Richard Fitzwilliam: “I did it as a lark at first, really. I had nothing better to do with my time, and I said, ‘Hey, why not?’” Shrugging. “Plus my family wanted me to keep an eye on Will, so, you know, I figured it was good as anything else.”

Narrator: “Richard Fitzwilliam was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1980.”

Stephen Fitzwilliam, father: “Oh Richard, his mother and I knew even when he was a baby, that boy would be trouble.” Laughing. “He was always fearless, wanting to try everything, and always getting his friends into trouble with him.”

Narrator: “Fitzwilliam grew up in a wealthy home and loving family. Blessed with a charming and easygoing manner, he had perused a number of interests, including college, but had never stuck with anything until Slurry. When Darcy was forming his band, he called on his cousin to play drums.”

Richard Fitzwilliam (laughing): “I was never a serious musician like Will. I had studied drums as a kid in school, mostly because it was a good way to meet girls.” Laughs some more. “And it’s still a good way to meet girls!”

Narrator: “For vocals, Darcy sought out his childhood friend George Wickham. Wickham’s father had been a close friend to Walter Darcy, and the two families had spent much of the boys’ childhood together.”

George Wickham: “Will was like a brother to me. I mean, for the longest time, we were practically brothers. Neither of us had any other siblings, and so we bonded.” He smiles brilliantly at the camera.

Fitzwilliam Darcy (in a light tone): “George and I were very close as children, until my sister was born. Then my family relocated and we spent less time together with the Wickhams, but we would still spend summers together. For most of my life, George was my closest friend.”

Narrator: “Slurry began humbly, as nothing more than an outlet for Darcy to express the music he was writing to deal with his grief. Eventually Wickham pressed for the group to begin performing publicly. The harsh, loud music and stark performance style struck a chord with audiences, and by the beginning of 2006, Slurry had a devoted following in Providence.

“Then Darcy made a life-changing decision.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy: “I realized that a part of me that I thought was long gone was still alive. I found that the music, which I had started as a hobby, had become more important to me than anything else I was considering doing, and I realized that this was what I wanted to.

“It was very hard for me to walk away from my father’s companies. All throughout college, I had planned on working with him. The plan had always been for me to take over when he retired.” He looks away and shrugs. “But that clearly wasn’t going to happen. I decided the band was what I had to do.”

Narrator: “Darcy moved the band to New York City, so he could be with his sister Georgiana. Soon the band had dates playing local clubs.”

Photo of the band, all looking very young, onstage.

“It was then that they were discovered by De Bourgh Records.”

Anne de Bourgh, A&R, De Bourgh Records: “I remember seeing them and knowing, right away, that this was a serious group and that they were going right o the top. These guys weren’t just fooling around. They were professionals.”

Narrator: “Their self-titled debut album was released in October of 2006, after several grueling months in the studio.”

Picture of the album cover.

Richard Fitzwilliam (remembering): “That was a really tough time, because Will wanted to go one way, and George wanted to go another way. And those ways were not the same. The album took much longer than it should have because George and Will could not agree on anything. That was when I started to realize we had trouble.”

Narrator: “The trouble did not stop once the album was released.”

John Willis, Spin magazine: “You can tell that the band was divided when you listen to that album. All the elements are there, all the pieces, but like a puzzle, it never comes together. There is a great drum section here and some really strong vocals there, but it never meshes into a whole. It was no surprise to anyone when the breakup came.”

Narrator: “Slurry had one moderate hit off their first album that made it to thirty-seven on the top forty, but it was becoming clear to Darcy the band had reached its limit, and he started to feel frustrated.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy: “I wanted to be doing more, but it was like we could just never come together. I had all these ideas, and I could hear, in my head, what I wanted. But we just couldn’t do it. It was a very difficult time.”

Narrator: “The band went on tour in late fall of 2006, leaving the comfort zone of their fan following in New York City to introduce themselves to new audiences. With every concert, the tension between Darcy and Wickham grew.”

Picture of an angry-looking Darcy standing next to a grinning Wickham.

Richard Fitzwilliam (angry, frowning): “That was the tour from hell. It was a beep-ing nightmare, and it was all George’s fault. It should have been a triumph, our first tour and all! And George turned it into a tragedy.” Hits his fist on the couch while looking away. “Bastard!”

Narrator: “The tension had reached the breaking point when the band played the Ramsgate Festival on the Fourth of July weekend. While no one was willing to say exactly what happened”—Darcy glaring coldly at the camera—“that weekend was the end of the relationship between Fitzwilliam Darcy and George Wickham.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy (icily): “We had artistic differences that prevented us from being able to continue to work together.”

George Wickham: “What did Darcy say?” Listens for a moment to a voice off camera. “Artistic differences?” He smirks. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

Narrator: “Darcy and Fitzwilliam returned to New York City following Ramsgate, while Wickham fled to Florida. For a while the future of the band seemed to be in question.”

Richard Fitzwilliam: “I thought we were done. Darcy was so angry and disgusted; I really thought we were just done.”

Narrator: “Then an old friend entered the picture. In September, Charles Bingley joined Darcy in New York City for a visit. Bingley was surprised to learn about the band’s existence, but he quickly auditioned for the role as lead singer.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy: “I knew Charles could sing, but I never realized he was so talented. What’s more, he could understand what I was trying to do and add to it. It was when Charles joined us that everything came together. I felt I was finally able to express what I wanted to artistically.”

Richard Fitzwilliam: “Oh, Bingley came in and just like that”—snaps fingers—“everything was better. It was like every difficulty, every stumbling block that we had had with Wickham never existed.”

Charles Bingley: “It was like love at first sight, you know?” Smiles. “As soon as Darcy told me about the band, I got really excited. I just knew I wanted to be a part of it, that it was where I belonged.”

Narrator: “Charles Bingley was the missing piece that the band needed. Like a phoenix, Slurry was reborn—a completely new band, and its potential was seemingly limitless.”

Anne de Bourgh: “As soon as I heard Charles singing with the band, I knew that this was what I had been waiting for. They were electric. They were on fire. It was like holding a lump of plutonium in your hand. You could feel the energy there, ready to be released. We threw out all the old material and sent them right into the studio.”

Narrator: “That proved to be a wise decision. In the studio Darcy took over writing all the songs, a task he had unsuccessfully shared with Wickham in the past. The result was a collection of twelve songs, recorded in a blistering five weeks. The CD was titled Crush, and when it was released in February of 2008, it debuted at number ten in the charts.”

Charles Bingley (smiling): “Yup. Right away we had a hit, and you know that felt great!”

Narrator: “‘Searching in the Dark,’ Darcy’s brooding song about uncertainly and self-direction, was the first single from the CD. It peaked at number one.”

John Willis: “It is amazing when you listen to Slurry and then compare it to Crush. You knew in Slurry that the talent was there, but it’s not until Crush that the band found its balance. As soon as I heard ‘Searching in the Dark,’ with that opening guitar riff”—humming—“I knew that these guys were going right to the top.”

Clip of the video for “Searching in the Dark.”

Narrator: “Slurry’s success came hard and fast. Three more number one hits followed, and the band supported the album with nine months of touring.

“But Charles Bingley brought more that his powerful vocals to Slurry; he also brought his twin sister, Caroline, who became the band’s tour manager.”

Caroline Bingley, tour manager: “Charles called me up and said, ‘Come out to New York; I need you.’ So I did and off we went.”

Narrator: “Caroline proved to be a quick study, taking the reins of the tour and leaving Darcy free to focus on his music. Another album, Polish, followed, which went platinum. The band supported these albums with tours, spending most of the last four years on the road. They continued to gain fans and number one singles.

“By the beginning of 2009 Slurry looked unstoppable. Their albums had sold over ten million copies, and their tour was selling out larger and larger venues. But trouble was just around the corner.”

Richard Fitzwilliam: “We were having a blast. We were rock stars, and we were everywhere. Everything was going our way. We were on TV, we were on the radio. Everyplace we went, there were girls screaming at us. It was a trip, and I was going to enjoy that party.”

Narrator: “But the party soon got out of control. Richard Fitzwilliam had always been a casual drug user, but while on tour he developed an addiction to alcohol.”

Picture of Fitzwilliam with a bottle.

“Darcy and Bingley were only starting to become aware of the problem when, on January 28 of 2009, Fitzwilliam was arrested for DWI.”

Picture of Fitzwilliam in handcuffs being led away by police.

Caroline Bingley: “I had my suspicions that something was up with Richard, but he never got ugly. Yes, he always had a beer in his hand, or later on, a bottle, but it’s not like he was getting into fights or passing out or messing up shows. And he was always so happy, I never thought he could be having a problem.”

Ronaldo Faust, lighting engineer, Polish Tour: “I was working with the band during the fall leg of that tour. I remember watching Fitzwilliam, and every day he just looked a little more tired and a little less in control. He always had a drink in his hands, always: before the show, during, and after.”

Fitzwilliam Darcy (troubled): “It was my fault. I blame myself. I was so obsessed by what was going on with the music and the details of the tour, I lost sight of what really mattered. I lost sight of my cousin and my friend.”

Charles Bingley (looking surprised): “I had no idea he was in trouble. He never said anything. It completely caught me off guard.”

Caroline Bingley: “Once Darcy became aware of what was going on, when Richard was arrested, he stopped everything. He brought us all together, the band and the staff, and he told us that nothing was as important as the people here. So that night the tour ended. There was never any talk about getting a replacement drummer. It was over.”

Narrator: “Fitzwilliam was ordered by the courts to enter a rehab program as part of his sentence, and Bingley and Darcy joined him there.”

Richard Fitzwilliam (in a matter-of-fact tone): “It was the oldest story in the book. I told myself I could handle it, and I couldn’t. I was stupid and I had lost control of it.” Shrugs. “But I was lucky. I was damned lucky the night I got arrested, because I couldn’t hide from it anymore. And I got help.”

Charles Bingley: “Will and I decided that we were going to hang together on this. We are like brothers, the three of us, and what we have together is too important to let die. So we fought for it and for Richard.”

Narrator: “When Fitzwilliam was released in May of 2009, the band went back into the studio. Inspired by their experience, lightning struck again and their next album was recorded in less than eight weeks.”