At what point did you realise the Manics were for you?

[sherlock]

For me, it was a CD on the cover of Q magazine in December 1994 that had 4st 7lb on it. I'd heard Suicide is painless and La Tristesse Durera but nothing else. I can still remember the first time I played that cover mounted CD (It also had 'Slide Away' by Oasis on it) and was utterly transfixed. From that point on, I knew that the Manics would be the most important influence in my life.

What was the tipping point for you?

[Beej]

The first time I heard them. February (22nd?) 2008 on the NME awards. I only watched the show because I was bored with my CD collection and then I found Manics. Good times. I can actually remember waking my mum up who was supposed to be watching with me and saying something along the lines of "my God, you've just missed an amazing band.."

[Nature's Discontent]

After I got Lifeblood for one christmas, and then picked EMG up at a car boot sale 4 years ago. Until then I had only been a bit-part fan who had heard most of their singles and not much else.

[Mr Richey]

Getting TIMTTMY from my brother as a birthday present for my 15th or 16th birthday. Don't remember which one it was.

[Red]

After being 14 or 15 and being given This Is My Truth for Christmas, I concluded that James had a good voice, but that it was a shame that it wasn't really good for anything other than relatively gentle stuff. Like, good for the Born A Girls of this world, not really suitable for anything much louder than that. That aside though, Q Magazine made me curious about the band, and I wanted to hear more, so I stole my sister's Holy Bible. I listened to Yes and skipped to maybe Mausoleum, before concluding that it was crap, and casting it aside. A little while later, I made my way down to Woolworths, and bought Generaton Terrorists. It was an album I knew some about, knowing that it had a fourth member, and that it had a song called You Love Us on it. I didn't have especially high hopes, but I listened to Little Baby Nothing for the first time, and I utterly fell in love.

The lines "You are pure, you are snow. We are the useless sluts that they mould" and "Rock n' roll is our epiphany, culture, alienation, boredom and despair" are why the Manics are the only 90s band I'm still with.

[sherlock]

For me, it was the lyrics,

"Who's responsible, you fucking are, who's responsible!"

I'd never felt rebellion before - at that point I felt I could change the world ...

[Midlands_Junk]

I gradually dabbled with them for years until I was about 14 or 15. I'd always been fairly embarassed to admit I rather liked them during my 'mosher' phase, if you could call it that.
I remember buying the Cuba DVD out of curiosity one day. I got it out of the bag at the bus stop and my mate actually refused to be seen with me. Around the same time I borrow TIMTTMY from a friend at school. This all combined to me feeling a bit nonchalant about them. There was something there that intrigued me still with the whole articulate side and interest in art, history, literature and politics but other than Tolerate and a few moments from KYE, nothing really grabbed me and I was close to dismissing them as the fat dad-rock band my friends had been trying to convince me they were.
Then with a HMV voucher I got for Christmas, I bought Forever Delayed out of curiosity, after spending time in Holland where They By The Grace Of God was playing constantly. There was something really cold, human and beautiful about that track that I loved.
Then I heard Faster and thought, "what the fuck is this?"
Then I saw the Homecoming documentary on channel 4 and learned the whole Holy Bible story, went out to a tiny independant record store and brought it.
I took it home and it just blew the top of my head off. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before. "A triumph of art over logic" someone once called it. Damn straight. It was so awkward and loaded, it just seemed like everything music shouldn't be, but it was incredible. I just started to consume everything about the Manics because they were a band so much more substance to every element of what they do, moreso than any other band I'd ever liked.
After that, I completed my back catalogue, spread the word to about 5 or 6 like minded friends and we all started wearing military gear and working through the Manics reading list in that cliche sixth form Manics fan kinda mentality I'm sure we've all been through. The rest is history.

[rpmacmurphy]

August 93-radio 1 -and Roses In The Hospital

Like a key turning in ones head i realised this was the band for me !!

Devotion ever since

[pcp]

1991. The Select magazine with Spectators of Suicide caught my attention. I still have the mag and tape. The article in that issue also got me interested.

[jdb's nipple]

Originally Posted by pcp

1991. The Select magazine with Spectators of Suicide caught my attention. I still have the mag and tape. The article in that issue also got me interested.

i think this came out just before GT ive still got the tape and its one of my faves, spectators of suicide never sounds correct unless followed straight by The Byrds"eight miles High "( it was aropund this time i got into them !)

[2004567]

The THB album cover and their overall coolness probably.

[Futurologist]

Richey in Smash Hits (93 or 94) did it for me. I was a shallow teenager Then post disappearance after Know Your Enemy, I went off them. I thought they'd broken up when I heard James' solo songs, then fell back in love (well mainly in lust with James) when I saw the video for Your Love Alone. I though JPFL was fantastic and now I'm a totally staunch fan, here until the bitter end. Just try and stop me.

[Alt.Duck]

It was upon listening to Everything Must Go, a couple of months after Lifeblood. Both albums had a profound affect on me.

[Embla Claymore]

I saw the "You Love Us" video... instant love! Went out and bought GT shortly after, I didn't like all of the songs, but some tracks were outstanding!
As it's always been quite hard to be a proper Manics fan over here, I've gone on and off them several times, eventually catching up with their releases... Then Richey was no more and I decided I'd never give them up.

[Bryter Layter]

When THB came out. I was a fan before that, but GATS completely turned me off them until I heard THB (actually, I had heard 'Faster' before the album so perhaps it was that song that did it) which completely caught me off guard. I was equal parts confused and intrigued. Since then, with the exception of KYE which at the time, I throughly hated and subsequently left the fandom briefly (until of course the brilliant LB was released), I've been a fairly staunch fan ever since.