Richey's Astoria '94 Set List Quotes / Musical Ideas For LP After The Holy Bible

[R*E*P*E*A*T Fanzine]

Hi Everyone,

Another post from us!

Just in case this may be of interest to you as well, we also recently posted the following on our social media pages...



Quotes chosen by Richey for the 1994 London Astoria shows


In the moving and revealing radio documentary interview entitled, 'My Brother Richard' (uploaded to SoundColud on March 27, 2020), Rachel Edwards spoke to Ray Meade about life in the 25 years since the disappearance of Richey. She remembered the final London Astoria date on December 21, 1994, recalling: "I absolutely agree that it was Richey's goodbye."

Therefore, do you think the set list quotes chosen by Richey for the December 19, 20 and 21 gigs, are prescient?

Astoria Night 1 - "You are now within a foot of the extreme verge" - King Lear.

Astoria Night 2 - "I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity" - Simone de Beauvoir.

Astoria Night 3 - "I believe in alcoholism, venereal disease, fever and exhaustion. I believe in the genital organs of great men and women. I believe in the inexistence of the universe and the boredom of the atom. I believe all memories, lies, fantasies, evasions" - J. G. Ballard.

*Quotes courtesy of MSPpedia



JDB on Richey's proposed musical direction for a follow-up to The Holy Bible


R*E*P*E*A*T is continuing to add newly-discovered info to our Holy Bible Facts article, and all of these updates will be uploaded at a much later date.

However, we thought that the following details may be of interest to readers now. You will already know that as a potential follow-up to The Holy Bible, Richey famously expressed a desire to create a concept album which he described as "Pantera meets Screamadelica." With MSP's musical maestro and sonic architect, Bradfield, since countering with doubts over whether the group would have produced such an LP: "I was worried that as chief tunesmith in the band, I wasn't actually going to be able to write things that he would have liked. There would have been an impasse in the band for the first time born out of taste."

Now, in a brand new interview from September 2020, James has expanded upon this further in a Q&A with Record Collector, who queried if he thought the Manic Street Preachers' determined endurance is a result of Edwards' disappearance in 1995, making giving up unconscionable?

"It's a difficult question... I don't know. It's well reported that Everything Must Go [1996's two-million-selling commercial breakthrough] became what it did because of Richey going missing. Richey saw the next record as being this mash-up between Nine Inch Nails, Screamadelica and Berlin. I didn't want to do that record. And we'd never had that experience in the Manics before. And we never did, because Richey went missing. And it's interesting to think, how tense would I have become? How tense would Richey have become? I remember having a vague conversation, saying, 'That's pretty out there, Android' - we had nicknames for each other. But I couldn't have made that record. And I don't think Nicky and Sean wanted to make that record, either. So, it's a question that stretches into the future, isn't it? With four, does it become harder to agree with what the sound of your band is? Perhaps there was a small sign that it would have. I think Richey wanted the music to be more experimental and confrontational. He wanted music that sometimes challenged people to turn it off. That could have led somewhere brilliant. But I am obsessed with melody and musical movement. And Nick doesn't care to admit it, but he's pretty obsessed with melody, too. So perhaps it would have been harder to be 13 albums in, with four of us."



Hope these topics may generate some discussion amongst fans.

Thank you for your time & Stay Beautiful,

R*E*P*E*A*T

[LA ex]

Possibly controversial, but did Richey actually want to continue in the band - oat least as a performing member of the band (I'm sure sometime he'd floated becoming a writing but not touring member). Was there a bit of him that was pushing against what he knew the rest of the band wanted to do (either consciously or sub-consciously) as whilst he felt he couldn't walk out on the band he needed an out and causing the band to self destruct was in his mind the easiest way to get out?

[UEF]

Is that record collector interview online anywhere?

[MSPKYE]

Originally Posted by UEF

Is that record collector interview online anywhere?

http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/msp...September_2020

[Lee]

Originally Posted by LA ex

Possibly controversial, but did Richey actually want to continue in the band - oat least as a performing member of the band (I'm sure sometime he'd floated becoming a writing but not touring member). Was there a bit of him that was pushing against what he knew the rest of the band wanted to do (either consciously or sub-consciously) as whilst he felt he couldn't walk out on the band he needed an out and causing the band to self destruct was in his mind the easiest way to get out?

Yeah I’m sure I’ve read an interview with either James or Nicky where they mentioned this. They said that they were willing to accommodate Richey just writing lyrics and not touring etc.

Think it was an old interview though - probably around the time of EMG or TIMT.

[raven]

I don't think they were particularly prescient...or if intended as clues they couldn't be picked up on until after the event...because he was forever quoting authors and indeed many of his own lyrics could be said with hindsight to point in the direction of not wanting to be around for much longer

...I do feel clues are often there but also that they tend to only be obvious after the event...

and it's probably a given that the band wouldn't have continued long as a 4 piece..but guess it can never be known if they'd have gone on as a 3 piece...unless he'd spoken up and said he wanted to leave and was happy for them to continue....maybe they would or maybe they'd all be doing separate things now....who can say....Everything Must Go wouldn't have happened o' course...but musically that was probably always the direction most wanted by most of the band...but it's all speculation and all made impossible by the fact that Richey wasn't well which makes all speculation feel unhelpful....Can only really say I be glad they continued and I am sorry he couldn't have just spoken up and let people in more but I also understand that mental health problems can prevent communication and sour relations till it feels like there's no going back......it must be hell for all left behind...so can only hope the band continuing has given them some strength and I can only hope for some peace for his sister somehow

[Routine Builder]

I did watch an EMG era with James recently where he basically said that continuing as a band was relatively easy as that's what James, Nick and Sean do, make music. What they lost more deeply was a friend, rather than a band member or colleague. I think you can see that in the offer for Richey to be reduced member or even not a member at all, as the well being of their friend was of the utmost importantance.

My feeling is that Richey didn't build much of a life outside the band which effectively made the band a double edged sword for him. A lifeline made out of barbed wire. On one hand it gave him meaning and purpose, on the other the lifestyle tore his mental health asunder. I don't think there was ever really case of of the band falling apart because of internal friction, I also think too much is made of the screamadelica-berlin-nine inch nails direction (since when did Richey have a strong musical compass, this is the guy who only committed one chord to astudio recording), though Richey probably would have had to leave for his own benefit to find a way where he could live a stable life. It's a great tragedy that that never happened.