I think it’s an absolutely humongous stretch to call his relationship with Jo that of A Girlfriend. The book suggests Terri Hall not knowing her as Richey’s girlfriend shows that Terri knew nothing, when in fact it shows that Richey did not consider Jo that way. They hung out on and off - very mostly off it seems - between her being 15 and 19. She was the only one around to pin a desperate vaguery on. Ain’t no E=mc2.

Oh for sure he was trying to give a certain impression, but as I’ve said before that whole interview is massively curious in myriad ways. These are just a few of them. Also begs the question, what picture and why? If he’s trying to give an impression it’s very unclear. The relationship may have been platonic turned not - I strongly suspect that whole thing of Richey forcing himself into experiences/modelling life rather than living it. Regardless it is indeed... all that

EFIT: just to make v clear this is my interpretation of the information available. Obviously that’s all we can go off.

Sofarsideways thank you for all the information so far.
Feel free to keep it coming!
Really appreciated.

I really hope it gets cancelled. I am pretty certain the band are on the case over this.
It sounds like there's literally no evidence for their claims.

The more I hear about this book, the angrier I am that the band were not given a chance to participate in it. Meaning, they're being attacked left, right and centre without being given a chance to even defend themselves in it. That's just such a low and shitty blow, by anyone's standards.

I was having a reasonably okay day. Come here, read this thread and fuck me, I want to retch. It's worse than first imagined, Jesus Christ.

Just read the last mentions since lunch time. All I keep thinking is FFS!!!!!!!!!!!

A few straight-up contradictions I can recall quickly to give an idea of how often and brazenly it goes down.

Nicky never lived with Richey at King Edwards Road in Swansea, here is a list of housemates to prove it, they only lived in the same student village later on. Backed up by a quote of Richey talking about hating living in halls which I swear I have seen attributed to being about his FIRST year at uni, not second or third; and a quote from Nicky about him and Richey making themselves ill on spraypaint fumes in THEIR tiny room, which I know has had the ‘when me and Richey lived together in King Edwards Road’ cut off from the start.

Rachel confirms near the beginning of the book that the Edwardses sent their children to chapel each Sunday, Richey attending from the age of 5 until 13. Nicky is quoted saying how much church and religion had messed Richey up, and Rachel says she never saw any evidence of this. Later in the book, Richey’s own misgivings about religion and it’s role within his upbringing are dismissed by Rachel’s denial that they attended church ‘that much’.

Rachel speculates that everything might have turned out differently if Richey has gone to the school he won a scholarship for (rather than choosing to stay with the friends he apparently didn’t have), or if he hadn’t been in the band. But she also mentions that Richey thought everything went wrong after they moved house when he was 13, but she thinks if they’d stayed at the old house things would have been the same.

I am fairly sure SHR said in at least one of the interviews for this book that the Vivian info came from James? She now says it’s from Nicky.

Ye olde tale of playing football as kids, bestowing the nickname ‘Teddy Edwards’ etc is begrudgingly brought up after quoting old neighbours on the matter of street footie. Rachel insists (repeatedly) the band knew each other but weren’t close - as a little sister would definitely know? - but that the ‘Stand By Me’ narrative suited and got them a record deal. Right. Yes. All record deals hinge on childhood friendship.

A letter of Richey’s is quoted saying everyone hated him at college and he was glad, but is followed with a snark by the authors about James and Nicky deciding they didn’t like anyone at college and being super dismissive and insular, while Richey was uber polite and would never be like that.

And a few cases of omitted truths/shaping of impressions...

The Manics’ constant editing of each other’s work is disregarded, William’s Last Words being particularly lambasted. Personally I think it’s beautiful that Nicky turned something long, rambling and hard to use into such a gorgeous tribute to their friendship. As ever, he was trying to make sense of Richey, to celebrate and hold onto the love beneath the struggles of understanding when Richey was unwell and thinking ‘faster and faster’.

Nicky is made out to only really mention Richey passingly, and just in terms of his coolness/rock star chic, and missing him as a lyricist. Apparently he never says anything else about him. Weird that those are not remotely the first things I’d mention in a long list of Things Nicky Is Always Saying About Richey. I’d probably go for how much he loves him, that he calls Richey his soulmate, that he insists upon ‘the friend, not the bandmate’.

Silly Nicky comments like ‘that must be why they say you have a personality disorder!’ about Richey cutting his hair - which are clearly black humour amongst friends close enough to talk to each other like that - are held up as TERRIBLE EVIL THINGS.

Richey’s psychotic symptoms in the latter half of 1994 are mentioned and moved on from. Nothing is said of the medication he was taking, whether it was suitable, or the fact that he came off it cold-turkey when he went missing. Much, however, is made of this bizarre idea that Syd Barrett has Aspergers, so Richey does.

Apparently everyone was super miffed that The Holy Bible flopped commercially and became very career oriented, and this was a huge disservice to Richey but whatever because he didn’t want to be in the band he was being driven out of anyway? What.

A quote from Jo: ‘How much control did he have left at that point of the image he was putting out there? I wonder sometimes if he wanted different people to see different things.’ This in the middle of paragraphs trying to suggest the band’s opinion of Richey’s mental state being different to Jo’s opinion meant they know nothing and she knows everything. This is a recurring theme.

There is so much more of both these kinds of shit.

This is all very rambly and all over the place and probably typo city, apologies

So what does book say about Vivian?

No more than was said in interviews. So utterly random.

Christ, I’ve been keeping an eye on this thread all day and feeling increasingly angry with every post (as in angry at the revelations, obviously not the posts themselves!). Thanks for taking one for the team, sofarsideways. What an absolute fucking MESS this sounds. A spiteful, bitter and resentful mess at that. I don’t really know what else to say tbh.

What a total mess that shit show of a book is.

I can only add my voice to the others here: thank you, Sofar, for taking a big hit for the team and summarising for us. I really appreciate it.

You are all most welcome. Horrid as this is it’s been great to talk about/bond over as well, so heartening to have a reasoned, united fan front. Will try and write up a better overview of the beef with the band when I can, I think I need me a nice relaxing bath before my head a’splodes

UPDATE: ran bath too hot, scalded hand, suspect metaphor at work

I hope SHR does some book signings :)

A forum Q&A perhaps?

Would rather it be face to face lol
But yeah any way of bringing her to task would be good.

She could be debunked the way she debunked the psychic, except she'd really be debunked. She wouldn't last a minute with you lot there. She'd gather her skirts, flip her hair and storm off.