Just over 24 years ago the V99 music festival in the UK was headlined by Suede and Manic Street Preachers. It is still one of the best line-ups I’ve ever seen and was a very memorable weekend for me in Staffordshire which co-hosted the occasion. Fast forward nearly quarter of a century and both of those bands are still going but the landscape of music has changed a fair bit.

Bands used to only ever go out on the road to help promote their latest album releases but profits from music sales have dramatically dropped in the digital era so touring seems to be where the money is now. That may explain this fairly unique co-headline tour as neither band have new albums to promote but by taking it in turns to headline these gigs maybe the sum of their parts will be greater than if they just did separate tours.

The two bands, formed in the early 90s, have recently announced a 2024 UK tour and have been doing some promotion for that on radio shows but it’s not always mentioned that they were doing likewise in Asia (Taiwan, Japan and Singapore) before that. The weekend dates in Tokyo took place at Zepp Haneda which, as the name suggests, is close to the airport. It was a little inconvenient for me to get to but maybe it’s good for bands who could potentially land in Tokyo, play the gig and fly out that night!

On the previous evening the Manics went on first and Suede finished the night but the following day it was the opposite which was the ideal way round for myself who is more of a Manics fan. My accomplice for this concert was J-Talk Extra Time podcast host Jon who is more into Suede which meant we could bore each other with share any additional information we had about the bands.

As is the way in Japan, such performances start much earlier than they do in the UK but as I get older I am actually quite relieved to not have such a late finish, especially when I’ve got work the following morning. The Sunday show started an hour earlier than the Saturday one so the doors opened at 4:00pm and Suede began at 5:00pm.

The last time I saw Suede was at the aforementioned V99 but I can’t really remember too much about that. That’s not because it was so long ago but because I was drunk by that point of the night! How times have changed! I now had to pay 600 yen for just a bottle of water on entry to the arena which is a rather annoying quirk of Japanese venues where you have to buy a drink on top of the ticket price.

Suede were actually the band in the early 90s who really got me into British indie music as before that I had just been listening to American grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I actually bought all of their first half dozen albums but my music listening has heavily dwindled in the last decade so I was barely even aware of their last few albums. In preparation for this concert, I bought the best of Suede on CD (for 1 yen on Amazon plus P&P) once I’d got my ticket back in June. However, I didn’t really listen to it at all until a week or two before the show.

It was a highly energetic performance by lead man Brett Anderson who was wearing a white shirt but he must’ve forgotten to do up the top few buttons!! The shirt didn’t stay dry for too long as he worked up a sweat. For a man in his mid-50s (having a song called ‘So Young‘ seems quite ironic now!) he sure looks in fine shape, and he needs to be if he puts as much effort into each show as he did here. Impressive stuff!

It was a fast-paced set lasting for about 65 minutes and Brett seemed to enjoy being off stage and presumably (I couldn’t really see!) up close to the fans at the front. Good for them but not for those of us further back wanting to see more of the front man. His party-piece is constantly swinging the microphone around like a cowboy with a lasso which made me far more nervous than it really should have!

Suede Setlist: 1. She Still Leads Me On; 2. Personality Disorder; 3. The Drowners; 4. Trash; 5. Animal Nitrate; 6. We Are The Pigs; 7. Flytipping; 8. This Hollywood Life; 9. Filmstar; 10. Shadow Self; 11. The Asphalt World; 12. The Only Way I Can Love You; 13. So Young; 14. Metal Mickey; 15. Beautiful Ones.

In the past I’ve listened to a lot of Manic Street Preachers vast back catalogue prior to their concerts but this time I went in fairly cold having only given their last album a single play a few days earlier. The last time I saw them live was back in September 2019 at Toyosu Pit (although I did see singer James Dean Bradfield perform a three-song set at the rugby a couple of days after that) and of course a lot has happened in the world since then. Watching the band do their thing on stage here though put me in my happy place.

Kicking things off with a banger like ‘Motorcycle Emptiness‘ was an unusual start and a reminder that this wasn’t quite the usual Manics gig. That song is about Tokyo, and indeed two other tunes about Japan both got an airing. ‘Still Snowing In Sapporo‘ from their most recent album has been getting an airing at recent gigs so that presumably wasn’t just played because of the Japanese connection. However, lead singer James Dean Bradfield’s solo rendition of ‘(I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline‘ surely was. He actually made light of the fact afterwards that he had never played it live before!

Whenever I see the Manics in Tokyo there’s always a Welsh speaker or two in the crowd shouting things at James who responds in English so it’s not just a personal conversation.  It did allow for some good banter here whilst he re-tuned his guitar between songs though I am not sure how many of the locals in attendance (it was a far more international audience than ever before) would have fully understood anything he or Nicky Wire said between songs. The latter talked about having the best ever baked potato in Hokkaido which surprised me as after all my years living in Japan I can barely ever recall seeing such a food item on sale anywhere!

Neither can I remember the Welsh trio being accompanied on stage by other musicians but there were two guys with them this time and both happened be stood on our side of the stage meaning I saw far more of them than I’d liked to! The guitarist had a mic and seemed to have quite an active role in supporting on vocals at times as well as gesturing to the crowd to clap and so on. Not a bad job to have!

The Manics played a slightly longer set (about 80 minutes) so I thought maybe the band playing last gets slightly longer but a look at the setlists (both bands played two or three different songs) for the previous night tells me that it was pretty much the same. The double headline arrangement seems to work well for these two groups with 60+ years of experience between them but only time will tell if this becomes a trend for other bands.

Manics Setlist: 1. Motorcycle Emptiness; 2. Everything Must Go; 3. 1985; 4. You Stole The Sun From My Heart; 5. Still Snowing In Sapporo; 6. Little Baby Nothing; 7. Walk Me To The Bridge 8. From Despair To Where; 9. A Design For Life; 10. (I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline; 11. This Is Yesterday; 12. Slash ‘N’ Burn; 13. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough; 14. Enola/Alone; 15 International Blue; 16 Stay Beautiful; 17 You Love Us; 18 If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next.

Click here to read ‘Manic Street Preachers Live In Tokyo 2019’

Click here to read ‘Manic Street Preachers Live In Tokyo 2012’

Click here to read ‘Manic Street Preachers Live In Tokyo 2010’

Click here to read ‘Music Videos Filmed In Japan #4 Manic Street Preachers – ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ (1992)’