The stifling humidity at Fort Canning Park was the setting for the Manics inaugural gig a day after former guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards was declared legally dead, 13 years after his mysterious disappearance.

The 3,000 strong crowd comprised mostly of punters in their ‘30s who have aged with the legendary Welsh rockers and previously acne-scarred teenage misfits who have evolved into high-flying civil servants and creative industry professionals. 

Kicking off the gig, was a brawling rendition of anti-conformist anthem “Motorcycle Emptiness” from their debut album Generation Terrorist, which ensued a mass karaoke session from all the nostalgic folks in the crowd.

We couldn’t help but actually think about how fresh, chiselled and angsty a biker gear clad James Dean Bradfield was in the 1992 music video but one of life’s bitter realties is that even our rock heroes are not immune from aging.       
Despite the inevitable aging, the triumvirate of bassist Nicky Wire, drummer Sean Moore and frontman-guitarist James Dean Bradfield who have been rocking it together for over two decades, played a technically accomplished and carefully selected repertoire of songs (no two songs played in sequence came from the same album), hence they never lost the audience.

But something was amiss despite the tight as f*ck on-stage presence of the Manics, the ferally energetic, boundaries thrashing stadium rock that we anticipated never arrived except in the unlikeliest of moments when Bradfield played a scorchingly brilliant solo acoustic set of two songs- “Small Black Flowers” and “Everlasting” while his fellow bandmates took a breather. The nakedness and visceral nature of his strained vocals accompanied by plaintive strummings bowled over the silenced crowd who were worshipping him in humble adoration. 

Being famous for their covers, the Manics unveiled a very twisted re-interpretation of a fluffy pop ditty, “Umbrella”, channeling the spirits of Kraftwerk and Public Enemy, they deconstructed it into one hella of a morbid rock tune with Wire’s demented bass strangulation and Bradfield’s blasé vocal delivery.