Virgin Radio
1 Feb 2022, 12:58
Credit: Getty
Richard Edwards, the enigmatic lyricist and rhythm guitarist from Manic Street Preachers, disappeared on February 1st 1995.
He was last seen at the Embassy Hotel on the day the Welsh band were set to head off on their US tour. Approximately two weeks later his car was discovered close to the Severn Bridge, leading to fears that he had taken his own life.
Whilst his body was never found, Edwards, who suffered from depression and anorexia, was legally presumed dead in 2008, but an appeal was put out as recently as 2020 by the charity Missing People, and there have been numerous reported sightings of the musician in locations such as Lanzarote and Goa.
In 2019, a book called Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the Truth About Richey Manic was written with the full cooperation of Edwards' sister Rachel. It provided evidence which suggested that he had staged his own disappearance, and features claims that he moved to a Kibbutz in Israel.
Whatever became of him, there is no doubt that the artist left behind a legacy of darkly beautiful, political and intellectual songwriting, which fans, fellow musicians, journalists, and DJs still adore to this day.
It is said that approximately 80 percent of the lyrics on the Manics’ dark, intense third album, The Holy Bible, were written by Edwards. The record was critically-acclaimed upon its release in 1994, with Q describing it as a “graphic, violent torrent of self-lacerating punk fury which infamously details the horrors in Richey Edwards' head”.
The Holy Bible regularly appears in music best-of lists, with Melody Maker placing it 15th on its list of the top 100 albums of all time in 2000, and Kerrang! putting it in 10th place in their own list in 2005.
The Holy Bible was the last record that the band released as a four-piece before Edwards’ disappearance, but he is credited on the Manics' commercially successful return album in 1996, Everything Must Go. He received sole credit on three tracks, and co-writing credits on another two.
The ninth Manic Street Preachers album, 2009’s Journal for Plague Lovers, is composed entirely of songs with lyrics left by Edwards.
In Withdrawn Traces: Searching for the Truth About Richey Manic, co-author Sara Hawys Roberts says: “Richey was the chief lyricist, orator, poet, philosopher and media manipulator of the band.”
It is often suggested that Edwards would mime playing the guitar during early live performances and that his amp was sometimes low in the mix, but in response to that, the NME reported him as saying: “Why is everyone hung up on an ugly piece of wood and metal and strings? I can’t play guitar very well, but I wanna make the guitar look lethal.”
His former bandmate and co-lyricist Nicky Wire has said of him: “I’d forgotten how much I missed him as a lyricist, how much a fan I am of his intellect, his fierce, rigorous critique of culture.”
Meanwhile, vocalist James Dean Bradfield has said: “He was never looking to be compared to any other lyricist.”
Richey Edwards was an exciting, complex, eloquent and hugely talented musician and, on the 27th anniversary of his disappearance, he remains very much loved and missed.
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