Saturday, 6 June 2020

Fantasy Setlist 2020 - Final!

The setlist below was compiled from 43 different setlists submitted by Manic Street Preachers fans between March and May 2020.  One point was awarded for each vote and the final tally for each song is shown after the name of each one.  Thank you to all people who took part in, followed or promoted these setlists, it has been great fun!!!

Points to note were as follows:
  • Position was decided on average placing across the 43 setlists.
  • While 'This Is Yesterday' received votes as part of an acoustic set, there were more votes that didn't specify it as being acoustic therefore it appears as the full band version, no acoustic set at all!
  • There were more votes for 'Little Baby Nothing' and 'Your Love Alone Is Not Enough' without a guest singer than with one, therefore both are here as Manics-only.

Final Manics Fantasy Setlist

Found that Soul 21
International Blue 18
From Despair to Where 16
Sleepflower 25
Yes 18
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) 15
Motorcycle Emptiness 37
1985 13
Ready For Drowning 13
Roses in the Hospital 13
The Masses Against the Classes 22
Faster 34
Little Baby Nothing 15
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 16
Archives of Pain 11
This Is Yesterday 13
Tsunami 13
P.C.P. 15
Prologue To History 12
Stay Beautiful 20
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 17
No Surface All Feeling 18
You Love Us 31
Motown Junk 18
A Design for Life 39

Comparing with last time there were new entries for International Blue, Ready For Drowning, Roses in the Hospital, Archives of Pain, Tsunami and Prologue to History.

Dropping out from last time were Peeled Apples, You Stole The Sun From My Heart, This Sullen Welsh Heart, Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky, Revol and Show Me The Wonder.

Interestingly, this time and last time both featured the same opening and closing song!

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Now we know what the final setlist was, how did the songs do if you actually order them by number of votes?  This time we had a different winner to the two Manics Top 50s we've done previously, showing how beloved a song it is in the live set, but it fell just short of appearing in every person's setlist (maximum votes 43).

Fans' Favourite Setlist Selections

A Design for Life 39
Motorcycle Emptiness 37
Faster 34
You Love Us 31
Sleepflower 25
The Masses Against the Classes 22
Found that Soul 21
Stay Beautiful 20
International Blue, Motown Junk, No Surface All Feeling, Yes 18
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 17
From Despair to Where, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 16
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh), Little Baby Nothing, P.C.P. 15
1985, Ready For Drowning, Roses in the Hospital, This is Yesterday, Tsunami 13
Prologue to History 12
Archives of Pain 11

Australia, Autumnsong, Slash 'N' Burn, Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky, This Sullen Welsh Heart 10

All Is Vanity, Everything Must Go, Imperial Bodybags, Intravenous Agnostic, Kevin Carter, Peeled Apples, The Everlasting, 30-Year War, This Joke Sport Severed, You Stole The Sun From My Heart 9

Door To The River, 4 Ever Delayed, Hold Me Like A Heaven, Jackie Collins Existential Question Time, Nobody Loved You, Revol, Rewind the Film, Show Me the Wonder 8

Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll, Donkeys, Enola/Alone, Miss Europa Disco Dancer, Suicide is Painless (Theme from MASH), Walk Me to the Bridge 7

Die In The Summerime, Europa Geht Durch Mich, Further Away, Golden Platitudes, (It's Not War) Just the End of Love, Judge Yr'self, Marlon JD, Me And Stephen Hawking, Of Walking Abortion, Some Kind of Nothingness 6

Yourself, Ocean Spray, Postcards From A Young Man, A Billion Balconies Facing The Sun, Futurology, People Give In 5

4st 7lb, The Girl Who Wanted To Be God, Mr Carbohydrate, Let Robeson Sing, Baby Elian, Ballad of the Bangkok Novotel, Empty Souls, A Song for Departure, I Live To Fall Asleep, Send Away The Tigers, The Second Great Depression, William's Last Words, Liverpool Revisited, A Song For the Sadness 4

Life Becoming A Landslide, Drug Drug Druggy, Nostalgic Pushead, She is Suffering, Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier, Sepia, You're Tender and You're Tired, Be Natural, Black Dog On My Shoulder, The Love of Richard Nixon, To Repel Ghosts, Solitude Sometimes Is, Cardiff Afterlife, Facing Page: Top Left, Bag Lady, Anthem For a Lost Cause, Let's Go To War, Between the Clock and the Bed, Misguided Missile, Distant Colours, Sequels of Forgotten Wars, In Eternity, The Left Behind 3

Suicide Alley, Love's Sweet Exile, Tennessee, Ain't Going Down, Bored Out Of My Mind, Symphony of Tourette, Gold Against the Soul, Comfort Comes, Mausoleum, Removables, Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, First Republic, My Little Empire, His Last Painting, Freedom of Speech Won't Feed My Children, There By The Grace Of God, Glasnost, Picturesque, Underdogs, Rendition, Winterlovers, Doors Closing Slowly, All We Make Is Entertainment, The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever, This Is The Day, Builder of Routines, The Next Jet to Leave Moscow, Sex, Power, Love and Money, The View From Stow Hill, (Feels Like) Heaven, Vivian, Dylan & Caitlin, Still A Long Way To Go 2

New Art Riot, Strip It Down, Sorrow 16, We Her Majesty's Prisoners, Starlover, Another Invented Disease, So Dead, Repeat, Damn Dog, Methadone Pretty, Democracy Coma, Hibernation, Patrick Bateman, Us Against You, Wrote For Luck, Are Mothers Saints, Charles Windsor, ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart, Too Cold Here, Interiors (Song For Willem de Kooning), No One Knows What It's Like To Be Me, Take The Skinheads Bowling, Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Born A Girl, Montana/Autumn/78, So Why So Sad, The Year of Purification, Wattsville Blues, Dead Martyrs, The Convalescent, Automatik Teknicolour, We Are All Bourgeois Now, Out Of Time, Always/Never, Firefight, Indian Summer, Fearless Punk Ballad, Boxes & Lists, 1404, Journal For Plague Lovers, Virginia State Epileptic Colony, I Think I Found It, Don't Be Evil, Distractions, Rock 'N' Roll Genius, Leviathan, Umbrella, (I Miss The) Tokyo Skyline, As Holy As The Soil, Running Out Of Fantasy, Manorbier, Divine Youth, Black Square, Broken Algorithms, Concrete Fields, To See A Friend In Tears, Sunshine On Leith, Chandelier, No Feelings, Sweet Child O' Mine, Days Slip Away, I Killed The Zeitgeist, I Don't Need Anyone, Come Together, Which Way To Kyffin 1

UK Channel Boredom, Last Exit On Yesterday, Teenage 20/20, Nat West - Barclays - Midlands - Lloyds, Born To End, Spectators Of Suicide, Crucifix Kiss, RP McMurphy, Soul Contamination, A Vision of Dead Desire, It's So Easy, Under My Wheels, Never Want Again, Dead Yankee Drawl, What's My Name, The Intense Humming Of Evil, Sculpture Of Man, Love Torn Us Under, Stay With Me, The Drowners, Dead Passive, Dead Trees and Traffic Islands, Bright Eyes, Black Garden, Hanging On, Horses Under Starlight, Velocity Girl, Dixie, Glory Glory, I'm Not Working, SYMM, Black Holes For The Young, Valley Boy, Socialist Serenade, Train In Vain, Buildings For Dead People, Close My Eyes, Rock And Roll Music, My Guernica, Royal Correspondent, Epicentre, Locust Valley, Pedestal, Groundhog Days, Just A Kid, Little Trolls, Masking Tape, Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel, Fear Of Motion, It's All Gone, Unstoppable Salvation, Happy Ending, Been A Son, Last Christmas, Emily, Fragments, Quarantine, Voodoo Polaroids, Everyone Knows-Nobody Cares, Everything Will Be, Askew Road, All Alone Here, No Jubilees, Litany, Dying Breeds, Failure Bound, A Secret Society, I'm Just a Patsy, Working Class Hero, Love Letter to the Future, Welcome To The Dead Zone, Little Girl Lost, The Vorticists, The Long Goodbye, Morning Comrades, Red Sleeping Beauty, You Know It's Going To Hurt, Heyday of the Blood, Foggy Eyes, Lady Lazarus, Anorexic Rodin, She Bathed Herself In A Bath Of Bleach, Pretension/Repulsion, The Descent, Hazelton Avenue, Auto-Intoxication, I Know The Numbers, I'm Leaving You For Solitude, Ostpolitik, Lost Voices, Time Ain't Nothing, Broken Up Again, Red Rubber, Evidence Against Myself, Slow Reflections - Strange Delays, The Passing Show, Inky Fingers, Engage With Your Shadow, Kiss My Eyes For Eternity, Midnight Sun, The Endless Plain of Fortune, We Were Never Told, Penny Royal Tea, The Instrumental, Wake Up Alone, Vision Blurred, The Ghosts of Christmas, Antarctic, The Soulmates, Alien Orders - Invisible Armies, Primitive Painters, 4 Lonely Roads, 3 Ways To See Despair, TE Lawrence On a Bike, What Happened to the Blue Generation, Melancholyme, Death of a Digital Ghost, See It Like Sutherland, Dreaming A City (Hughesovka), Mayakovsky, Blistered Mirrors, Empty Motorcade, The Last Time I Saw Paris, The Sound of Detachment, Caldey, Antisocialmanifesto, Kodawari, Start Me Up, Together Stronger, A Soundtrack to Complete Withdrawal, Holding Patterns 0


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So for album tracks, if you break down the votes by album you get the first list, 'Generation Terrorists' perhaps being a surprise winner and 'Know Your Enemy' doing surprisingly well.  However both of those albums have more songs, which is where the second list comes in.

The second list is average votes per song, so strips out any advantages some albums might get for having more songs.  This time 'Everything Must Go' comes out on top, ensuring that 'The Holy Bible' takes second place both times.

Album Chart by Votes

Generation Terrorists 129
The Holy Bible 121
Everything Must Go 118
Gold Against The Soul 87
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 81
Know Your Enemy 59
Journal for Plague Lovers 58
Resistance Is Futile 56
Send Away The Tigers 50
Rewind The Film 44
Lifeblood 40
Futurology 35
Postcards From a Young Man 34


Album Chart by Average Votes per Song

Everything Must Go 9.8
The Holy Bible 9.3
Gold Against The Soul 8.7
Generation Terrorists 7.6
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 6.2
Send Away The Tigers 5.0
Resistance Is Futile 4.7
Journal For Plague Lovers 4.5
Know Your Enemy 3.7
Rewind The Film 3.7
Lifeblood 3.3
Postcards From A Young Man 2.8
Futurology 2.7


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For the final setlist the album eras with the most songs were 'Generation Terrorists' and 'The Holy Bible' (counting 'Motown Junk' as being from the GT era).  Given how well 'Everything Must Go' did in terms of overall votes it's maybe surprising that there were only two songs in the final set, but 'A Design For Life' was the highest scorer.

Four of the album eras missed out on the final set, perhaps suffering from not having any particular overwhelming fan favourites amongst their tracks, so they ultimately ended up taking votes from each other.  'Rewind The Film' and 'Journal For Plague Lovers' both had songs that were 1 and 2 votes away respectively from reaching the 11 votes required to make the final set.

Setlist By Era

Generation Terrorists 5
Gold Against The Soul 4
The Holy Bible 5
Everything Must Go 2
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 4
Know Your Enemy 1
Lifeblood 1
Send Away The Tigers 1
Journal For Plague Lovers 0
Postcards From A Young Man 0
Rewind The Film 0
Futurology 0
Resistance Is Futile 1 
Others 1

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Going by overall score the 'Generation Terrorists' era got the highest total, the reliable old classics gaining a lot of votes.  It was a good show all round from the first five albums, gaining the lion's share of the votes from those that made it into the final setlist.

Setlist By Era By Score

Generation Terrorists 121
Gold Against The Soul 69
The Holy Bible 91
Everything Must Go 57
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours 55
Know Your Enemy 21
Lifeblood 13
Send Away the Tigers 16
Journal for Plague Lovers 0
Postcards From a Young Man 0
Rewind the Film 0
Futurology 0
Resistance Is Futile 18
Others 22

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And so to the albums themselves, ranked by number of votes for each of their tracks.  As the votes are all about live tracks then this isn't necessarily a comment on which is the best song, as you can see by the setlist there was no acoustic section so the louder crowd-pleasers tended to get the most votes overall.

GATS, EMG and RIF were the only albums to get at least one vote for every song, while GT had the highest number of no-vote songs with four.

Generation Terrorists

Motorcycle Emptiness 37
You Love Us 31
Stay Beautiful 20
Little Baby Nothing 15
Slash N' Burn 10
Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll 7
Love's Sweet Exile 2
Tennessee 2
Another Invented Disease 1
Damn Dog 1
Methadone Pretty 1
Repeat 1
So Dead 1
Born to End 0
Crucifix Kiss 0
Nat West - Barclays - Midlands - Lloyds 0
Spectators of Suicide 0

Gold Against The Soul

Sleepflower 25
From Despair To Where 16
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) 15
Roses in the Hospital 13
Yourself 5
Drug Drug Druggy 3
Life Becoming a Landslide 3
Nostalgic Pushead 3
Gold Against The Soul 2
Symphony of Tourette 2

The Holy Bible

Faster 34
Yes 18
P.C.P. 15
This Is Yesterday 13
Archives of Pain 11
Revol 8
Die in the Summertime 6
Of Walking Abortion 6
4st 7lb 4
She Is Suffering 3
Mausoleum 2
ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart 1
The Intense Humming of Evil 0

Everything Must Go

A Design For Life 39
No Surface All Feeling 18
Australia 10
Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky 10
Everything Must Go 9
Kevin Carter 9
Enola/Alone 7
Further Away 6
The Girl Who Wanted To Be God 4
Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier 3
Removables 2
Interiors (Song for Willem de Kooning) 1

This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 17
Ready For Drowning 13
Tsunami 13
The Everlasting 9
You Stole The Sun From My Heart 9
Nobody Loved You 8
Black Dog on my Shoulder 3
Be Natural 3
You're Tender and You're Tired 3
My Little Empire 2
Born a Girl 1
I'm Not Working 0
SYMM 0

Know Your Enemy

Found that Soul 21
Intravenous Agnostic 9
Miss Europa Disco Dancer 7
Ocean Spray 5
Baby Elian 4
Let Robeson Sing 4
Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children 2
His Last Painting 2
Dead Martyrs 1
So Why So Sad 1
The Convalescent 1
The Year of Purification 1
Wattsville Blues 1
Epicentre 0
My Guernica 0
Royal Correspondent 0

Lifeblood

1985 13
A Song for Departure 4
Empty Souls 4
I Live to Fall Asleep 4
Cardiff Afterlife 3
Solitude Sometimes Is 3
The Love of Richard Nixon 3
To Repel Ghosts 3
Glasnost 2
Always/Never 1
Emily 0
Fragments 0

Send Away The Tigers

Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 16
Autumnsong 10
Imperial Bodybags 9
Send Away The Tigers 4
The Second Great Depression 4
Rendition 2
Underdogs 2
Winterlovers 2
Indian Summer 1
I'm Just A Patsy 0

Journal For Plague Lovers

All Is Vanity 9
Peeled Apples 9
This Joke Sport Severed 9
Jackie Collins Existential Question Time 8
Marlon JD 6
Me and Stephen Hawking 6
William's Last Words 4
Facing Page: Top Left 3
Doors Closing Slowly 2
Journal For Plague Lovers 1
Virginia State Epileptic Colony 1
Pretension/Repulsion 0
She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach 0

Postcards From A Young Man

Golden Platitudes 6
(It's Not War) Just The End Of Love 6
Some Kind Of Nothingness 6
A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun 5
Postcards From A Young Man 5
All We Make Is Entertainment 2
The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever 2
Don't Be Evil 1
I Think I Found It 1
Auto-Intoxication 0
Hazelton Avenue 0
The Descent (Pages 1 & 2) 0

Rewind The Film

This Sullen Welsh Heart 10
30-Year War 9
Rewind The Film 8
Show Me The Wonder 8
Anthem For A Lost Cause 3
Builder Of Routines 2
As Holy As The Soil (That Buries Your Skin) 1
(I Miss the) Tokyo Skyline 1
Manorbier 1
Running Out Of Fantasy 1
3 Ways To See Despair 0
4 Lonely Roads 0

Futurology

Walk Me To The Bridge 7
Europa Geht Durch Mich 6
Futurology 5
Between The Clock And The Bed 3
Let's Go To War 3
Misguided Missile 3
Sex, Power, Love & Money 2
The Next Jet To Leave Moscow 2
The View From Stow Hill 2
Black Square 1
Divine Youth 1
Dreaming A City (Hughesovka) 0
Mayakovsky 0

Resistance Is Futile

International Blue 18
Hold Me Like A Heaven 8
People Give In 5
A Song For The Sadness 4
Liverpool Revisited 4
Distant Colours 3
In Eternity 3
Sequels Of Forgotten Wars 3
The Left Behind 3
Dylan & Caitlin 2
Vivian 2
Broken Algorithms 1

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Looking purely at B-sides, there were a few that managed to get at least two votes, as listed below.  'Prologue to History' was the only one to make it in the final setlist and how 'Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel' managed to rank third I have no idea!  Four of you must have been craving egg and chips.....

B-Sides

Prologue to History 12
Donkeys 7
Ballad Of The Bangkok Novotel 4
Sepia 3
Ain't Going Down 2
Bored Out Of My Mind 2
Comfort Comes 2
First Republic 2
Picturesque 2
Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head 2


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All of the 'National Treasures' songs managed to pick up votes, although a couple only managed to scrape the one.  The biggest hits and the songs best suited to a rousing reception in the live arena unsurprisingly came out on top.

National Treasures

A Design for Life 39
Motorcycle Emptiness 37
Faster 34
You Love Us 31
The Masses Against The Classes 22
Found That Soul 21
Stay Beautiful 20
Motown Junk 18
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 17
From Despair To Where 16
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough 16
La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh) 15
Little Baby Nothing 15
Roses In The Hospital 13
Tsunami 13
Australia 10
Autumnsong 10
Slash 'N' Burn 10
Everything Must Go 9
Kevin Carter 9
The Everlasting 9
You Stole The Sun From My Heart 9
Revol 8
Suicide Is Painless (Theme From MASH) 7
(It's Not War) Just the End of Love 6
Some Kind Of Nothingness 6
Ocean Spray 5
Postcards From A Young Man 5
Empty Souls 4
Let Robeson Sing 4
Life Becoming A Landslide 3
She Is Suffering 3
The Love of Richard Nixon 3
Love's Sweet Exile 2
There By The Grace of God 2
This Is The Day 2
Indian Summer 1
So Why So Sad 1

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Like B-sides there weren't a lot of covers that managed to get more than one vote, with 'Theme From MASH' being the only cover to get more than two votes.

Covers (not including fantasy covers)

Suicide Is Painless (Theme from MASH) 7
(Feels Like) Heaven 2
Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head 2
This Is The Day 2

Monday, 1 June 2020

Fantasy Setlists 31st May

So here are the final batch for the 2020 Manics Fantasy Setlists and I have to admit I've broken with Protocol on this one.  Usually I put them up on the blog in the order that I receive them but I had to change that just this once to reward artistic effort in what is undoubtedly the most artistic and colourful submission!

There was still time for some songs to register their first vote too, so not anywhere near the final setlist but someone loves them.

So the final day brought us up to a grand total of 43 setlists and I can tell you that I now know which songs make up the final 25!  But I won't tell you just yet, how about you join me on Twitter on the evening of Saturday 6th June for a listening party?

Bea @ManicBeata



Aileen @NotOnTwitterButFriendOfPyfbrown

1. International Blue
2. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
3. Australia
4. Tsunami
5. You Love Us
6. Motorcycle Emptiness
7. Sleepflower
8. From Despair To Where
9. You Stole The Sun From My Heart
10. Faster
11. Indian Summer
12. Hold Me Like A Heaven
13. She Is Suffering
14. Liverpool Revisited
15. Yes
16. Stay Beautiful
17. Motown Junk
18. Come Together (Beatles Cover)
19. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
20. Walk Me To The Bridge
21. Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky (with dedication to Aileen)
22. La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
23. People Give In
24. A Design For Life
25. Everything Must Go

Tombigbee @springvoodoo


James @archivesofjames


Denman @densk14

1. Motorcycle Emptiness
2. Little Baby Nothing
3. Suicide is Painless (Theme From MASH)
4. From Despair To Where
5. Drug Drug Druggy
6. She Is Suffering
7. Faster
8. P.C.P.
9. Revol
10. A Design For Life
11. The Girl Who Wanted To Be God
12. Further Away
13. The Everlasting
14. Ready For Drowning
15. You're Tender And You're Tired
16. Let Robeson Sing
17. Send Away The Tigers
18. This Joke Sport Severed
19. Between The Clock And The Bed
20. Dylan & Caitlin
21. Sequels Of Forgotten Wars
22. Prologue To History
23. Mr Carbohydrate
24. Bored Out Of My Mind
25. First Republic