We came together around Nick. I was Baldrick to his Blackadder. More than anything he talked about being great, being legends. Nick reckoned he would be a great sportsman, a great politician. We started on the basis of those delusions of grandeur. James (1996) A big moment was the tenth anniversary of punk. The Clash were on a compilation of that Tony Wilson programme So It Goes, doing 'Garageland' and 'What's My Name'. That was the catalyst to us forming a band. We thought we could look like that, walk like that. Although we couldn't play... Nicky (1996) We started at a time when rock 'n' roll was dead over here. The UK was in the grip of dance, rap and the acid house thing. All that Manchester stuff sounded so contrived... The only real rock 'n' roll was coming out of America. We were consciously reacting against all that. Our friends laughed at us because they said there was no audience for us. But we felt we had to do something to bring back rock 'n' roll, so that's how the Manic Street Preachers came about. Richey (1992) Nick's firs lyric was called 'Aftermath' - a real doggerel diatribe against Margaret Thatcher. The (miners) strike was on all around us and it was on TV every day for a year. When the Yorkshire miners started turncoating, I'd find myself shouting at the telly: 'scab, scab'. But when it was over we didn't want to be these working-class gangsters singing, 'We lost, we lost, but we're still standing'. We didn't believe in glorious losers. James (1996) We felt that we could change things. We called ourselves the Blue Generation for a while because we felt we were destined for collective greatness. James (1996) It was absolutely everything to me. My idea was about true, natural talent. Something you're born with. We always knew the band was going to work, and that it was just down to us to make it happen. Sean (1996) We had this evangelical desire to start the revolution and be absolutely fucking massive. It didn't just mean getting a record deal. It was all-conquering, psycho, egotistical. Nicky (1996) I used to commute in on the train. Regular work. Drum until six and then go home. It was like a little office job. Sean (1996) When we started we used to go into NatWest, all the banks, and try to get a loan. We'd tell them, 'this country is dead musically, there's got to be room for an exciting rock band.' We'd show them the New Musical Express; 'look at that, anything good in there? Now look at us, were really exciting'. We told them we were going to be this really massive rock 'n' roll band. They couldn't see it. Richey (1991) Once we set our minds on what we were doing, we didn't play a single gig in Blackwood. It was straight to London and scrounging money to get on the pay-to-play circuit. You know, £50 for 15 minutes. Next thing was getting the press out to the shows. This is extremely difficult in England because the music press wields the power to make or destroy taste and they don't like anything they don't discover themselves. Richey I do consider myself to be something of a pretentious wanker Nicky (1993) The difference between me and Richey is that he always wanted to be understood, and I prefer to be misunderstood. I don't feel the need for people to love or respect me, whereas Richey did. Nicky (1994) Richey was half Ian Curtis, half Iggy Pop. Nicky (1995) We set out to be truly despised and hated. Richey (1993)

We're very cynical people. We saw bands do all the pubs where we lived, do 200 gigs a year, get really big local followings, and they're all under the illusion that somebody from Sony Music will be driving through the middle of South Wales and go, 'Hey what a good band, let's sign here'. And of course we knew they never would. We knew we had to move to London. Richey (1992) At university I did politics and Richey did political history. That's where we nicked all our lyrics from, really. We discovered the Sex Pistols and the Rolling Stones at the same time as we discovered literature. They seemed the same thing to us - both really exciting. Nicky (1991) While we were at university, James was on the dole and Sean worked at the civil service. He funded us, basically - when we were travelling about in Transit vans and paying to play at the Rock Garden. James was learning to play guitar - he's more dedicated than any of us. Richey (1991) When we started, we did want to conquer the world, but that was just a young boy's dream. The myth of complete arrogance, of thinking that you are the greatest band in the world. Which you only get one time in your life, usually when you're young, before you realise what it takes. Nicky (1996) We looked down on anyone outside the circle of the four of us. We didn't feel a generation gap with people who were older than us, we felt one with people of the same age. I think that's why we used sloganeering language a lot. We thought that was all they understood and deserved. James (1996) The only positive thing we could do was to be nihilistic. It was a good avenue to take, initially, but it didn't get us very far, did it? James ( 1996) We were a band before we even picked up guitars. And we didn't even know how, but we knew Richey had to be a part of it. Nicky (1994) We realised that as individuals we were very limited as people, so we had to fabricate ourselves and took a very academic approach at being in a band. We were quite clinical. We were like magpies, collecting information, keeping dossiers on journalists and learning how to manipulate them. Nicky In the beginning, when we formed, we wanted to sign to the biggest record label in the world, put out a debut album that would sell 20 million and then break up. Get massive and then just throw it all away. By the time we were getting interviews and saying that to the press, though, we didn't believe it. We knew we couldn't quite do that. But if we had aimed any lower at the beginning, I don't think anyone would've paid as much attention to us. Richey (1992) We went down to (the) Underworld (club) one night. It was unbelievable. There were like five bands and loads and journalists, all drinking at the same tables. We were naive, but we never thought there would be that really close level of friendship. With most of the cool bands, you know the same people are going to write about them all the time...We just get people who really detest us. Richey (1992) At the start I was personally on a mission to separate ourselves from everyone, even music that I liked. It's my bad trait. Nicky (1996) Everybody's got a corner of their heart and mind you can't get into. Richey was always much more into books and films than rock 'n' roll, and I think those artforms are much more idealised. I think they influenced the way he viewed his life, and the way he thought it would be. I think of that quote in Rumblefish, y'know? 'He's merely miscast to play; he was born on the wrong side of the river'. He has the ability to do anything but he can't find anything to do. James (1994)