Tributes paid following the death of legendary NME writer Dele Fadele - NME

Ben writes:

...reporrting the passing of Dele Fadele, a pivotal figure in the NME and particularly famous for his part in the 'Flirting With Disaster?' cover story about Moz's attitudes towards race.

Dele personally told me that Morrissey had sent over a drink - probably a pint of cider - to Dele when both were in the Good Mixer during Moz's stint living in Camden, and he took it it to be a burying of the hatchet of sorts.

Tributes paid following the death of legendary NME writer Dele Fadele - NME
RIP, Dele.

By Nick Reilly

Excerpt:

Tributes have been paid to the former NME writer Dele Fadele, whose death has been confirmed.

It is thought that Fadele died in 2018 of unknown causes, but his passing only became public knowledge last night (August 20), as LouderThanWar reports.

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Dele Fadele - music journalist legend RIP

Dele Fadele - music journalist legend RIP

louderthanwar.com

 

[Deleted member 28251]

They were not - but you can twist like a hack so you've missed your era.

They (the NME) were on a roll: the attack on Morrissey came straight after a sustained period of attacking The Happy Mondays over some interview content. And Guns n Roses had copped for it before them.

The Mondays played ball, and wrote the song Stinkin’ Thinkin’ to appease; the likes of Fadele, Steven Wells and Danny Kelly duly began to think they were gods. They went for Morrissey after a brief attempt to discredit The Stone Roses—who were invoked and slated for their defence of The Mondays.

It was almost like the NME had started to want a blacklist of artists and bands. Imagine that. Clearly Noel Gallagher was taking notes: for all of their bravado and expletives, Oasis were remarkably circumspect in interviews.

 

[Deleted member 29417]

i think he was...........i think you don't want to think he meant what he said.

There would be no point deluding myself - it wouldn't help him.

The interview is a mess - but he's clearly trying to say that groups exist & does that make us all bigots for being in them... & also that we do need to agree on some things or society won't function - which is an argument about clashing rights & values, not race.

& he doesn't really think he can do anything about it because he believes the press knowingly lies (some sh*t misinterpreted or lied in the beginning but once the paraphrase was in circulation most people would think he did say that he preferred his own race - which isn't true).

This 👇 is about records - but I think he thinks everything is a fix & he probably wouldn't even like it if it worked in his favour.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

For obvious reasons I'm not a fan of hacks who hurt artists - he'd have to be Dorothy Parker for me to think he hadn't wasted his life.

By the time of Quarry, the NME reaper had first merged with, and then killed off, Melody Maker (though they’d shared the same owners for decades). It was thin in stature and content, and Wells was a grotesque parody of that awful music journalism that was killing everything it touched.

Nevertheless, Wells got his ‘told you so’ moment—he’d promised the paper would get Morrissey to defer, ultimately. And he got his wish in Quarry’s build up when Moz did an NME interview after 12 years of refusal. It wasn’t Morrissey’s finest hour, but credit to Wells was due—he’d got that notch in his walking stick. He’d always said Morrissey couldn’t and wouldn’t hold out.

Obviously, the marriage of convenience couldn’t last—thank God. But the sham crucially made me recognise that, ultimately, the tail mostly does wag the dog in the arts.

And credit to Morrissey for sometimes (still) making me think otherwise is possible. Especially when he has the hacks drinking cider from his well.

 

[gordyboy9]

am i the only one who finds it strange that this guy died 2 years ago and its appearing on here today.

 

[Deleted member 29235]

am i the only one who finds it strange that this guy died 2 years ago and its appearing on here today.

Perhaps he'd gone back to Nigeria and lost touch with everyone in the UK? From what I've read it seems like a very long time since he was a working music journalist.

 

[Famous when dead]

I think this was just a more extreme example of family not communicating with people as they thought they were not in his life anymore.
The Quietus assert news spread from outside the family to media - not dissimilar to Ray Langton/Neville Buswell being reported dead a month after it happened. Eventually, someone checks up on them and we get a post like this.
Regards,
FWD.

 

[Deleted member 29417]

Yes. It should be on a thread about sex.

Poor Dele - in my defence - journalism doesn't think twice about appropriateness. And I had to look at a Quantick AND a Haslam tweet, so I suffered just to read about him.

I'm sure he was an interesting man & it's a shame he's no longer with us.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

Poor Dele - in my defence - journalism doesn't think twice about appropriateness. And I had to look at a Quantick AND a Haslam tweet, so I suffered just to read about him.

I'm sure he was an interesting man & it's a shame he's no longer with us.

He made his mark, and in some ways he made Morrissey. Vauxhall and I might acknowledge him via Speedway—so we all might owe him a pint.

 

[Deleted member 29417]

He made his mark, and in some ways he made Morrissey. Vauxhall and I might acknowledge him via Speedway—so we all might owe him a pint.

I do love Speedway. You could put this performance in The Threepenny Opera.

 

[Deleted member 28251]

I do love Speedway. You could put this performance in The Threepenny Opera.

I was there; what a night.

 

[Anonymous]

"the likes of Fadele, Steven Wells and Danny Kelly duly began to think they were gods"

And slightly interesting to note that of those three, two are now dead and the third is so morbidly obese that he can't have much longer left himself. Aint karma a bitch?

 

[Deleted member 28251]

"the likes of Fadele, Steven Wells and Danny Kelly duly began to think they were gods"

And slightly interesting to note that of those three, two are now dead and the third is so morbidly obese that he can't have much longer left himself. Aint karma a bitch?

Yes. I’m expecting Kelly to be beheaded by a flying pane of glass any day now.

 

[Red_Snow]

Didn't Dele do an onstage reading at the Brixton AAA gig in December 86, after Pete Shelley had played?

 

[The Wild Turkey]

This guy had a song called Starve The Eagle.
Sounds kinda junky.

 

[Deleted member 29417]

Dele was still about in 2010. I can't find his band, but I found an interview.

 

[Mandingo]

Yes. I’m expecting Kelly to be beheaded by a flying pane of glass any day now.

Made me immediately think of David Warner in The Omen...what a great film that is 👍

 

[Deleted member 28251]

Made me immediately think of David Warner in The Omen...what a great film that is 👍

A Billie Whitelaw film to boot!

 

[terrancestamp]

If you are beloved, how does your death go unnoticed for 2 years? That really is an oxymoron.

 

[Anonymous]

"If you are beloved, how does your death go unnoticed for 2 years? That really is an oxymoron."

Indeed. Reading some of the social media tributes, it seems at one stage he ended up homeless. Unlike the successful bands/artists he and some of his colleagues tried to bring down, who are all still doing brisk business to this day.

 

[MorrisseyDropsDead]

I’m sure Mozzz ordered Dele killed. He almost got away with it. Took a few years for the press to find out. Of course, since Mozzzzzz is “mourning” his mum’s death (due to COVID I’m sure), nobody has the guts to confront him over Dele’s death.