A sort of homecoming

Sometimes accused of pomposity and stadium-rock tendencies, the Manic Street Preachers opted to bite the bullet in their customary confrontational style and see in the New Year with a triumphant gig in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Sometimes accused of pomposity and stadium-rock tendencies, the Manic Street Preachers opted to bite the bullet in their customary confrontational style and see in the New Year with a triumphant gig in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

In support, Shack proved that the spirit of the La's and the Fab Four is alive and well. Then - following a suitably patriotic montage of Gareth Edwards tries and hip-swivelling Tom Jones footage - local heroes Super Furry Animals paraded their madcap collision of whimsical Sixties psychedelia and electronic doodles.

But, from the rousing "You Stole the Sun From My Heart" and the driving "Faster", the night belonged to the headliners. Nicky Wire, resplendent in a pink skirt and T-shirt and a leopard scarf, leapt around his feathered-boaed mike-stand excitedly as the Manics launched into the Phil Spector manqué of "Everything Must Go". The punky, urgent, "Masses Against the Classes" proved that the group have lost none of their gift for Clash-style sloganeering. A rousing cover of Chuck Berry's "Rock And Roll Music" further demonstrated the Manics' grasp of dynamics and their belief in the celebratory and subversive power of pop.

Berating DJ culture ("You could be at the Ice Rink with a bloke playing some records!" quipped Wire), eschewing the laddism of Oasis and the hedonism of Primal Scream, the Manics claimed their rightful place among the best British bands of the Nineties. The anthemic "Motorcycle Emptiness" rang even truer when reprised by 55,000 people taking the roof off before Big Ben chimed on the giant video screens.

Slipping back on stage after midnight, James Dean Bradfield, who had earlier worked bits of Guns'n'Roses and the Supremes into "Motown Junk", busked a splendid "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", before the poignant "Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky" and a tribute to Richey Edwards, the "best friend and coolest companion of the decade".

It was a moment for reflection before the band launched into a blistering romp through "Australia" and "You Love Us", all the way to the climax of "A Design For Life", Bradfield shouting out that "this is the best night of our lives" and shadow-punching the ghosts away while Nicky Wire reverted to type and smashed up his bass.

The capacity crowd, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Japan, left the stadium musically sated, if still berating the scrum at the bar. And those who spent a cold night outside the railway station had magic manic millennium memories to keep them warm.