Manchester Evening News Arena 2003 (gig)

Christopher Wolstenholme

Muse show
Venue	Manchester Evening News Arena[source?]
Date	29th November 2003
Location	Manchester
Country	United Kingdom
Songs	18
Support	Kinesis, Elbow[source?]
Start (UTC)	Unknown, 18:00[source?] (doors)
Capacity	19,000 (max seated capacity)[source?]
Price (GBP)	15.00 (seated, standing)[source?]
Sold out?	Unknown

Gig nav
National Ice Centre Arena	←	Manchester Evening News Arena	→	Cardiff International Arena

Prior to this gig, Matthew Bellamy would sing all of the lead chorus vocals for performances of The Small Print himself, unlike later gigs where Christopher Wolstenholme would take over during certain lines. This would be the first instance where Chris sang the line "you watch this space" along with Matt. However, it wouldn't be until the Club Quattro gig on 14th February 2004 where Chris would completely take over for the lines "you watch this space" & "slave to the grave" with Matt no longer singing those lines in any capacity.

Matt balanced his guitar on his head after performing Blackout,[source?] as seen at Glastonbury. He omitted the words "scream and she'll shout" from Stockholm Syndrome,[source?] instead opting to step away from the microphone and pop an on-stage balloon with his guitar.[source?]

You can read a review of the gig here

Speech

Assorted "Cheers!" and "Thank you"s throughout, sometimes in strangely hilarious voices with accompanying facial expressions (e.g. New Born, Blackout)

Bellamy introduced the song Butterflies & Hurricanes, "Gonna play another new song, if you haven't heard this song it's called 'Butterflies & Hurricanes'".

After returning to the stage for the encore, Bellamy responded to an unusually loud shout from one audience member with "Easy tiger!" followed by some indecipherable gibberish involving the word "fucking".

Bellamy introduced the song Blackout, "Cheers! Cheers... we'll play a new song, if you haven't heard this song yet... this song is called 'Blackout', and Chris is gonna play the keys... It's one for the lighters I think...".

Before the final song Bellamy announced "Thank you very much people of Manchester, you're the best! Thank you very much for coming this song is called Stockoooolm Syndroooome".

Media

An audience recording in lossless (FLAC) format can be found on MuseBootlegs here.

Setlist

1. Apocalypse Please
2. Hysteria
3. New Born
4. Sing for Absolution
5. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist
6. Citizen Erased
7. Space Dementia
8. Endlessly
9. Early Neutron Star Collision + Sunburn (keyboard)
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes
11. The Small Print
12. Forced In (instrumental)
13. Muscle Museum
14. Bliss (short)
15. Time Is Running Out
16. Plug In Baby

    Encore

17. Blackout
18. Stockholm Syndrome + outro

See also

• Manchester Evening News Arena

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