26-05-2025
Legendary Welsh rocker looks unrecognisable with a greying beard more than three decades after his iconic band's chart-topping heyday - but do YOU know who he is?
The greying beard wasn't fooling anyone as this celebrated rock icon ventured out over the weekend - at least not those with longer memories.
With thick facial hair and a salt and pepper hairline, the 56-year old singer and musician looked vastly different as he stepped out almost thirty years after telling us in no uncertain terms that Everything Must Go.
Back in the 1990s his legendary band filled stadiums across Europe while enjoying enormous critical and commercial success with a string of hit albums and singles.
But much of that success played out against a tragic backdrop after one of their founding members disappeared without trace in 1995.
Three decades on, the mystery surrounding his disappearance remains unsolved, but the band he played such a pivotal role in establishing is still making music.
In February the group climbed to number two on the UK Album Chart with their fifteenth LP, Critical Thinking - but can you guess who its bearded front-man is?
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That's right - it's James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers!
Hailing from Blackwood in Wales, the band were an instrumental part of the Cool Cymru movement in the '90s and their albums Everything Must Go in 1996 and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours two years later gained them a cult following.
Lead singer and guitarist Bradfield was inspired by the likes of soft rock group ELO and post-punk rockers The Clash when he formed Manic Street Preachers with his cousin Sean Moore and best friends Nicky Wire and Miles Woodward, who left the band in 1988.
Guitarist and singer songwriter Richey Edwards joined the following year after originally working as the band's driver and roadie.
Edwards famously disappeared without trace on February 1, 1995, the day before he and Bradfield were scheduled to fly to the United States for a promotional tour in support of their then current album, The Holy Bible.
To this day his disappearance remains a mystery, with the musician officially declared dead in absentia on 24 November 2008, nine months after his 40th birthday.
The group's hits include If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and The Masses Against The Classes, both of which made it to the top of the UK singles charts.
Bradfield has released two solo projects alongside his work with the band and has two children with the group's former PR agent who he married in Italy in 2004.
Featuring on The Chris Moyles Show in February, the singer joined band-mate Wire in reflecting on the struggles of a band in the modern age and the crazy times they spent touring with Oasis.
He said: 'I think it's a famous Orson Welles quote where he kind of said, "Some days acting is like driving a tricycle through a barrel full of molasses." Some days it's just rubbish. It is.
'But you know that if you just hang in there, you know, keep in the game, stay in the game, you know, the good days will just come. It's as simple as that, really.
'I'm not trying to be wise or, you know, I'm not trying to be David Carradine wandering through the desert with a bit of wisdom. But, kind of, if you just hang in there, it comes, you know?'
Hailing from Blackwood in Wales, the band were an instrumental part of the Cool Cymru movement in the 90s and Bradfield provided lead vocals
Lead singer and guitarist Bradfield was inspired by the likes of soft rock group ELO and post-punk rockers The Clash when he formed Manic Street Preachers
