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This Nation's Saving Grace was No. 87 in the Observer Music Monthly's 100 greatest British albums list.

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From a recent interview with Polly Jean Harvey (Filter Magazine, Spring 2004):

And if you're looking to crack the surface of what turns this girl named Polly Jean into the songs, sounds and ever-morphing images of PJ Harvey -- the things that may prove to be powerfully influential over her -- you won't find too many people she considers contemporaries.

"I do try and listen to what's happening in contemporary music, but there is very little that I get excited about," she admits, without a hint of regret or an apologetic sigh -- it's just the way it is, as far as she's concerned. "I do tend to listen to older music rather than newer music. Having said that, a band that I always follow is a band called The Fall, from England. I do find that he's one of my favorite contemporary songwriters -- Mark E. Smith -- and their albums, the last run of them, the last three or four, have really been incredible. And they put out a couple of records a year, so it's always exciting to me that they're releasing new stuff. Other than them, there's very little I've been listening too lately."

No mention of Ding in the interview, but there was a photo of Polly and Ding at the Knitting Factory in a recent Village Voice.
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From Playlouder.com (posted June 14):

THE FALL FALL OUT AGAIN?
Mark's been ''shaking up the band''. By sacking the band?

News has appeared on the Fall's website that Mark E Smith has sacked two members of his band, though their broker and spokesman Ed has told PlayLouder that this might not be the case. Although it might be the case. Confused?

The message on the Fall site reads: "More bad news: I've been told that Ben Pritchard and Dave Milner were sacked last week -- when asked to confirm the sackings, the Fall Broker said yes. More details if/when I get them.

"The soap opera continues."

However, Ed claims this may not be true, and the website may be unreliable. Right.

"We're just 'avin' a bit of a break" he said, "Everything's going great. Me and Mark are going into the studio tomorrow. Things just needed a bit of a shake up. The Fall needs a shake up sometimes because it's the Fall".

So have they sacked Ben Pritchard and Dave Milner then?

"Ben is on a warning, and he needs to wind his neck in. But everything is fucking sound. The album has blown up in America, and the new stuff is going to be mental. Everything's on fire at the minute. We're thinking about two drummers."

Right you are then.

Ed also revealed there is going to be a DVD / audio CD coming out called 'Fall Out' about the on going line-up changes that have become a feature of the band over the last 27 years. Contained in the film is a 20 minute interview with MES himself.

For the record, Ed Blaney did confirm the sackings to me. The "website may be unreliable", but there's usually a good reason why.

Ben posted a follow-up to the Playlouder article on the message board:

Just to keep you in the loop, I have not been sacked. Comments on the fall news page about me being on a warning are completely untrue, there have been no warnings and no sackings as far as i am concerned. Certain individuals have tried to have my job but they over estimate their own importance.

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Here's the MES interview from the July 2004 Word magazine, with many thanks to Fallfandave. It's a little blurry in places but most of it's okay. Newcastle appears to have been relocated to Scotland.

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The excellent Resonance FM will air a Fall special on the Sound Projecting show this Friday, June 11:

Sound Projecting is a regular radio slot on Resonance 104.4 FM every Friday, from 5.30 to 7pm UK time (and repeated every Saturday morning from 7.00 to 8.30am). Hosted by Ed Pinsent, the show is a sort of 'aural appendix' to the Sound Projector magazine. Ed plays choice selections from CDs and LPs sent to or reviewed in the pages of the mag.

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MES on Morrissey, from the May 2004 Q/Mojo special (thanks to Jon):

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Robert Quine, R.I.P. - very sad news.

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The Theme from Sparta FC #2 single has been pushed back to June 28 -- the vinyl pressing has taken longer than expected. In the meantime, you can vote here to have the Sparta video played on MTV2 Europe.

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In tandem with releasing the North American 50,000 Fall Fans CD, Beggars Banquet has a promotion with insound.com: the Fall CD set and everything else in the Insound catalog is 15% off, now through June 22. The coupon code is fallfan15.

Speaking of 50,000 Fall Fans, I anticipate many reviews in the coming days so I'm adding them all to this reviews page.

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There are a few photos of the Barcelona festival here (see also the PJ Harvey photos - there's one with Ding). The Fall's set was recorded and should be on Spanish radio/TV in the coming months.

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From the May 28 Independent:

The Fall: Fighting Talk

The Fall's famously chippy leader, Mark E Smith, is still ready to take on the world, Tim Cumming discovers

"If you take a right from here, there's a mosaic of me on the corner. But nobody knows who it is, because it's got all these people from Coronation Street in it. I've walked past it loads of times and never noticed it was me. Like, who's that, you know what I mean?"

The Fall's Mark E Smith is talking in a hotel bar near Manchester's train station, crutches balanced against the wall beside him. "I'm gonna throw these as far as I can," he declares as he settles himself down. After fracturing his hip on an icy pavement in Newcastle in February, Smith was wheelchair-bound through a string of British gigs and for most of a lengthy American tour, which ended abruptly in Texas. "We were going to have to cross the desert and we didn't want to do that," he offers by way of explanation.

With concerts on the West Coast summarily abandoned, some US fans vented their spleen on Fallnet, the band's esteemed website. "I never read it," Smith says, "though I know it's the envy of a lot of groups. When I was in America I had a look at it. Most of it's all right, but this culture where you have to explain everything all the time, what you're doing, puts a clamp on you. It's a bit of a trap."

Mark E Smith has been avoiding the traps and explanations for 27 years. He formed The Fall in 1977 with Martin Bramah and Tony Friel. Some 49 members, 78 albums and 41 singles later, he and his group remain a unique, abrasive and indispensable force in modern music. As John Peel said: "They are always different, they are always the same."

Their gloriously rousing new single, "Sparta FC #2", is a good example of the band's creative dynamic. "The group made this song that was sort of like 'Born to Be Wild', with a great feel to it. Elena [Smith's wife] came up with some great words, and I added some words that I thought were like a Greek football fan's attitude. Sort of cobbled it all together, put a Greek motif on the guitar and that was it. "I do know quite a few Greek football fans," he adds, "and their attitude to soccer is completely different to Britain's. It's not about winning. It's just about being within the club. They find British fans very funny. They find them hilarious - you know, when they cry."

When we discuss early influences, the name of William Burroughs crops up. "Have you heard [Burroughs'] Nothing but the Recordings ? It's really good. It's something that [the industrial music pioneer] Genesis P Orridge put out. A bit of an influence, I must say."

Burroughsian touches are all over Smith's cutting of lo-fi elements into the mix, from distorted electronica and indecipherable lyrics to recordings of the wind from a hotel window. Yet, however abstract the flavours, the essence of The Fall simmers down to the purity of guitar, drums and bass. The high modernism of Burroughs or Stockhausen is tempered by the basic rock pulse of The Stooges or Can, and a good ear for the ephemeral, the trashy.

Talk turns from the Eurovision Song Contest - Smith is a big fan - to those Top of the Pops albums from the Seventies. "I used to buy loads of them," he says. "One of my favourites has 'Hits of T-Rex, Slade and The Sweet' on it. I bought it when I was about 15. And inside it's got," - he breaks into laughter - "'As performed by Unicorn.' They're better than the originals. This bloke; his voice cracks, it goes in the middle of the song. And in 'Blockbuster', the police siren really gets out of control. It's fantastic."

Teetering on the edge of chaos, The Fall's sound embodies the tensions played out in the band. "I can't do what they do," he says, "and they can't do what I do. I haven't got a musician's ear, me, at all. I know less now than I did when I started. Chord progressions and things. Where I'm coming from has always been atonal and quite savage."

This tension keeps The Fall going. As erstwhile member Marc Riley says: "The day you get an easy, cosy Fall, it's probably over." After Smith sacked most of his band at the end of a US tour in 1998, the current line-up is reasonably stable, but relations still get strained. "Even today, I lose me rag with them. You can say, well, 10 years ago you were having hard times, you were drinking a lot of whisky, which I used to do, but it's still the same, sober or not. But I think it works." The only time he felt lost, he says, "was around [1996's] Light User Syndrome , sort of plodding on in the studio, not getting anywhere. I was really stuck sometimes, to be honest."

Though last year's Country on the Click was heralded as a first-class return to form, its release was delayed by months of record company interference. "If you make things look a bit too easy," Smith surmises, "people think they can just fiddle around with [your work]. Something like 'Sparta' was knocked up in two days. It sounded really great. Then we got it back and it sounded like Posh Spice, you know. So that got me off, of course." After going to EMI and Mute, Smith returned to Action Records and more or less took the album back to how it first sounded. "I couldn't believe that after all this time people had started thinking they could take away tracks of mine and mess about with them. It's forbidden."

The album's release was followed in January by the first of a definitive re-issue programme from Sanctuary Records. The Fall's first four albums - Live at the Witch Trials , Dragnet , Grotesque and Totale's Turns - appeared in deluxe expanded editions, remastered where possible from the original tapes. The project will extend into next year, with a boxed set of the complete Peel sessions due in the summer, alongside one of the crowning achievements of early Falldom, 1982's Hex Enduction Hour .

"That's the only one I like from the Eighties," Smith says. "It stands up, which surprised me." It was recorded live in an empty cinema and in "a cave in Reykjavik made out of lava. The studio was like a lava igloo. It's why 'Hip Priest' and the other ones sound good. It's a very strange sound." He laughs, sucking a Benson & Hedges to its root and crushing it in an ashtray. "We should've done more there, really. I think the studio fell to bits a year later. The lava cracked."

While tidying up the back catalogue, and, as Smith says, "drawing a line" under a decade of sloppy compilations, Sanctuary has also put together the band's first career-spanning retrospective. The sleeve of 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong cheekily imitates that of the Elvis album of almost the same name - minus three noughts and the lamé suit. A young Smith stands in diamond-pattern jumper, staring belligerently out. "They did put it past me," he says of his involvement, which came with his blessing, if not unbridled enthusiasm. "My eyes sort of run out half way down it," he says, looking through the track list. "Whoever did it did a good job. They've got a bit of taste." He selects tracks. "'Cropdust' is the one that forecast the twin towers. 'Powder Keg' forecasts the Irish bomb and all that. I'd listen to this. It's the one I'd recommend. I used to have nightmares about some of the other ones."

The prospect of the linear retrospective doesn't sit well with Smith, but a rare look back comes with the recent A Touch Sensitive DVD. Recorded live in Blackburn in 2002, it captures the band rattling through the likes of 1982's "The Classical", "Hey Luciani!" from Smith's 1986 play about Pope John Paul I, and 1991's "Free Range", another song of precognition, written about Yugoslavia a year before the cataclysm was unleashed.

"It's funny doing the tour with these," he says, pointing to the crutches, "because I've had to do most of it singing sat down. My voice was getting really good, and a lot of the songs sounded better live. I can ease in new material, or try to. I always have this fight, you know, with musicians." He gestures toward 50,000 Fall Fans : "They'd do this set if they could, a lot of the musicians I've worked with."

For listeners - and perhaps band members - the world of The Fall has no road map. It's instinctual music and, for Smith at least, there's not much to explain - at least not directly. His aversion to explanation forces you to make your own way through his songs, as a new tribute album from Germany, the excellently idiosyncratic Perverted By Mark E , demonstrates. Mixing weird and eclectic cover versions with song tributes from the likes of Jowe Head and The Container Drivers, it gets a thumbs-up even from its subject.

He was less enamoured of the three books that appeared about the band last year. "I liked the Users' Guide - that was just LP by LP. Facts. But I didn't like Hip Priest , where he interviewed everyone but me. The thing about browsing through these books," he adds with a note of satisfaction, "is that you don't find out anything about me at all, do you?"

As for his own work, he says: "A lot of material I keep for a few years. I have it around in my head. I find that's the best way." He still writes every day, though less voluminously now. "A lot of things that read like nonsense when you write them make a lot of sense a month later. Seems like complete rubbish as you're writing it down, but it seems to come true."

Smith rails against the state of music now. "Straighter than ever, don't you think? Rock music is so standardised these days, I can't believe it, really." Not that he's considering finishing the band. "It's more than necessary to carry on." A completely remastered US version of Country on the Click is out next month. "It's got a few different tracks on it and a sharper cut for some reason. Harder."

Despite the plug being pulled in Texas, a week after the interview the band are playing a club in Brooklyn for their US label, Narnack. They even debut a new song plucked from a tape given to Smith by the new bassist Stephen Trafford. "He's been writing for years," Smith says. "Sort of like Manc pop but a bit weird. I'm hoping to use some of his stuff."

He has set aside next month for recording, with plans for a new album by November. "I don't usually tell people these things," he says with a dry laugh. "It's good that you asked... the group will read about it in The Independent and feel more secure."

BEST OF THE FALL

Grotesque (After the Gramme) (1980) The first great Fall LP, with the immortal Robinson Speedo on "Gramme Friday", alongside the anti-pop "Pay Your Rates" and kazoo-driven "New Face in Hell". Early Fall at its best: relentless, repetitive, compulsive.

Hex Enduction Hour (1982) One of the great albums of all time. The opening lines of "The Classical" cost the band an unlikely deal with Motown; "Hip Priest" lends the film Silence of the Lambs extra menace.

This Nation's Saving Grace (1985) The garagey Goth sound of an instrumental by Brix Smith, Smith's first wife, sets the tone. The band explodes on "Bombast"; "Spoilt Victorian Child" is classic Smith elliptical sloganeering.

The Unutterable (2000) Few fans would doubt the brilliance of this album. Smith was leading a revitalised Fall into new realms: fascinating and richly detailed

Country on the Click (2003) The Fall's latest masterpiece comes in significantly altered form on US label Narnack. They're both brilliant. "Theme from Sparta FC" is pure genius.

'50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong' is out on Monday on Sanctuary; 'Sparta FC #2' is out on 21 June on Action Records; 'Perverted by Mark E' is on Zickzack Records; 'A Touch Sensitive' (DVD) is on Secret Films

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Joly's posted three clips from the April 9, 2004 Knitting Factory show on his punkcast.com. He's selling a VCD of the full show for $4 (domestic) or $5 (overseas), postage included.

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Perverted by Mark E. contributor Jeffrey Lewis has posted his Legend of the Fall drawings on his website. He says it's more of a low-budget video than a comic book.

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Thanks to Kek for sending in Marc Riley's secret life from last Saturday's Independent magazine (May 22):

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How to Buy The Fall from the June 2004 issue of Mojo - many thanks to Jon, as always.

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On Sunday, June 6, Virgin Radio's Razorcuts show will have a "special feature on The Fall and Mark E. Smith," perhaps to do with 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong.

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The Woog Riots website is accepting orders for the Perverted By Mark E. Fall tribute - 15 euros plus postage, and well worth the money. Action Records is selling the import now, but if you want to wait until late June the set will be in the shops in the UK, courtesy Shellshock Distribution.

And Keg from the Container Drivers has a box of CDs that he brought back from the Darmstadt Woog Riots gig -- he will sell copies to UKers for the bargain price of £10.50 (includes postage), or to US people if they send cash in advance ($20, includes postage). Email him at containerdrivers@yahoo.co.uk if you want a copy.

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A couple of recent MES radio interviews are archived on the web, in case you missed them the first time around:

• 6FM with Tom Robinson (broadcast on March 17, interview took place about a month before)
• WFMU with Terre T. (phone interview from April 10). The interview's about two hours into the show, between the Man Whose Head Expanded and Sparta.

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Claus Castenskiold is selling signed copies of this PBL poster (30" x 24" on thick, glossy paper). Each signed poster is $20 plus $5 shipping for the USA and $20 plus $10 certified mail for the rest of the world. Posters will be shipped in sturdy tubes. You can order via Paypal using Claus's email address: clauscastenskiold@yahoo.com. Feel free to write to him with any questions as well. He promises to ship the posters the next business day after your Paypal order has been verified. He'll be offering the poster at a fixed price on Ebay presently.

Claus also has a limited edition of 250 of his CREEP painting - it's a bit pricier at $300. "The 12"x12" image is on 16"x16" with deckled edged Somerset Velvet paper printed with archival pigment inks. The print is signed and numbered by the artist." You can order through Paypal or through Claus at the email address above. Again, if you have any questions, please feel free to email Claus directly.

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May 22 - Boogaloo Bar, S. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY:

Michael:

Overall Notes:
- Bogaloo is a very tiny club, it's more of a bar with a back room (about the size of a small living room)
- Very few hardcore Fall fans there, but I did spot a few!
- The crowd was very heavy 20something dressed early 80s
- But yes all those 20somethings knew who they were seeing...
- I arrived at 1130pm and the place was quite packed
- Cost to get in: $15
- Narnackrecords had a Spring sampler with a Fall song: "Open the Boxoctosis #2"
- There were these cute small longish Fall posters at the back of the set, didn't get a chance to nab one!

The Set:
- Band goes on at about 1am as promised
- The set went something like:
1. Green Eyed Loco Man
2. Open Box
3. New Psuedo Mag
4. Unknown new song!
5. Sparta FC
6. Mountain Energy
7. Mr. Pharm
- The show is over by 1:45am or so (short set)
- Mark Standing on his own
- Mark wearing "the glove" on one hand
- Nice short show...

Other Notes:
- Seems the Fall played a small gig on Thurs for Record Execs - about 3 songs...
- We spoke with our guitar player friend in the band after the show (sweet as ever)
- The band will go back to England and next to Barcelona..

anonyarena:

I attended this show. I must give an extra special thanks to Hilda for following up on thie rumor dispite my doubts that it was true. But boy-oh-boy was it ever.!!!

We were told by phone that they would begin selling tickets at 8pm so we arrived before 8, but instead we were told to form a line outside the club. We ended up waiting until shortly before 10 pm. While we waited we heard the band minus MES and E.P.S. do a soundcheck of Green Eyed Loco Man. Thane a black car pulled up and the band came out. Ben recognized us and greeted us before he told us they were on their way back to the Hotel.

After they left, it started getting cold outsidre, which was a surprise because it had been so hot during the day. I regretted wearing only shorts and a t-shirt even though it was one of my favorite Fall shirts. But of courese, no one could forsee that we would have been forced to stay outside for so very long.

(I pause here to say sorry for my spelling errors but my computers on the fritz, and my internet connection flakey...I cannot type slowly because at any second I may lose my connection, but I cannot go back and correct errors either because when I try I lose all the text. This is my 3rd attempt at writing this.)

Whe they finally let us inside there were no "tickets". Just an ink stamp on the wrist. (an oval with the letters TMV in it) It was not ten dollars as we'd been told over the phone but 15. The man collecting the money said "They need enough monet to fly back home!"

THe Boogaloo bar is an inappropriate venue for a Fall show. It could in no way accomodate the number of people there to see the show. Williamsburg Brooklyn appears to becomming the new "HIPSTER" place to be, and the bar was filled with young hipsters who seemed to me to be the sort who must just go to this bar all the time irregardless of what band was playing, or even if a band is playing.

I fear that the waiting outside in the low temperature and the cigerette smoke in the bar seems to have aggrevated my feeling that I'm fighting off an impending cold. The bar patrons seemed rather inconsiderate. SOme of the people were really "posey" and others seemed to have been more at home in a sex club than a Fall gig. Many boys and girls kept going into the bathrooms together to have sex. I'm not talking boyfriends and girlfriends either, I'm talking about random strangers hooking up. I know this because (unfortunaley) the stage was right next to the bathroom and these inconsiderate couples kept hitting me in the head with the bathroom door. One girl got her boy off in a very speedy amount of time, which provoked another girl to congratulate her, before she herself led her male companion into the bathroom. Then the people began pressing on me and pressing on me and I began to feel like I could not take it anymore. I began to feel stifled for air, which of course was the signal for even more people to light up cigerettes. I hate when they just hold them in the air with the ash pointed at my face. I had to retreat from the stage area. Let me just say right here that I use the term "stage area loosley.

There was no stage. Only a back room seperatled by the main mar space by a circular arch. At one point I was pressed into the circular arch and burned by the lightbulbs inside of it. This made me very sad. But sadder still was the music selection played by the DJ. All he played was house music disco shit of the worst order. I was particularly offended by the insipid record that went "On The East Coast, We Sure Know How To Par-tay! On The East Coast, We Sure Do Know How To Par-tay!" At that point, I regret to say, I began to have a fantasy of randomly stabbing bar patrons with a steak knife. That's when I knew i couldn't stay up by that stage area anymore.

There were tow opening bands. Okay nothing earth shatteringly great. When the Fall finally went on the wall of people blocked all eyesight . I saw nothing of the band. Ron says at one point he saw the tippy-top of Mark's head. You could hear them, but the wall of people also blocked a lot of the sound. The set was only 7 songs long. I did not hear ELenor at all. They played Green Eyed Loco Man, Open The Box, Mere Psued Mag Ed, a new song that reminded me of Guest Informant, because it had that same sort of rolling quality, and similar chord progression , I think, At first I even though it might have been a new version of Guest Infromant, but only for about a second or two...It was clearly evident that it was a totally new song. Then they played a rockin' Spatra FC, an enrtrancing Mountain Enegeri, and MR. Pharmacist ended the set. Mr. Pharm was a little off at first but the band quickly corrected itself and it was great. Then it was over.

a few People were yelling for more. But there was no encore. Aparently this was only supposed to be a brief showcase, not an actual gig. Some sort of man crawled through the crowd into the dj area and started shouting. "Where's the DJ. Where's the fucking DJ?" I said to myself..."Oh no, not HIM again!" But the dj was gone. The man attempted to turn the turntables on and he kept crying out "how do I work this thing? Fuck! I don't know how to work this friggin' thing." Finally, this strange man got the turnatble to operate and the disco music came on. Like Pavlov's dogs, the music seemed to be a signal to the crowd that the show was over. I heard two boys behind me talk about how they were going to a "House Party" somewhere in the neighborhood. Another guy and girl began shoving their tongues down each other's throats two inches from my face. I was like "get me out of this hell"

I went back outside of the bar. We encountered Hilda again who'd been seperated from us. It turned out she squeezed herself to the front so she could at least see the band. The first thing out of her moth was "Isn't this a hideous club?" We wholeheartedly agreed. Micheal Pinto urged me to write a review for the message board, which I am doing right now! Then Ben came out, and it really seemed to me like he was looking for us, he came up and thanked us for coming to the show. In an instant Ron said that moment made the whole experience totally worthwhile. I asked and he confirmed for me that the unrecognizd song was indeed totally new. They'd only previously played it in rehersal. The new bass player gave MES a tape of music he'd written and MES said "I like THIS one, let's add it to the set." Ben also confirmed they were going back to England and then off to Spain. It was pretty cool! Ben was called away for a photo shoot or something, and we made our way back home to Manhattan.

Everone agreed we had a great time, because we enjoyed each other's company and loved the band, but we doubted that we'd ever want to be subjected to the so called "atmosphere" of the Boogaloo bar ever again. Too icky-trendy.

Man Named Joe:

I got there very very early (and no I don't live in Williamsburg-although I used too before it became uber-cool and absurdly expensive) and sat in on the sound check minus MES and it was brilliant, the band did a beautiful version of Jannet Johnny and James -although it wasn't performed later, anyway the band played in a room about twice the size of my livingroom, which is tiny. I stood on an amp and leaned against the rear wall about 5 feet from Ben's mic and if I hadn't been drinking steadly since 6 I think I would have had a panic attack what with the heat and the crush of chain smoking hipsters. The band played really well and it was great to see MES back on his feet- without the crutches- but yeah, what is up w/that glove???

Also to see The Fall play in Brooklyn was very cool - perhaps next time they can play in my apartment, although I don't think the cats would be into that.

officerwrongun:

Having only heard of The Fall 2 years ago i havent seen them before live.

This band rock......I got in for free after meeting some guy in a suit called Ed who was outside with the bass player Ste

I got all my drinks free from the bar owner. The show was awesome,i stood behind the bar on a stool it was packed out and rocked for about a half hour.
Mark E Smith is the coolest punk ive ever seen and he was everything and more that i had anticipated.I dont know the songs they played but they melted the crowd.

I was told to expect older fans and a few weirdos but the place was the opposite.It was packed with some of the hottest chicks in Brooklyn,kinda like the place to be.

The bass player was cool man he said he only joined the band about 2 months ago and the guy on drums was the best drummer i ever heard. I was taken upstairs after the show and met Mark and his wife,Mark was very nice and said he liked the show and the young crowd,he gave me a shirt that i will treasure for ever.

I cant wait for the new record to come out on Narnack and to see The Fall again.

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From the May 19-25 Seattle Weekly's "Jukebox Jury" with John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats (same idea as the Wire's "Invisible Jukebox"):

The Fall: "Hip Priest" (1982) from Hex Enduction Hour (Kamera)

Darnielle: It's the Fall! Didn't recognize it 'til the voice came in. But is there any song in the history of indie music that's been more sung by people while wandering around their houses by themselves, with no music playing? "Hip Priest-uh!"

SW : I know you really like the Fall . . . 

Darnielle: I can't fairly describe myself as a big fan. I like them a lot, but I've personally always been satisfied with just a little Fall around the house. I don't go, "Ooh! I have to get that Fall record!" Except for This Nation's Saving Grace. I did get an obsession about that at one point.

SW : Did Mark E. Smith's songwriting ever have any impact on you?

Darnielle : I hated them when I was in high school. I thought they were awful. So I actually didn't start listening to the Fall until a couple years ago. I can't make out what he sings most of the time. The point of the Fall is more like an iterative thing. They were trying to be the only band that sounded like that. So anybody else who sounds like that is going to sound like them. When I was in high school, they were on this Factory sampler - this video of Factory bands. We had no idea of what they were doing. It looked like they were having too much fun. I was a little goth boy. I wanted bands to be very serious. The song was "Totally Wired," and I did not like it. I'm sorry to say that, because now I think it's a wonderful song.

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Conway:

Tracklisting
1. Theme from Sparta FC #2
2. My Ex-Classmates' Kids (live Cologne 2001) - 23 October 2001 Kantine, Cologne to be precise
+ on CD single:
3. Theme from Sparta FC video - mpeg file 352x288 pixels 103MB (uses original "Jim Watts" Sparta FC audio mix)

Sparta #2 is rerecorded at a much pacier tempo with the guitar line way up front and no audible keyboards. More backing vocals than previous versions, especially from Eleni (nice photo on the cover!). This will especially appeal to fans of the Peel session version.

Track 2 - well, what can I safely say.... an extremely disappointing selection. But safer than the potentially defamatory Portugal/Debacle track.

Video - fabulous, absolutely superb. Buy it just for this. I defy anyone not to like it! Gordon has agreed to a 30-second preview being made available - it's now on Steven Bending's site.

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The Fall were on the BBC 6FM Dream Ticket last Wednesday (May 19) - it was yet another repeat of the Manchester Roadhouse 1995 gig. In case you missed it it'll be archived on their site for a few days.

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Impact Merchandising are selling the Fall T-shirts and badges that were available at the early dates of the US tour.

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Steven Bending's wonderful Fall Multimedia Project website has an in-studio performance of A Lot of Wind from MTV's 120 Minutes and a 30-second preview of the Sparta FC promo video.

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June 22, 2004

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:
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19may04 US tour, part 2 (NYC - Houston - MES statement), a few US press tour previews including LA Weekly interview, Narnack details
27apr04 Daniel Trent Dickson, RIP, US tour, part 1 (NYC - Detroit), Perverted by Mark E, WFMU interview, Stomp and Stammer interview, Mojo MES picks, Franz Ferdinand, G/TT review
07apr04 Birmingham & Liverpool gigs, Steven Trafford - new bassist, J. Neo Marvin interview, Stewart Lee article, 39 Golden Greats, Perverted by Mark E. tribute, Great God Pan comic strip, misc. reviews, MES & Stevie
09mar04 UK gigs, Mark's fractured hip, Bridgewater Hall, Blackburn DVD, University Challenge, Fall fan film, Brix Smith - Fashion Junkie, Lovers UK gig schedule
10feb04 London gigs, loads of music press scans (mostly NME), I'm into CB cartoon, Smash Hits trading card, Michael Pollard photos, Cider with Roadies, Guardian int. w/ Ben, Pascal Le Gras exhibition, Blackburn DVD, Sanctuary update.
24dec03 lots of UK gig reviews, Birmingham Post MES interview, details on expanded LATWT and Dragnet CDs, recent NME Fall snippets.
24nov03 TRNFLPFCOTC reviews, HMV gig, Unpeeled interview (w/ Ben) details, Smash Hits '87, Michael Bracewell's most embarrasing moment (and Pseud's Corner finalist), Durutti Column vs. The Fall photo exhibition, Permanent Years / Rebellious Jukebox comp CDs, Fall badges, Reuben's Paintwork title page.
20oct03 Portugal, Manchester, Leeds gigs, book reviews, 1997 MES interview, new LP and single details.
19sep03 Uncut interview, book reviews, "No Place Like It" transcript, a few old press clippings, Bingo Master's 25th anniversary, War Against Intelligence cd, Bootleg Box Set review, book launch party, Masked and Anonymous, Jack magazine, The Lovers on tour, Johnny Cash
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