Nailed to History: The Story of Manic Street Preachers

Book excerpt: Manic Street Preachers have established themselves as one the UK's most enduring, intelligent and credible rocks groups, but that quest for greatness has been a difficult, sometimes torturous path; a path which one of their number – the gifted and troubled Richley Edwards – abandoned for destinations still unknown. Nailed To History traces the slow yet inexorable climb of the South Wales band from their 1980s glam-punk origins, critically derided as 'Generation Terrorists', to their current position as respected art-rock intellectuals - a fact underlined by 2009's award-winning ‘A Journal For Plague Lovers’. This Omnibus Enhanced edition now includes a multimedia discography, charting every album and single release the band has made through a timeline of music videos and album art. Author Martin Power also examines the life and complex personality of Edwards, whose highly politicised, morally disquieting wordplay defined much of the Manics' early appeal - his personal demons writ large across 1994's dark masterwork ‘The Holy Bible’. Edwards' evermore extreme behaviour culminated in his sad, strange disappearance in February, 1995. A story of honour and enduring friendship, of 'culture, alienation, boredom' and despair, Nailed To History examines the Manic Street Preachers’ musical output and the personalities that make them an enduring artistic and political force.