The actual final cover:
.@stefflondon is Britain's hottest new rapper – meet her in this week's free NME magazine Out Friday. Get your copy 👉 https://t.co/VfiZ6vWj1K pic.twitter.com/YKJoxGsnd8— NME (@NME) March 8, 2018
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 8 March 2018 16:49 (six years ago) link
lol, ok, good for them, not the worst way to go out: final cover star a birmingham-hackney girl who speaks fluent dutch
― mark s, Thursday, 8 March 2018 17:01 (six years ago) link
is that Geri's dress?
― Algerian Goalkeeper (Odysseus), Thursday, 8 March 2018 17:13 (six years ago) link
Swells wrote an article about punk in that appeared in an early 90s issue of UK comicbook Crisis, unfortunately doesn't seem to be online but I remember finding it incredibly exhilarating, maybe even "formative" when I read it as a teenager (in the late 90s after buying the comic second-hand) though tbf as far as I recall most of the article wasn't about music per se, more about the idea that anyone could create art regardless of technical skill or background (I remember that when I read Mark Fisher's K Punk blog a few years later I thought they seemed to be coming from a similar place in some ways)
― soref, Thursday, 8 March 2018 17:35 (six years ago) link
I only commented to Haines that if he ever got bored with his sour Toby Young in a indie-hat persona he might find something better to do with his time to slag off ppl who are no longer able to defend themselves. And he called me a halfwit and blocked me!
― calzino, Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:12 (six years ago) link
I found the cult of Swells irritating too - for the same sense of unearnedness mentioned above. Perhaps I came to him to late but it was rage and bile as motor as far as I could make out, in place of insight.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link
his skin appears to be thinner than his hair
― papa don't take no meth (stevie), Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:15 (six years ago) link
Haines is just a Poundland MES isn't he? Without the wit, or tunes. And imagine MES searching for himself on Twitter.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:16 (six years ago) link
he was called smith
― mark s, Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link
The Auteurs were great. They had lots of tunes. He's a sad, bitter dude past his prime, though. His Twitter is a broken record of negativity.
― afriendlypioneer, Thursday, 8 March 2018 18:46 (six years ago) link
Yeah he was one of the people along with Graham Linehan who i followed was quickly horrified by then unfollowed. Twitter is such a bad look for some semi-celebs.
― piscesx, Thursday, 8 March 2018 19:52 (six years ago) link
He's responsible for my favourite tweet of all time
Rag n Bone man sounds like Jimmy Nail.— luke haines❌ (@LukeHaines_News) June 25, 2017
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 8 March 2018 19:55 (six years ago) link
i agree with matt johnson re his band.
― mark e, Thursday, 8 March 2018 20:08 (six years ago) link
Swells rarely had much insight about music, but he was very funny. Turning in an entire feature about a band you freely say are bad but had a great time with is an excellent use of the music press. With 900 pieces a week across the inkies, it's fine to show kids that you can just write an entertaining piece, not attempt to tell them what they should buy. Here's a joke, here's some invective, here's some human interest, go freelance a career.
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Thursday, 8 March 2018 20:35 (six years ago) link
didn't he once use the immortal phrase "the fetid stench of human cock-meat" in a Green Day review or something. I'd stopped reading him at that point tbh, but laughed when I read it quoted somewhere years later. G search doesn't doesn't yield anything so I might be just making this up.
― calzino, Thursday, 8 March 2018 21:08 (six years ago) link
He rarely had much insight about music but he had a lot about the people who wrote about music and about the music industry itself. As (very funny) meta-commentary he was great.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:18 (six years ago) link
I loved these Swells remembrances bitd
http://thequietus.com/articles/02000-steven-wells-a-tribute
― piscesx, Thursday, 8 March 2018 23:20 (six years ago) link
sad that his final piece -- "in extremis: steven wells says goodbye" for the philadelphia weekly -- doesn't seem to be on the internet any more
― mark s, Thursday, 8 March 2018 23:24 (six years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/09/he-tried-to-get-out-of-the-car-at-80mph-the-stories-behind-nmes-greatest-covers
Don't think I knew that Penny Reel was AKA Paul Simon before!
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 9 March 2018 12:33 (six years ago) link
he's not, he's pete simons :)
this is either forgetfulness on viv's part or the long-stewed beef of some ancient feud
― mark s, Friday, 9 March 2018 12:39 (six years ago) link
Grauniad?
― Buff Jeckley (Tom D.), Friday, 9 March 2018 12:43 (six years ago) link
i blame Alba
― mark s, Friday, 9 March 2018 12:46 (six years ago) link
for some reason the swells phrase which sticks with me comes from a mid-90s interview where he takes issue with some feeble waif of a frontman (possibly rick witter) and asks if he'd not prefer to be stalking the stage 'encased in 250lbs of rock-hard raw beef'
― War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, Umami (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 March 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link
just realised that i have academic access to rock's back pages and thus i can confirm that swells did indeed use that exact phrase in conversation with rick witter in an article published on 9 may 1998, meaning it's been rattling around my brain for almost exactly 20 years :(
― War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, Umami (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 March 2018 13:37 (six years ago) link
"When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart" — Queen Mary
^^it's like this but world-historical
― mark s, Friday, 9 March 2018 13:42 (six years ago) link
also we have to open your head
i can't remember this morning's commute but i can remember something an nme hack yelled at the singer from shed seven three decades ago
― War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, Umami (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 March 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
i feel like my head is already open tbh
― War, Famine, Pestilence, Death, Umami (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 March 2018 13:48 (six years ago) link
irl lolled at rock's back pages revelation
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, 9 March 2018 16:37 (six years ago) link
A classic from the the Steve Sutherland era
Oof. Here's the original NME review of Baduizm. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/RXCXw6LSwY— Caspar Salmon (@CasparSalmon) July 5, 2018
― Alba, Friday, 6 July 2018 07:01 (five years ago) link
Music magazine NME's switch to all digital format led to a 72% collapse in reader engagement:https://www.mediaite.com/print/heres-what-magazines-lose-when-they-go-digital-only/
Online readers of NME only spend an average of about three minutes a month with the publication, per the study, while print readers spent an average of about a half-hour a week with the magazine.[...]NME was founded in 1952. The publication was acquired earlier this year by the Singapore-based company BandLab Technologies and was previously owned by Time Inc., which made the decision to end the print product.
[...]
NME was founded in 1952. The publication was acquired earlier this year by the Singapore-based company BandLab Technologies and was previously owned by Time Inc., which made the decision to end the print product.
― insecurity bear (sic), Tuesday, 19 November 2019 01:09 (four years ago) link
Well, there it isn't.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 November 2019 07:34 (four years ago) link
Longtime NME media editor and features writer Gavin Martin has died at the age of 60.
― birdistheword, Friday, 11 March 2022 16:01 (two years ago) link