Two of Britain’s most vital and stubbornly brilliant bands are again joining forces and heading to Nottingham later this year.
Manic Street Preachers and Suede have announced a co‑headline arena tour for autumn 2026, uniting for a run that promises catharsis, confrontation and colossal choruses. The tour will roll through some of the country’s biggest rooms over the run – and Nottingham is included.
News of the collaboration has already sent fans into instant meltdown. “This is the most 90s-coded thing to happen in my adult life,” wrote one fan on X, while another declared the tour “a spiritual event, not a concert”. Across social media, clips of Motorcycle Emptiness and Beautiful Ones were already being shared in anticipation, with one post summing up the general mood: “Two bands that taught me how to feel things, on the same night.”
Few bands have burned as fiercely – or thought as deeply – as Manic Street Preachers. Since detonating onto the scene with 1992’s Generation Terrorists, the Welsh trio have fused serrated glam‑rock riffs with lyrics that stare down politics, identity and human fragility. Awarded Godlike Genius status at the Ivors, the Manics remain gloriously restless. Their 2025 album Critical Thinking crackled with urgency, skewering the anxieties of the social‑media age with the same sharp‑edged intelligence that has powered their four‑decade career, earning rapturous praise across press and radio.
Suede, meanwhile, continue to prove that reinvention is their natural state. Last year’s tenth studio album Antidepressants was hailed as one of 2025’s essential releases, landing on end‑of‑year lists from The Guardian to MOJO. Framed by Brett Anderson as a post‑punk record, it doubled down on the taut intensity of 2022’s Autofiction, funnelling the sweat, nerves and theatrical release of Suede’s legendary live shows into razor‑sharp songs.
Its launch was fittingly ambitious: Suede Takeover, a sold‑out, month‑long residency at London’s Southbank Centre that reframed the band in thrillingly unfamiliar settings. As The Telegraph put it, they remain “genre‑defining pioneers” with plenty left to say.
Fresh from a sold‑out UK and European tour—praised by The Observer for its “infectious, age‑defying energy and vulnerability”—Suede are currently taking that fire across the globe, with dates in China and a Summer Sonic appearance in Japan. This co‑headline tour with Manic Street Preachers now sets the stage for something bigger still: a collision of two live acts renowned not just for endurance, but for making arena crowds feel intimate, urgent and alive.
They play Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena on November 11.
Tickets go on general sale Friday, May 1 at 9:30am. Expect history, volume, and feeling your feelings very loudly.
You can buy them HERE
