Manics and Suede vow to play the 'big hits' on co-headline UK tour

To celebrate Manic Street Preachers and Suede’s 2024 co-headline tour, the ever genial James Dean Bradfield and Brett Anderson joined Bush & Richie during Hometime on Monday evening (16th October).

During the chat, James and Brett revealed what song they would love to have written from each other’s repertoire, the highs and lows of touring together, their respective ultra-loyal fans, and why they both saw their bands as “outsiders” during the Britpop era.

Bush also asked the two frontmen what people can expect from their setlist on their co-headline tour next summer, which will see them take turns performing last and perform 75 minutes each.

Commenting on whether they will outsource their setlist like Blur do, James quipped: “That’s way too much power to the people!”

Explaining why it’s important to play the bangers, James continued: “I think your focus is you and you just really don't want there to be any spare meat on there. I'll freely admit that I like to get the audience moving. When I go to see a band I want to see their top line songs. If they don't play certain songs I get upset. So perhaps that makes me a bit ‘cheap seats.’

“I don't know. But you know, we'll always play ‘Motorcycle’ (‘Motorcycle Emptiness’), we’ll always play ‘Design’ (‘A Design for Life’), we’ll always play ‘Tolerate’ (‘If You Tolerate This (Then Your Children Will Be Next)’) . It's just the way it is.”

James continued: “People look down on playing old songs but you can't ever relive that moment unless you're in front of that song in the live performance environment ever again. Every time I got to see a band and they perform a song that I loved 30 years ago, I’m reliving it and I love that moment.

“But, yes, you got to mitigate that by just doing stuff from nearly every album you've done - and we've always done that. We don’t road test songs, but we always play lots of old stuff and lots of new stuff. We play everything. But Nick's in charge of the setlist. He’ll ask me about high keys now and again, ‘are there too many songs in E in a row?’” I’ll be like ‘yes, there are!’”

Concurring with James’ view that it’s crucial to play the hits, Brett added: “Like James says, there’s always songs you've got to play. We will always play ‘Animal Nitrate’, ‘Beautiful Ones’, whatever. I think it's kind of boring for people reading a setlist 2000 miles away on the internet and saying that ‘oh, they did ‘Beautiful Ones’ again. They did ‘Trash’ again!’

“But when you're in the room, the energy that you can only get from the big hits. There's an energy, there's a feeling of unity with the crowd that you can only get from the really big ones.”

He continued: “Of course, I like throwing obscure things in there as well because I think you've got to keep the band on their toes. You've got to keep the audience on their toes a little bit as well. It's a balancing act. You can't just write setlist for hardcore fan base because then literally everyone except the first two rows will just go to the bar. You've got to sort of keep the audience engaged.

“It's an interesting thing writing a setlist, it's a real skill. And sometimes you get it wrong and sometimes you hit it right and hit the nail right on the head. It very much depends on what you're sick of playing, what you haven't played before, what you see you can dig out, what you think you can get away with.”

While many shows are sold out, tickets to select dates on Manic Street Preachers and Suede’s co-headline UK tour are still available from Absolute Radio Tickets now.

The bands have also added an extra show at Eden Sessions in Cornwall, which goes on sale at 5.30pm on Thursday 19th October RIGHT HERE.

Manic Street Preachers and Suede's co-headline tour dates:

JUNE 2024

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod – Fri 28th (Manics close)

Cornwall Eden Sessions – Sat 29th (Suede headline)

JULY 2024

Dublin Trinity College – Tue 2nd (Suede close)

Cardiff Castle – Fri 5th (Manics close)

Cardiff Castle – Fri 5th (Manics close)

Edinburgh Castle – Wed 10th (Manics close)

Manchester Castlefield Bowl – Fri 12th (Manics close)

Leeds Millenium Square – Sat 13th (Suede close)

London Alexandra Palace Park – Thu 18th (Suede close)

Absolute Radio's 50 greatest songs of the past 15 years:

Listen to Absolute Radio across the UK on your digital radio, the free Rayo app, by hitting that play button on the bottom of your screen or by asking your smart speaker to "play Absolute Radio".

• manic street preachers
• suede