Manic Street Preachers (often referred to as the
Manics) are an alternative rock band from Blackwood, Wales, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitars), Nicky Wire (bass, occasional vocals) and Sean Moore (drums, backing vocals, occasional trumpet). The band were originally a quartet: lyricist and rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards mysteriously vanished on 1 February 1995. In November 2008, 13 years after his disappearance, he was officially declared presumed deceased.
Following Edwards' disappearance, Bradfield, Moore, and Wire persisted with the Manic Street Preachers and went on to gain critical and commercial success, becoming one of Britain's premier rock bands. They have had eight top ten albums and fifteen top ten singles. They have reached number one three times and they have also won the Best British Album and Best British Group accolades at the BRIT Awards in 1997 and 1999, and were lauded by the NME for their lifetime achievements in 2008.
The fifth Manics album, '
This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours', took its title from the Welsh social revolutionary Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the welfare state. Its references included the Spanish civil war ('
If you Tolerate This...'), the Hillsborough football disaster of 1989 (S.Y.M.M.) and the crash-and-burn nature of Welsh artists such as Richard Burton and Dylan Thomas ('Ready For Drowning').
Sources:
The Wikipedia &
www.sing365.com