Watch Manic Street Preachers cover The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’ and air rarities for Robert Smith’s Teenage Cancer Trust shows at Royal Albert Hall

Manic Street Preachers took to the stage at Royal Albert Hall last night (Thursday March 26) as part of the Teenage Cancer Trust series, and broke out rarities, covers of The Cure and more. Check out footage and the full setlist below.

The band were added to the line-up for the charity concert series by The Cure’s Robert Smith, who stepped in as the curator in the place of The Who’s Roger Daltrey. They join other names confirmed for the 2026 edition, including Garbage, Wolf Alice, Chvrches, Elbow and My Bloody Valentine.

Taking to the stage after a performance from The Joy Formidable, frontman James Dean Bradfield and co. used their set at Royal Albert Hall to not only break out classic tracks, but also play some scarcely-heard rarities and perform some covers.

After kicking things off with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, Manics played the title track from their ‘Futurology’ album for the first time since the record dropped in 2014, and followed this up with the first live rendition of their 1993 song ‘Roses In The Hospital’ since 2016.

Other rarities included the first airing of ‘Condemned To Rock ‘n’ Roll’ since 2015, and ‘My Little Empire’, which hadn’t made its way into a Manics setlist since 2019.

Bradfield played various songs solo, including ‘​​This Sullen Welsh Heart’, ‘Everything Must Go’, and ‘The Everlasting’, and the band also broke out a cover of The The’s ‘This Is The Day’ – which they included on their 2011 ‘National Treasures’ greatest hits albums, and hasn’t been played live by them since 2017.

Other covers included a shortened version of ‘Bring On The Dancing Horses’ by Echo & The Bunnymen, and the first ever live cover of The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’.

The latter is assumedly a nod to the TCT 2026 curator, Robert Smith, and something that Manics teased with fans recently.

Check out more footage and the setlist below.

Manic Street Preachers played:

‘Motorcycle Emptiness’
‘Futurology’ (First time since 2014)
‘Roses in the Hospital’ (First time since 2016)
‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’
‘Decline & Fall’
‘Ocean Spray’
‘Close to Me’ (The Cure cover) (First time live by Manic Street Preachers)
‘La tristesse durera (Scream to a Sigh)’
‘This Is Yesterday’
‘Bring On the Dancing Horses’ (Echo & the Bunnymen cover) (Shortened)
‘Hiding in Plain Sight’
‘The Secret He Had Missed’
‘A Design for Life’
‘This Sullen Welsh Heart’ (James Dean Bradfield solo)
‘Everything Must Go’ (James Dean Bradfield solo)
‘The Everlasting’ (James Dean Bradfield solo into full band)
‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (First time since 2015)
‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’
‘This Is the Day’ (The The cover) (First time since 2017)
‘From Despair to Where’
‘My Little Empire’ (first time since 2019)
‘You Love Us’ (Dedicated to Richey Edwards)
‘If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next’

This isn’t the first time that Manics have been invited to play a live show thanks to Robert Smith. Back in 2018 they were also invited to the Royal Albert Hall by The Cure icon as part of his curation of Meltdown Festival.

During that set, they covered The Cure’s ‘In Between Days’ – which you can watch below – and ahead of that show, Bradfield spoke to NME about his admiration of Smith.

“It’s weird, Robert Smith occupies this territory where he’s kind of reclusive,” he said. “You never see pictures of him, you never hear rumours of him, he just comes out on a tour to do something then he just slips back away. He’s almost like a kind of secret agent. It’s almost like he’s in the witness protection scheme. I love how he seems reclusive but without any of the drama that you would traditionally attach to that.”

Manics later released a version of ‘In Between Days’ which they recorded for the BBC as part of a playlist of new and lost recordings in 2022.