RIP Steven Wells

[Metal Malcolm]

RIP Swells. Didn't know he had cancer.

I bet he's up in heaven now, trying to kill John Denver all over again.

 

[butchersapron]

I had no idea either - RIP Swells, you mad me laugh loads, made me think you were a trot idiot often too. Always remember his interview with bis where he poked them about 'class' - very very funny.

 

[Fedayn]

RIP Swells. Didn't know he had cancer.

I bet he's up in heaven now, trying to kill John Denver all over again.

As in Seething Wells as in ex SWP muso chap?

 

[phildwyer]

Ah that's a shame, I've enjoyed his stuff since the early 80s. I had quite a shock when he turned up in Philadelphia just after I'd moved there. He started writing for the local free paper, many of his columns were about his cancer. He managed to be quite funny about it, as about everything else.

 

[5t3IIa]

He used to be in my NMEs

 

[clandestino]

It's a shock.

RIP Swells.

 

[El Jefe]

yeh, he was a dude, and really charming in real life.


RIP

 

[dodgepot]

aww that's sad. i used to love reading his bits in the NME, he made me laugh

 

[editor]

I used to enjoy his stuff

 

[pootle]

aww that's sad. i used to love reading his bits in the NME, he made me laugh

What dodgers said - rubbish

 

[Lazy Llama]

RIP Swells.

His last column in the Philadelphia Weekly is here

 

[elbows]

Some of his works detailing his illness:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/the_english_patient-38416404.html

edit: removed one as Lazy Llama beat me to it.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Aww that's rubbish. Swells was a legend and, at the time I stopped reading NME, the only redeeming feature of the whole publication.

 

[clandestino]

I remember him coming into the Melody Maker offices to get that week's issue and stopping for a chat with a few people, and then suddenly loudly informing the entire office that we were a bunch of boring bastards.

I just remember laughing and telling him to fuck right off.


RIP

 

[pootle]

Thanks for the link to his latest/last work Lazy Llama and Elbows

Look forward to reading them later.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

That's a pisser - he did the ranting sweary pro-pop music thing in the NME really well.

They also let him write the odd bit of serious stuff on politics - he was very good on censorship and the whole Dead Kennedys case. And this thing on anarchopunk which is good.

Props to him for trying to reintroduce punk pulp fiction with his Attack! Books also.

 

[El Jefe]

i remember that Conflict piece. He also described Chumbawamba as the "only Crasstifarians you'd want to share your drugs with", which I know they loved

 

[Voley]

Blimey. He can't have been very old. I have to say I wasn't a fan particularly but it's sad to hear of someone dying so young. RIP.

 

[Idris2002]

Some of his works detailing his illness:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/cover-story/the_english_patient-38416404.html

edit: removed one as Lazy Llama beat me to it.

That's maybe the best thing he ever wrote.

Ex-public school wasn't he? I say this not as a dig, merely to flesh out the biography.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Stewart Home's take: http://stewarthomesociety.org/blog/?p=1902

 

[gabi]

I still remember with love the review Swells gave a crowded house album a few years ago. I post it in full below.

Red card. You cunt.

That about summed up the album (altho for the record neil finn is far from a cunt in actuality)

 

[Sunspots]

Blimey. He can't have been very old. I have to say I wasn't a fan particularly but it's sad to hear of someone dying so young. RIP.

My thoughts too.

I couldn't really stand his !!!!!!STYLE!!!! OF!!! WRITING!!!!!! in the NME, but that didn't mean he wasn't right about a lot of things.

I had no idea he was so ill.

 

[ericjarvis]

Worst news so far this year. He was a top geezer.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Swells invented Charlie Brooker IMO. Only Swells managed to put real enthusiasm and joy into his stuff, alongside the fantastically funny bitterness and ranting he also excelled at.

 

[Idris2002]

Just wondering, did he stay with the SWP 'til the end?

 

[TopCat]

I met him regarding an interview (Class War) for the NME twenty odd years ago. He was a decent fella and funny too. Is this what being post 40 is about? Every one including yourself pegging it?

 

[Divisive Cotton]

One the greatest music writers in British pop history

RIP Wells

 

[butchersapron]

tbh, i think we was a bit rubbish on music - he had the right approach though.

 

[Idris2002]

He was right about the social and psychological consequences of the 'woe is me' school of adolescent self-pity indie music. The Smiths did have some good tunes in spite of that, though.

I liked this column of his:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/n...xism-41672297.html?page=1&comments=1&showAll=

 

[butchersapron]

He was right about the social and psychological consequences of the 'woe is me' school of adolescent self-pity indie music. The Smiths did have some good tunes in spite of that, though.

I liked this column of his:

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/n...xism-41672297.html?page=1&comments=1&showAll=

Great line in that:

Take a step back and the fact that Michelle Malkin is now an out-and-out communess should not come as a shock.