Steven Wells aka Swells aka Seething Wells, the Yorkshire spoken word artist, author, music journalist and sporting critic, has passed away at the age of 49 following a long battle with lympathic cancer. Wells’ columns for the Guardian —- written from his subsequent Philadelphia home — have been quoted at length in CSTB, and perhaps some enterprising person will compile a stack of them into a book of some sort. To call Wells a contrarian is only skimming the surface of his skills. There have been few scribes on either side of the pond — in the music or sports spheres — who could match his wit, or maintained bullshit detectors so finely attuned. He’ll be sorely missed and our thoughts go out to his family, friends and colleagues.
His ‘Writer’s block is a bourgeoise concept’ manifesto for article composition had a massive impact on me, and though I agreed with pretty much nothing that he said, he’s still one of my favourite music writers ever.
I wish I still had a copy of the Napalm Death 1-page ad he made for the NME – it was all text, THOUSANDS of words about how immense the new album was, just fantastic, his passion made a mockery of all the flak he used to get for being a ‘music journalist who doesn’t like music’.
RIP Swells, you will be missed.
I knew next to nothing about his music criticism, but he was a fluent, funny, constantly surprising writer. I always enjoyed his appearances here, but only recently got into the non-soccer stuff from Philadelphia Weekly. The cover stories about cancer are really, really good, and it’s sad to see him pass.
on the music tip, Daphne & Celeste never had a more articulate champion, Belle & Sebastian never had a more worthy foe. Swells was one of the few UK writers of his era who gave American hardcore more than a passing glance, and he brought a similar outsiders’ perspective to his later-period sportswriting. The guy was reliably funny, but didn’t limit himself to safe targets