'Exhilarating . . . revelatory . . . superb' THE TIMES 'A forensic exploration of their
compositions and recordings and everything that has been poured into them . . . completely
definitive' MOJO ¿¿¿¿¿ 'No one understands the inner workings and shared aesthetics of
Manic Street Preachers like Keith Cameron . . . phenomenal' NICKY WIRE AN INSTANT SUNDAY
TIMES BESTSELLER The story of Manic Street Preachers is unique in pop. Raging out of the
stricken mining communities of south Wales in the late 80s they were seemingly condemned to
mere cult status by a cruel juncture of artistic triumph commercial failure and personal
despair. The story took a further agonising twist when the tragedy of Richey Edwards' 1995
disappearance was followed by a remarkable rebirth built upon 'A Design For Life' - a hymn to
the band's working-class roots - and then the award-winning multi-million-selling album
Everything Must Go a majestic soundtrack to history and loss. Within five years Manic Street
Preachers were playing to 60 000 at the national stadium of Wales and had their second UK
Number 1 single. Subsequent output has confirmed the band as both a wellspring of restless
creativity and a barometer of the cultural conversation. Because it was music that saved them
it's through the prism of their music that Keith Cameron tells the definitive history of Manic
Street Preachers drawing on many hours of new interviews to dive deep into 168 songs from
1988 debut single 'Suicide Alley' to the late day peaks of 2025 album Critical Thinking .
Writing with the band's full co-operation his book charts the dynamic evolution of a universe
in which Karl Marx and Kylie Minogue happily co-exist that accords Rush and The Clash equal
favour and where Morrissey & Marr meet Torvill & Dean via Nietzsche and New Order in a single
four-minute pop song - all in the name of what Nicky Wire himself calls 'the fabulous disaster'
of Manic Street Preachers.
