stacey: "James is going to put his hip out one of these days") and they still love each other when doing the introductions, and they introduce those other people now, and there were a couple of nods to Richey which is nice, and and and. And I still love this stupid band.
This was Nicky's mic stand:
Image stolen shamelessly off Tumblr.
Simon Price had it right in his biography Everything when he said, "For those to whom the Manics mean anything, they mean everything".
Afterwards, Stacey had it perfect when she said, "I never stopped being a Manics fan, I just took a sabbatical." That's so, so true. I still love them and their loveliness.