----
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Absolute basics
1. The Fall are an English post-punk band, formed in Manchester in 1976. Named after the English translation of Albert Camus' novel, La Chute (The Fall) (1956), they are notable for their idiosyncratic and innovative music, leader Mark E. Smith's enigmatic lyrics and drawling delivery, and for their subtle influence on several generations of musicians. Formed during punk rock's rise, The Fall never quite fit into that movement or its post-punk/new wave offshoots. For over a quarter of a century, The Fall have continued to produce music which varies richly in both character and quality. The abrasive lyrics and instantly recognizable half-droned, half-ranted vocals of frontman Mark E. Smith provide the one consistent note through more than three prolific decades of dizzying personnel changes. An interview with Smith in May, 2004 reported "49 (band) members, 78 albums and 41 singles," and also quoted the opinion of their longstanding fan, the legendary English DJ John Peel: "They are always different, they are always the same."
2. Mark E. Smith sculpture
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
3.Acknowledged influences from: The Monks, Link Wray, The Seeds, Can, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, The Residents, Van der Graaf Generator, The Velvet Underground.
4.Acknowledged influence on: Sonic Youth, Suede, Wu Tang Clan, Pavement, Radiohead, Buck 65, DJ Shadow, Mobb Deep, Nick Cave, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, LCD Sound System, Clinic, etc., etc.
5.Official Fall Website< 6.Unofficial Fall Website
7.The Pseud Mag: The Fall Fanzine
8.The Fall Gig Repository
9. Drawing by a 13 yr old Fall fan
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
10.Watch Mark E. Smith receive the NME Godlike Genius Award (2:53)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
11. In January 2005, The Fall were the subject of an hour long BBC 4 documentary, The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Watch Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
____________
Five explanations for #10
12.
'Smile / 2x4' live on The Tube, 1983 (7:17)
13.
Interview, Bombast and Cruiser's Creek live on The Tube 1985
14.
'I Am Damo Suzuki' live at the Hacienda, 1985 (8:03)
15.
'Mr. Pharmacist' promo clip (2:27)
16.
'A Lot of Wind' on MTV's 120 Minutes, 1991 (5:26)
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Extracurricular
17.'I Am Kurious Oranj' (1988) Music: The Fall. Choreography: Michael Clark
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
'The last thing most Fall fans expected the group to do in 1988 was provide music for a ballet, but in fact this is what they did. Of course, it helped that the Michael Clark company of dancers were some of the most avant-garde at the time in Britain and were inspired originally by the Fall's "Hey! Luciani" single. The concept, very loosely, centers around William and Mary of Orange, and finds Smith arranging William Blake's "Jerusalem" for the band, adding his own lyrics ("It was the fault of the government," providing ironic contrast to the self-sufficiency espoused in Blake).' -- Answers.com
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Watch a scene from 'I Am Kurious Oranj' (1:55)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Watch a clip from 'Hail the New Puritans,' Charles Atlas's documentary about the Michael Clark/Fall collaborations (2:11)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
18.'Hey! Luciani' (1986), Mark E. Smith's play
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
"'Hey! Luciani' lasts about 100 minutes and features new Fall music themes for each of the play's main character, 'Have Found Boorman' (for the all-girl Israeli commando group who appear as a mysterious but vital connection in the thickening plot), 'Sleep Debt Snatches' which has a reggae atmosphere, a machine heart and spine cracking drumbeat, and 'Informant' which, fittingly in view of posthumous revelation of the cheeseburger being a narc is "the Elvis Presley type number." Apart from The Fall, there's Trevor Stewart as The Pope, Lucy Burgess as the ballet dancer and Pope's right hand girl, Michael Clark has a brief role and Leigh Bowery, star of the excellent Smith-directed video for 'Mr Pharmacist', is head of accounts at The Vatican. 'The play is a simulation of the conspiracy theory around Luciani Albino, Pope John Paul 1, says Smith. 'The middle bit splits up other things - South America and Britain, for instance. No way is it a factual indictment of Catholicism or even The Vatican. People think when they hear it's about the pope that it must either be a 'rock musical' or anti-religious statement or something. Which is a sad reflection on the way the theatre is viewed in this country. I chose the setting because the characters appealed to me and hopefully it makes good drama.'" -- from NME, December 13, 1986
Watch Mark E. Smith discuss 'Hey! Luciani' with Jools Holland on The Tube, 1986 (3:05)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Read a recreation of the original script of 'Hey! Luciani'
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Sans music
19. In 1989, the NME decided to host a 'Rock Summit' for their end-of-the-year issue.' So they put Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave, and Shane McGowan together in pub, plied them with drinks, and recorded their conversation.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Nick Cave"I think we have all tended to create some kind of area where we can work without particularly having to worry about what's fashionable."
Mark E. Smith"Yes, fair enough. But I think there's a lot of differences in this trio here. Nick was very rock'n'roll to me but he's turned his back on it which was cool. Shane's more, I dunno. To me the Pogues are the good bits from the Irish showband scene, like the Indians. You had that feel, probably lst that now. Your work's good though."
Shane McGowan"Fuck it man. Who wants to work in a place where there's all these people looking at you ?"
MES"Are you talking about your gigs ? You should stop doing them, then."
SM"Can't afford to."
MES"Fuck it, you could fight not to if you don't like it."
SM"...and leave the rest of them in the lurch ?"
MES"Nah, the rest of your band will always complain about not working. If you're paying them a wage tell them to stay at home and behave themselves."
SM"It's a democracy our band."
MES"Why aren't they here with you then ?"
SM"Cos the NME didn't want to interview them."
MES'Cos nobody'd recognise them."
SM"That's it ! They want to interview us because we've got distinctive characteristics. They just want to interview three high-brow loonies."
MES"In that case you should have brought your mate Joe Strummer along."
SM"I said high-brow loonies."
(read the rest)
20. Watch Mark E. Smith read out the classified football results on the BBC
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
21.Selected quotes
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
'Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?'
'I've done all these scripts for a science fiction series, actually, a British science fiction series, worked me fucking balls off on them. Six stories, really short. Did the music, everything, made it all tight as fucking fuck. And they said it was complete crap. Then The X-Files comes on. Same company, they want to see me scripts, because The X-Files is running out of ideas, or they want to use the music or something. I said send 'em back, I just need to look through them, and I fucking burned them.'
'You should read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", that's proper journalism. I mean, he followed fucking Goebbels around, stayed up all night doing stuff, listening to tapes of broadcasts. Nowadays, they can't spell, they can't fuckin' paragraph for a start and that puts 'em right out in my book. You want to know what I read? The Daily Mail. You want to know why? Because everything is spelt correctly. I know it's a load of fuckin' bosh, but at least you understand it.'
'I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.'
'Pre-cog is a Fall word.'
'English people will go to Africa and work out all the different tribes, but they won't look at themselves. It makes me laugh, this ashamed of being English thing, cos it's the most tolerant fucking country in the world. We went to Wales with Super Furry Animals, and it was like the fucking 'Wicker Mari - end of the night, they're all pissed, singing Welsh songs, running around outside. The bouncer's going 'You're English, you'd better stay in the van; and they've all got Welsh flags and stuff. We go back to the van and there's like 3,000 Welshmen with fucking torches going 'Adoobedoobedoo'. Imagine if that was fucking Germans or something!'
'John Walters wrote me a letter and said, you know, ‘you are the worst group I’ve ever seen in the [laughs] in the history of mankind’ [laughs]. He was good like that, John Walters was. You ever meet him? No, he was f**king fantastic. He said, ‘you were the worst, tuneless, rubbish I’ve ever heard’, you know, ‘even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees’. This is what he wrote ‘you’re even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees. I didn’t believe it was possible.’ You know what I mean? [laughs] He was a gem, what a gem.'
____________
Recent, rare, special guests
23.
The Fall 'White Lightning', rare biker promo clip, 1991 (2:05)
24.
The Fall with Coldcut 'Telephone Thing,' live in 1990 (4:09)
25.
'Blindness,' live on German TV in 2006 (5:31)
26.
The Fall live at Womad Festival in 1985 (1:16:45)
27.
Inspiral Carpets feat. Mark E. Smith 'I Want You,' 1994 (3:12)
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Misc.
28.Renegade: The Gospel According to Mark E. Smith (Penguin, July, 2007)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
The first autobiography by the legendary leader of The Fall. Still going after thirty years, The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, their music — odd, spare, cranky and repetitious — an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand. And Mark E. Smith IS The Fall. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.
Preorder it here
29. My 10 favorite Fall songs (in no order)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
1. 'Cruisers Creek'
2. 'Hep Priest'
3. 'Oswald Defense Lawyer'
4. 'Bremen Nacht'
5. 'C.R.E.E.P.'
6. 'My New House'
7. 'Carry Bag Man'
8. 'Hey! Luciani'
9. 'I Am Damo Suzuki'
10. 'Terry Waite Sez'
30.Read 'The Fall in Concert' by Luz
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
31. Mark E. Smith turned 50 on March 5th
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.![]()
Wish him Happy Birthday here.
The Fall's new album Reformation Post-TLC is their most exciting and furious in several years. You can buy it here
The Fall Forum
----
*
p.s. Hey. Welcome to the first day of the reruns and two scattered new posts that will accompany my vacation away from the blog for the next two weeks. I should be in Tokyo today unless something weird happened. Enjoy this old paean to The Fall, I hope.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Absolute basics
1. The Fall are an English post-punk band, formed in Manchester in 1976. Named after the English translation of Albert Camus' novel, La Chute (The Fall) (1956), they are notable for their idiosyncratic and innovative music, leader Mark E. Smith's enigmatic lyrics and drawling delivery, and for their subtle influence on several generations of musicians. Formed during punk rock's rise, The Fall never quite fit into that movement or its post-punk/new wave offshoots. For over a quarter of a century, The Fall have continued to produce music which varies richly in both character and quality. The abrasive lyrics and instantly recognizable half-droned, half-ranted vocals of frontman Mark E. Smith provide the one consistent note through more than three prolific decades of dizzying personnel changes. An interview with Smith in May, 2004 reported "49 (band) members, 78 albums and 41 singles," and also quoted the opinion of their longstanding fan, the legendary English DJ John Peel: "They are always different, they are always the same."
2. Mark E. Smith sculpture
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
3.Acknowledged influences from: The Monks, Link Wray, The Seeds, Can, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, The Residents, Van der Graaf Generator, The Velvet Underground.
4.Acknowledged influence on: Sonic Youth, Suede, Wu Tang Clan, Pavement, Radiohead, Buck 65, DJ Shadow, Mobb Deep, Nick Cave, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, LCD Sound System, Clinic, etc., etc.
5.Official Fall Website< 6.Unofficial Fall Website
7.The Pseud Mag: The Fall Fanzine
8.The Fall Gig Repository
9. Drawing by a 13 yr old Fall fan
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
10.Watch Mark E. Smith receive the NME Godlike Genius Award (2:53)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
11. In January 2005, The Fall were the subject of an hour long BBC 4 documentary, The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Watch Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
____________
Five explanations for #10
12.
'Smile / 2x4' live on The Tube, 1983 (7:17)
13.
Interview, Bombast and Cruiser's Creek live on The Tube 1985
14.
'I Am Damo Suzuki' live at the Hacienda, 1985 (8:03)
15.
'Mr. Pharmacist' promo clip (2:27)
16.
'A Lot of Wind' on MTV's 120 Minutes, 1991 (5:26)
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Extracurricular
17.'I Am Kurious Oranj' (1988) Music: The Fall. Choreography: Michael Clark
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'The last thing most Fall fans expected the group to do in 1988 was provide music for a ballet, but in fact this is what they did. Of course, it helped that the Michael Clark company of dancers were some of the most avant-garde at the time in Britain and were inspired originally by the Fall's "Hey! Luciani" single. The concept, very loosely, centers around William and Mary of Orange, and finds Smith arranging William Blake's "Jerusalem" for the band, adding his own lyrics ("It was the fault of the government," providing ironic contrast to the self-sufficiency espoused in Blake).' -- Answers.com
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Watch a scene from 'I Am Kurious Oranj' (1:55)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Watch a clip from 'Hail the New Puritans,' Charles Atlas's documentary about the Michael Clark/Fall collaborations (2:11)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
18.'Hey! Luciani' (1986), Mark E. Smith's play
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
"'Hey! Luciani' lasts about 100 minutes and features new Fall music themes for each of the play's main character, 'Have Found Boorman' (for the all-girl Israeli commando group who appear as a mysterious but vital connection in the thickening plot), 'Sleep Debt Snatches' which has a reggae atmosphere, a machine heart and spine cracking drumbeat, and 'Informant' which, fittingly in view of posthumous revelation of the cheeseburger being a narc is "the Elvis Presley type number." Apart from The Fall, there's Trevor Stewart as The Pope, Lucy Burgess as the ballet dancer and Pope's right hand girl, Michael Clark has a brief role and Leigh Bowery, star of the excellent Smith-directed video for 'Mr Pharmacist', is head of accounts at The Vatican. 'The play is a simulation of the conspiracy theory around Luciani Albino, Pope John Paul 1, says Smith. 'The middle bit splits up other things - South America and Britain, for instance. No way is it a factual indictment of Catholicism or even The Vatican. People think when they hear it's about the pope that it must either be a 'rock musical' or anti-religious statement or something. Which is a sad reflection on the way the theatre is viewed in this country. I chose the setting because the characters appealed to me and hopefully it makes good drama.'" -- from NME, December 13, 1986
Watch Mark E. Smith discuss 'Hey! Luciani' with Jools Holland on The Tube, 1986 (3:05)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Read a recreation of the original script of 'Hey! Luciani'
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Sans music
19. In 1989, the NME decided to host a 'Rock Summit' for their end-of-the-year issue.' So they put Mark E. Smith, Nick Cave, and Shane McGowan together in pub, plied them with drinks, and recorded their conversation.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Nick Cave"I think we have all tended to create some kind of area where we can work without particularly having to worry about what's fashionable."
Mark E. Smith"Yes, fair enough. But I think there's a lot of differences in this trio here. Nick was very rock'n'roll to me but he's turned his back on it which was cool. Shane's more, I dunno. To me the Pogues are the good bits from the Irish showband scene, like the Indians. You had that feel, probably lst that now. Your work's good though."
Shane McGowan"Fuck it man. Who wants to work in a place where there's all these people looking at you ?"
MES"Are you talking about your gigs ? You should stop doing them, then."
SM"Can't afford to."
MES"Fuck it, you could fight not to if you don't like it."
SM"...and leave the rest of them in the lurch ?"
MES"Nah, the rest of your band will always complain about not working. If you're paying them a wage tell them to stay at home and behave themselves."
SM"It's a democracy our band."
MES"Why aren't they here with you then ?"
SM"Cos the NME didn't want to interview them."
MES'Cos nobody'd recognise them."
SM"That's it ! They want to interview us because we've got distinctive characteristics. They just want to interview three high-brow loonies."
MES"In that case you should have brought your mate Joe Strummer along."
SM"I said high-brow loonies."
(read the rest)
20. Watch Mark E. Smith read out the classified football results on the BBC
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
21.Selected quotes
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
'Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?'
'I've done all these scripts for a science fiction series, actually, a British science fiction series, worked me fucking balls off on them. Six stories, really short. Did the music, everything, made it all tight as fucking fuck. And they said it was complete crap. Then The X-Files comes on. Same company, they want to see me scripts, because The X-Files is running out of ideas, or they want to use the music or something. I said send 'em back, I just need to look through them, and I fucking burned them.'
'You should read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", that's proper journalism. I mean, he followed fucking Goebbels around, stayed up all night doing stuff, listening to tapes of broadcasts. Nowadays, they can't spell, they can't fuckin' paragraph for a start and that puts 'em right out in my book. You want to know what I read? The Daily Mail. You want to know why? Because everything is spelt correctly. I know it's a load of fuckin' bosh, but at least you understand it.'
'I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.'
'Pre-cog is a Fall word.'
'English people will go to Africa and work out all the different tribes, but they won't look at themselves. It makes me laugh, this ashamed of being English thing, cos it's the most tolerant fucking country in the world. We went to Wales with Super Furry Animals, and it was like the fucking 'Wicker Mari - end of the night, they're all pissed, singing Welsh songs, running around outside. The bouncer's going 'You're English, you'd better stay in the van; and they've all got Welsh flags and stuff. We go back to the van and there's like 3,000 Welshmen with fucking torches going 'Adoobedoobedoo'. Imagine if that was fucking Germans or something!'
'John Walters wrote me a letter and said, you know, ‘you are the worst group I’ve ever seen in the [laughs] in the history of mankind’ [laughs]. He was good like that, John Walters was. You ever meet him? No, he was f**king fantastic. He said, ‘you were the worst, tuneless, rubbish I’ve ever heard’, you know, ‘even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees’. This is what he wrote ‘you’re even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees. I didn’t believe it was possible.’ You know what I mean? [laughs] He was a gem, what a gem.'
____________
Recent, rare, special guests
23.
The Fall 'White Lightning', rare biker promo clip, 1991 (2:05)
24.
The Fall with Coldcut 'Telephone Thing,' live in 1990 (4:09)
25.
'Blindness,' live on German TV in 2006 (5:31)
26.
The Fall live at Womad Festival in 1985 (1:16:45)
27.
Inspiral Carpets feat. Mark E. Smith 'I Want You,' 1994 (3:12)
____________
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Misc.
28.Renegade: The Gospel According to Mark E. Smith (Penguin, July, 2007)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The first autobiography by the legendary leader of The Fall. Still going after thirty years, The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, their music — odd, spare, cranky and repetitious — an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand. And Mark E. Smith IS The Fall. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.
Preorder it here
29. My 10 favorite Fall songs (in no order)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
1. 'Cruisers Creek'
2. 'Hep Priest'
3. 'Oswald Defense Lawyer'
4. 'Bremen Nacht'
5. 'C.R.E.E.P.'
6. 'My New House'
7. 'Carry Bag Man'
8. 'Hey! Luciani'
9. 'I Am Damo Suzuki'
10. 'Terry Waite Sez'
30.Read 'The Fall in Concert' by Luz
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
31. Mark E. Smith turned 50 on March 5th
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Wish him Happy Birthday here.
The Fall's new album Reformation Post-TLC is their most exciting and furious in several years. You can buy it here
The Fall Forum
----
*
p.s. Hey. Welcome to the first day of the reruns and two scattered new posts that will accompany my vacation away from the blog for the next two weeks. I should be in Tokyo today unless something weird happened. Enjoy this old paean to The Fall, I hope.