Review: Suede and Manic Street Preachers thrill packed Utilita Arena in Birmingham

Peter Ormerod is a major Suede fan, David Jackson is a major Manic Street Preachers fan. Here, they give their views on the bands’ sets as their joint headlining tour came to Birmingham.

If you didn’t see this coming, I can’t blame you. Suede were first written off as hyped-up Bowie wannabes, and then were written off again when their guitarist and co-songwriter quit in 1994, and then were written off again as they were wrecked by drug abuse, and then were written off again when their fifth album flopped. And then they wrote themselves off soon afterwards, splitting in 2003 after an utterly dismal appearance on The Graham Norton Show. If someone had told you then that Suede would reach a new peak in 2026, by which point they might well be the best live band in Britain, you’d be forgiven for thinking that person was mad.

But here we are. Those things have come to pass . And they have come to pass precisely because they were written off so many times. There is just something epically defiant about them these days. And amid their sonic assaults and their megawatts of energy, on this Saturday night in Birmingham, at one of the biggest venues they’ve ever played, it’s really quite moving to behold.

That defiance has always been there, of course. From the beginning, their songs have been populated by the downtrodden, shunned and forgotten, by people from nowhere towns and nothing places, who nevertheless find beauty and glamour and belonging. Sometimes this leads them to darkness and violence; sometimes this leads them to love and euphoria. And darkness, violence, love and euphoria were all evident here.

It was a bold move indeed to start a show like this, in front of a lot of decidedly non-hardcore fans, with two pounding and thrashing things that many in the crowd will never have heard: Turn Off Your Brain and Yell, from 2022, and Disintegrate, from 2025. But such was the conviction with which the band attacked them, so urgent did they sound, that you couldn’t help but go with them. They set a tone that brought out the menace of the more familiar likes of Animal Nitrate, We Are the Pigs and Filmstar. Nearly half the set consisted of songs recorded in the past five years, but surely even the biggest ‘90s nostalgic would find little to complain about here, the newer material delivered with irresistible force and supreme showmanship. Brett Anderson must now be numbered among the indisputably great frontmen of British music and is somehow getting better, feral one minute, imperious the next, moving like he’s plugged into the mains and singing like his life depends on it.

There were real gems here too, not least a stripped-back performance of Stay Together, which remains one of their best-known and loved songs but which the band rarely play. And while Suede describe themselves as “anti-nostalgia”, Brett did all he could to orchestrate an old-fashioned singalong to Beautiful Ones, which closed the set with colour and warmth.

Of course, some things are lost. The band’s most acclaimed album is Dog Man Star, from 1994; they played only one song from it, and only two from their debut. The dark romance, exotic strangeness and rich melodicism of those records are largely absent here. But the best songs don’t always make for the best live set. Besides, Suede have always found beauty in unexpected places, and now you can feel it in their particular brand of aggression and in their hunger for community.

“You’ve taken a bet on a band from 30 years ago,” Brett told the crowd. The odds were long. But blimey, the gamble paid off.

If Suede wanted to win over the crowd, the Manics seemed more content to please it. They got the arena singing along from the start, kicking off with two of their best-known songs and packing their set with pretty much everything one of their more casual fans (and I count myself among those) would want to hear, plus a sprinkling of relative obscurities, all played with energy, heft, integrity and intensity. They sounded colossal at times, the only possible misstep being the placing of A Design for Life in the middle of the show, which struggled to reach that peak again. But they undoubtedly achieved what they set out to do, and sent the sizeable crowd home with memories of simpler times and hopes for better times. They and Suede make for a formidable double act, and one of the best-value nights out imaginable.

Peter Ormerod

It's tricky trying to form an objective opinion about Manic Street Preachers’ half of their co-headline set with Suede at the Utilita Arena on Saturday night.

Was it great? Absolutely. Did I enjoy it? Definitely. Are they the best band of the era? Probably. But there’s a ‘but’ - and it’s kinda my own fault.

Despite being a fan of both bands since the mid-1990s, there’s a huge disparity in the number of times I’ve seen them.

Saturday night was only the third time I'd seen Suede. However, it’s something like the (checks notes) 26th time I’ve seen Manic Street Preachers.

Is it possible to have a fair, objective opinion on a band you've seen so much over the years? I fear the jury’s out on it.

How much is too much? Ask those on the front of the barrier and you might get a different answer. Many have probably clocked up even more gigs than I have.

Personally, I’m struggling not to be unduly critical. I’m not really sure what I want from Manic Street Preachers (or Suede) in 2026.

However, what they delivered at the Utilita Arena was arguably as good as you could expect from two legends of the alternative rock genre at this point in their careers.

It was a genuine delight to see both back in arenas and see the venue packed and not something bands of their vintage can take for granted despite past successes.

Manic Street Preachers have songs that truly belong in arenas.

In terms of their set, it was a mixed bag of greatest hits with some rarities and seldom heard tracks nestled alongside.

As a co-headline tour, maybe there's still a bit of pandering towards ‘the casual fan’?

Their 18-song set was packed with huge singles and singalongs – but at the same time there were some songs I wouldn’t feel aggrieved if they semi-permanently vanished from their set.

Maybe that's the fan who just wants to hear more obscure tracks – but knowing it was never going to happen?

In James Dean Bradfield, the Manics have a frontman who can still somehow inexplicably play two, three, guitar parts at once, sing and spin around in circles at will.

While on bass, Nicky Wire's bile may have mellowed over the decades but he still looks every bit the rock star, dressed in a leopard print jacket, a black Bauhaus t-shirt and sunglasses.

What would I have liked? Maybe a bit more from their recent album, maybe a bit of Lifeblood, maybe a set capable of knocking me completely sideways like they did at the Royal Court in Liverpool in 2005. (https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/manic-street-preachers/2005/royal-court-theatre-liverpool-england-2bd75cba)

But I can't get what I want - and things I want probably don't fill arenas.

After opening with Motorcycle Emptiness and Everything Must Go, the band went straight back to their debut for an incredible rendition of Generation Terrorists single Little Baby Nothing.

Other highlights included Wire singing Hiding in Plain Sight from their latest album and James’ acoustic rendition of Ocean Spray.

It's crazy to think in 2026 that Slash 'N' Burn has become a bit of a set regular while Die In The Summertime is the only nod to their 1994 masterpiece, The Holy Bible, which - despite the band being augmented by Wayne Murray on guitar and Dave Eringa on keyboards - they chose to play as a trio.

After being a set closer for so many years, hearing A Design For Life mid set will always be a little weird, while fans were also treated to a cover of Blondie’s Union City Blue.

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next capped off the night with the whole arena singing along to its chorus.

As a final thought - before the band took to the stage, a QR code next to a doctored version of Richey Edwards’ Useless Generation tattoo (also used on the cover of their debut album) - teased something which will be announced this month.

There can’t be much left to reissue or repackage.

Is it an album tour? After thinking to myself, “maybe I don’t need to see the Manics again,” something like that’d draw me straight back!

David Jackson

See https://bio.to/MSPSuede26 for future tour dates.