manicstreetpreacher has learned a great deal from this.
I’ve decided to take a respite from ranting against the parties of God and present the videos to the final interview that Richey Edwards, the Manic Street Preachers’ former lyricist and guitarist gave to a Swedish television station a few weeks before disappearing in February 1995 aged twenty-seven.
Edwards, despite his best attempts at concealment by wearing a baggy top, clearly looks anorexic as he talks frankly about the Manics’ latest album, the white-hot, scattershot punk blast of rage, The Holy Bible, his lyric writing, and his recent mental breakdown which saw him visit The Priory for rehabilitation from drug and alcohol abuse.
Watch out for his opinions on pop-tarts Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston being “far more ruined in the mind” than he could ever be by virtue of their self-obsessed romantic pap. Of course, those two pop divas have since had their fair share of Richey moments.
Towards the end, the interviewer asks whether Edwards would like to get married and have children. Without listening to the end of the question, Edwards replies no, his dream is to write a perfect lyric that sums up how he feels about everything the in World yesterday, today and tomorrow. If he is still alive out there somewhere, perhaps he will re-emerge when he has finally nailed it.
These comments are particularly relevant to me personally, since like Edwards, I have in recent years attempted to escape from my problems in The Real World by immersing myself in issues that I have little if any control over and worrying about them instead of my social life, love life and career. I suppose there are worse outlets of the kind of anger and frustration that I expressed at the end of last year. At least I didn’t turn to domestic violence, alcohol or drugs. But my obsession with blogging has been destructive in other ways and I have let many things slide in my personal life, which came back to hit me in the face very recently.
I have now learned to value personal relationships over work, hobbies and interests. I have taken control of my own destiny and will be moving jobs and locations back to my home town from which I have been so far away the past nine months. I’ve even started telling my parents I love them for the first time in my life. Never again will I elect to sit in the quiet carriage of a train reading a book rather than sitting next to a half-acquaintance to ask them how they are.
Edwards is man from whom we all can learn; even if not always for the right reasons.
manicstreetpreacher 