[sofarsideways]

I've been rewatching a few documentaries as I've totally gone under full Manics spell with all this happening, and there's a few things worth re-mentioning from the Close Up one.

Nicky says 'we grew up together', talks about living down the road from Richey, their streets playing football against each other, calling him Teddy Edwards because he was 'this cuddly little fella'. SOUNDS PRETTY FRIENDLY. Like, we know this. We all know this. I can't believe we're having to defend it, but here we are. James also talks about 'wondering, when we were 18/19, what are we doing, four lads still holed up in our room like this?' 18/19. STILL holed up. FOUR lads.

Nicky saying they all bought into 'outsider chic' to begin with, but the rest of them grew out of it, while 'Richey just didn't have enough outside the band'. Again, I know we know this. Just repeating... for those... at the back.

Several very helpful insights from Terri Hall. This is where the 'Richey how are you going to get married, you don't have a girlfriend!' thing comes from. She attributed it to looking at her and Philip, and Graham and Sherry, and says he said he'd be married 'by the end of the year'. Which year? '93 or '94 surely. If the proposal thing is legit, there you have it. Super romance.

She also said she didn't think Nicky would want to carry on after Richey went missing, that he was the closest to Richey. I think. She. Would know. And she said 'Richey didn't know how to live and be happy' so he'd try to model it, and that being in the band was making him unwell but he couldn't bear the alternative.

Sean and Nicky both speak of the horror of seeing Richey in hospital and feeling they had to get him out of there - 'you're not going to get better here'. If that's what's meant by 'making him leave early to go on tour', then sure, honey, sure.

Nicky talks about their last rehearsals being a really lovely, happy time, and said that Richey was 'very cuddly', which killed me all over again. He also speaks about a Japanese promoter talking about 'losing honour' when they cancelled a tour - 'I don't care about your honour, we're not going to do a tour when our best mate's missing.' OUR BEST MATE.

He also speaks of going straight to Richey's flat and just waiting outside for him as soon as he heard he was missing, and being in ‘constant contact’ with Richey’s parents in the months that followed. He says the band have it easy in comparison to Richey’s family.

Sean says Richey had left everything behind in his flat, 'just taken off in what he was wearing'.

Apologies for a long post of paraphrasing from a documentary anyone can go and watch on Youtube and we've all probably seen numerous times, but a) some of this is worth bringing up again with all our pondering, and b) this is just from one documentary, from 1998, and it all flies in the face of what this book is pushing. Over and over they prove this shit wrong, with utter tenderness and honesty. I fucking love this band.

EDIT: Shadows and Words, Nicky says he’d had Richey’s lyrics in a bedroom cupboard since they were given to him (at the last rehearsals with the little gifts and things, as mentioned in the Close Up doc), and that James and Sean had facsimile copies. But SHR seems to think they nicked them from his flat or something. Stay tuned for more from Sofa Revisits!