Richey James of the Manic Street Preachers
NOTE: there are countless articles and theories regarding Richey James, as he is currently listed as a Missing Person... while playing with The Manic Street Preachers, Richey openly struggled with anorexia, substance use and self-harm.
Here is just a small snippet of press releases regarding Richey:
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It's impossible to say how much their more obnoxious eruptions during this period were provoked by Richey James's erratic behaviour. The Manics trace this back to the ghastly occasion on May 15, 1991, when, his sincerity challenged by Steve Lamacq, he took a razor blade and carved the words "4 REAL" into his left forearm, down to the bone.
"It shook us all up," says Moore. "We stood in disbelief. I think that was the beginning. Richey has always been very straight and normal through school and university. He was no-one you'd point a finger at and say. He's strange."
James's slide from that unhinged moment into alcoholism, depression and anorexia accelerated after the death of Philip Hall and the suicide of one of his own university friends. Further self-mutilations and spells in psychiatric clinics ensued. Nothing helped, it seemed.
The Manics' third album, The Holy Bible, exposed his state of mind through agonising lyrics, both personal (as in one song, titled "4 stone 7 pounds")
4st 7lb, an anorexic's manifesto: "I wanna be so skinny that I rot from view",
and philosophical (The Intense Humming of Evil, Weltschmerz in a Nazi concentration camp: "Funeral march for agony's last edge/6 million screaming souls").
On February 1, 1995 James left the Embassy Hotel, Bayswater, without saying a word to Bradfield, who was in an adjacent room. It's known that James drove back to Cardiff and stopped at his flat there. The next given is that his Vauxhall Cavalier was reported abandoned at Aust service station, near the Severn Bridge, 17 days later.
Beyond all these bare facts there's only endless speculation. "The reality of Richey's life is blurred by the way he disappeared," says Wire. "He might've known what was going on deep down, but what he gave out... you'd just wonder why small things would bother him immensely. When we were rehearsing he'd phone me 50 times to check the time."
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NOTE: I wish I had more to report on the mystery surrounding this young talented man... but at this time I do not. To see a gallery of Richey James, click here. If I hear anything new on this matter I will let you all know!!
To view pictures of the male rock star beauty ideal (that I believe may contribute to encouraging males to try to obtain unrealistic thin body types and develop eating disorders) go here. Recently, in working with an anorexic 17 year old male, this theory of mine was confirmed... as he decended into anorexia in an effort to obtain the male rock star image... unfortunately.
