Formed in Wales in 1988, and obsessed with The Clash and Public Enemy, the Manic Street Preachers survived early media vitriol to emerge defiant and triumphant.
Richey James Edwards wrote lyrics for the first three albums – Generation Terrorists (1992), Gold Against The Soul (1993) and most of the songs on the harrowing The Holy Bible (1994) – before he went missing on the day he and James Dean Bradfield were going to the US for a promotional tour.
On 1 February 1995 Edwards walked out of the Embassy Hotel in West London, climbed into his Vauxhall Cavalier car and was never seen again.
Two weeks later his car was found abandoned close to a well-known suicide spot at the Severn Bridge. No body has ever been found.
Following Edwards’ disappearance, Bradfield, Moore and Wire (pictured at right) persisted with the Manic Street Preachers and went on to gain critical and commercial success, becoming one of Britain’s premier rock bands.
A Design For Life (1996) sold 93,000 copies in its first week of release and entered the UK singles chart at #2. The album Everything Must Go (1996)became a huge commercial and critical success in the UK and Asia.
The Manics won both the Best Group and Best Album awards at the 1997 Brit Awards, before retreating to work on their next album. The single If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (an elegant account of Welsh volunteers in the Spanish Civil War) was released in August 1998 and went straight to the top of the charts.
Wales, its history and its people dominated This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998), the first album with no input from Richey. It was Nicky Wire who emerged as the new lyricist who shaped the Manics sound and psyche.
In November 1998 the band won Best Act In The World Today at the Q Awards, an event that brought a slightly embarrassed Nicky Wire face to face with a previously berated but forgiving Michael Stipe from REM. No champagne was spilt.
On 17 February 2001, the Manics became the first western band to play in Cuba. The 5,000-strong crowd at the Karl Marx Theatre in Havana paid just 17 pence each to see the band launch their new album, Know Your Enemy (2001).
James Dean Bradfield Vocals, guitar Richey Edwards Guitar Nicky Wire Bass Sean Moore Drums
Related Posts
Los Straitjackets Eddie Angel was a noted rockabilly guitarist, who moved to Nashville in the early 1980s to record and perform with…
Throwing Muses Boston’s Throwing Muses introduced a feminine sensibility that made a mockery of banal notions of 'Women In Rock'. Over abruptly…
Urge Overkill Urge Overkill formed in Chicago in 1985 and made their full-length debut four years later with Jesus Urge Superstar, a heavy…
Pop Will Eat Itself This irreverent quartet from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, with a style best described as hardcore pop with psychedelic and…
Cast Cast was formed in Liverpool in 1992 by John Power after he left The La's. Emerging from the Britpop movement…
Anthrax Although die-hard fans stuck by Anthrax no matter who their singer was, it is widely agreed among metalheads that the…
Wonder Stuff, The Formed in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in 1986, The Wonder Stuff amassed a sizeable local following and released an EP, It's A…
Offspring, The Bryan Holland and Greg Kriesel attended Pacifica High in Garden Grove, California, together, where they were both on the cross-country…
