Alas, Poor Richard: Fandom, Personal Identity and Ben Myer's
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Volume ! La revue des musiques populaires 14 : 1 | 2017 Varia Alas, Poor Richard: Fandom, Personal Identity and Ben Myer’s Novelization of Richey Edwards’ Life Story Alas, Poor Richard : fandom, identité personnelle et fictionnalisation de la vie de Richey Edwards par Ben Myer Mark Duffett and Paula Hearsum Electronic version URL: https://journals.openedition.org/volume/5351 DOI: 10.4000/volume.5351 ISSN: 1950-568X Publisher Association Mélanie Seteun Printed version Date of publication: 13 December 2017 Number of pages: 65-84 ISBN: 978-2-913169-43-2 ISSN: 1634-5495 Electronic reference Mark Duffett and Paula Hearsum, “Alas, Poor Richard: Fandom, Personal Identity and Ben Myer’s Novelization of Richey Edwards’ Life Story”, Volume ! [Online], 14 : 1 | 2017, Online since 13 December 2020, connection on 29 July 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/volume/5351 ; DOI: https:// doi.org/10.4000/volume.5351 L'auteur & les Éd. Mélanie Seteun studied as individuals who use their accumulated knowledge Article to serve shared ethical concerns. Richard Keywords: popular music fandom / textual poaching / parasocial interaction / psychological autopsy Alas, Poor Richard: Alas, Poor Résumé : En 1995, les Manic Street Preachers font leur Fandom, Personal dernière apparition sur scène à quatre. Peu après, Richey Edwards, guitariste rythmique et « ministre de la propagande » Identity and Ben du groupe, disparaît, à l’aube d’une tournée américaine. Sa voiture est découverte sur le pont de la Severn, mais on ne Myer’s Novelization retrouve pas son corps, et l’on conclut au suicide. Quinze an s plus tard, le journaliste musical Ben Myers écrit Richard, une of Richey Edwards’ autobiographie fictive de la vie tourmentée d’Edwards, pour explorer le mystère de ses derniers jours. Cet article analyse Life Story le statut de fan revendiqué par son auteur et la réception du roman par les membres du « culte de Richey ». Ces derniers et les critiques réagirent négativement à la publication, Mark Duffett (University of Chester) & mettant en doute les motifs de son auteur et l’exactitude de son récit, l’accusant notamment d’usurpation d’identité 14 Paula Hearsum (University of Brighton) et de braconnage textuel. Dans cet article, nous défendons 1 l’idée qu’il ne faut pas rejeter ces réactions comme celles Abstract: In 1995 the Manic Street Preachers played their de dévots aveugles et irrationnels, qui s’agripperaient à l’il last show as a four piece before their rhythm guitarist and - lusion de connaître la vraie personne derrière les paillettes “minister for propaganda” Richey Edwards disappeared on du mythe. Au contraire, les fans devraient être considérés the advent of a US tour. Although his body was never found, comme des individus qui mobilisent leur savoir au service his car was discovered at the Severn bridge. It was assumed d’une éthique partagée. Edwards had committed suicide. In order to explore the troubled guitarist’s mysterious last days, fifteen years later Mots-clés : amateurs / braconnage textuel / in a novel called Richard the music journalist Ben Myers interaction parasociale / autopsie psychologique wrote a fictionalized first-person account of Richey’s life story. This article assesses Richard as a perceived act of “Manic Street Preachers’ fan culture remains with- literary impersonation by focusing on the way its author posi- out the authenticating materiality that he [Richey Edwards] tioned himself as a fan and also on how fans and reviewers was indeed “real,” as opposed to only being known to responded to the book. Addressing ideas such as parasocial them as a mediated construct.” interaction and mythologization, the piece shows that the Steven Gregson (2005: 144) “cult of Richey” apprehended Richard’s author as an unwel- come textual poacher. Fans challenged both Myers’ motives The study of stars that die or disappear and the accuracy of his portrayal. We argue that rather than in the face of a continuing fan phenomenon Article dismissing them as irrational, blind loyalists who cling to the can indicate something about how fans make false belief that they know the actual person, fans should be meanings and understand their heroes. As 65 Ruth Finnegan (1997: 68) has noted, identity attention. 1 Ben Myers’ Richard, an account is a site of struggle where power relations of the last days of Richey Edwards from are reproduced. In a star’s absence, his or the Welsh post-punk rock band the Manic her image can become a site of struggle, a Street Preachers, provides an interesting contested terrain on which the bonds of case study. 2 After introducing the novel’s affect are privately established and publi- real life subject and examining how its author cally performed. Creative interventions and positioned himself, this article concludes with reiterations can extend the star’s myth in a discussion of Richard’s reception amongst the Manics’ fan base. We argue that the fans’ Mark Duffett & Paula Hearsum ways that are not appreciated by the core of their traditional audience (see, for example, general rejection of Myers’ book was more Marcus, 1999). Whether deliberate or by than a blind response to its author treading accident, these interventions can exploit and on the hallowed ground of Edward’s celebrity explore specific aspects of celebrity and/or image. Instead some fans drew on a “moral fan culture. Responses to them are worthy economy” that included judgments about of academic attention as moments when fans the author’s ethics in relation to the fan role police others who have transgressed bound- he claimed to inhabit. aries of acceptable behaviour. By stitch- Richey Edwards had a successful career as the Manic Street Preacher’s rhythm ing together fragments of what is already guitarist, lyricist and “minister for propa- known rather than holding up a mirror to a ganda.” Edwards’ shortcomings as a guitar purported essence, and thus by emphasiz- player were unimportant to the punk and ing the “truth” of the star’s life as a form of post-punk fans that understood that musi- (intertextual) coherence rather than corre- cianship was not the only way for each spondence, semi-fictional books about dead individual to make a creative contribution musicians seem to disrupt the idea of truth as intimacy that forms the kernel of each star’s romantic myth. A series of researchers have 1 As well as authors of commercial fiction, in this explored the continuing interest in deceased category we might include amateur “real person musicians. Jones and Jensen’s book Afterlife fiction” fanfic writers, and those who claim to channel as After-Image (2005), for example contained the famous, or conduct celebrity séances. several chapters discussing “posthumous 2 A note on nomenclature: I am aware that Richey fame” in terms of mourning, hagiography, changed his real name to Richard James in his last few months of his time with the Manics, That image ownership and technology. Jennifer change—which could be read as hastening his Otter-Bickerdyke (2014) has studied fandom, disappearance—in set aside in this piece. Here “Richey Edwards” refers to the real person (and specifically, by considering the “second lives” sometimes, following Ben Myers, I use “Richey” for of cult musicians such as Ian Curtis and Kurt his stage persona). Richard refers to Myers’ novel and Cobain. Other scholars, such as Homan “Richard” to the character in the novel who speaks (albeit with a divided inner voice) as the “real” Richey (2006) and Gregory (2011) have examined Edwards. I have avoided the nickname that the press why audiences continue to be interested bestowed on Edwards—“Richey Manic”—as it does not contribute anything new to the argument. For an in tribute artists. Literary dramatizations academic discussion of the split between the private 66 of dead musicians have received much less and public self see Rojek (2001: 11). to the project of his or her group. 3 As his was found near the Severn Bridge. Although fragile, creative persona emerged in public, Richey Edwards’ body was never recovered, a wide variety of people found themselves it was assumed he had committed suicide. Richard intrigued. According to celebrity theorist Fifteen years after Richey’s disappearance, Chris Rojek (2007: 178), he “engaged in music journalist Ben Myers wrote a fiction- self-mutilation, suffered manic depression alized first-person account of Edwards’ Alas, Poor and alcohol problems, and in 1995 abruptly life story called Richard, a “novelization” vanished and is presumed dead.” It is impor- designed to explore the troubled guitarist’s tant, therefore, to recognize that Richey’s mysterious last days. This article is based personal descent was not (just) a private upon a close reading of Richard, an inter- catastrophe, but was creatively exploited view with its author, and textual analyses by Edwards himself in his professional of online reviews written by Manics fans. life to make a statement about the cultural The style and reception of Richard raises direction of his band and the authenticity of some complex issues. For example, should its project. A romantic reading of Richey’s such acts of “literary impersonation” be actions is that he was impaired: vulnerable, understood as “faked autobiography” or exploited, and baring his suffering for his creative fiction? art. Without denigrating the veracity of As Myers outlined in his book, Richey Richey’s personal trauma or the pain that Edwards was an ambivalent but self-con- it caused, we can say that it was publically scious agent in the construction of his own 14 realized and mediated through his music. The image and legend (see Roxie, 2010). His 1 Manics’ third album, The Holy Bible—which “original” performance was based on the was heavily based on Edwards’ creative con- elegant appropriation of literary sources. tribution—used quotations and media clips to Richey’s use of literary quotation to define evoke the darkest days of modernity.