I had heard them years ago, 05 / 06, because of trying to listen to every album in the
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book and
The Holy Bible and
Everything Must Go were included (I actually liked EMG more at that point). I had come across pictures of Richey previously on some music forums I think, but he really wasn't more than eyeliner inspiration at that point.
It wasn't until I was trying to decide best looking guys of the 90s when making some kind of list of attractive people that I recalled Richey again and looked into the Manics, plus a friend via Last.fm recommended that I listen to
The Holy Bible again just recently, and fortuitously
Journal For Plague Lovers was released around the same time. JFPL definitely 'sold' me on the Manics, plus already following a fair few on Tumblr who were into them, so I got to seeing them more often and appreciating them.