MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Manic Street Preachers (also informally referred to as the Manics) are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood, Caerphilly, in 1986. Since 1995, the band has been a three-piece of Nicky Wire (bass/lyrics) and cousins James Dean Bradfield (vocals/guitar/occasional lyrics) and Sean Moore (drums). They form a key part of the 1990s Welsh Cool Cymru cultural movement. The band's early releases were in a punk vein, eventually broadening to a wider alternative rock sound. Their early combination of androgynous glam imagery and lyrics about "culture, alienation, boredom and despair" gained them a loyal following. As a four-piece with Richey Edwards (guitar/lyrics), the band's first charting single was "Motown Junk" in 1991, followed by their first two albums, Generation Terrorists in 1992 and Gold Against the Soul in 1993. 1994's The Holy Bible was the last album with Edwards, who disappeared in February 1995 and was legally presumed deceased in 2008. After a six-month hiatus, and with the blessing of Edwards' family, the remaining members chose to continue, achieving commercial success with the first post-Edwards album, 1996's Everything Must Go, which reached No. 2 in the UK Albums Chart.