And Finally

Richey Edwards wouldn’t have stood for bands and brands working together, says Manics frontman

By | Published on Tuesday 3 September 2013

Richey Edwards

Richey Edwards would have “absolutely slayed people” over the increase in partnerships between bands and brands in the modern music industry, Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfield has told Wales Online.

Discussing the band’s former guitarist, who disappeared in 1995, Bradfield said: “The older you get, the more perspective you have on it … The only new thing that comes up in your head is that if Richey was around now he would have absolutely slayed people. In terms of how branded everything is, how branded bands are, he would have been disgusted by it”.

“He would have been so completely angry about some things it would be like having an assassin in the band”, he continued. “It would have been the perfect time for him to have been a musician, a lyricist and a quote machine. You wish he was still around so we could just set Richey loose on them”.

As for how Edwards’ own musical vision might have developed, Bradfield said: “The one thing I don’t doubt about Richey is that he wouldn’t have countenanced a midlife crisis. I think he would have been like Nick Cave – he would have kept going and not been scared of becoming a caricature. He would have carried through his vision, whereas I didn’t think we could have gone anywhere else after ‘The Holy Bible’ as I thought we would become a caricature. We would have become goth horror – you can only go down deeper into that abyss”.

New Manics album ‘Rewind The Film’ is due out on 16 Sep. It’s safe to say, it won’t be a goth horror.



READ MORE ABOUT: | |