Manic Street Preachers celebrate 20th anniversary of Everything Must Go at the Royal Albert Hall - gig review

It's been 20 years since the band's first commercial success, and it still feels like they're just getting started

Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield performs at the Royal Albert Hall (Rex)

The Manic Street Preachers have gone back 20 years to celebrate the record that scored them their first commercial success, and the mood is one of some kind of homecoming.

"A Design For Life" arrives straight after James Dean Bradfield plays the rest of the band onto the stage with "Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier", rousing the crowd to their feet in an instant. Recorded after Richey Edwards’ disappearance, the track is a hailstorm of working class rage and ambition; backed by archive footage of bloodied protestors, it’s as powerful now as it was then.

As Bradfield tears into a distorted guitar solo for the title track it’s clear the band will struggle to please everyone for the second half of the night, but they’re definitely going to do their utmost best.

Powering through Everything Must Go, Wire changes outfits (again) as Bradfield switches up guitars, bouncing around the stage with all the energy of a teenager, the pair are utterly irrepressible.

Wire has said “Walk Me To The Bridge” isn’t about Edwards, but it’s difficult if not impossible for listeners not to come to that conclusion as Bradfield sings the heartrending: "So long my fatal friend, I don't need this to end, I reimagine the steps you took, still blinded by your intellect, walk me to the bridge."

"Your Love Alone" off Send Away The Tigers nods to Pink Floyd and The Who, along with their own track “You Stole The Sun From My Heart”, is a symbol of the band’s longevity and their talent at drawing in new fans from every generation; there are fathers and sons, mothers and daughters cheering side by side tonight.

While they decide against a rendition of their anthem supporting Wales for Euro 2016, there’s such a sporting element to the night; in the camaraderie on and off stage and the roars of the crowd as they drink in the energy the band are pouring out, entertainers as much as they are artists ("You probably bought this single from Woolworths," Wire quips ahead of “You Stole The Sun From My Heart”).

"If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" from ‘98s This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours is about as perfect a closer MSP could go for, the sense of doomed idealism and that resistance heard in "A Design For Life" haunt the Royal Albert Hall long after the last note.

20 years since Everything Must Go, and it still feels like the Manics are only getting started.