Manic Street Preachers have announced a UK tour including TWO Manchester gigs at the O2 Apollo.

The Manchester gigs are two of 10 UK shows they have announced.  They will open the tour in Glasgow ahead of two dates at London’s iconic Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

News of the tour comes as Manic Street Preachers build towards the release of their new album Critical Thinking which lands on 31 January 2025.  The album will mark their fifteenth studio album.  Critical Thinking promises to find Manic Street Preachers celebrating conflicting ideas colliding and soul-searching.

Speaking about the upcoming album Manic Street Preachers’ Nicky Wire said, “This is record of opposites colliding – of dialectics trying to find path of resolution. While the music has an effervescence and an elegiac uplift, most of the words deal with the cold analysis of the self, the exception being the three lyrics by James (Dean Bradfield) which look for and hopefully find answers in people, their memories, language and beliefs.

“The music is energised and at times euphoric. Recording could sometimes be sporadic and isolated, at other times we played live in band setting, again the opposites making sense with each other. There are crises at the heart of these songs. They are microcosms of skepticism and suspicion, the drive to the internal seems inevitable – start with yourself, maybe the rest will follow.”

Manic Street Preachers have also shared their latest single Hiding in Plain Sight which features bassist/lyricist Nicky Wire on lead vocals for the first time.  The track is inspired by a line from the poet Anne Sexton (“I am a collection of dismantled almosts”) and finds Manic Street Preachers musing on fearful midlife nostalgia.

When do Manic Street Preachers headline at Manchester’s O2 Apollo?

Manic Street Preachers headline at Manchester’s O2 Apollo on 2 and 3 May 2025.  The Manchester gigs are two of 10 UK shows they have announced:
11 April – Glasgow, Barrowland
12 April – Glasgow, Barrowland
18 April – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
19 April – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
25 April – Wolverhampton, The Civic at the Halls
26 April – Bristol, Beacon
2 May – Manchester, O2 Apollo
3 May – Manchester, O2 Apollo
9 May – Swansea, Arena
10 May – Swansea, Arena

When do tickets go on sale for Manic Street Preachers’ UK tour?

Tickets for Manic Street Preachers’ UK tour go on sale at 9.30am on Friday 1 November.