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Although rhythm guitarist and lyricist Richey James Edwards' assaultive public persona garnered most of the band's headlines in their early days, the heart of Manic Street Preachers was always singer and lead guitarist James Dean Bradfield. With his short, stocky physique and hard-man bravado, Bradfield had an Everyman anti-mystique that rooted the band's often inchoate political posturing and served as an anchor for Edwards' considerably flightier proto-Pete Doherty antics. Together, Bradfield and Edwards made Manic Street Preachers THE buzz band of the early days of Brit-pop, before the reconfigured band became worldwide stars after Edwards' apparent suicide in 1995. Born in the small Welsh industrial city of Pontypool on February 21, 1969, James Dean Bradfield claims that his father named him after the doomed American film actor. Early exposure to the first wave of punk bands, especially the Clash, led Bradfield to form a band with his cousin Sean Moore on drums and childhood friend...