'Manic Street Preachers' consist of James Dean Bradley (vocals/guitar), Nicky Wire (bass) and Sean Moore (drums). The group was created in 1988 in Blackwood (Wales) by James and Sean who are cousins. Their school mates Nicky Jones and Richey Edwards joined them and they set about recording the self-financed début single "Suicide Alley". Nicky Jones used the name "Wire" as his stage name. In 1995, Richey Edwards went missing. His abandoned car was found but with no trace of him. James, Nicky and Sean carried on as a trio.

After another single in 1990, they signed to "Heavenly" where they had two minor hits. In the summer of 1991, after being snapped up by Columbia, they had their first entry into the Top 40 with "Stay beautiful". Their début album "Generation Terrorists" then entered the UK album Top 20 in early 1992 (the title "Motorcycle emptiness" received quite a lot of airplay). Recently they had their second #1 hit in the Charts with "Masses against the classes". Their style is of a heavy / punk outfit taking influences from The Clash, The Alarm and Guns & Roses.

Manic Street Preachers' "Close my eyes" won the UK selection for the OGAESC (including 17 songs) after a close competition with Sarah Brightman's "Deliver me" and Mike Oldfield's "Sunlight shining through cloud". These 3 songs respectively got 94, 89 and 82 points.

Visit the Manics' official website at www.manics.co.uk.

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