Sounds 5 November 1988

MONARCHY IN THE UK
Ballet, national anthems, William Of Orange and Blake's poems are all
getting in on The Fall's act. Mark E Smith explains all while discussing
their LP, 'I Am Kurious Oranj'. Keith Cameron gets a free history lesson.
Ian T Tilton looks through oranj-tinted specs.

WALKING THROUGH Manchester city centre, Mark E Smith suddenly pauses and
frowns. "That street over there," he nods, "Oldham Street, there was a fire
in a record shop there the other week. And not long before that another
building went on fire, and another before that too. In the same street!

"Weird. There's been too many fires in Oldham Street recently for my
liking."

He tuts to himself but I baulk at suggesting a dastardly Masonic conspiracy
to explain Oldham Street's affliction, or invoking the divine powers of
James 'God Calls Me God' Anderton. For we have just left one of Mark's
favourite pubs where the talk had considered the global nature of the
curious Orange monster that exists in a host of manifestations - from the
self-perpetuating ultra-Protestant Broederbond in South Africa, to the
mysterious sub-Masonic private clubs that litter Britain's back alleys. One
of these - the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (!) I stumbled upon at
this year's Edinburgh Festival.

It was there also that I stumbled upon Mark E Smith and The Fall in a
ballet with Michael Clark, called I Am Curious Orange. The ballet was a cheeky
piece that assembled some national anthems, William Blake, the Glorious
Revolution of 1688 (when the Protestant Prince William of Orange displaced
the Catholic King James II), McDonalds hamburgers and a Celtic v Rangers
match, and put them through the Smith/Clark patented "Dazzling Visual Feast"
mincer. It's a wonderful and frightening world, to be sure.

Mark E Smith is glad to be home. Three weeks of living in London performing
Curious Orange had cheesed him off - a combination of fatigue and the
circumstantial niggles that only London can provide, from the traffic to
barmen "who can't pull a decent pint".

"We were doing six-day weeks, with only one day off, whereas when we're
touring I always insist on three days on three days off - not cos I'm lazy
or anything, I just think it's fairer on the audiences.

"But at Sadler's it was six shows a week, which I thought was farcical. I
tried to change it, to be quite frank, for the dancers. In the last week
two dropped out - back injury, y'know. Must have been like playing a soccer
match six nights a week for them. I mean, we were dead good every night,
we always ? if needs be. But then, we're pros."

Mark Smith grins. "Yeah, I ought to give Mike credit, not that he ever
gives me any, haha, but he was ill in the last week. It's a bit evil to say it,
but he missed one show, on the Monday.  It was great, the head of the
theatre came creeping to us to go on. I said, Course we're going on, what's
the matter with you?  Hahaha!  The Fall never cancel a show unless it's a
matter of life and death."

Musically, The Fall showcased a largely new set which has just been
released as 'I Am Kurious Oranj'. The album's no mere soundtrack cash-in, but
the bona fide successor to 'The Frenz Experiment'. Viewed in terms of The Fall
as ongoing career vehicle, the ballet was another startling twist. It
proved what one has long sensed: that The Fall, untouched by the fickle demands
of fashion, can pull off anything and still appear untainted by "the
business".

They are, indisputably, part of the business - but only because the
business has decided to come to them.

THE FALL have never compromised. It's not in Mark Smith's nature to. But
they've never had anything to compromise - no principles, no manifesto, no
apparent goals other than to do what they enjoy. So the ultimate
independent band - demonstrating that major or indie status doesn't matter that
much - decide to make some fun videos: no ?? ballet. Why not? For a largely
self-taught history addict as Smith, the themes of Curious Orange were
persuasive; the  English get pissed off with their king, kick him out and get
some Dutch geezer in.

The show began by alternating 'God Save The Queen' with the Dutch national
anthem until both were played simultaneously. It caused havoc among members
of the audience accustomed to adopting the respectful royal position.

"Well, it wasn't my idea, that's for sure," grunts Smith. "I don't know,
I'm not into things like that. I thought it was good to have the Dutch and
British national anthems. I'm not a great patriot but I don't see why
people aren't allowed to stand up for the national anthem. They do
everywhere else in the f***in' world, why can't they in Britain?

"I really wanted The Fall to play the Dutch national anthem but we couldn't
find a copy in time."

Some national anthems are superb. Have you heard the Russian one?

"Er, no. But I've got a record of the Chinese national anthem which is
great. We used to use it as an intro tape, it goes de-de-de-de, the same
riff all the way through. Yeah, you're right, though, 'God Save The Queen',
is crap. 'Rule Britannia"s good, 'Jerusalem"s good, that's the way I wanted to
do the Dutch thing."

AFTER THE fuss over 'Victoria', the only hint of a cover on 'Kurious Oranj' is
William Blake's Jerusalem which boasts the unique songwriting credit "Blake/Mark
E Smith".  Any urge to stretch tenuous links between the two - both from
families of craftsmen, both fond of visualising man's future domination by
machines - should be tempered with the reminder that The Fall's 'Jerusalem' was
preceded, some 15 years ago, by Emerson, Lake And Palmer.

"Did they? Aw shit. But apparently  Mark Stewart has done a version too.
Oh, I'm a complete William Blake fan, always have been. Someone gave me the
original book, and the rap before it is brilliant.

"It's funny, cos in this poem before 'Jerusalem' I'm going on about Plato
and how crap it is, and in the book Blake wrote, Milton, the preface has
this rap about how we should cast off all these stupid Roman and Greek
ideals and build the new art. He goes on about Plato being perverted and
that."

Do you find an affinity with Blake's style?

"Yeah, yeah it's quite unconscious. I've tried to read the whole thing a
couple of times, it's very hard to know what... like he goes on about
Lambeth a lot, visions in Lambeth. Weird."

Jerusalem (Blake's 19th century cautionary Utopian vision) might seem
incongruous next to the tale of a 17th century Dutch usurper, but 'I Am
Kurious Oranj' is hardly about to become a set text. A shame since, as
Smith says, "you're not taught much about it in English schools, yet in Scotland
the events of 1688-92 are pivotal."

There and in Ireland the "Glorious Revolution" was decidedly bloody and
inglorious. The Fall's ballet depicted William Of Orange's sectarian
struggles and their fall-out in the form of an Old Firm clash.

"In Edinburgh it was great. I was quite worried about Edinburgh cos at
one time Michael was wanting to have IRA and UDA songs in it and I said, No
way.  But I was really pleased how everyone took it in good humour in
Edinburgh.  Y'know, I saw a gang of Catholic lads pointing at posters and
stuff and laughing their heads off, really getting into it.

"Yeah, I thought those issues were well worth doing and, ultimately, I
trusted Michael cos he's Scottish and knew what he was talking about. I
only found out the other day he was a Protestant.

"But in England you're taught nothing about that, it's sort of missed
out. It reminded me very much of the Cromwell thing. You don't hear
anything about Cromwell in England these days, despite the fact that he
built England up to what it was. "There used to be this statue of
Cromwell outside Victoria Station in Manchester but they moved it, put it
in some f***in' park in Wythenshawe, behind some f***in' bush! Nobody
knows about it."

Apparently, in Holland, when the ballet was premiered for the Amsterdam
Festival in late spring, The Fall and Clark were a resounding success.

"The Dutch had a good laugh over it. They just think of it as the time when
they had no king, when the British pinched their king. Ha ha!"

What did they do when he left?

"I dunno, you couldn't get it out of 'em. Y'see, typical Dutch, that
argument's wrong cos they never had kings in those days, they had princes
and shit. But it was interesting and stimulating. That's why I was all for
it."

Smith would argue that his passions for literature and history persist
because they weren't stunted by a conventional education. Likewise, The
Fall have learned as they've gone along.

And a long way they've come, too. Without this year's 'Palace Of Swords'
retrospective, recalling the pre-Beggars Banquet Fall would be difficult.
And it's a tribute to Brix Smith that it's a strain to remember the band
without her. Were it not for Brix's arrival and continued presence, The Fall of
ballets and 'I Am Kurious Oranj' would most likely never have come to pass.

"I honestly didn't have my shit together then," Smith confesses. "My
work was good but... I had bad management, bad record company. I had bad
manners! And she gave me that charge, straight up. And that's the beauty of her.
She's an innovator, too.

"I resent the flak she gets, partly cos she's my wife but also cos she's so
creative. People ignore that. And yet, 'Hit The North', she never wrote it,
it was my idea - she hardly played on it - yet she got the blame.

"People who can't get their shit together, that annoys me all the way down
the line.

"Bands today, they don't want to work, they think they're gonna get picked
up in limos from day one. It's the pop mentality - which I've always
been into, from Gary Glitter to Bros, I have nothing against them
whatsoever - and it has infiltrated the rock and indie scene. Yet they forget
that they've got to be good looking and have at least two good songs."

Due to his almost completely uncritical opinion of himself and his band, Mark E
Smith tends to damn all others with faint praise - "that new U2 single, it's
routine, I like to hear it but it's nothing we weren't doing in '79" - but it's
all part of his rough hewn charm. As The Fall look towards the next ten years,
it's pleasing to report that Smith, unlike his hero Blake, won't have to wait a
century after his death to reap his just deserts.  Kurious, but true.