Manic Street Preachers singer James Dean Bradfield played an acoustic solo set at a benefit gig for Kosovo at Blackwood in Wales - the first time any member of the band has played their home town for ten years.
The 400-capacity gig afåhe town's Miners' Institute on April 30, Which also featured Welsh comic Max Boyce and a charity auction, raised more than £5,000 for the Kosovo Crisis Appeal.
The event was organised by Nicky Wire's brother, the poet Patrick Jones, who also performed on the night. Other acts included the Welsh National Opera, 60Ft Dolls singer Richard Parfitt, plus other Welsh acts Big Leaves and Derrero.
Bradfield performed five Manics songs, 'Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky', 'A Design For Life', 'Further Away', 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next' and 'Holy Bible' track 'This Is Yesterday' , which he dedicated to missing band member Richey Edwards.
Items sold in the auction included gold and platinum discs by Catatonia, the Manics and the Stereophonics, plus an exceptionally rare vinyl seven-inch of 'Suicide Alley, the Manics' first single.
Co-organiser Kate Strudwick told NME that money was still flooding in following the gig, and celebrities were still sending in items for auction, meaning they would have to hold another charity sale soon.
She said: "The gig was brilliant, fabulous, it totally transformed Blackwood for the night."
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