BBC News Online.
Wednesday, 20 December, 2000, 10:46 GMT
The Manic Street Preachers are set to make rock history by becoming the
first band from the West to play in Cuba.
The Manics will be showcasing tracks from their sixth album, Know Your
Enemy, with a concert at the Karl Marx Theatre in the capital, Havana.
The event will be limited to 5,000 fans, who will be charged just 25 cents -
17 pence - to attend the event by the band, whose hits include A Design For Life
and If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next.
Band members have taken a hand in organising the show, which takes place on
17 February.
Their manager Martin Hall, of Hall Or Nothing management, has travelled to
Cuba to lay the groundwork for the band's first concert of 2001.
Bass player Nicky Wire said: "It could be a disaster. There might be no
PA or whatever, but it's the idea that it's a bit of an adventure.
"So many bands these days just come back in the usual way and that's
one thing that we're not going to do this time," he told music paper NME.
"It'll be like Wham! in China."
The Manic Street Preachers last live appearance was a Millennium Eve gig at
Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, captured on their Leaving The 20th Century video.
The event - watched by 60,000 fans in the brand new £120m venue - was a
far cry from the band's latest ambitions.
The band's most recent single, Masses Against The Classes - which stormed to
the top of the charts despite an absence of promotion - had a Cuban flag on its
sleeve.
Wire added: "It's not like a student Che Guevara sort of thing. It's
just Cuba for me is the last symbol that really fights against the
Americanisation of the world."
The band are also lining up live dates in the UK this year. | 