Manic Street Preachers pay tribute to Richey Edwards and duet with The Anchoress at Glastonbury 2023

24 June, 2023

Manic Street Preachers live at Glastonbury 2023. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

Manic Street Preachers took to The Other Stage at Glastonbury 2023 today (Saturday June 24) – paying tribute to Richey Edwards as well as duetting with The Anchoress and surprising fans with cuts from their seminal album ‘The Holy Bible’.

Making their seventh appearance at the iconic Worthy Farm Festival, the band arrived on stage to the backdrop of a Jack Kerouac quote (“So, I say, life is too sweet to waste on self propaganda, i quit self promotion, I enter my page”) and a tranced up remix of ‘Futurology’ track ‘Europa Geht Durch Mich’. They then kicked straight into the classic ‘Generation Terrorists’ single ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ before the fan favourite ‘1985’ from divisive 2004 album ‘Lifeblood’ – which the band recently revealed they’d be reissuing next year.

“How you doing, Glastonbury?” offered frontman James Dean Bradfield to the large, early evening crowd, before telling them: “back to the ’90s we’re taking you”. They then played the title track from their 1996 album ‘Everything Must Go’ before the sprightly ‘You Stole The Sun From My Heart’ from 1998’s ‘This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’ – the album that saw them headline Glastonbury in 1999.

Afterwards, bassist and lyricist Nicky Wire then spoke of their infamous Glasto debut (where he suggested that they should build a bypass over this “shithole”) and paid tribute to the band’s missing and presumed dead former guitarist.

“Thanks a lot,” Bradfield said afterwards. “The first time we played was 1994, and we had the one and only Mr Richard James Edwards with us. Everything that can go wrong, did go wrong, but it was fucking fun – you know? This song is from ‘The Holy Bible’.”

Then band then played ‘Die In The Summertime’ from their post-punk masterpiece – the first of three cuts from the record of songs rarely played since they played the album in full for a 20th anniversary tour in 2014. Others came in the form of ‘This Is Yesterday’ featuring The Anchoress (who also duetted with Bradfield by singing Nina Persson’s parts on ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’) and the seminal single ‘Faster’.

Other highlights included an early outing of former set-closer ‘A Design For Life’, an acoustic rendition of ‘La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)’, ‘Futurology’ highlight and single ‘Walk Me To The Bridge’, and spirited early single ‘You Love Us’.

“Thank you for having us back a sixth time,” ended Bradfield before closing track and Number One single ‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’. “May all your gods be with you.”

Manic Street Preachers’ setlist was:

‘Motorcycle Emptiness’
‘1985’
‘Everything Must Go’
‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’
‘Die in the Summertime’
‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ (with The Anchoress)
‘This Is Yesterday’ (with The Anchoress)
‘A Design for Life’
‘La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)’
‘Faster’
‘Walk Me to the Bridge’
‘You Love Us’
‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’

Wire recently shared the single ‘Contact Sheets‘ from his upcoming “jazz-meets-C86” solo record.

Yesterday was closed with a stellar headline set from Arctic Monkeys, as well as a surprise set from Foo Fighters appearing under the moniker The Churnups.

Glastonbury continues today with performances from Guns N’ Roses, Lizzo, Lana Del Rey, Manic Street Preachers, Måneskin and more. There will also be a number of secret sets, including The Pretenders (with a number of special guests) and Blossoms and Rick Astley performing a set of Smiths covers.

Check out all the latest from Glastonbury 2023 on the NME liveblog here, and see more news, reviews, photos, interviews and more here.

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