Monday February 12 2:56 PM ET
Manic Street Preachers set for rare Cuba gig

By Andrew Cawthorne

HAVANA (Reuters) - British rock band The Manic Street Preachers will give a free concert in Havana this weekend in the highest-profile gig
by a Western group in communist-run Cuba for two decades, officials said Monday.

The radical Welsh rockers will play Saturday night in Havana's 5,000-seat Karl Marx theater -- on the same stage where President Fidel
Castro (news - web sites) gives many speeches.

Not since U.S. singer Billy Joel played Havana in 1979 has such a big group given a concert in Cuba, though numerous American and British
artists did converge on the Caribbean island two years ago for a workshop with local stars.

The Manic Street Preachers ``profess a special interest and admiration for Cuba, which is why they are giving such importance and showing
such emotion over their first time in front of the Cuban people,'' the local Cuban Music Institute said in a statement.

Institute officials, who along with Cuba's Culture Ministry are organizing the concert and hosting the four-man band, said the event would be
invitation only, mainly via youth organizations, universities and local music circles.

``They are playing freely in Cuba, so we are not charging anything, and there is not going to be any economic benefit from this concert,'' an
institute official told Reuters.

A Manic Street Preachers' release, however, said tickets would cost 25 cents each -- a typical price for a show in Cuba where culture is heavily
subsidized by the state.

Rock Music Once Frowned Upon

Western rock music was frowned upon as a ``decadent influence'' in the early days after Castro's 1959 Cuban Revolution, and some Cubans
today recall being harassed for having long hair or being caught listening to the Beatles.

But that attitude has relaxed of late, and Castro even recently inaugurated a statue honoring slain Beatles star John Lennon as a fellow
``revolutionary'' persecuted by the CIA (news - web sites).

``This is the biggest concert by a Western band in Cuba for about 20 years, and we are delighted it is British,'' said Michael White of the
British Council, a U.K. cultural promotion agency helping organize the concert.

British media reported The Manic Street Preachers will unveil their sixth album -- ``Know Your Enemy'' -- in Havana in a comeback concert
after a while out of public view.

``It could be a disaster,'' bass player Nicky Wire was quoted as saying. ``There might be no PA or whatever but it's the idea that it is a bit of an
adventure.''

The band reportedly chose Cuba because it was the ``last place that holds out against the Americanization of the world.''

Havana and Washington have been at odds politically for the last four decades, and the U.S. government maintains its toughest foreign
sanctions' regime on Cuba.

Reuters/Variety REUTERS