Self-belief is the key to the Manic Street Preachers' success. At the start of the Nineties they rattled the media by detailing their grand design.

They aspired to equal the very best elements of their passionately maintained record collections.

They wanted to sound and look more spectacular than their peers. They predicted huge sales and dramatic scenes.

More than anything, they aimed to engage both the heart and the intellect.

Many scoffed and predicted a sorry end but the Preachers have since realised most of their extravagant ideas.

The Welsh four-piece burst on to a baggy-obsessed scene in 1989 with their debut single Suicide Alley.

They nourished themselves on the polemic of Public Enemy and the rock'n'roll excess of Guns 'N' Roses, and laced this with the darker tones of British acts such as the Smiths and Joy Division.

After a series of independent releases, including Motown Junk and You Love Us, they signed to Columbia and released an angry double album Generation Terrorists.

The subsequent LPs, Gold Against The Soul and The Holy Bible, were also artistically impressive and delivered more hit singles, despite an increasingly bleak and unflinching tone (especially the latter).

In February 1995, the band's guitarist Richey James went missing on the eve of an American tour. He never returned. Some fear he took his own life but his family refuse to give up hope and the band still pay royalties into his bank account.

The Manic Street Preachers returned as a three-piece in 1996. The single A Design For Life hailed the possibilities of the British welfare system with its opening line "libraries gave us power".

A tremendously emotive and moving anthem that was awarded the Ivor Novello songwriting award, A Design For Life reached Number Two in the UK charts in April 1996.

Their fourth album, Everything Must Go, captured the turmoil of the band's recent history to immense acclaim and to increasingly wider appeal. In 1997 the Manics won their first two Brit Awards for Best Album and Best Band.

The fifth album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, took its title from the Welsh social revolutionary Aneurin Bevan, architect of the welfare state.

Its references included the Spanish civil war (If you Tolerate This...), the Hillsborough disaster (S.Y.M.M.) and the crash-and-burn nature of Welsh artists such as Richard Burton and Dylan Thomas (Ready For Drowning).

In 2001, Manic Street Preachers returned, firing on all cylinders with their sixth album, Know Your Enemy.

It was a return to being as musically raw as an exposed nerve.

The way the Manic Street Preachers started their 2001 world tour is hard to surpass in the rock'n'roll almanac, as they became the first Western rock band to play Cuba.

The year was rounded off at the Q Awards as the Manics won the readers vote for Best Live Act.

Last month the band released Forever Delayed, their Greatest hits album featuring classic tracks such as A Design For Life, and Motorcycle Emptiness.

Their Brighton gig will feature fans' favourite hits, voted for on www.manics.co.uk The band have consented to the release of Forever Delayed, a photographic odyssey celebrating their ten years.

Their gig is sold out.