The Manic Street Preachers are a band which has put this part of Wales firmly on the world map. And ten years ago this week - on January 27, 2011 - they played their first gig in Blackwood for 26 years at the Miners' Institute. The band was brought back to its home town by Radio Two as part of its In Concert series. Argus reporter Chris Woods covered the event for the paper. Here's his review of the legendary night.
IT WAS the year of the miners’ strike when the Manic Street Preachers last played Blackwood’s Little Theatre.
And the only times they’d played at the Miners’ Institute before Thursday, it was with snooker cues, not musical instruments.
From early evening, the lucky few who won tickets in a radio giveaway queued around the ’Stute on to the High Street.
The Manic Street Preachers are brought home to Blackwood by BBC Radio 2
Nearby pubs were packed and the smattering of Welsh flags pulled over shoulders was a reminder that the town is only usually this busy on international rugby day.
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But, this was Blackwood’s international day – with the boys that had taken the town’s name around the world coming home.
It was a trip down memory lane and in the lead-up to the BBC Radio 2 homecoming gig, they showed DJ and host Jo Whiley around their old haunts.
The Manic Street Preachers are brought home to Blackwood by BBC Radio 2
Some are no longer there - Dorothy’s Café, Pizza House and their favourite record shops.
Cwmfelinfach Miners’ Institute is another James Dean Bradfield paid tribute to, lamenting “they pulled it down”.
This is where they recorded first single, Suicide Alley, and they played it at the ’Stute for the first time since 1989.
The Manic Street Preachers are brought home to Blackwood by the BBC Radio 2
It followed an emotion charged Motorcycle Emptiness, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough and Slash N’ Burn.
Nicky Wire was dressed for the occasion, in his old Oakdale Comprehensive School tie, with leopard print coat and sailor’s hat. He grinned and bounded around the stage through old classics You Love Us and Motown Junk.
Nicky Wire, of the Manic Street Preachers, wearing his old school tie at the homecoming gig in Blackwood in January 2011
My Little Empire was followed by Faster, which James dedicated to “the genius of Richey Edwards”, and You Stole the Sun from My Heart.
The night was about a superstar band sharing their success with their own, illustrated by James as he shouted “this verse is yours” and let the crowd sing their most famous track, A Design For Life.
But, not everyone in Blackwood was from South Wales. As the fans queued, two girls from Poland, ticketless, motioned near the entrance.
Fans queue outside the Blackwood Miners Institute ahead of the Manic Street Preachers Radio 2 concert
They had made the journey with a wrapped gift for James. It was a scarf they were hoping to give to him, “to keep his neck warm and stop him getting laryngitis again,” one said – a reference to the fact this gig had been rescheduled from November after it was cancelled because the lead singer was ill.
It was an illustration of how the band had left this small Gwent town, touched people around the world and were now home.
The Manic Street Preachers and Radio DJ Jo Wiley the Blackwood Miners Institute ahead of the Radio 2 concert
The Manics don’t normally do encores. But, of course this wasn’t a normal gig and they reappeared, finishing with Suicide is Painless, Enola/Alone and The Masses Against the Classes.
James walked off calling: “South Wales, Blackwood, we love you from the bottom of our dark, rock and roll hearts”.
The feeling seemed mutual from a crowd that departed hoping it is not another 26 years until they see them here again.
- Were you at the gig? Share your memories with us by emailing jo.barnes@gwent-wales.co.uk
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