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Mark E. Smith

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    #26
    I feel you telephone thing listening in
    How dare you assume I want to parlez-vous with you?
    You Gretchen Franklin nosey matron thaaang

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      #27
      I guess DaVoid was the only true hardcore Fall fan here.

      OI! Just cos I took a while to get here...

      MES was the Muhammad Ali of white rock music. The greatest. He lived in a city all his life, yet wrote the best song about the countryside ever.

      Ahhhhh fuck. And never got a chance to see them.


      Genuinely sorry to hear this. I saw them upwards of 20 times and they were almost always amazing for at least a couple of songs. At their best, utterly untouchable, the absolute soul of rock 'n' roll.

      I ain't sad, I'm celebrating his music. With my hostel mate, who only knows them through me, and beer and fags.

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        #28
        Originally posted by Soccer Scrimmage View Post
        I did not expect the collective OTF reaction to this most horrible of news to be "not really a fan but..."
        Not really true looking back up the thread. Plus, it doesn't seem the right kind of place to start bigging up your own fan credentials. I saw them at the Black Cat years ago, can't remember what year - winter of 2005-06? I only guess that because I remember hearing a BBC World Service report on England in Australia. He sang sitting down because he'd broken his pelvis or something. Maybe you were there.

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          #29
          Absolutely fucking gutted.

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            #30
            Condolences.

            I'm somewhat understating my fondness for The Fall's work. I do feel some sense of loss and sadness. I love the few singles I have and considered doing a turn with The Fallen Women, but if you asked me which of the last few albums I preferred, I wouldn't have a clue. I went to see them (him) around 3-4 years ago at the Garage.

            Point being, my not being a superfan isn't any reflection on his work or how important I think he was. His music has been winding in and out of my life since 1977 in one form or another, and I'm not even a True Fan, in the way several of you are, not because the work wasn't great but because I'm too lazy to seek out music, really, and pick what I like out of what falls into my lap. Sometimes, that's been The Fall.

            It's complicated. He was brilliant, but I didn't always want to listen to him and I suspect that's the case for many of us.

            And that's not even going there with his personality. Some of the stories coming out tonight are funny, I don't have any direct personal anecdotes (which is unusual).

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              #31
              Never got to see them live, but they are one of my favorites.

              Radio station in KCRW has a DJ who named his show Dragnet and plays that part of "Flat of Angles" as his theme music, and always does at least one Fall song in each show. Some tweets from him:

              https://twitter.com/ericjlawrence/status/956276173561974787

              https://twitter.com/ericjlawrence/status/956279844588826628

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                #32
                What a back catalogue.

                Gideon's show tonight has been spot-on.

                To those berks who think they were only good in the 70s and early 80s, here's Blindness, from 2005.

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                  #33
                  Saw The Fall once. Didn't enjoy it. Lots of people did.

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                    #34
                    I still can’t quite get over he made the BBC News at Ten (would have expected Newsnight to cover it, not Proper News). Don’t think MES would have approved.

                    To all those who entitle themselves, and whose main entitle is themselves, shall feel the wrath of Scrimmage’s bombast!
                    Last edited by Lang Spoon; 25-01-2018, 00:01.

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                      #35
                      Saw them in Brum supported by Nico, 1981. Only ever had early singles, Totales Turns and then loads of mixtapes or albums on cassette people gave me (often evangelically) that I never really bothered to identify but played often and can still quote from. RIP. I’m amazed no-one has linked to the time they let him read the football results!

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                        #36
                        IIRC I first heard them via their 1983 Peel session, probably when it was repeated that Xmas (the session was originally broadcast in March but I didn't start listening religiously to Peel until that November). The session still sounds mindblowingly good. How much did The Pixies take from tracks like 'Smile' here?:

                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 25-01-2018, 03:12.

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                          #37
                          Sad news. Extricate is a great album.

                          Lost 2 days, just getting high. Hope I've kept her number...

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                            #38
                            Belatedly: at their ('his') best, The Fall were brilliant, turning punk and pop completely on its head with some of the most bewildering yet often enlightening of stream-of-consciousness couplets ever committed to vinyl, Smith's natural medium. I first saw them in 1983, the week that Perverted By Language was issued - the most recent was, I think, at All Tomorrow's Parties in the early noughties: caught them 7-8 times in total.

                            Shaun Keaveny has just played Frightened - the opener from debut album Live At the Witch Trials - as I type. Still just as compelling, nearly forty years on. If you don't know his stuff, check the guy's track record...

                            RIP, MES.
                            Last edited by Jah Womble; 25-01-2018, 10:23.

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                              #39
                              This should link to the football results reading in 2006 (I know it's not music, EDIT- tho actually they play Sparta FC as he does it)


                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUiPs1PxKo

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                                #40
                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVn021ZfQvA

                                Guesting with Edwyn on Seventies Night from '97

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                                  #41
                                  On FB, Andy, editor of WSC, has been posting the Christmas cards that he/WSC would get every year from MES, who was still a subscriber to the mag, and who still sent a card every year hand written with best wishes. It's been great to look at them all, and to hear how - despite his reputation - what a genuine and nice bloke he was

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                                    #42

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by delicatemoth View Post
                                      Sheesh, that is one skinny Marc Riley in the sleeve photo.

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                                        #44
                                        Has a cause of death been released? The health stories that caused him to cancel gigs were "bizarre and rare medical issues... connected to his throat, mouth/dental & respiratory system." Nasty but not fatal, I infer.

                                        He looked a bit like a terminal Alex Higgins in the last few years. But in his youth, he was a very handsome fella.
                                        Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 25-01-2018, 12:00.

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                                          #45
                                          This one really hurts. First saw them at The Venue in 1981. First proper gig in London. I remember thinking, thank christ I've finally got out of Gloucestershire, and he was singing Leave The Capitol.

                                          I suppose you either loved or didn't get The Fall. Poor old Mark. Thank you for your Fantastic Life - uh.

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                                            #46
                                            Never been that upset by sleb deaths before. First saw them at Liverpool Eric's in 1977.

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                                              #47
                                              First saw them at the Powerhouse, Birmingham, in 1986 and last at the Garage, Highbury, in 2014. Some great, and not so great, nights in between. The weirdest was definitely Worthing Assembly Hall in 1996, which was so shambolic that the venue withheld their fee and offered refunds. The odd thing about it was that over the following years if you mentioned it to fans at gigs there was quite a bit of kudos attached to having been there.

                                              It is very strange to think of The Fall just not being around.

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                                                #48
                                                I think 1996 may have been a low period. They played Cheltenham Town Hall then, not very well.

                                                Saw them at the Astoria a few years later, really good.

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                                                  #49
                                                  First saw them (as so much else) on The Chart Show in 1987.

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                                                    #50
                                                    Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                                    It is very strange to think of The Fall just not being around.
                                                    Well, they could always draft a new lead singer and just...

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