A MANIC Street Preachers gig on home soil was always going to be special, but as it was the last night of their Resistance is Futile tour it was a night to remember. 

The crowd were wild with anticipation. Japanese warriors appeared on the screen followed by the slogan ‘Life is Memory’.

They opened with International Blue, taken from their latest album, but it was Motorcycle Emptiness that really got things going. People sang, danced and jumped and footage of the band, with missing member Richey Edwards, played on the screen.

Video filmed in Ebbw Vale played as they sang Distant Colours, including Aneurin Bevan memorial stones and The Guardian statue.

Old and new songs alternated, and there were plenty of the band’s anthems including Your Love Alone is Not Enough, You Stole the Sun from My Heart and Everything Must Go. 

Frontman James Dean Bradfield played two acoustic numbers and slowed the pace slightly before the band came back on stage.

It was an unforgettable night that took the band back to the streets of Blackwood where they began.

As a Design for Life closed the show it was a trip down memory lane that every Manics fan should take.