The Bridgend Suicides

reply to post by ThorsBrother


Its also strange that they all picked (bar one) hanging as their choice of death

funeral for a Friend are a Welsh post-hardcore band, from Bridgend. Formed 2001, they have released five studio albums, seven EPs On 20 October 2003, after recording for the duration of the summer, Funeral for a Friend's full-length debut album was released. Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, produced and mixed by Colin Richardson, was released to critical acclaim in the UK. The album did not see a concurrent release in the US (eventually released there on 13 July 2004); instead, a seven-track "mini-album", entitled Seven Ways to Scream Your Name, was released, and featured songs from the band's Between Order & Model and Four Ways to Scream Your Name EPs. In the United Kingdom the album received a Gold certification a year after its release on 29 October 2004,[3] which was achieved with a sales figure of over 100,000.[2]

Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation saw three top-twenty singles including "Juneau" (#19), "She Drove Me to Daytime Television" (#20) and "Escape Artists Never Die" (#19).[4] Funeral for a Friend toured feverishly to promote Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, including a series of European dates in which they opened for their idols, Iron Maiden.[5] This was met with a mixed reception, as their style and fan base bore little resemblance to the heavy metal background of Iron Maiden.[2] In 2004, the band headlined the second stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

On 14 June 2005, the band released their second album Hours through Atlantic Records. The album was produced by Terry Date and was recorded in two Seattle studios owned by the grunge band Pearl Jam. The album featured unusual methods of recording, for example Matt Davies' vocals were recorded whilst in a moving car and on a crowded Seattle street, for the song "Drive". In August of the same year, the band won a Kerrang! Award for "Best British Band".

Funeral for a Friend performed several low-profile shows in Wales, including Bangor University and Bridgend Recreation Centre, prior to the release of Hours. This contrasted against their subsequent shows, which included playing alongside bands such as Atreyu, Saosin, Hawthorne Heights and Thrice on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour. The band also performed on the main stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals, having to leave the Warped Tour early to do so. The band also played on the main stage of the Taste of Chaos tour in the US in 2006, alongside bands such as Story of the Year, Deftones and Thrice.

Funeral For a Friend closed the promotional jaunt for Hours in the Summer of 2006, with a series of UK shows rescheduled from February. Most of the original dates had been canceled because Matt Davies had suffered from a bout of laryngitis. Several other shows were scheduled in the UK to complement these rescheduled dates, and the tour culminated in a slot below headliners Guns N' Roses at the Download Festival at Donington Racetrack. The rest of 2006 was spent writing and recording the band's third album, Tales Don't Tell Themselves released in May 2007.

[edit] Tales Don't Tell Themselves (2007)

Main article: Tales Don't Tell Themselves

Funeral for a Friend mentioned the writing of this album during their UK shows in summer 2006 and they started writing and recording at the end of the tour. Tales Don't Tell Themselves was released on 14 May 2007 in the UK, having been leaked to the internet on 10 May 2007. The band released video diary updates of the recording on their MySpace page. On 19 March 2007, Into Oblivion (Reunion), the first single from the album, premiered on the Zane Lowe Show on Radio One. It was given a 7 May physical release, and the video can be seen and the song heard on their MySpace. It reached number 39[citation needed] in its first week of release on downloads and reached number 16 in the Official UK chart on 13 May 2007.

All very interesting if you are into post punk rock music and havnt heard of funeral for a friend. but what has it to do with the bridgend suicides?

Bridgend Suicides are once again "in the press". People magazine has a decent article in it this month concerning the hangings.

I actually read the article while my son was getting bloodwork done, was so intrigued and struck...that I put the magazine in my purse. I reread the article again and spent the majority of the day doing reasearch and looking into this crazy phenom. I am not sure why it struck a chord with me, I am half the world away and have never heard the story in the past.

My first thought was murder. Is someone "attacking" these kids and hanging them to make them LOOK like suicides? That just seems so far fetched I know. But something is indeed amiss in Bridgend. Mass mind control?? I have read about the Masts? It reminds of several movies...one that had Katie Holmes in it several years back...something "behavior"...can't remember.

Hanging yourself is not easy let alone common for kids or women. Very bizarre indeed that several articles also stated that the several of the people had indeed made future plans, sought out counseling etc. only to suddenly hang themselves. Some within the same block, street or even on the same tree in two cases I believe.

I can't get this story/issue out of my mind. Just wanted to see if anyone had any new thoughts. I'm seriously into this...and again struck. Absolutely dumbfounded. Interested in new theories.

What did the article say have there been more suicides?

As I have previously mentioned in this thread, there are no more suicides in Bridgend than anywhere else, it just so happened there was a cluster of young people and it made the headlines...namely because some of them knew each other, and I think we can extrapolate from that, that grief has probably played a part in making the situation worse through a lack of open discussion about suicide and its effects on society, particularly aimed at young people, who may not understand the enormity of taking their own lives.

I posted a link to the office of national statistics earlier in the thread and it shows clearly that whilst Wales did at one point have a higher suicide rate than the rest of the UK (mainly among older men) it has been steadily decreasing in recent years and is on par with the rest of the UK now. There are probably a number of social and economic factors involved in these suicides such as high unemployment etc

So rather than looking at conspiracy theories to explain these tragic deaths, perhaps looking at solutions to the very real problems is the answer and additionally relying less on the media who blew the whole Bridgend Suicides out of proportion, which probably in itself created a further problem for the people who lived in that area.

I personally have experienced the death by suicide (hanging) of a 13 yr old neigbour and close friend of my daughter and whilst we will never know exactly what caused her to do such a terrible thing, circumstances seemed to suggest that she was worried about a boyfriend, possible pregnancy and arguments with other friends...a terribly permanent solution to a temporary problem! As a result of this, I spent a lot of time with my grief stricken daughter talking about different issues and how there was never any problem that couldn't be overcome and that suicide was never the answer and I think that should be the focus for helping those who may feel that their lives are not worth living.

reply to post by destination now


Your link doesnt work

reply to post by dashdespatch


Sorry, it's been a year since I posted that link, so the page has probably been updated or relocated. I'm a bit busy tonight but I will look for the current page tomorrow.

Wales The number of suicides in Wales gradually decreased over the 2000–2009 period, falling from 332 in 2003 to 258 in 2009. The largest yearly decrease occurred between 2004 and 2005 when suicides fell by 61 from 330 to 269. Until 2008 male suicide rates in Wales were higher than the UK rates. The highest rate in Wales was in 2003 at 23.1 per 100,000, compared with 18.1 for the UK in the same year. In 2009 the male suicide rates for Wales and the UK were similar at 17.4 and 17.5 per 100,000 respectively.

Taken from updated pdf file on Office for National statistics search page Suicide rates for United Kingdom

Here is a brief summary of the 2010 figures which suggest there has been no change from the previous period Suicide rates 2010