Ticket
Academy 2 (Main Debating Hall)
11th March 1992

This is a memory from when the Manic Street Preachers were touring their Generation Terrorists album.

With a couple of friends I arrived early to catch the band before sound check and get a few signatures on our records, whilst sat on the stairs leading up the MDH eating a tray of chips and gravy from Gemini takeaway, the band walked past and stopped to ask if they could have a few chips, of course we obliged! We started chatting and James mentioned that they were nervous about the evening’s gig because there was a last minute ticket sales spike from pissed-off Red Hot Chili Peppers fans who had arrived at the Academy where the Chili Peppers were due to play a sold out show only to find CANCELLED posters stuck to the doors. Someone had added a note saying tickets for the Manics were still available in the MDH next door.

News that Red Hot Chili Peppers had cancelled to appear on Top of The Pops was a bitter pill to swallow and bad vibes were starting to build outside the venue. Seas of people walking up Oxford Road were being told of a cancellation rumour by angry fans returning back into town.

The Manics were right to be worried, they pretty much filled the MDH and you could see large groups of Chilli Pepper fans at the back of the room sulking with their arms folded. The band managed to pull it around to their advantage when Nicky announced that the Red Hot Chili Peppers were “shit anyway”, and this got huge a huge cheer from the crowd.

It turned out that the Red Hot Chili Peppers did actually cancel their gig to appear on Top Of The Pops (Under The Bridge) only to be thrown off the show for refusing to mime and goofing about.