Suede Manchester Ritz 21 March 2010
Its Sunday night and Laura and I have just about recovered from our Dubliners experience on Friday. Tonight we are standing in a packed Manchester Ritz nightclub, waiting to see the second appearance of Suede in seven years. The band are reforming to play a one-off gig at the Albert Hall on Wednesday for the Teenage Cancer Turst, and have decided to add two warm-ups. The first was last night (Saturday) at the tiny 100 club in London. Tonight is in Manchester.
The Ritz is a smallish nightclub just next to Oxford Road station. It is completely jammed packed; full of Suede fans from all over the country; everyone high in anticipation of seeing something really special. The support is Hoodlums who are OK, but everyone is waiting to see the main act. After Hoodlums leave the stage we are warmed up by some classic tracks by the Clash, the Smiths and others. Soon the volume is cranked up and the Sex Pistols’ Bodies roars out around the club. Then we are into the Intro music and at around 9.15 Suede take the stage starting with Europe is our Playground. The crowd go absolutely mad from the word go. Everyone knows and sings all the words. Laura and I are standing in a safe position at the side downstairs, the crush at the front looks wild. Brett Anderson and the band are obviously enjoying being back. Brett looks great and dances and sings like its 15 years ago. We get all the hits: Trash (the crowd go mental), Animal Nitrate, Film Star, She; they finish with Beautiful Ones. Its surprising how many I can remember and how great they sound. Its a long time since I’ve seen a band like this in a small club (too many arena shows) and its over all too soon. Laura is delighted as they play Two of us (her favourite) for the last encore. We all file out into the street and join the queue in the NCP carpark. We get home around 1.30am our heads still buzzing with Suede tunes.
Setlist : Europe Is Our Playground; She; Trash; Filmstar; Animal Nitrate; Heroine; Pantomime Horse; Killing Of A Flashboy; Can’t Get Enough; Everything Will Flow; He’s Gone; The Next Life; The Asphalt World; So Young; Metal Mickey; The Wild Ones; The Drowners; Beautiful Ones.
Encore: Obsessions; The 2 of Us.
Suede website: http://www.suede.co.uk/
Brett Anderson website: http://www.brettanderson.co.uk/
ticket
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