In the heart if what Nicky Wire called “my inspirational hometown”, the Manic Street Preachers took to the stage to play their first gig in Blackwood for 26 years.

That last performance was at the Little Theatre down the road and the only times they’d ever played at the Miners’ Institute before, it was with snooker cues, not musical instruments.

James Dean Bradfield admitted the whole experience was a trip down memory lane and in the lead-up to the BBC Radio 2 homecoming gig, they took DJ and host Jo Whiley on a tour of their old haunts.

A number of them are no longer there - Dorothy’s Café, Pizza House and the old record shops they used to frequent.

Cwmfelinfach Miners’ Institute is another James paid tribute to, lamenting the fact “they pulled it down”.

This is where they recorded their first single, Suicide Alley, a song written about a lane in Blackwood and they played it at the ‘Stute for the first time since 1989.

It followed an emotion-charged Motorcycle Emptiness, Your Love Alone is Not Enough, Slash N’ Burn and It’s Not War (Just the End of Love).

Nicky Wire was dressed for the occasion, in his old Oakdale Comp tie, that he wore with a leopard print coat, sailor’s hat and eyeliner. He grinned and bounded around the stage as the band went through old classics such as You Love Us and Motown Junk.

My Little Empire was followed by Faster which James dedicated to “the genius of Richey Edwards”, You Stole the Sun from My Heart and Postcards From a Young Man.

The night was all about a band of superstars celebrating their success among their own, a fact illustrated by James as he shouted “this verse is yours” and let the crowd belt out their most famous track, A Design for Life.

But, not everyone in Blackwood was from South Wales.

As the masses queued to get in, two girls from Poland, ticketless, motioned back and fore near the entrance.

They had made the journey from their homeland with a wrapped gift for James. It was a scarf they were hoping to give to him, “to keep his neck warm and stop him getting laryngitis again”, one said.

A reference to the fact this gig had been rescheduled from November after it was cancelled when the lead singer became ill.

I’m not sure whether they got to present it to him, but their presence was an illustration of how the band had left this small Gwent town, touched people around the world and had now come home.

The Manics don’t usually do encores. But, of course this wasn’t a usual gig and while they stressed it wasn’t, they came back out and finished with Suicide is Painless, Enola/Alone and The Masses Against the Classes.

James walked off calling: “South Wales, Blackwood, we love you from the bottom of our dark, rock and roll hearts”. The feeling seemed mutual from a crowd that disappeared into the night hoping it is not another 26 years until they see them in their hometown again.

SEE MORE PICTURES OF THE MANICS IN BLACKWOOD BELOW