"Richey's always been very aware of the myths surrounding groups. And the bad thing is, you don't only feed your own self-image, you want to feed other images people have of you." (James Dean Bradfield, singer. Manic Street Preachers, 1994)

"You mark yourself because you can't make your mark elsewhere."

"I'm not a person who can scream and shout so this is my only outlet. It's all done very logically."

"It's important not to be embarrassed by your past. The contradictions are part of what we are." (Richey Edwards)

The Manic Street Preachers grew up together in Blackwood, a small town in Wales. Blackwood was boring for teenagers. As they got older they withdrew into each other's bedrooms and the consolations of books and records.

They were very good students. Edwards got three As at A level, and in 1986 began a history degree at Swansea University. It has been said there was a darker side to Edwards' thirst for knowledge of history and politics. He was fascinated by the hunger-strikers in Northern Ireland's Maze prison, for example, and once spoke of his admiration for Bobby Sands, whose death by self-starvation was announced in May 1981. "He made a better statement than anything else that was going on at that time, because it was against himself."

Coincidentally or not, by the time he was 22 and revising for his degree in political history, he would weigh less than six stone himself. Edwards graduated with a 2:1, membership of the fledgling Manic Street Preachers and a tendency, when stressed, to go to bed with a bottle of vodka.

With Nicky Wire, another 'manic', Edwards planned their pop entrance. They claimed that they would be huge - that they would make one classic album then split up in a blaze of glory.

Edwards decided to make a statement to show that they were for real after journalists scoffed. After a gig in Norwich, he took reporter Steve Lamacq aside and, while they were arguing, he quietly carved 4REAL in his own arm with a razor.

The lyrics of Richey Edwards suggested a tortured soul and an uncertain character, confused by the world of the 1990s.

"Culture sucks down words... Hurt, maim kill and enslave the ghetto/Each day living out a lie/Life's sold cheaply for ever."
('Motorcycle Emptiness", Generation Terrorists)

"Wanna get out, won't miss you.. all removables, all transitory, passing always,..."
('Removables', Everything Must Go)

"He's living on a different proverb a day at the moment..."
(James Dean Bradfield, Manic Street Preachers)'

As early as 1993 Nicky Wire had claimed that Edwards was an alcoholic. A year later, on stage in Bangkok he showed off chest lacerations made with knives given to him by a fan. Although the band's third album The Holy Bible - written mainly by Richey Edwards - was showered with praise, many who heard it were shocked by the inherent misery of his vision. Fans considered it a "brilliant, bleak masterpiece".

Shortly after the record's release Richey finally acknowledged he needed psychiatric help and was admitted first to an NHS hospital, then a private clinic. Later he spoke of being treated for alcoholism, anorexia and self-mutilation.

"Everyone's got a corner of their heart and mind you can't get into. Richey was always much more into books and films than rock'n'roll and I think those art forms are much more idealized. I think they influenced the way he viewed life, and the way he thought it would be. Whenever I talk about Richey, I think of that quote from Rumblefish, y'know 'He's merely miscast to play; he was born on the wrong side of the river; he has the ability to do anything he wants to do but he can't find anything he wants to do'. If he hadn't been in the band, he'd probably end up like Richard Briers in Ever Decreasing Circles, very cardigan, very slippers. And it's easy to go down the slippery slope living that lifestyle as it is being a 'rockstar'. There are an awful lot of housewives hooked on tranquilizers you know."
(James Dean Bradfield)

In late January 1995, when he gave the last interview before his disappearance Edwards presented a disturbing figure. Wearing a pair of striped pyjamas as if they were a suit and with his head closely shaved, he spoke of his new sobriety, but also of the fact that he had never been able to have a lasting adult relationship.

"Of course, I'd love to love somebody seriously...but I feel nobody would want to live with me."
(Richey Edwards)

Then Richey Edwards disappeared. He walked out of the Embassy Hotel, Bayswater, London, on 1 February 1995 and his car was found empty at Aust Service Station, near the Severn Bridge - a notorious suicide spot. The Manics waited for two weeks before reporting Richey's disappearance.

The reaction from fans was unprecedented. Melody Maker turned to the Samaritans after the editor was bombarded with correspondence from distressed fans. The Samaritans collaborated with the magazine to enable the readers to air such taboo issues as depression and self-mutilation. This followed hundreds of fans writing in to say they were cutting themselves, many with photos of bleeding limbs enclosed. Teenage fans loved Richey for articulating their own feelings of confusion and us-against-the-world. Many of his fans were obsessive, adopting the band's shabby, punk-style threads and writing them impassioned letters - sometimes in blood. And now their hero had disappeared.

"In terms of the way they affected teenage thinking, the Manics are pretty much the British Nirvana"
(Melody Maker's features editor Paul Lester.)

Success had damaged an already vulnerable Richey Edwards. Touring had offered boredom, fear and too much vodka. Songwriting meant dredging up demons - and provoking fans to call up their own, which they did in huge numbers.

Edwards had shrunk with self-loathing. There were a few catalysts - failure with potential girlfriends, the death of his childhood dog - but none huge or rare. He has not been forgotten by his fans who continue to send letters of angst and bereavement to the other band members.

"Wherever Richey is, he's made his own choice and he's doing what he wants. Unless he's gone insane. Maybe he'll disappear for five years and come back with the greatest book ever written, a huge beard, and be really happy"
(Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers)