Manic Street Preachers about "culture, alienation, boredom and despair" has gained them a loyal following and cult status. With their debut album, "Generation Terrorists", the Manic Street Preachers proclaimed it would be the "greatest rock album ever", as well as hoping to sell "sixteen million copies" around the world, after which they would split up. Despite the album's failure to meet this level of success, the band carried on with their career. The group became a trio after Richey Edwards disappeared in February 1995. The band went on to gain critical and commercial success in spite of his absence. Edwards was legally "presumed
Manic Street Preachers Masses Against the Classes". They have sold more than ten million albums worldwide. Manic Street Preachers formed in 1986 at Oakdale Comprehensive School, Blackwood, South Wales, which all the band members attended. Bradfield and the slightly older Moore are cousins, and shared bunkbeds in the Bradfield family home after Moore's parents divorced. During the band's early years, Bradfield, alongside the classically trained Moore, primarily wrote the music while Wire focused on the lyrics. The origin of the band's name remains unclear, but the most often-told story relates that Bradfield, while busking one day in Cardiff, got into an altercation with