Manic Street Preachers

The Manic Street Preachers from Blackwood, Wales were the most politically serious band of the Britpop era and arguably the most important. The Holy Bible in 1994 is one of the most harrowing and lyrically dense records in British rock history, recorded as Richey Edwards was disappearing into mental illness. Edwards vanished in February 1995 and was legally declared dead in 2008. The remaining three members continued, releasing Everything Must Go in 1996 — a record of genuine emotional power that went to number two in the UK and won the Mercury Prize. James Dean Bradfield plays Gibson Les Paul through Marshall amplification with a technique that is classically precise and emotionally fierce.