Editing Manic Street Preachers (section)

=== ''Everything Must Go'' to ''Lifeblood'' (1996–2006) ===
The first album without Edwards, ''[[Everything Must Go (Manic Street Preachers album)|Everything Must Go]]'', was released on 20 May 1996. The band had chosen to work with new producer [[Mike Hedges]], mainly for his work on [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]]' single "[[Swimming Horses]]" that Bradfield rated highly.<ref name=quiet>{{cite web|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/20332-manic-street-preachers-everything-must-go-interview-simon-price|title=And If You Need An Explanation: Manic Street Preachers interviewed |publisher=Thequietus.com |first=Simon |last=Price |date=2 June 2016 |access-date=29 June 2018}}</ref> ''Everything Must Go'' debuted on the [[UK Albums Chart]] at number 2, so far the album has gone [[RIAA certification|Triple Platinum]] in the UK and is their most successful album to date, spending 103 weeks in the Top 100 with the album still in the Top 5 a year after its release.<ref name="UK charts"/> Containing five songs either written or co-written by Edwards the album was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews. The No. 2 hit single "[[A Design for Life]]" was the first to be written and released by the band following the disappearance of Richey Edwards the previous year.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} James Dean Bradfield later recalled that the lyric had been a fusion of two sets of lyrics-"Design for Life" and "Pure Motive"-sent to him from Wales by bassist Nicky Wire, while he was living in [[Shepherd's Bush]]. The music was written "in about ten minutes" and Bradfield felt a sense of euphoria with the result.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} The song was credited with having "rescued the band" from the despair felt after the disappearance of Edwards, with Wire describing the song as "a bolt of light from a severely dark place".<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/4T4UgrW7tLw Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170817205446/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T4UgrW7tLw&feature=youtu.be Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T4UgrW7tLw |title=How Writing 'A Design For Life' Saved Manic Street Preachers – Interview |date=23 July 2014 |publisher=YouTube |access-date=26 April 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The album was shortlisted for the 1996 [[Mercury Prize]] award for best album and won the band two [[Brit Awards]] for Best British Band and Best British Album,<ref name="brits.co.uk"/> as well as yielding the hit singles "[[Australia (Manic Street Preachers song)|Australia]]", "[[Everything Must Go (song)|Everything Must Go]]" and "[[Kevin Carter (song)|Kevin Carter]]". The album has sold over two million copies around the world, and it is still considered one of the finest releases of the decade,<ref name=Clash>{{cite web|url=http://www.clashmusic.com/features/manic-street-preachers-the-complete-guide|title=Manic Street Preachers: The Complete Guide|website=Clashmusic.com|date=18 June 2014 |access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> a classic album from the 1990s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nme_writers.htm#ClassicAlbums&Singles|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060106073832/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nme_writers.htm#ClassicAlbums&Singles|url-status=usurped|archive-date=6 January 2006|title= NME classic albums and singles|website=Rocklistmusic.com|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> and frequently voted in polls in the category of best albums of all time by many publications.<ref name=NME2>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nme_500_greatest_albums_2013.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131124170335/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nme_500_greatest_albums_2013.htm|url-status=usurped|archive-date=24 November 2013|title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time|website=Rocklistmusic.com|access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> The success of Everything Must Go at the 1997 [[Brit Awards]] ensured that sales of their earlier albums ''Generation Terrorists'', ''Gold Against the Soul'' and ''The Holy Bible'' enjoyed a late surge; the band's debut sold an extra 110,000 copies.<ref name="Price"/>

In 1997 the band performed a special gig at the [[Manchester Arena]] for more than 20,000 people. Bassist Nicky Wire said that was the moment he knew that the band had "made it".<ref name="Price"/> The recording was released as a [[VHS]] video on 29 September 1997 and has only been reissued on [[DVD]] in Japan.

The band's next album, ''[[This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours]]'' (1998), was the first number 1 of the band in the UK, remaining at the top of the albums chart for 3 weeks,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://entertainmentghana.mobi/music/view/rel/11205 |title=Manic Street Preachers – This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours |website=entertainmentghana.mobi |access-date=6 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928090715/http://entertainmentghana.mobi/music/view/rel/11205 |archive-date=28 September 2013  }}</ref> selling 136,000 copies in the first week and spending a total of 74 weeks in the Album Chart.<ref name="UK charts"/> The title is a quotation taken from a speech given by [[Aneurin Bevan]], a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician from Wales.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/ps/sites/politicsguide/hall_of_fame/pages/aneurin_bevan.shtml |title=Hall of Fame |website=[[BBC|bbc.co.uk]] |access-date=12 June 2012 |archive-date=19 April 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130419211659/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/ps/sites/politicsguide/hall_of_fame/pages/aneurin_bevan.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> The cover photograph was taken on [[Black Rock sands|Black Rock Sands]] near [[Porthmadog]], Wales.<ref>{{cite news |date=7 March 2003 |title=All About ... Black Rock Sands. |newspaper=[[Daily Post (London newspaper)|Daily Post]] |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/All+about+...+BLACK+ROCK+SANDS.-a098461358 |access-date=30 September 2012}}</ref> Around the world the album also peaked at number 1 in countries like Sweden and Ireland, and it sold over five million copies worldwide.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

[[File:If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next - 1930s poster.jpg|thumb|upright|The "If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next" poster]]

With their fifth album, the group also had a No. 1 single, "[[If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next]]". The song's theme is taken from the [[Spanish Civil War]], and the idealism of [[Welsh people|Welsh]] volunteers who joined the [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] [[International Brigades]] fighting for the [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]] against [[Francisco Franco]]'s military rebels. The song takes its name from a [[Second Spanish Republic|Republican]] poster of the time, displaying a photograph of a young child killed by the [[Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War#Use of the Spanish Civil War as weapons testing ground|Nationalists]] under a sky of bombers with the stark warning "If you tolerate this, your children will be next" written at the bottom.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1122 |title=Madrid. The 'Military' Practice of the Rebels. If you tolerate this your children will be next. (Art.IWM PST 8661) |website=Iwm.org.uk |date=22 February 1999 |access-date=29 April 2017}}</ref> The song is in the ''[[Guinness World Records]]'' as the number one single with the longest title without brackets.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">{{cite book
| first= David
| last= Roberts
| year= 2006
| title= British Hit Singles & Albums
| edition= 19th
| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited
| location= London
| isbn= 1-904994-10-5
| page= 624
| title-link= British Hit Singles & Albums
}}</ref> The album also included the hit singles "[[You Stole the Sun from My Heart]]", "[[Tsunami (Manic Street Preachers song)|Tsunami]]" and "[[The Everlasting (song)|The Everlasting]]". The Manics won Best British Band and Album awards at the BRIT Awards in 1999.<ref name="brits.co.uk"/> ''This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours'' was also shortlisted for the 1999 [[Mercury Prize]] and the band received a further nomination in the category of Best UK & Ireland Act in the 1999 [[MTV Europe Music Award]]s, where the band performed live the single ''If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next''. In the [[NME Awards]] in 1999, the band won every single big prize, Best Band, Best Album, Best Live Act, Best Single and Best Video, as well as the Best Band in the World Today award in the [[Q Awards]] 1998.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/bestalbumsandtracksoftheyear/1998 |title=Albums and Tracks of the Year |website=[[NME]] |access-date=4 January 2013}}</ref>

After headlining [[Glastonbury Festival]], [[T in the Park]] and [[V Festival]], the band played the [[Leaving the 20th Century]] concert at the [[Millennium Stadium]] in Cardiff on 31 December 1999, the first concert to be held there, with 57,000 people attending and the final song being broadcast around the world by satellite as part of [[2000 Today]]. The concert is available on [[VHS]] and [[DVD]]. Subtitled English lyrics, available as an extra, contain errors when compared to the official lyrics in the band's album booklets and in between some of the tracks there are interview clips where the band discusses their history and the songs.<ref name="Larkin2006">{{cite book|author=Colin Larkin|title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music: Kollington – Morphine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cgwKAQAAMAAJ|year=2006|publisher=MUZE|isbn=978-0-19-531373-4|pages=475–}}</ref>

In 2000, they released the limited edition single "[[The Masses Against the Classes]]". Despite receiving little promotion, the single sold 76,000 copies in its first week and reached number one in the [[UK Singles Chart]] on 16 January 2000, beating "U Know What's Up" by [[Donell Jones]] to the top. The catalogue entry for the single was deleted (removed from wholesale supply) on the day of release, but the song nevertheless spent 9 weeks in the UK chart.<ref name="UK charts"/>

In 2001, they became the first popular Western rock band to play in Cuba (at the [[Karl Marx Theatre]]) and met with President [[Fidel Castro]]. Their concert and trip to Cuba was documented and then released as a DVD entitled ''[[Louder Than War (DVD)|Louder Than War]]''. At this concert, they revealed many tracks from their upcoming sixth album, ''[[Know Your Enemy (Manic Street Preachers album)|Know Your Enemy]]'', which was released on 19 March. The [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] political convictions of the Manic Street Preachers are apparent in many of the album's songs, such as "Baby Elián" as they comment on the strained relations between the [[United States]] and [[Cuba]] as seen in the [[Elián González]] affair, a hot topic around the album's release.<ref name="The Scotsman">{{cite web|url=http://www.ianwatsonuk.com/manics.html|title=Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers)|access-date= 29 December 2014}}</ref>

The band also pays tribute to singer and civil rights activist [[Paul Robeson]] in the song "[[Let Robeson Sing]]", but the song "[[Ocean Spray (Manic Street Preachers song)|Ocean Spray]]", which was a single, was written entirely by James about his mother's battle with cancer. The first singles from the album, "[[So Why So Sad]]" and "[[Found That Soul]]", were both released on the same day. The final single "Let Robeson Sing" was released later. The Manics also headlined [[Reading and Leeds Festivals|Reading and Leeds Festival]].

The greatest hits (plus remixes) album ''[[Forever Delayed]]'' was released in 2002, containing two new songs, "Door to the River" and the single "[[There by the Grace of God]]". Several songs were edited for length ("[[Motorcycle Emptiness]]," "[[You Love Us]]", "[[Australia (Manic Street Preachers song)|Australia]]," "[[Everything Must Go (song)|Everything Must Go]]," "[[Little Baby Nothing]]," and "[[The Everlasting (song)|The Everlasting]]") so that more tracks could fit onto the CD (though not listed as edits in the liner notes).<ref name="Manic Street Preachers">{{cite book|last1=Power|first1=Martin|title=Manic Street Preachers|date=17 October 2010|publisher=Omnibus Press}}</ref>

The ''Forever Delayed'' DVD was released in 2002 together with the greatest hits CD and photo book that bear the same name, and features all the promo music videos from the start of the band's career released before the DVD. Along with the promo videos, there is a selection of 14 remix videos, where the visual material is taken from clips of the other promo videos as well as backdrop visuals from the band's live concerts.
The album peaked and debuted on the [[UK Albums Chart]] at #4.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/albums-chart/20021103/7502/|title=Official album charts archive for 9th&nbsp;November 2002|website=[[Official Charts Company|Official Charts]]|access-date=7 December 2010}}</ref>

An album of [[A-side and B-side|B-sides]], rarities, and cover versions was released in 2003 entitled ''[[Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers)]]'', which contains the last song the band worked on with Edwards. The album received a far more positive reception from fans than the ''[[Forever Delayed]]'' greatest hits album, which was heavily criticised for favouring the band's more commercially successful singles. The only recurring criticism of ''Lipstick Traces'' was the exclusion of the fan favourite "Patrick Bateman", from the "[[La Tristesse Durera (Scream to a Sigh)]]" single. The band explained that it was excluded mainly because it was almost seven minutes long and simply would not fit on the album.<ref name="Manic Street Preachers"/>

The band's seventh studio album, ''[[Lifeblood (album)|Lifeblood]]'', was released on 1 November 2004 and reached No.&nbsp;13 on the UK album chart. Critical response to the album was mixed. The album was more introspective and more focused on the past, Wire talked about the ghosts that haunted this record and stated that the record was a retrospective: "The main themes are death and solitude and ghosts. Being haunted by history and being haunted by your own past. Sleep is beautiful for me. I hate dreaming because it ruins ten hours of bliss. I had a lot of bad dreams when Richey first disappeared. Not ugly dreams, but nagging things. Until we wrote '[[A Design for Life|Design for Life]]', it was six months of misery. ''Lifeblood'' doesn't seek to exorcise Edwards' ghost, though, just admits that there are no answers".<ref>{{cite news |last=Watson |first=Ian |date=October 2004 |title=Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers) |newspaper=[[The Scotsman]]}}</ref> [[Tony Visconti]] helped the band produce three songs on the album, which was followed by a UK arena tour in December 2004. "[[Empty Souls]]" and "[[The Love of Richard Nixon]]" were the two singles released from the album, both reaching No. 2 in the UK.<ref name="UKchart">{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/manic%20street%20preachers/ |title=Manic Street Preachers – Official Single Charts |publisher=[[Official Charts Company]] |access-date=1 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928212406/http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/manic%20street%20preachers |archive-date=28 September 2013 }}</ref>

A tenth-anniversary edition of ''[[The Holy Bible (album)|The Holy Bible]]'' was released on 6 December 2004, which included a digitally remastered version of the original album, a rare U.S. mix (which the band themselves have admitted to preferring to the original UK mix)<ref name="DVD interview"/> and a DVD of live performances and extras including a band interview.

In April 2005, the band played several shows as the Past-Present-Future tour—announced as their last for at least two years. The band released an EP entitled ''God Save the Manics'' with only a limited number of copies available and given out to fans as they arrived at the venue. After all the copies were gone, the band made the EP available as a free download on their website.<ref name="Manic Street Preachers website">{{cite web |url=http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/global/news/global/2010/06/01/postcards_from_a_young_man |title=Manic Street Preachers website |website=manicstreetpreachers.com |access-date=16 July 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306162225/http://www.manicstreetpreachers.com/global/news/global/2010/06/01/postcards_from_a_young_man |archive-date=6 March 2012  }}</ref> In September, the band contributed the new track "[[Leviathan (Manic Street Preachers song)|Leviathan]]" to the [[War Child (charity)|War Child]] charity album ''[[Help!: A Day in the Life]]''.

In 2006 the band received the prize for the Q Merit Award in the [[Q Awards]] 2006 and also the 10th-anniversary edition of ''Everything Must Go'' was released on 6 November. It included the original album, demos, B-sides, remixes, rehearsals and alternate takes of the album's songs, spread out over two CDs. An additional DVD, featuring music videos, live performances, TV appearances, a 45-minute documentary on the making of the album, and two films by [[Patrick Jones (poet)|Patrick Jones]], completed the three-disc set.<ref name="Manic Street Preachers"/>

In the 10th-anniversary edition, the band itself claims that they're still fond of the record, and Wire goes further saying: "I think it's our best record, I am not afraid to say that."<ref name="Manic Street Preachers"/>