Manic Street Preachers
1992-12-11Kilburn National
The Manics had recently released the Gold Against the Soul album which hadn't been a great success either critically or commercially, so they came to Kilburn.
They played a blinder and really got the crowd going, the audience being madder than any I'd encountered before. Despite this the gig is inevitably best remembered for Richie saying that he hoped Michael Stipe would die of AIDS, a comment that was widely reported in the music press at the time (and for which the band were more recently forgiven by the saintly Stipe himself).
It's a shame they've recently lapsed into being bland and worthy. Oh well.