The last credible sighting of Richey Edwards alive took place on this day, February 7, seventeen years ago. A taxi driver claims he picked the Manic Street Preachers guitarist up from the King's Hotel in Newport, and drove him round the valleys, including Blackwood, where Richey and the rest of the Manics had grown up.
The journey ended at Severn View service station near Aust, where Richey - if it was indeed him - paid the £68 (that's what like 75 bucks) fare and got out. It's highly likely, though not certain, that he ended his life by jumping off the Severn Bridge at some point in the week that followed.
Almost two decades on, there's still an aura round Richey. Pictures of him have a faintly mesmerising quality, as though they have some nagging wisdom to impart. An anti-guitar hero whose influence was as much intellectual and literary as it was musical, Richey lives on in the memories of fans. Few musicians have engendered quite such strong emotions.
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