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Action Records:

Hi Stefan, just wanted to let you know first before we start official promotion on Monday that Action Records (by the way a label even more Northern than Manchester) are going to be releasing the new album by The Fall entitled "The Real New Fall L.P. (Formerly Country On The Click)" - this is actually the full title.

The track list is similar to the original but has different mixes and track order.

We are aiming to release the album no later than 16 November on cd and on vinyl.

Can you please tell all The Fall fans - where last year we delivered The Fall single for Christmas, this year we are going for the big present a full album.

This final version has been agreed by all parties including Jim, as obviously without this we would never have released it.

And can you please let FALLFANDAVE know that we are all smiling now.

Jeff spotted what looks like a seasonal promo copy in Cleveland the other day (cheap, too!). I'm waiting to hear about more dates for UK / Europe as well.

According to Ben Pritchard the Porto show on Sept. 28 has been cancelled, but Porto tickets are valid for the Lisbon show. More news if/when I get it.

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We here at the Fall News are gutted about the passing of Johnny Cash -- truly one of the greatest American voices of all time. This BBC page has lots of information, and if you haven't seen it, definitely watch the heart-wrenching video for Hurt (Real / Windows Media available here; Quicktime here). I love you, Johnny.

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Middles & Smith, "The Fall"

Antler Heads+Tings (from the message board):

I've read the Mick Middles/M.E. Smith book "The Fall" and here's my initial thoughts:

Probably the best of the 3 books.

Not so much a traditional auto/biography, more a selection of anecdotes and observations that flits from era to era-

For example a description of The fall recording the recent Peel session is followed by a story regarding Kay Carroll which in turn is followed by a Shiftwork- era anecdote- then it's back to 2003.

If you have read his New Order book- he describes the recording of "Shellshock" and his various meetings with the band - this book is predominately in that style.

A better selection of photographs including the young M.E.S- postcards sent to his mum/in the pub with his dad etc.

A lot more historical info from Mark regarding the forming of The Fall and his philosophy behind the band, some of the usual stuff but also a lot of new info that doesn't sound overblown or exaggerated.

Quite a bit on his family life which in punctuated with a great interview with Mark's mum.

A nice selection of lyrics throughout the book.

Treats all eras and members of The Fall pretty much evenly: a newcomer would have no idea that Hex or Nations are considered "classics"

I thought the Simon Ford book was pretty good but more for a newer fan.

This book has the detail and occasional oddness that i think a lot of people will like.

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Niall:

Mark E. Smith's name features prominently on the cover of the October issue of UK men's mag "Jack", but there's only one short quote from the great man inside, and it refers to the magazine's cover star Debbie Harry. It runs as follows:

"She could do with replacing all the old duffers in the group and get some young blood in, like I did with Salford group Triggerhappy. It worked for me."
- Mark E Smith, on Blondie and his manager's band

Thierry investigated the Jack site further and found this:

START >>
Run by Woodhouse founder Philip Start and his wife Brix Smith, former guitarist in The Fall, who have sourced a great blend of products for men and women. Go there. Now.

59 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3QB. Tel: 020 7739 3636

FIVE BEST SELLERS >>
1. Re-issued Seventies Adidas tracksuits
2. Comme Des Garcons shirts
3. One True Saxon jeans
4. Maharishi trousers
5. Vintage Lee carpenter jeans

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There's a collective book review in the latest Mojo by Ian Harrison -- the Middles / Smith book looks interesting. Anyone else have a copy?

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Ian:

There's a cover of Winter by The Fiery Furnaces on the new Rough Trade covers collection "Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before."

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With many thanks to Fallfandave, here's the October 2003 Uncut interview with Mark.

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Steven Bending's wonderful The Fall Multimedia Project website has clips of Wrong Place, Right Time and Cab It Up from Off Beat Night, Munich, Feb. 14, 1989.

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Mark was interviewed for the Jan. 1996 issue of Jockey Slut - here's a transcript.

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Here's Mark's (very) short story No Place Like It, which was published in Penguin's "The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories" (1999). I think the book's out of print now.

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MES cameo in "Masked and Anonymous" ?

Excerpted from: http://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1187/article11472.asp:

The film smacks of 1971, alright, not a year earlier or later. It has that freshly disillusioned feel. The rebels, we learn from Giovanni Ribisi's soldier, no longer know which side they're fighting for. The regime is made up of white hippies in suits, its muscle uniformly men of color. Conceived by Dylan and director Larry Charles, "Masked and Anonymous" might be a self-lacerating parody of the counterculture as establishment. But it's diffuse: Try parsing, in two hours, a fearless leader who resembles Stalin, a successor played by Mickey Rourke, a cameo by Mark E. Smith of the Fall, jokes at the expense of banjo players, and Dylan delivering the line, "Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things... You have to know what things don't mean as well."

Hannah says she saw the film but didn't notice MES at all. Nor is he mentioned on the IMDB full credits page.

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Conway continues to make the discography pages staggeringly great. He's added a Trainspotters' Corner, with

• a timeline of all the live Fall albums, and
• details about all the songs the Fall have covered over the years
• a list of "borrowed riffs, melodies, etc." (at the bottom of the covers page)

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The Lovers (with Steve and Paul Hanley) on tour:

Chris went to the Manchester gig:

Comprising members of The Fall and Inspiral Carpets, The Lovers sound like neither but have managed to create a sound capitalising on the talents and sounds of each band member. Elements of Rockabilly, Garage Rock and Punk are three of the sounds heard tonight but The Lovers' sound is more complex than that as the set drives along on a wave on great rhythm and delightful noise.

It is strange to see Steve Hanley actually enjoying himself on stage but he clearly is thriving on being able to play live without some cantankerous bugger turning his amp down and glaring at him. The bass sound is unmistakeably his and he pins the songs to the ground with such determination you cannot fail to realise how important he has been to The Fall sound over the years. Along with Paul Hanley on drums the rhythm section of the band has a quality that will be no surprise to Fall fans but it is fascinating to see the duo operate outside of The Fall. Steve seems to have added a little bit extra to his playing and whilst maintaining the throbbing heavy bass sound he has made his own. Paul plays rockabilly like no other drummer and the two together work like a dream. They could almost be brothers!!

Tom Hingley delivers his vocals with vigour and passion. Working the stage like a man possessed, his words have depth but also contain many humorous moments and the odd swear word which, as we all know, is simultaneously big and clever. The excellent guitar work provided by Jason Brown sounds like he's been playing with the Hanleys for years, allowing the rhythm to dominate for large parts of songs before crashing in with some great sounds. Kelly Woods' keyboards complete the band and add that little bit extra to the sound.

The are a few more dates on this tour so if they are in a town near you I can heartily recommend a visit. The single ("Yeah") is available if you ask nicely and as there are only 1000 of them pressed, I'd get a move on because it is a cracker.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable concert. It would appear The Lovers are enjoying themselves and as a Manchester "super group" of sorts have found a worthwhile vehicle for the talents of some of Manchester's finest.

Tom on the London gig:

Out of 7,172,091 people plus tourists London managed to cough up a Japanese macaroni and a very distrait Tom to welcome The Lovers. It's the old story, Man United on the box, London stays at home. The bands made up for it by bringing their own support - there were Hingleys everywhere, and a couple of Hanleys as well, of course.

To their great credit The Lovers bust a gut to squeeze some energy out of the place - in my book they succeeded too.

Steve and Paul are not small men. But by dressing in black and standing at the back of the stage they try to keep themselves away from the action. It is a bit like a couple of elephants trying to hide behind a drainpipe. Paul is the craggier of the two, chewing away behind his drumkit, like a particularly talented ruminant. He'll concentrate intently on a couple of drums then speculatively throw at an arm in front of him, like a dartist going for the bull. Steve is more avuncular, rounder. When I reviewed an embarrassing Ark gig a couple of years ago, I said that Steve looked like a caged animal. Now, after years of hard toil under Smith's cudgel, he looks like he has been released to graze on the sunlit uplands of Tom Hingley's power pop pastures. Both seem to enjoy themselves, smiling a lot, with Steve jigging about a bit. They are even allowed to do some backing vocals, although Steve is not given a mike, prudence perhaps suggesting that atonal long-horn cattle imitations don't go too well behind the friendly sounds of The Lovers.

I am not very good at all at judging music from live sets, but the music seemed really well written - it was structured, varied, but had potency and power. If that sounds like I am checking boxes, all I can say is that it didn't blow my mind away, and there were longeurs, but also that I wasn't feeling at all well, and the place was empty.

I also found Tom Hingley irritating. His stage presence is that of a toddler trying to get his mummy to take him to the toilet. The music was powerful, but not at all unsubtle, Hingley's voice was rather bludgeoning in comparison. Sometimes it worked perfectly, but other times I just found it a bit off-putting. They also had a guitarist, and young woman on keys, who seemed a bit baffled, but both did good jobs.

Going back to Hingley... In repose, he stands with a hand over his paunch, as if unconsciously aware of the problem that faces The Lovers, which is their age. In many ways the problem is bigger for Tom Hingley than for the Hanleys. His act is, as I have said, a juvenile one that doesn't sit well with burgeoning tum and receding temples. This may be a problem with society - we don't allow our Dads to play buzzsawing garage pop rants - this seems to be Hingley's view anyway, with his songs railing against reality tv and boy bands. Fair enough, maybe, but it's like trying to fight foam with a cannon.

The Hanleys look like artisans from a bygone age, Dickensian somehow, as they should have a calling card saying something like - The Hanley Bros - Plying a trade to lost standards of excellence, restrained in manners, unbuttoned in performance. Steve's bass really is something worth singling out, gigantic and loping, but somehow nimble and articulate. Even when they fluff their lines it seems that they are better fluffed than not.

Still, they do not look a pop group, which can only be a good thing, but which might stand in their way whithout greater depth to their songs. They perhaps deserve better, being no worse than a lot of popular rock around at the moment, in fact being quite a bit better, but the aura of Status Quo or Peter Stringfellow, or the 'why should I grow old gracefully?' hangs around them uneasily. Public opinion may often be the enemy of creativity and freedom of expression, but it won't brook contradiction and the force of its disdain lies in its suffocating indifference.

The most Fall-like song, as I think Paul Hanley has pointed out, is the new single, Yeah, which had a driving guitar riff mildly sinister, and the trademark 'Guest Informant' drums. The song was fun, with plenty of punch, and unlike some other songs didn't outstay its welcome. I would have bought the single, but I didn't see anyone hawking it and I had to nip off sharpish and collapse on a bus. The Japanese macaroni had left even more quickly, though he had stayed to the end of the set. He was standing in the entrance on Oxford Street. He must have been a bit baffled although, inscrutably, he didn't show it.

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Simon Ford celebrates the 25th anniversary of Bingo-Master's Break-Out in Flux #38 (Aug/Sept 2003).

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Book reviews

Paul Hanley on Hip Priest:

I've just read 'Hip Priest' which I thought was pretty good, if a little overpriced. There were one or two glaring errors, obviously, (surely someone could have told Simon Ford that Lisa Riley isn't really Marc's sister) and I really think the book would have benefited from an interview with Karl, who could have given some insight into about 5 different eras of the Fall's development. Granted, he's not always the easiest person to track down (especially if he owes you money) but he could have filled in a few gaps (like the story about John Lydon setting fire to Karl's shirt - he neglected to mention Karl was wearing it at the time) and l think the book suffered a bit from certain ex-members trying to big-up their role. I suppose that's inevitable, but just because Brix is more comfortable with being interviewed than Craig it doesn't necessarily mean she was more important musically. (Not that I'm knocking her, but however positive I think her impact was, it was always more on Mark than the band.)

As I think one of your reviewers mentioned, you do wonder who the book is pitched at at times, but there's always a danger when writing about 'cult' bands that your readership knows more about them than you do. (I think what we really need is a book about The Fall for people who've never heard them. Who knows, I might write it myself.) I did get the feeling that the author's interest starts to tail off after Steve, Tommy and Karl leave (whose doesn't?) but I'm glad the humour of certain situations comes through (particularly the fight in Northern Ireland where the protagonists have to remove their false bits before commencing).

It will be interesting to compare this book with the forthcoming Mick Middles tome. What impressed me about his New Order book was his ability to retrospectively imbue what seemed mundane at the time with almost mystical significance (which is the essence of good biography I suppose, and something Mark has done with his lyrics on more than one occasion.) He has been around Mark for the whole of his career, so he should be well placed to deliver the goods. I only hope being in The Fall sounds more enjoyable in this book (which it is sometimes, honest).

From Manchester Online:

Falling under a spell Paul Taylor

EVEN for the devoted fan, the music of The Fall can sometimes be hard-going. "There are some albums over the years when the first time I heard them, I thought, oh my God, what have they gone and done?" says Seattle-based rock writer Dave Thompson.

Likewise Warrington-based writer and ex-M.E.N. columnist Mick Middles, asked whether he has liked all The Fall's prolific output replies "No, no!" as if perhaps only a masochist could claim that.

But he adds: "It is too raw for a lot of people. But I still think that the best 10 per cent of The Fall is as good as anything we have heard in the last 20 years."

The two writers agree on another thing: the time is ripe for the book to be written on The Fall. Each have done that very thing. And they are not alone.

With the 25th anniversary of The Fall's first single this month, a band which has never had an authoritative book written about it is suddenly being accorded three all at once.

Thompson has just had A User's Guide To The Fall published - a self-confessed train-spotterly year-by-year guide to the band's recordings and concerts, along with a substantial biography.

Middles' book, simply titled The Fall, written with the co-operation of and concentrating on the band's prime mover Mark E Smith, comes out next Tuesday, while Hip Priest: Mark E Smith and The Fall by Simon Ford is out tomorrow.

Their subject is a band which grew from the punk era in Manchester but remained very much aside from all fad and fashion in rock, with Mark E Smith's tobacco snarl dispatching frequently indecipherable lyrics to a caustic brand of rock music.

Personnel

The output has been prolific, as has, at times, the turnover of personnel.

For Thompson and Middles, their books were both labours of love. The Fall engender a "dedication which beggars belief" says Kent-born Thompson, who first saw the band in 1977.

Middles knew Smith even before The Fall. "This book is something I have been writing for 20 years really over a thousand drunken evenings.

"I took Mark and his wife to the Lake District last year and put them up in a hotel and spent a mad few days interviewing him.

"He still lives with his friends in Prestwich and goes to the local pub. He is a man of simple tastes. When we went to the Lake District I wanted to go in the bistros of Ambleside and he wouldn't - he wanted to eat fish and chips.

"Taking him in a restaurant and telling him not to smoke is impossible. And he loves Blackpool. It's his favourite place in Britain."

Thompson says: "He does still give off that image of a dour northerner with a ferret down his trousers, who sits down to black pudding every night."

But beneath the often livid swirl of The Fall's music is an intellectualism.

How many other Mancs inspired to form their own band after seeing the Sex Pistols appearance at the Free Trade Hall in 1976 chose to title themselves after a novel by Albert Camus?

"Probably the most interesting aspect of him is that he is not highly educated but he is highly intelligent and widely read," says Middles of Smith.

"When he was 14 he would be lying around reading about the French revolution. It sounds ridiculous but it's true."

Yet, Thompson says, "The Fall are one of those bands which breed the most remarkable fanatics.

"I have met people who have been to a dozen shows on a US tour, and travelling around America is not like getting a coach and going down the motorway. There is a dedication which beggars belief."

Asked what sort of person is a Fall fan, Middles says: "There isn't a sort of person. In the old days, the core audience was students and black Levi-clad people. Now it is bank managers, plumbers...a very disparate audience."

3 am Magazine:

Literature Review: Simon Ford, Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E Smith and The Fall, 2003 (Quartet)

Whereas everyone else of note required a younger actor to play them, Mark E Smith played himself during the 1977 parts of Madchester biopic 24 Hour Party People. In itself, that says a lot about the man.

Named after the Camus novel (they themselves later spawned a literary style, the 'New Puritans'), The Fall have long offered the opportunity for show-offs to demonstrate their pure dedication and devotion to an act by releasing 28 albums since 1979. This being the first book on The Fall since Brian Edge's 1989's Paintwork: A Portrait of The Fall, from the cover on in, it is clearly an attempt to provide the world with another Johnny Rogan-esque Manchester band of yore biography (cf. Simon Goddard's more recent The Smiths/Morrissey effort). And on that level it works (ironically, The Smiths owe their name to, in part, Mark E Smith). Ford is also the biographer of Sheffield noiseniks Throbbing Gristle (as we're discussing names, named after the Yorkshire vernacular for an erection) and from the outset the use of footnotes at the bottom of each page (for chrissake, that's what the back of the book's for!) really spoils it. There is also the pedestrian use of quotes from late 1970s NME which are just strung together in the first few chapters.

Negativity dispensed with, Ford's account is readable in the extreme and provides the same reader with some useful background about one of rock's most enduring, dysfunctional and controversial figures, from the Prestwich beginnings through Brix Smith and on to the student/ Peel-championed 1990s. We are regaled with tales of Smith dragging Cramps vocalist Lux Interior to a dressing room mirror during an early 80s co-headlining tour to "take a fucking good look at yourself" ("What's there not to like?" was Lux's response). This deserves to take its place within the upper echelons of the idiosyncratic genre of rock biography and Ford should be pleased with himself. I mean, what's there not to like about it?

Luther Blissett, Rockscene (October 2003):

Fans of The Fall and abrasive-rock'n'roll-sector information fetishists alike will delight in the labyrinthine autobahn of data that Simon Ford opens up in his latest book. Hip Priest takes on the 50s garage band, punk + pulp fiction influences that inspired Mark E. Smith to write & perform, The Fall's experiences of touring with other bands caught up in the dissolution of punk (such as 80s freakazoid veterans The Cramps) and Smith's enthusiastic refusal of education, work, the music 'business' and of being in a band itself in dead-pan style. Background noise to the alienated experience of youth-hood from the late 1970s onwards, The Fall have always been the soundtrack to the snapping of pencils, the stop-start of the fingers on keyboards, of cardboard boxes collapsing in backyards, pavements stamped under angry youthful feet. Hip Priest is a definitive story of The Fall and another facet of context to the upsurge of post-punk -LoFi- phenomena in contemporary music, writing & art.

A User's Guide review from Record Collector, Sept. 2003, p. 131 (thanks to Jon for scanning it in)

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Many thanks to Stuart Newman for the following press clippings.

Mark was interviewed for the May 1983 International Musician and Recording World (too bad he didn't supplant the D. Bowie look-alike permeating the cover).   And Craig and Steve were interviewed for Rubberneck, ca. 1988.

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Conway on The War Against Intelligence:

The War Against Intelligence - The Fontana Years
(p)&© Universal Music Operations Ltd, catalogue no. 0770002
The Fontana imprint is shown on the back cover.

This CD is now due out on 22 October in the UK. The final tracklisting order is (changed slightly from the initial sequencing I saw):

1. Telephone Thing (album version) 2. The War Against Intelligence 3. Free Range (single version) 4. The Littlest Rebel 5. High Tension Line 6. Popcorn Double Feature 7. The Book of Lies 8. Hilary 9. Shiftwork 10. Blood Outta Stone 11. Immortality 12. Ed's Babe 13. Gentlemen's Agreement 14. Bill Is Dead 15. Time Enough at Last 16. You Haven't Found It Yet 17. The Mixer 18. White Lightning Total playing time 67:05. All tracks previously released on CD.

In a cardboard slipcase with foldout sleeve like the recent Sanctuary releases. Notes by Daryl Easlea, in his usual style. Nothing very new after my Listening In sleevenotes, which cover the same period, and the recent books. Very nice design layout: Paper stock is heavy matt finish, feels like recycled. Very organic with the tan/orange colouring.

Sound quality is excellent throughout. Sounds like it's 24-bit remastered - waiting to hear from Daryl what the audio source was, but probably the earlier CDs (assuming master tapes are nowhere to be seen, like usual). (Daryl says the original master tapes were indeed used.)

No doubt aimed at more recent Fall converts rather than the fanatics who frequent this place! Not much overlap with Listening In (2 tracks) & designed to be complementary to, and specifically refers to, Sanctuary's Step Forward Years & Rough Trade Anthology compilations.

Daryl also once again tips the titfer to the website - good lad.

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Mitsos:

Just heard this on Peel.

The Barcelona Pavilion have used the opening of Rowche Rumble on their song New Materiology

Here's the mp3 from the band's website: http://chumpco.com/~fototag/bp/mp3s/new_materiology.mp3
(or try http://www.barcelonapavilion.cjb.net/)

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Rutger reviews the Bootleg Box Set:

Last week I bought the 'Touch Sensitive - bootleg box set'. I had been looking forward to this release, since I went to the Amsterdam gig which is on CD 4.

It must be said that this new item is for Fall-fans only, and then maybe only for those who went to any of the five concerts it covers. Who else would pick a 45 Euros / 50 Dollar / 30 Pounds-costing box, containing five very comparable discs, none of which meets the possibilities of modern day recording techniques, not even by far? Someone who's won a minute's worth of free shopping perhaps.

Daryl Easlea's sleeve notes are an impressive attempt to make up for the unimportence of this box in addition to the Fall-catalogue, even though it captures well over 5 hours of material. Quote: '(This box) also is a marvellous opportunity to catch up with the fantastic Fall introduction tapes, which for years now have whetted the appetite and raised expectations with their collages of sound'. I mean, if that's the best reason you can come up with when trying to talk a guy into buying this, I wouldn't be convinced. The introduction tapes are on 2 of the 5 CD's only, are, added up, of 4 minutes duration, and above all that, are nothing special really. Bear in mind that the 2001 tours have already been pretty well documented on 2G+2 (with better sound quality), and decide for yourself.

Anyway I bought it, without reading the notes nor listening to any of it in advance, cool as I thought it was to own a live concert on disc I visited myself. Having it around the house for over a week now, I especially listened to that particular CD, and I must say it's the previously mentioned sound quality that bothers me the most here. I also bootlegged this gig with a worn-out Sony memo-recorder, and the tape that came out of that sounds nearly as good as what is presented here. Though I had a good time that 7th April 2001, The Fall were not in the shape they were in on for instance the Brighton or the U.S. gigs as I gather from listening to those shows. Especially Mark wasn't. The guy from the audience shouting 'Get it fucking together' after Two Librans was right, MES wasn't making very much sense at all, throwing his mic into the bass drum several times and watching his hand more than absolutely necessary to make sure it was still there. David Easlea: 'Smith is on mellow form'. Mellow as in 'a bit merry', he must be meaning.

The 'instrumental' versions of Serum and Birthday Song were mere walk-offs with Julia Nagle's keyboards on auto-pilot, as was Midwatch 1953, although it doesn't say 'instrumental' on the cover, since Ed Blaney avoided it from becoming that by babbling through the mic.

Some people did some serious drinking during the time they had to wait for The Fall to enter the stage, which was about an hour and a half, so by Serum they were drunk enough not to feel ashamed about their yelling, which is annoyingly audible on the CD, as well as it was audible and annoying at the time. Did they know this show was being recorded for later release? One starts to wonder...

Maybe I'm judging this one too hard since the record doesn't meet the expectations I had, based on my memory of that night. I thought I'd seen a good show, but this CD brings back mainly the lesser aspects of it.

Far better, in my view, are the U.S. gigs, although these recordings also honour the qualification 'bootleg'. Still, they are very listenable and sometimes funny. The American audience surely seems to have had a good time. The Brighton-CD has an absolutely beautiful version of Ketamine Sun on it, and any Ibis-Afro Man version on this collection is better than the one on Are You Are Missing Winner, to name some plusses. And I didn't know they practised Paintwork as well, a shame they didn't play it in Amsterdam. Or: I should have gone to the Haarlem gig too. Still, it's hard to really enjoy anything, let alone listen to an entire disc without skipping.

For Fall-fans, it may be interesting to hear MES improvise on such songs as Two Librans and Dr. Bucks Letter during various occasions. Other music lovers will be totally left cold by any of these recordings, my guess would be.

I know some people have been complaining on Fallnews about the endless stream of live Fall-CD's. To me now also the first ever possible (and maybe worrying) comparison between The Fall and Pearl Jam occurred: they make every fart they let in front of an audience commercially available.

Next time, I'll bring my memo-recorder again. For now, if you'll excuse me, I'll write 'I will not buy any Fall live releases ever again' on the blackboard, once for every time I did just that.

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There'll be a Fall Tribute Night at the Cube Cinema in Bristol on Friday, September 26. Nought and the Country Teasers are scheduled to play, and they hope to show some Fall video on the big screen.

Cube Cinema
4 Princess Row
K ingsdown
B ristol
BS2 8NQ

tel (0117) 9074190

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From Q Magazine (October 2003, p. 127) (thanks to Mick for sending it in):

THE FALL
Words of Expectation: BBC Sessions
Castle Music
* * * *
John Peel quite liked them

Mark E Smith's always-changing, always-the-same collective have recorded more Peel sessions than any other band, and this double CD brings together 28 tracks from this long, symbiotic association. While two sessions from the mid-nineties are featured here, it's the raw early material that will excite fans. The band's first stab from 15 June 1978 kicks things off in scabrous style while the subsequent selections spanning December 1978 toSeptember 1981, take in invigorating variants on Containers Drivers, New Puritan and No Xmas for John Key. A fine old testament.

and...on p. 139:

A USER'S GUIDE TO THE FALL
Dave Thompson
HELTER SKELTER PUBLISHING £12.99
* * *

Wizened Fall leader Mark E. Smith is famously wary of giving away his secrets, lest any revelations puncture the mystique of this most fascinating of cult groups. Odds are AS User's Guide To The Fall won't cause him too much worry, though. A solid chronology of incomprehensible lyrics, band sackings and the odd ballet, with an album-by-album appreciation and quotes lifted from the music press. It's ideal for the novice but is somewhat short on insight or surprise. Proof that Mark E. Smith secretly rules the world, however, comes with the fact that two more Fall biographies are due in the next month.

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There was a party going down Friday (Sept. 19) -- from the organizers:

Hi, this is an invite to you and your friends to the joint launch party of Mute magazine no. 26 and the book Hip Priest: The Story of Mark E. Smith and The Fall (by Simon Ford, published by Quartet Books and available now in all good bookshops).

Where: St. Aloysius Social Club, 20 Phoenix Road, London, NW1 (next to Euston train station)
When: Friday 19 September 2003, 7-12 pm
Who: Live sets by Country Teasers and Victim. Various DJs and videos. Pay bar.

Here's the invitation in case you want a hard copy.

Sept. 19, 2003

This is the latest news and gossip off FallNet for those with weak stomachs.

If you have anything to say, you can mail Stefan, but you can't mail the FallNet mailing list direct anymore. To subscribe to FallNet, send mail to:
fallnet-subscribe@
yahoogroups.com.

18aug03 Prindle int. w/Ben, Hip Priest reviews, Live at Phoenix cd, War Against Intelligence cd, Brix int. 1994, Lovers single, web-enabled MES filter
22jul03 US tour reports (second half: Cambridge > Dallas), New Yorker cartoon, Simon Spencer RIP, "Idiot Joy Show," Words of Expectation review
01jul03 US tour reports (first leg, thru Cleveland), PBL dvd & User Guide reviews, Jim Watts interviews John French, 1999 MES int., Voiceprint clearance sale
19jun03 Canada, ATP cancelled, the fall uk, Fall books, Damo vs. USA, MCR's greatest frontman, Meltzer, Bad Man Wagon, Adult Net debacle, comp reviews, Brix '87int., MES '82 int., "Idiot Joy Show"
27may03 PBL/Leeds DVD reviews, Aarhus gig, great 1981 MES interview, Smiths Week, Woog Riots tribute, Sanctuary CDs, Rubber Banana Fall radio show
29apr03 ATP, PoSR review, Peel Session & Step Forward CDs, Made in the NW, Jeremy Vine show, bits
28mar03 Jim Watts sacked, Country on the Click details, Peel Session, Turkey gig, 85 & 88 gig photos, Luz's "The Joke" comic, Pascal LeGras new work, MES T-shirt, Fall on emusic, Fall Tattooing rip
24feb03 news about books, Mojo top 50, Claus Fall guitar, Beggars vids, Corsa ad link, 9feb83 + 88oct8 photos, '78 So It Goes clip, Hanley bros interview, several early music press scans, other bits
9jan03 Independent interview, Early Singles, Listening In, UK chart placing history, Razor Cuts, Pascal LeGras video, Record Collector, ring tones, Blue Orchids CDs, Peel's Fabriclive
4dec02 Electric Ballroom gig, Virgin Radio, Fall vs. 2003, MES death row picks, Conway's wallpaper
8nov02 PPP review and lyrics, Dave Harrop, Manchester Online soap opera
15oct02 UK gig reports, 1983 photos, Fall press kit
20sept02 loads of upcoming releases, jigsaws, Vauxhall advert, Mark Prindle int., couple of music press scans, Slates movie clip, Fall Tattooing
23aug02 singles box and Totally Wired reviews, Rocking Vicar, lots of old music press scans
3july02 2G+2 reviews, 6FM mp3, Bourgeois Blues, bits
13jun02 2G+2, Wire 25th anniversay piece, custom Fall gig, PDFs of four old articles
16may02 Blackburn, London, ATP gig reviews, BBC 6FM, Sydney 1990 int., French cartoon
19apr02 US tour cancelled, Mojo article, Select (June 91), bits & pieces
19mar02 Euro tour reviews, Record Collector interview., Wire review, new Fall discog., misc.
13feb02 comp results, Athens review, Bournemouth Runner, Pan
13jan02 Timekode, Pan, bad German translations, NME 2/25/89 interview
02jan02 album reviews, ancient Usenet refs
12dec01 MCR gig reviews, album reviews, Pan
28nov01 mammoth US tour edition
13nov01 first batch of AYAMW reviews, London Forum gig reports
5nov01 Euro gig reports, Knitting Factory Knotes interview
19oct01 UK gig reports, studybees interview
30sep01 tour / booking details, 1979 fanzine interview
9sep01 not much
28aug01 Flitwick single, 82/83 gig pics
27jun01 Faustus
31may01 Dublin pics, Cash for Questions, Guardian interview
29apr01 IR, UK gig reviews
9apr01 NL gig reviews
3mar01 Dublin gig, Invisible Jukebox
28jan01 World Bewitched details
1jan01 some ace Castlefield pics
19dec00 more reviews
1dec00 tour reviews, crap interviews
10nov00 Unutterable reviews
21oct00 Stanza festival, HighSmith Teeth, comedy dogs
11oct00 RFH reviews, new Cog Sinister releases
12sep00 DOSE interview, Fall calendar
22aug00 Portugal, Manchester gigs 
9aug00 bits & pieces
23jul00 Psykick Dance Hall, Pure As Oranj details, Triple Gang reviews
9jul00 few bits
20jun00 Ashton, Hull, Middlesbrough, Glasgow, Edinburgh reviews, old Volume piece
30may00 LA2 reviews
22may00 few old LP reviews
2may00 bits & pieces
24apr00 TBLY #19 details, Prop details
8apr00 more Leeds reviews. WSC interview, other interview snippets
26mar00 Doncaster, York, Leeds reviews, BravEar interview (plus others)
14mar00 various reviews, old Liz Kershaw i/view
24feb00 Past Gone Mad details
13feb00 few bits & pieces
30jan00 tour details, Tommy Blake stuff
20jan00 TBLY #18 details, Hanley in Mojo
10jan00 Dragnet doylum, New Year message, etc

older news: Nov 1997 - Dec 1999