Tuesday 24 March 2020

Fantasy Setlists 23rd March

Two more entries takes our total up to 12 now and still loads of people to come currently pondering over their setlists.  Clearly this is important business and can't be rushed.  Top marks for presentation to our first entry this time though, throwing down the gauntlet to anyone else with extra time on their hands at the moment, and with an intro and an outro too!

Feel free to add your own intro and/or outro, they can't be counted towards the final setlist votes but it helps to make your setlist come alive!

Our second participant also had an honourable mentions list for those that got away, I'm sure anyone who has already started knows the feeling!

Mental Jargon @MentalJargon


John Keith @JKgiro85

Monday 23 March 2020

Fantasy Setlists 22nd March

Another nice round number of 5 fantasy setlists on Sunday took us into double figures already!  So I expect we'll be well on course to blow the total from last time completely out of the water and make us more, er, statistically significant.

A Design For Life is still clearly popular with many people as the immovable set closer, even with the choice of a full back catalogue that particular tradition clearly runs deep.  Although Die in the Summertime also got its turn at the end in one setlist to send everyone out into the streets on a.....high?

And yes, if you send me your setlist in a presentable format I will be lazy and copy and paste it for the blog....weeelllll, saves typing it out.  I am still doing the scoring though, so don't think I'm being THAT lazy.....

Craig Fairlie @CraigFairlie


Ritzy O'Toole @roisinmckeon


Kurt Curtis @KurtMarcECurtis

1. Us Against You
2. Archives of Pain
3. PCP
4. All is Vanity
5. Intravenous Agnostic
6. Sleepflower
7. Judge Yr'self
8. Solitude Sometimes Is
9. The Second Great Depression
10. Journal for Plague Lovers
11. Are Mothers Saints
12. Black Dog on my Shoulder
13. Peeled Apples
14. Imperial Bodybags
15. A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun
16. This Is Yesterday
17. Charles Windsor
18. Motown Junk
19. This Sullen Welsh Heart
20. Donkeys
21. A Song For Departure
22. Let's Go To War
23. Between the Clock and the Bed
24. Rewind the Film
25. Die in the Summertime

Jem @GoonerMetalhead


Mark Cleary @mousecore1976

1. Miss Europa Disco Dancer
2. Ocean Spray
3. 4st 7lb
4. Faster
5. This Is Yesterday
6. Enola/Alone
7. Be Natural
8. Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky
9. Life Becoming a Landslide
10. Found That Soul
11. The Everlasting
12. Tsunami
13. La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)
14. Roses in the Hospital
15. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
16. My Little Empire
17. Marlon JD
18. Little Baby Nothing
19. Slash 'N' Burn
20. Australia
21. Motown Junk
22. You Love Us
23. Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head
24. Motorcycle Emptiness
25. A Design For Life

Sunday 22 March 2020

Fantasy Setlists 21st March

So here they are, the first batch in the second run of Manics Fantasy setlists, the early birds getting their votes in before everyone else.  And already a pretty wide set of selections, making sure to cover most of the eras in their setlists.  And the first complete fantasy selection so far, with Richard going for an acoustic Proclaimers cover!  I wonder if JDB will have his glasses on for that one......

Kyle @KB2X

Intro - Dreaming a City (in its entirety)

1. Found That Soul
2. Peeled Apples
3. A Design For Life
4. ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayitsworldwouldfallapart
5. Further Away
6. Drug Drug Druggy
7. Distant Colours
8. Faster
9. Europa Geht Durch Mich
10. Show Me the Wonder
11. Send Away the Tigers
12. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
13. Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Acoustic)
14. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier (Acoustic)
15. Stay Beautiful (Acoustic)
16. This Joke Sport Severed (Acoustic)
17. Yes
18. Liverpool Revisited
19. Comfort Comes
20. Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll
21. Your Love Is Not Enough
22. People Give In
23. Suicide is Painless (Theme From MASH)
24. 1985
25. Motorcycle Emptiness

Marc Edison @marcsedison

1. Slash 'N' Burn
2. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
3. International Blue
4. 4 Ever Delayed
5. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
6. Motorcycle Emptiness
7. Faster
8. PCP
9. Strip It Down
10. La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)
11. The Girl Who Wanted to be God
12. Donkeys
13. Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky
14. Autumnsong
15. All Is Vanity
16. 1985
17. Baby Elian
18. (Feels Like) Heaven
19. Walk Me to the Bridge
20. Sequels of Forgotten Wars
21. We Her Majesty's Prisoners
22. Motown Junk
23. A Design For Life
24. You Love Us
25. Condemned to Rock 'N' Roll

Karen Davies @karenedavies68
Dom @DManto6

1. Motorcycle Emptiness
2. Yes
3. From Despair to Where
4. Faster
5. Kevin Carter
6. Yourself
7. 4 Ever Delayed
8. The Masses Against the Classes
9. The Second Great Depression
10. Suicide is Painless (Theme From MASH) (Acoustic)
11. Stay Beautiful (Acoustic)
12. Builder of Routines (Acoustic)
13. Empty Souls
14. 1985
15. Let's Go To War
16. You Love Us
17. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
18. Revol
19. Drug Drug Druggy
20. Life Becoming a Landslide
21. The Everlasting
22. International Blue
23. His Last Painting
24. Sleepflower
25. A Design For Life

Richard @RichardE1875

1. The Masses Against the Classes
2. A Song For the Sadness
3. Show Me the Wonder
4. PCP
5. Golden Platitudes
6. A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun
7. Me & Stephen Hawking
8. Autumnsong
9. Imperial Bodybags
10. A Song For Departure
11. To See A Friend In Tears (Acoustic)
12. Sunshine on Leith (Acoustic - Proclaimers cover)
13. The Everlasting
14. You're Tender And You're Tired
15. Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier
16. Everything Must Go
17. Further Away
18. Faster
19. This Is Yesterday
20. Hold Me Like a Heaven
21. From Despair to Where
22. Stay Beautiful
23. You Love Us
24. Yourself
25. Motorcycle Emptiness

Tuesday 17 March 2020

Fantasy Setlists Round 2!

Way back in 2014 a small group of Manics fans on Twitter created their own Manics Fantasy Setlist.  Well after 5 years surely it's way past time to revisit that?!  So if you weren't around last time or if you want another go, or even if you just want to take out that one song from last time that you're not as keen on now and replace it with Vivian, this is the place for you.


The Rules!
So, what if you were in charge of the setlist for a Manic Street Preachers gig?  Which songs would you pick?  A greatest hits set maybe, a whole set of songs they never play live, covers, B-sides, all of the above?  For this "chart" of sorts YOU are in charge!!

Select 25 different songs of your choice. This may contain ANY song the Manics have ever recorded or played live.
If you wish to select a fantasy cover that they have never ever played in any form but you would like them to, you may (however, in terms of the overall fan setlist, bear in mind this is highly unlikely to be selected by anyone else!).
With the above in mind, James or Nicky solo songs are valid entries if you would like to see the full band play them.
It doesn't HAVE to be your favourite 25 songs.  Some may not work as well live or you may just want to see certain songs played more than others, the choice is yours.
The order of the songs ideally will be how you want your gig to flow, however the order may not be important to you (see scoring for the effect of ordering).
You may specify that a song is included in a solo/acoustic section if you wish (see scoring for the effects of this).
As an additional option, in true Manics style, you may of course add your own setlist quote.


Scoring (for the overall fan setlist compiled from all of your entries)
No weighting will be applied to songs, each selection will count as 1 vote.
If you specified a song as solo/acoustic this counts against all votes for that song (i.e. there aren't separate entries for full band/solo songs).
For the 25 songs with the most votes, an average placing in the set will be calculated based on the order of your selections so that the final 25 is in the optimal order as decided by you.
If any of the top 25 entries has more votes as a solo/acoustic song than with the full band it will appear in the final set as solo/acoustic.


Submitting your Entry
Once you have your 25 selections, participants are encouraged to share their setlist (like with the top 50s) on Twitter for a lively debate with your followers!!  If you do this, let me know @Pyfbrown so that I can take a look and register your votes.  Each entry will go up on this blog with your Twitter name for anyone that may miss it to study and critique!!  Note: if you came across this blog through a site other than Twitter I will include another name as appropriate.

Some people last time even got extra creative and made their own actual setlist and posted a picture of that instead, I know there will be plenty of creative people out there who will have their own ideas about how they want to go about it.  But, however that may be, make sure you tag me @Pyfbrown so that I can register the votes towards the final setlist.


If you would rather blog your own setlist or just send it by email without counting down on Twitter in this way that's fine too, contact me to arrange this at the time.


The deadline for entries to be considered for the overall fans' setlist is Sunday 31st May 2020. Happy setlisting!!