Manic Street Preachers longtime agent Scott Thomas has revealed the battle plan for the band’s return to the road – and teased that even bigger things could be in store in 2026.

Fresh from a successful co-headline run with Suede last summer, the indefatigable Welsh rockers will head out alone this spring in support of their 15th album Critical Thinking, which is out next Friday (14 February).

The sold-out UK outing stops at Glasgow Barrowland (11-12 April), London’s O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire (18-19 April), University of Wolverhampton at The Halls (25 April), Bristol Beacon (26 April), O2 Apollo Manchester (2-3 May) and Swansea Arena (9-10 May), prior to a short festival run.

“They’re deliberate underplays in very select cities,” X-ray Touring’s Thomas tells IQ. “We played to an awful lot of people outdoors on the Suede double bill last year, so it was very much a band-led idea. It was a case of playing venues they really enjoy and bringing their first new album of new material [since 2021] to those kinds of surroundings – smaller venues than they’ve played for a while – so obviously the shows flew out very quickly.

“To a certain extent, we haven’t even really tested demand, but you can always gauge something when your new singles go out and you get fresh offers in that you hadn’t been discussing prior, which is happening even three singles in. But they’re not wanting to blitz things too much this year, and then we’ll go back out next year.”

“The Manics love playing Japan – it’s possibly their favourite place in the world to play”

The Manics’ two-night stand in Wales at the Swansea Arena, recently renamed Swansea Building Society Arena as part of a new naming rights partnership, represents a slight deviation from the tried and tested approach. It will mark the first time the trio have played at the 3,500-cap venue, which opened in 2022.

“The band have played these venues a lot with the exception of Swansea, which is new, but we wanted to try it because it’s a different option,” notes Thomas.

The band kicked off the year in the Far East with a performance at Creativeman’s inaugural Rockin’ on Sonic, held at Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall, Chiba, in January.

“Naoki [Shimizu] at Creativeman had the idea to do an indoor winter festival and it was fantastically put together,” reports Thomas. “The Manics love playing Japan – it’s possibly their favourite place in the world to play – and it was a nice way of starting this live touring cycle in a place they feel at home and with a different kind of setup.”

Also on the festival trail, the Manics will headline Bearded Theory (UK), Azkena Rock Festival (Spain), Allas Live (Finland) and Foynhagen (Norway), with slots also booked for the UK’s Live at Leeds and Bospop in the Netherlands.

“Something’s in the pipeline for 2026 that could be pretty big, so it’s a way of bridging those plans”

“We won’t be overloading them this summer, because we did a lot last year,” explains Thomas. “Something’s in the pipeline for 2026 that could be pretty big, so it’s a way of bridging those plans. We’ve had an awful lot of outdoor interest for sole headline outdoor shows, or festival shows, and they wanted to play it a different way. We’re headlining Bearded Theory, because that was new to us. We’re playing special guests on at Live at Leeds, because they liked the idea.

“The band have never wanted to get in a rut and do predictable headline tours or summer festivals. We’re looking to find the right option in South Wales, which I think we have, but that’s for next year. And they wanted to keep things fresh on the festival front, so we deliberately chose to do a few other different things this year. That applies in mainland Europe to a certain extent as well, but certainly in the UK, so it was a case of picking stuff that was of very good quality and good size, but perhaps that they hadn’t done before.”

Thomas, whose roster also includes the likes of the Stereophonics, stresses the importance of taking a long-term approach.

“You always need to know where you see yourself in 18 months to 24 months,” he says. “Long-term planning is better for giving you the practical options in terms of venues and opportunities, be that indoor headline or festival/summer events. Also, it allows you to get a bit more creative: the band only wanted to play Fridays and Saturdays and in certain rooms, so we had to get that planned far in advance.”

“Thus far, everything has worked out exactly as we planned”

He adds: “We have known for quite some time what we wanted to do in 2026, so it was a case of working backwards from there. And thus far, everything has worked out exactly as we planned.”

The Manics – James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire and Sean Moore – continued as a trio after the disappearance of iconic guitarist and lyricist Richey Edwards 30 years ago this month. The group staged anniversary tours for their classic albums The Holy Bible (1994), Everything Must Go (1996) and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998) during the 2010s, but Thomas suggests nothing of that ilk is in the offing at present.

“I would always say never say never, but we did a few of them and I think it’s important to balance that out with new material – especially when your new music still has relevance and currency,” he asserts. “Obviously it’s always an artistic decision to go out and do an anniversary tour. With any of my artists, it’s never been a promoter or me going to them and saying, ‘Let’s do this, it’ll be great.’ I don’t think that’s the way these things should come about. It should come about because the artist wants to celebrate the anniversary, rather than it being a more cynical approach.

“At the moment, there’s nothing in the pipeline, but you never know if something is going to feel right. You want to have the audience really wanting it and for the act to feel it’s the right thing to do within their wider career.”

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Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top have become the latest acts to announce a co-headline tour, following in the footsteps of Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service, The Charlatans and Ride, Motley Crue and Def Leppard, and Suede and the Manic Street Preachers.

The bands’ Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour, produced by Live Nation, will hit 22 cities in North America next summer.

The tour kicks off on 21 July at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida, and continues with stops in Fort Worth, Phoenix, Chicago, and more before wrapping up in Camden, New Jersey at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion on 17 September.

The bands’ Sharp Dressed Simple Man tour, produced by Live Nation, will hit 22 cities in North America next summer

ZZ Top are represented by CAA worldwide (excluding Europe) while Lynyrd Skynyrd are repped by WME’s Greg Oswald in North America.

The newly announced tour buoys a growing trend of joint headline tours, especially among acts that share representation.

Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service share band member Ben Gibbard, as well as their agent for North America – Wasserman Music’s Trey Many.

The Charlatans and Ride also share their agent for North America, Wasserman’s Brad Owens, while Motley Crue and Def Leppard are both represented by Artist Group International for North America.

The latter bands’ co-headline run was 2022’s biggest North American stadium tour, with 1.3 million tickets sold.

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