Formation and early releases

The Manics all come from Blackwood, a small mining town in the south valleys of Wales, and all attended Oakdale Comprehensive School. They were close friends from a young age and James Dean Bradfield (vocals, guitar) and Sean Moore (drums) are cousins who lived together for much of their childhoods. The band have discussed spending most of their youth in each others' bedrooms, listening to music, watching television and reading magazines and books, eventually forming the Manics, whose name allegedly comes from a homeless man shouting, "What are you, some kind of manic street preacher?" at James while he was busking, out of boredom more than anything else in 1986. James and Sean wrote most of the music while Nicky Wire (real name Nicholas Allen Jones, the nickname comes from his height) wrote the lyrics. Original bassist Miles Woodward (usually referred to as Flicker) left the band in early 1988 and Nicky took over on the bass.

In June 1988, the Manics released their first single, Suicide AlleySuicide Alley. Only 300 copies were made and only a third of those had actual covers - handmade with photos and newspaper cuttings by friend of the band and future member Richey James Edwards. Suicide Alley is reminicent of classic punk and the influence of The Clash especially is clear. They sent the single off to everyone they could, accompanied by long, handwritten letters filled with slogans and hate for other bands. It didn't recieve much attention, but in August 1989, it was the single of the week in the music magazine NME, with Steven Wells writing, "Retrogressive, exciting and inspired. You'll probably hate it." A re-recording of the b-side Tennessee later features on Generation Terrorists. A review of their first London show was published in October 1989 in the Melody Maker, another music magazine, which suggested "they could become champions".

Soon after the release of Suicide Alley, Richey joined the band as a second guitarist despite having reportedly never played guitar before and also joined Nicky in writing lyrics. While they started off in leather jackets, the Manics' first distinctive fashion started to develop here - a uniform of white jeans paired with shirts sporting spray-painted slogans like "picturesque ruin", "terminal young thing" and "rock n' roll suicide".

The Manics signed to Damaged Goods Records in 1990 and released the 4 track EP New Art RiotNew Art Riot in June of that year. This earned them a few interviews, in which they began to make their attitude clear outside of their songs - in a Melody Maker interview in August 1990, Richey stated, "We've got to play ordinary venues at the moment but we dream of playing the rubble of London's palaces".

After New Art Riot, the Manics were searching for a manager and sent letters to many different people, but it was only Phillip Hall who didn't mind the fact they couldn't find much luck getting gigs in London and drove to see them perform in Wales the next day. For a while in 1991 the Manics also lived with Phillip Hall and his wife. They were apparently ideal housemates and often cooked, cleaned and helped around wherever possible. They signed to Heavenly Records and their first single for Heavenly was January 1991's Motown JunkMotown Junk, a highly cynical and confrontational glam-punk song with iconoclastic lyrics such as "I laughed when Lennon got shot" and a sense of nihilism in lines like "The only thing you gave me was the boredom I suffocated in". It's the earliest Manics song that remains a staple in live sets. Next came You Love UsYou Love Us in May; an incredibly hostile song that criticises inauthenticity and arrogance in rock, parliament and the band's own fast-growing fanbase. The Manics' first music video was produced for You Love Us, a fairly typical rock n' roll video with the band performing in various places - except it starts with Nicky in drag and there's a fair amount of groping each other going on.

The Manics achieved their first cover story in Sounds magazine in January 1991, but their most iconic was for an NME issue that May. The cover features Nicky and Richey in leopard print and mesh on a gold foil backdrop. "Culture Slut" is written in lipstick on Nicky's chest and "VIH" (originally "HIV", it was done in a mirror) is cut into Richey's with a school compass. The actual article starts with Nicky stating he's had herpes since age 15 and continues in a similar vein - they come across as trashy, glamourous, sex-crazed, endlessly ambitious and proud to be hated more than loved with plenty of caustic comments directed at bands they don't like, their boring hometown and the even the NME itself. While James and Sean were the driving force behind the Manics' sound, Nicky and Richey were responsible for most interviews (and controversies) and were often referred to as the "Glamour Twins". This was where the leopard print and self-destruction image for Generation Terrorists really began, as well as their ambition to write a double album, sell more than Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction, and then break up dramatically at the height of their fame. They were on a mission to irritate everyone they didn't like; shown best when they played support for the notoriously homophobic band First Offense and immediately kissed each other onstage. While performing around this time, James would often invite fans - specifically male fans - to come backstage for sex.