CityLife

Teenage Cancer Trust: Suede

Suede
The Ritz
March 21, 2010

Seven years since they last performed together, Suede’s comeback at the Manchester Ritz may not have been huge in scale, but certainly heavy in emotional depth.

In this, the second of two intimate warm-up gigs ahead of that big comeback show at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust this week, we have the “second era line-up”, i.e. without guitarist Bernard Butler who helped shape the sound of a band that burst onto the music scene at the dawn of Britpop in the early 90s.

But with frontman Brett Anderson still at the helm, who’s complaining?

The years have been kinder to Brett than to us ageing and widening fans.  His hips are still jutting in cigarette-slim trousers, his luscious fringe still frantically flopping as he bounds the stage with the agility of a baby gazelle.

There were plenty of hits from all five Suede albums to send the mosh pit into a frenzy – the likes of Filmstar, Beautiful Ones, Animal Nitrate and Metal Mickey allowing our enigmatic frontman to really get going with that bony-limbed convulsion of a dance routine.

But it’s on the fan favourites and album tracks where we really get to enjoy those aching vocals.

There’s a breathtaking Asphalt World, flawless Pantomime Horse and a truly haunting rendition of The Next Life with Brett finishing up crouched into the ground as if he’s shuffling off his own mortal coil.

There’s a magical singalong to The Wild Ones before a sweat-soaked Brett sighs: “It’s been emotional”. There’s still more to wring out though with the show’s conclusion of The 2 of Us.

“It’s been a lovely evening,” Brett concludes. Although, sadly for the die-hard fans here, there were no assurances that now they’re back, they’re back for good.

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