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Old 17-04-2019, 19:36
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raven raven is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vaiden View Post
Round two

The book made me realize even more that the remaining members conducted themselves in a very respectful manner regarding Richey. Despite a few responses James said leaving me to believe he was in the anger stages of grief. I give him a pass as he is now always respectful to Richey and maintaining the band. They sent richey to hospital and visited every day, paid for his treatment, and gave him several options to decide ih should tour or not. I think they made the best decision to take Richey on the tour. They thought they were doing a good thing. On tour the band or crew looked after him. It would not be wise for him to go back to his apartment alone and maybe attempt again.

Having said that I guess I’ve been pretty naive about the band is the intense friction which may have lead him to quit. All I remember is Nicky saying he in December he began yo peak in his weirdness but seemed much better in January when they went to practice. Can anyone shed any more light on that or point me to article video about this.

I also keep thinking about the 2 weeks the car had been lived in. Did they take any fingerprints. I’ve said what I think and wonder if anyone will tell me their opinion.

I do some research on people’s breaking point. We all have one. For richey was it Bangkok, suicide attempt, just his mental state, his dog dying, last gig at the Astoria, something that happened in Jan, not being married or the 2 weeks spent with jo in the fall, dog dying, friend dying and manager. Perhaps it’s a combo but I believe he just snapped and could that have been prevented. Because one doesn’t typically happen when waking up thinking this will be my day. What do y’all think?
I don't think James needs a pass....I know what you're saying, I'm truly not having a go.....I think they and indeed anyone in similar situations are entitled to feel however they feel and not worry how it's interpreted by others or how you should or are supposed to feel because you can't control that. You wouldn't be human if you felt no anger and well it can all become about the person concerned but they effect those around them and that matters or should matter and too often gets overlooked, we're all human.....The band are in quite a unique position too being in the public eye and having their reactions analysed, that must be incredibly hard, incredibly....The failure to recognise that in the book is what particularly got to me.
And personally I feel it was the biggest tribute they could have paid him carrying on with the band

I can't recall the specific interview but yes they did say he seemed his old self in January but James has said that since then he's become aware that that is what can happen when someone has decided on something - be that to disappear, suicide, he maybe had made his mind up about something which is why he may have seemed more settled. But that's in hindsight at the time it must have just felt like one huge relief

Should he have gone on tour? I don't really think he should but that's not to blame the band as I don't think it was down to them at all .... the difficult thing is he was a free agent as ill as he was he'd been told it was up to him if he wanted to leave the hospital (though advised against) so it's hard...maybe he'd have been better staying with family but I don't know the family dynamics and it really was up to him. I feel the hospital should have made the decision to keep him in longer personally but that's just opinion worth no more or less than the next person's...I just wish the professionals would see the bigger picture not just the individual

I feel he had a plan of a kind, I don't think he just upped and left that day but I don't feel he had a clear plan and I think alone he really struggled and just couldn't come back once he'd set out on it...I'm of course not sure about anything, not sure if his plan was to take his life but I feel he struggled with that and in the end I personally feel that's what he did do but the fact he didn't do it straight away .... who knows what was going around his head and that must be something very hard for anyone close to him to accept....it's impossible to think about that and it not affect you so I really can't imagine how his sister feels and nor can I imagine how she can ever accept anything without proof. It seems impossible but somehow you need to find some kind of peace within yourself or how can you continue and as her brother he wouldn't have expected everything to be overshadowed by him I'm sure....maybe you need to reach back to some time before they were ill and remember that?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonesy View Post
he seemed to be the type of character who had to be the best at everything he tried otherwise he wouldn't try at all.

i don't think that being a 'professional musician' when you can't really play your instrument would help your self esteem. there was a lot of bluster and bravado about that back in the early days but i can only imagine it got tiring for him especially when he compared himself with james. there must have been some resentment there?

from what i've read of the book and from the sky arts documentary it seems the band was pulling more towards an everything must go style record before he disappeared. the fault lines were there and already growing. i always assumed that EMG was inspired entirely by the disappearance. it seems the groundwork for the album was already there with no surface all feeling, elvis impersonator, kevin carter and small black flowers.

i can't imagine it was much fun for him at the end.

the band that he had helped grow and form was growing away from him.

he couldn't just sack the band and join Nine Inch Nails on a free transfer.

That's the feeling in the book laid on with chips...or something. But I just don't get that. I don't think he was around long enough for the schisms in the band's direction to really take a hold on him but yeah absolutely he was NIN (love them and the rest of the band were how do we pull back from the Holy Bible abyss - an album they're rightly proud of but of course if you want a long term future and you want to keep your sanity it's not sustainable. To me I feel it wasn't just musical differences it was friend's seeing their friend fall apart and you can't keep exploring that mindset through your music without kinda falling into the abyss yourself so more complicated than just musical differences is what I mean

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slideling View Post
Maybe, but I do wonder sometimes how it's been treated as the definitive biography on the Manics when a lot of it was personal opinion and interpretation as well. It's fair enough that people are sceptic about the new book, but I had seen Everything revered by people before. Maybe the fact that internet forums etc. were relatively new when it came out is a factor, I don't know.
I'm not keen on Everything, I'm not keen on Mr Price but, well....let's keep things nice
I feel the band could do with a journalist taking on their biog who has no history with the band, isn't a fan, well, not a huge fan doesn't claim insider info...just a nice objective approach to the life and times
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