Richey's birthday anniversary

[starstruck]

i quite like how the suggestion to be as "CoR" as you like turned for most of the first page into a recreation of Python's Dead Parrot sketch - nice work everyone, shame no one suggested nailing Richey to his perch

Richey Edwards; one of those (if you will excuse the over-used word that follows and try to see it as it is meant to be used) truly enigmatic figures in Rock whom the world needed a good deal more than they needed the world.

should he have been around, what would the 44 year old Richey have been doing? respected yet disdained member of the "dangerous but seem to have calmed down a bit" voices of mayhem like John Lydon? a comedy version of himself like Ozzy Osbourne? perhaps an X Factor judge, maybe a contestant on all these "celebrity" shows that crop up.

in a comparison or interpretation that may offend some but is not intended to, i mention Nirvana's You Know You're Right. when that song surfaced, my theory was that if they had produced an album of that then they would have gone Rolling Stones / REM big, for they had taken the raw sound that made people like them and - without "selling out" - refined it to an extent that it would have got widespread acceptance. i really think that if JFPL had come out 2 or so years after THB the same would have been true of the Manics. and would have lasted right up until the end of summer 1997, when no doubt comments made by Richey about an event in Paris probably wouldn't have gone down too well with the public at large.

on whichever side of the line he's on, one can only hope, trust, imagine or presume he's at peace with himself. or possibly pining for the fjords.

[Deets]

Originally Posted by Blue Cat

presumed dead is correct... (presumed dead and officially presumed dead are the same thing)

I'll change it into officially presumed dead if everyone wants so.. sowwy fow confusean.

[tzb]

Happy birthday, still missed. The anniversary of their last gig with him yesterday struck me harder - 17 years? Terrifying.

Originally Posted by starstruck

Nirvana's You Know You're Right. when that song surfaced, my theory was that if they had produced an album of that then they would have gone Rolling Stones / REM big, for they had taken the raw sound that made people like them and - without "selling out" - refined it to an extent that it would have got widespread acceptance. i really think that if JFPL had come out 2 or so years after THB the same would have been true of the Manics.

Or indeed an album of Judge Yrself style tracks.

[starstruck]

Originally Posted by tzb

Or indeed an album of Judge Yrself style tracks.

spot on, squire.

[MSPlover]

I can't believe that 17 years passed

Happy birthday, Richey!

[Smiling#Girl]

17 years???!!!
I remember the day I heard his disappearance on the radio and I can't believe it was so long ago.

Happy Birthday Richey!

[Tristesse27]

Originally Posted by starstruck

Richey Edwards; one of those (if you will excuse the over-used word that follows and try to see it as it is meant to be used) truly enigmatic figures in Rock whom the world needed a good deal more than they needed the world.

should he have been around, what would the 44 year old Richey have been doing? respected yet disdained member of the "dangerous but seem to have calmed down a bit" voices of mayhem like John Lydon? a comedy version of himself like Ozzy Osbourne? perhaps an X Factor judge, maybe a contestant on all these "celebrity" shows that crop up.

That's a lovely way of putting it.

I think I'd agree with what Takk said, he'd probably be just like the other Manics and the only reason people find it strange to think of him at 44 is because they haven't seen him get older, he'll always be (remembered as being) young. I do like to think he'd have written at least one book too. I hope he's happy/content wherever he is though.

[pingu]

Originally Posted by starstruck

i quite like how the suggestion to be as "CoR" as you like turned for most of the first page into a recreation of Python's Dead Parrot sketch - nice work everyone, shame no one suggested nailing Richey to his perch

I was getting all sappy over this thread and then this comment made me choke on my tea. he's joined the choir invisible! he is an EX-guitarist (sort-of)!

I think he'd still be a writer were he still around, but I don't think that either he'd have stayed in the band this long, or that the band would've survived if he'd tried. I'd like to read his mature poetry - it's kind of scary to think he was only a few years older than me when he disappeared. it's really quite scary to think that at some point soon I'll be older than he was.

anyway. happy birthday, Richey. pining for the fjords, but not forgotten.

[Parma Violets]

Getting into the Manics properly after his disappearance, he felt almost like a folk figure to me, an artwork, or a character from a David Peace novel. He appeared from the shadows, he did something incredible that fitted his time and place perfectly, and then he left us all trying to make sense of it. The idea that a figure like that could exist in the musical mainstream seems so alien now. He feels of a piece with all that scary mid-90s paranoia; the Heaven's Gate suicides, the Roswell autopsy footage, the KLF disbanding and burning a million quid, the Strep A scare in Britain, the rock star who used to appear with self-harm wounds and disappeared without trace. The general sense that, having won the Cold War, the First World was going mad.

I thought he was beautiful, and I identified with him so much, but as I grew up I started to think it was stupid, weak, futile to disappear like that, and he was better than that. It always amuses me when moralists occasionally accuse Richey of promoting depression and self-harm among Manics fans. If I hadn't had those feelings about Richey, I'd never have realised what a void suicide leaves, and I might have killed myself during my worse days.

[raven]

Had Richey stayed it would have been a Holy Bible part 2, an album pretty much like Journal that would have gained them some critical success but they would have vanished as a band many years ago....or they would have become what they are today only still a 3 piece for Richey was far too ill....better being around and not in the band than not around at all but things always seemed to be looking very bleak for him. Creative and intelligent people may be more prone to mental illness (or maybe we just hear about them more) but I don't think serious depression and disordered thoughts are what lend you that creativity more what takes it away and breaks it up and maybe you can anesthetise it with alcohol for a while which tends to have the affect of making you lash out at others or probably in his case more himself and at some point you sober to realise there's only one real way out.

I don't think it was stupid or weak to disappear, maybe futile...I'm not sure he intended to kill himself but it's difficult to draw another conclusion now and it is hard to think he maybe went too far to come back so to speak, stayed away just that bit too long and felt he had no other choice.
There's not enough real help for the mentally ill. There's still a long way to go in understanding mental illness but that aside since 'community care' the support has been drawn back too much....and I don't think the private care offers much more

[Velocitygirl]

Originally Posted by starstruck

should he have been around, what would the 44 year old Richey have been doing? respected yet disdained member of the "dangerous but seem to have calmed down a bit" voices of mayhem like John Lydon? a comedy version of himself like Ozzy Osbourne? perhaps an X Factor judge, maybe a contestant on all these "celebrity" shows that crop up.

Or perhaps none of the above. I mean, is this what the rest of the Manics are doing, or something? Have I missed something

A lot of people seem to be suggesting that he would have become a charicature of himself as though it's an inevitable side-product of getting a little older. It isn't, you know. It is possible to mature, yet retain the essential parts of your personality that make you who you are. I am sure a man like Richey had the wit and learning to remain true to himself.

[yanushka]

Well, I guess we can go with all the options that were posted before:

1) he could've stayed in the band and then they'd make THB2, and then maybe later he'd leave the band
2) he could've stayed but left the band and he'd get more seriously into writing, cuz, basically, that's what he was good at
3) he could've stayed in the band for a while, and then left to become a parody of himself [Celebrity Big Brother, I'm A Celebrity etc etc) or maybe he'd be really critical of modern society, bitching on Twitter about everything
4) he could've stayed in the band till this day, he'd learn how to play properly. I'm not saying he'd master the guitar, but he'd learn enough, so his guitar wouldn't to be turned down during the gigs. Maybe he'd even like some of the Manics stuff we had after he left.

Now I've seen that these are all the options "what would be if he stayed" and realize he left, and probably won't be back, at least we won't know about it, and that makes me sad, because I'm dying to know what happened to him.
Sorry, 'bout this, it's really late, and I'm really tired, and I know this post is pretty useless. I'm off to bad, cuz I have nothing intelligent to say.
Bye, bye, nighty night!