Manic Street Preachers at Live at Leeds 2025 – Festival Review

Guide

Manic Street Preachers

On a day that featured some of the best of today’s generation of indie-rock bands, such as Yard Act and Sports Team, plus giants of the previous generation with Bloc Party and The Pigeon Detectives, the older indie-rock fan was also treated to a performance by the great survivors of the 90s, Manic Street Preachers.

Manic Street Preachers are now onto their 15^th album, which no-one could have predicted 30 years earlier when founding member Richey Edwards tragically went missing before officially being declared dead in absentia.

But it was clear to the festival crowd filled with fans young and old that the trio still have the creative spark to continue as they always have.

They opened with the catchy ‘Decline & Fall’ from their latest album, before quickly sparking the crowd into action with the iconic bending riff for ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’.

Nostalgia

The mood of nostalgia didn’t go away any time soon as the band stayed for a while in the 90s. In succession the crowd were treated ‘Enola/Alone’ from classic album ‘Everything Must Go’, 1992’s ‘La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh)’, and a couple of all time fan favourite sing along tracks ‘Australia’ and ‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’.

Less than halfway through the set, they’d launched a barrage of hits at the crowd. But they were given a chance to de-compress as the band moved onto ‘Let Robeson Sing’.

There was a brief re-visit to their new material with ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’. It was a pleasant moment in the set for both band and audience as it featured rare lead vocals from bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire. But normal service then resumed and the energy was notched up again. Firstly with the soaring ‘Autumnsong’, and then the classic hit ‘A Design for Life’.

Not many bands have quite gained their ability to write utterly bleak political lyrics that can be belted out by thousands in fields and arenas, and James Taylor Bradfield belted the chorus with just as much gusto as back in song’s heyday.

Your Love Alone

Things were calmed down again briefly with a stunning acoustic performance of ’The Everlasting’. But after ‘People Ruin Paintings’, the crowd were kicked into action again with the words “Your love alone…” for one of the band’s most up tempo hits ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’. Not that anyone would mistake the bouncy melodies for it being a happy song though.

Recent track ‘International Blue’ followed with a catchy keys led chorus from their 2018 album ‘Resistance is Futile’. Then, Nicky Wire paid tribute to Richey Edwards before they launched into the punk tinged ‘You Love Us’. It was the last track they had played with Richey in his final live performance, which made it an especially emotional performance.

First Number 1

With one track to go, there could only be one choice of closing song. The politically charged ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’ was their first ever number 1 single back in 1998, and its lyric strike home just as much in 2025.

On ‘Let Robeson Sing’, Nicky Wire’s lyrics state “Can anyone make a difference anymore? Can anyone write a protest song?”. In today’s uncertain political climate, that might be difficult to answer. But Manic Street Preachers are still here trying to make a difference.

About
Latest Posts

Follow Me

Sam Campbell

Reviewer at Contact Me

Sam has contributed to GSG Media since October 2018. He enjoys a wide array of music – especially indie/alternative rock. As well being a musician, a regular gig-goer and a collector of vinyl, he is also passionate about football, American football, history and literature.