AT THE beginning of the 90s four fresh-faced young men stepped out of their bedrooms in Blackwood - and sent shock waves through the British music scene.

The Manic Street Preachers had an image of mascara and skin- tight white jeans, and hardly anyone in the music industry gave them a chance.

But more than ten years on, the band are still going strong despite the sneering comments of the music press and disappearance of lyricist Richey Edwards seven years ago.

Last night, the group which paved the way for a wave of Welsh bands to hit the big time, played their biggest hits on the back of their Forever Delayed compilation album.

The band signalled their intent early on by kicking off with classic single Motorcycle Emptiness.

It is a song that can send shivers down the spine no matter how many times you have heard it.

The years may have rolled by but the passion, anger and energy are still very much evident in the Manics' live performance.

On their early anthems such as You Love Us and From Despair To Where frontman James Dean Bradfield, pictured, was in his element, bounding up and down the stage and pirouetting with guitar in hand.

He dedicated Motown Junk to Richey and his family, and played it with typical vigour.

Bass player Nicky Wire was also on top form, wearing a camp, Christmas-inspired outfit that barely covered his modesty every time he jumped in the air.

Before playing 'Tsunami', Wire lambasted the "idiots" who frequently place a traffic cone on the monument to Aneurin Bevan, the architect of the NHS, at the bottom of Cardiff's Queen Street.

He introduced Slash and Burn as a song originally conceived in his bedroom in Woodfieldside, Blackwood, which he revealed was far less glamorous than where James and drummer Sean Moore lived just up the road - because they had a Spar and his area just had a pub.

Inevitably the band closed the concert with the working class anthem A Design For Life which had everyone from the feather boa brigade at the front to the seated spectators on the balconies singing at the top of their voices.

The Manics, supported by Ian Brown, play the CIA again tonight and tomorrow.