Saturday, 4 June 2016

Royal Albert Hall 16th May 2016 (FLAC Audio)

Sometimes, if you wait long enough.....

This show was recorded and made available by Chatts99, and what a great job it is when you take into account the cavernous space of the Royal Albert Hall. Considering the scarcity of material from the Manics tour slots, I'm thrilled to bring this to a slightly wider audience. The files are being shared here in their original FLAC format in accordance with the taper's wishes. Many, many thanks to you for your work ;)

So this was the warm up tour that prepared the band for their live return to the festival circuit, a circuit which has expanded considerably since this Manics dates were announced. It began tonight in Warsaw and will continue on throughout the summer months, and will no doubt see them performing in daylight on occasion (where they'll turn to dust, surely?). For now, though, this is one of the two nights they played at the Royal Albert Hall in May. The date on the recording says the 13th of May but there was no show on the tour at that time, so I'm going with the 16th as the most likely one.  It's a more compact Editors experience, given their 45 minute allocation of stage time so it's a real "smash and grab" affair. It's a real throwback to the old days of really tight setlists in tiny little venues. Except this is not a tiny venue. Oh no. 

In terms of the music, you know the songs but they really sound like they're given room to breathe here. I absolutely love the way Papillon ends and blends into Marching Orders with that keyboard riff just slowing down and melting away. I would imagine that Mr Williams had a hand in that somewhere, given his previous reworking of the track. All in all, it's great to have them back and if you're going to see them play at festival this summer, you'll have a blast I'm sure. Enjoy the music ;)

The Setlist
Sugar - download here
Munich - download here
The Racing Rats - download here
Forgiveness - download here
Smokers - download here
Ocean of night - download here
Papillon - download here
Marching Orders - download here

brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x