Manic Street Preachers to headline Audley End with support from The Charlatans and Ash
Manic Street Preachers will headline Saturday night at this summer’s Audley End Heritage Live concerts.
The Welsh rockers will be supported at the open-air concert near Saffron Walden on August 2 by fellow indie luminaries The Charlatans and Ash.
The Manics – singer James Dean Bradfield, his cousin and drummer Sean Moore and bass player Nicky Wire – formed in Blackwood in 1986 with the late Richey Edwards joining two years later as co-lyricist and rhythm guitarist.
The band’s highlights include headline spots at Glastonbury, T in the Park, V and Reading & Leeds festivals.
They have won 11 NME Awards, eight Q Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards and four BRIT Awards, and were nominated for the Mercury Prize and the MTV Europe Music Awards.
Their first album, Generation Terrorists, released in February 1992, was a hugely ambitious debut, combining classic rock riffs with the attitude of pop and punk.
Throughout the years they have collected fans from all over the world, maturing and changing musically while keeping the signature Manics sound.
At their live shows, early tracks such as You Love Us and Motorcycle Emptiness comfortably sit alongside huge chart hits such as the Number 1 single If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next.
You Stole The Sun From My Heart and Design For Life play alongside newer songs such as International Blue and Orwellian.
They recently toured the US, Far East and UK with Suede and released their 15th studio album, Critical Thinking.
For more than 30 years, The Charlatans have been an inspirational force in British music, notching up 13 top 40 studio albums – including three chart-toppers – alongside 22 top 40 singles, four of them top 10 hits.
The band – Tim Burgess, Mark Collins, Martin Blunt and Tony Rogers – remain one of the best live acts around.
Their back catalogue is a jukebox of indie rock’s greatest hits, including the instantly recognisable The Only One I Know, Weirdo, Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over, One to Another, How High, North Country Boy and Come Home Baby.
Ash rose to prominence as teenagers in the 1990s with their thrashing brand of indie pop-punk.
Their debut album, 1997, went straight to number 1 in the album charts, with huge singles such as Oh Yeah and Girl from Mars.
The NME counts the album as one of the 500 greatest of all time.
The three-piece has since toured the world numerous times over, releasing eight albums including 2023’s Race The Night.
The Jacksons will kick off the Audley End Heritage Live series on Thursday July 31 with support from Sister Sledge, featuring founding member Debbie Sledge, and seven-piece band Miss Disco.
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has already been announced as the headliner for the Friday August 1 gig, supported by Ocean Colour Scene and Cast.
Tickets for the Manic Street Preachers show will be available on presale on Wednesday February 26 at 9am. Customers must pre-register at https://arep.co/p/manicstreetpreachers for access. Tickets go on general sale on Friday February 28 at 9am from axs.com/heritagelive.
