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I'm back - many thanks to Conway for keeping the Fall news up to date!

Stefan

Aug 23, 2002

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. The Freedonia list is out of action.

The Fall play ...

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Cog Sinister/Voiceprint future releases:

Conway says thanks for all the replies about future releases. A summary has been passed on to Rob Ayling, the Managing Director of Voiceprint Records. He has been given the green light by Mark E Smith on a number of projects. An announcement will be made shortly about what's coming out and when...

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Andy Shernoff of the Sanctuary label (not too mention songwriter and bassist of the Dictators) is working on releasing Perverted by Language on DVD-audio. He asks that anyone with any memorabilia from the 1983 period (posters, flyers, ticket stubs, photographs, videos, etc.) get in touch with him at AndyShernoff@aol.com.

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upcoming releases:

For vinyl collectors - Live At The Witch Trials and Dragnet are about to be released on 180 gram vinyl in original sleeves on Turning Point (an Italian outfit). We're not sure whether these are legit sub-licensed releases or not; nor do we know the mastering source. If anyone picks them up, please let us know what they sound like.

Castle is to re-reissue The Light User Syndrome on CD on 16 September, including The Chiselers and Chilinist off the Chiselers single. These tracks had been added on the 1999 reissue on Receiver Records.

It seems that Castle is also rereleasing the rest of its Fall catalogue in September, although I don't think anything was ever out of print. The albums in question are: Totale's Turns, Grotesque, Slates/A Part Of America Therein 1981 and Perverted By Language.

The previously reported Bootleg Box Set (4 CDs) and The Step Forward Years, which were also due to be released by Castle on 16 September, have been put back with no confirmed release date. Castle has declined to provide details or tracklistings for these items. The Step Forward Years could only be a rehash of Early Years 77-79, perhaps in a different running order? As for the Bootleg Box Set, who knows?! Except it's interesting to note that Castle's parent company, Sanctuary Records Group, took over the Trojan catalogue last year and Receiver Records was a subsidiary of Trojan (as was Jet Records, which originally put out Light User Syndrome). So maybe the 4 CDs are a repackaging of all those well-loved Receiver compilations...

Pander, Panda, Panzer:

The follow-up to "Post Nearly Man" is due to be released by Action Records on September 23.

Another "Best Of The 1990's" compilation:

Out on Snapper Music's mid-price label Recall on September 23 will be High Tension Line, a 2CD compilation of material sub-licensed from Artful Records. Recall seems to specialise in recompiling compilations, having previously brought us The Less You Look, The More You Find (which recompiled the first 3 Receiver comp's). This one basically recompiles A Past Gone Mad and A World Bewitched.



CD1: Life Just Bounces / Idiot Joy Showland / Behind The Counter / Hey Student / Bonkers In Phoenix / The League Of Bald-Headed Men / A Past Gone Mad / I Come And Stand At Your Door / Middle Class Revolt / Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room / Hurricane Edward / The Mixer
CD2: War / Free Range / Glam Racket / Immortality / Spencer Must Die / The Birmingham School Of Business School / High Tension Line / Don't Call Me Darling / Levitate / Cloud Of Black / Noel's Chemical Effluence / Why Are People Grudgeful?

Recall sales notes: The Fall started life in Manchester in 1977 as the dark clouds of punk’s northern front gathered. At the eye of this particular storm were the scathing pronouncements of Mark E Smith, the frog prince of the provincial punk rock pulpit. The tracks compiled here are drawn from the group’s 90s repertoire, Levitate, A Past Gone Mad, Cerebral Caustic, The Marshall Suite, A World Bewitched and The Twenty-Seven Points. They are an impressive representation of Smith’s craft and artistic resilience - far from piloting a course leading to a comfortable middle-age, over the Fall’s 20-odd studio albums, he demonstrates time and again that he only has eyes for the jugular.

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Ark album & pre-release offer

Ark, featuring Steve & Paul Hanley, are to have their debut album Brainsold released by Voiceprint Records on September 9. Voiceprint has kindly offered us a special pre-release price of GBP 9.99 (pounds sterling). Email voiceprint_mailorder@compuserve.com to purchase, quoting: Ark pre-release offer to fallnet.

By the way, Voiceprint's MD assures me that their mail order delivery is much improved in recent times, after sacking their previous international mail handling company and installing a new mail order system.

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Reviews of the latest Castle repackagings:

Mick Cunningham:

Just got the two new Rough Trade releases, the box set was one I couldn't wait for as I thought I was finally getting the studio version of New Puritan on CD.

The Rough Trade Singles Box is superbly presented and is in fact five CD's and not four as advertised, as the Kicker Conspiracy single is as per the original with two CD's as opposed to two seven inch singles. Unfortunately, the Container Drivers and New Puritan versions are not from the original (perhaps because they were owned by the BBC) and replaced with awful versions. As I say, it looks great, but as New Puritan is up there with my favourite Fall songs, it took the gloss off it.

That doesn't matter though because track 16 on the Totally Wired first CD just says New Puritan on it and not (live) as the box set does, but it's the same track unfortunately! Good strong track listing though and a bargain at £8.99, can't decide yet if I Iike CD 1 or CD 2 best yet.

Both are good in their own way even if they are compilations, both are also very well presented - just really disappointed about New Puritan as my original copy is in the loft as I haven't got a turntable at the moment!!!

Also there is no poster in the box set as advertised!

Conway Paton:

Singles Box just arrived today. I'm pretty sure Container/Puritan are the Grotesque & Totales Turns versions, despite being called "live" on the disc label and the accompanying booklet referring to Peel versions. It's a shame really because this lets down an otherwise excellent package - well reproduced artwork on good quality card, Kicker is gatefold with 2 discs, very good sound quality, additional booklet in box, no obvious typos or mistakes!

Douglas Wolk:

"Wired for Sound: The Fall, Old and New," Boston Phoenix, July 19, 2002, p. 23. (Review of Totally Wired box set.)

• scan of article
• online version
  

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Rich Kidd:

From the Rocking Vicar list:

THE BARD OF SALFORD

Sister Jody Thompson: "My favourite - of many encounters - with Mark E Smith was interviewing him because he was doing a live 'mix' session on Mary-Anne Hobbs 'Breezeblock' show on Radio One a couple of years ago. As he wasn't on air until midnight or something, I thought the chances of him getting drunk and misbehaving on-air were fairly great. How right I was. Almost as soon as he arrived, a starstruck John Peel came up to him to say hello. 'Yeah whatever John, some of us have got a radio show to do,' slurred Smith before barging past him. Mark then started demanding booze, of which Radio One had none. I suggested to the press officer that we send a taxi over to the nearby hotel and that I give him the booty in order to butter him up for the later interview. On furnishing him with a bottle of red wine and a few tins of tramp's delight, Mark asked me if I would have an affair with him. This was a theme to be returned to many times during the course of the evening. During his DJing stint, he careered around the studio terrorising the producer in the studio by ripping off records before they'd finished, calling him 'a c**t' for putting on the wrong track, chain-smoking in a non-smoking studio and sloshing red wine willy-nilly over expensive control panels. Mary Ann looked on bemused and somewhat horrified from the adjacent studio. My photographer was thrown out by the star for 'looking at him funny'. After probably one of the most bizarre hours in Radio One's history (if anyone has a tape, I'll pay good money) it was decided that if I wanted an interview I'd have to go back to his hotel. Upon making sure that his press officer and my photographer would be there to protect me, I agreed. We managed to persuade a cab driver to take six of us but, as soon as he set off, Mark started swearing at him to hurry up 'cos he wanted more booze and quickly. Whilst I'm constantly battling off his wandering right hand which keeps trying to fondle my leg. Mark E then descends into screaming 'SCHNELL! SCHNELL!' at the unfortunate driver coupled with an incomprehensible diatribe about him being unfit to be a cab driver 'cos he hadn't fought in the Second World War. Over-the-odds payments were agreed upon to prevent the driver chucking us out on the street there and then. On arrival at the hotel, the interview started in the breakfast room with Smith drinking red wine out of a tea cup. He kept answering questions with another question and an insane giggle until I flipped and told him he was being unprofessional. To which he replied: "I am being a naughty boy aren't I? Okay, hit me, and I'll do it properly." I argued that, as I do kickboxing, I might actually hurt him, but he insisted. I had to whack him round the chops. REALLY HARD. Took three goes before he said it was hard enough and would allow the interview to continue. Mark E was now as co-operative as you like. Interview over, I ask if my photographer can finally get a picture of him. 'Only if you come up to my hotel room,' he says, and then attempts to lamp the photographer. How I love Mark E Smith. He kept faxing me for some time afterwards. The faxes were always sent from Heaton Post Office."

The Vicar writes: "Anyone else in the parish - particularly in the Women's Section - got stories about being propositioned by rock legends?"

Parishioner Andrew Harrison writes:-

"1) Advice from MES to then-girlfriend and Fall keyboard player Julia Nagle, overheard by Fall-fan taxi driver and related to friend of friend: 'Always remember, Julia. You are a member of The Fall, not some continental tramp.'

2) MES at the Blue Posts II: We did a roundtable for Select in that same pub, featuring the great man, Peter Hooton of The Farm and Miki from Lush (give us a break, it was a long time ago). When fellow parishioner Mark Ellen popped in to see how things were going, MES accosted him with the words 'I know you, you used to do the weather on Granada! Very good, you were.' Peace be unto you."

and from an earlier Rocking Vicar newsletter:

WHY ARE PEOPLE GRUDGEFUL?

Parishioner Simon Greenwood: "I feel I must pre-empt any Mark E Smith stories that come your way as I can tell you that they will all be almost identical, following as they will the pattern 'I went to see the Fall in [insert town] and found Mark E Smith in [insert name of scuzziest pub]'. In the interest of minimising this repetition, can you ask parishioners simply for the name of the town and the pub or, for added zest and future research, suggest a pub in each Fall- bearing town in the British Isles. The criteria is generally that the pub can supply Kronenberg, still has something resembling a snug, and is largely populated during the day by old men who smell of wee. To completely ignore that pattern though, the last time I saw The Fall was in Northampton in early 1994. They were still riding high and were still a band - indeed, there was much excitement abroad that Karl Burns was back in a two-drummer line-up. They had arrived in The Pope's own tourbus, towards which we had each paid £8 - not bad for a Wednesday night at The Roadmenders in 1994. About half an hour before the scheduled showtime the rumour spread around that MES had been found, with unerring dependability, in the nastiest pub in Northampton town centre, and we had little reason to doubt it. This year, while not having been scheduled to witness The Fall tribute band that MES now fronts, I found myself at the All Tomorrow's Parties gathering in Camber Sands. Now unless things have changed drastically in the ensuing decade MES was not witnessed in the site pub at any time on the first weekend. However Camber has no real pub of its own, so the image of MES roaming across the Romney marshlands in search of Kronenberg now lives in my head."

The Vicar's only encounter with the great man was entirely on the script. He drank eleven pints of cooking lager in the snug of The Blue Posts off London's swinging Carnaby Street, chasing each with a single cheap whisky. He constantly brushed ash from the lapels of his stained jacket and, interestingly, only went for a wee twice in ninety minutes. Respect."

and from the latest edition of Rocking Vicar (note: this is Ian's original submission, which differs slightly from the one published by the Vicar):

THE BARD OF SALFORD
Parishioner Ian Greaves: "Whilst tipping my hat to Jody Thompson's splendid tales of the MES, I can only suffer flashbacks to my own humble, though rocky meeting with the great man in 2000, for an as yet and perhaps never to be published interview. The location was the Old Monkey Inn, a watering hole for old men near to Manchester's Picaddily Gardens. Fearing the worst, I sneaked off to a greasy spoon cafe beforehand and prepared my stomach for the horrors to follow and it can be said that things initially went very well. Mark told a lovely tale of the bus-bound mugging that had held up his arrival, spoke warmly of Star Trek theme bars, his then drummer's appearances in The League Of Gentlemen and, in short, seemed genuinely friendly. I had arrived. I was meeting him pint for pint and we were about to tie daisies in each other's hair when it was decided we would then end this meandering interview on a high note. "So, I was told you were going to feed me", said Mark as overcoats were slipped on, he pocketed my lighter and we finished our drinks. "Who told you that?" "Caroline" [his sister and manager]. "Oh". I knew nothing about this of course, but, out of good grace and being fairly solvent, I suggested that he selected the restaurant.

"MES clutched this gauntlet, deciding on what I recall as being a basement Chinese restaurant which was far from having its rush hour. It was around this time that cooking oil, too much food and gassy lager got the better of me and I drifted into a very peculiar state which, given the awkward situation, I wasn't keen on confessing to the man who had once sang "too much brandy for breakfast". The conversation creaked with long periods of time in which Mark stared at me with a sly grin or just openly laughed. I knew three important things about MES. One, he was my musical hero. The second was apocryphal - that he was psychic, having predicted the capture of Terry Waite - and the other, given to me as a warning, was that he would be *really* interested in everything I said until the fifth or sixth pint, at which point he would start using all this information as a weapon. So, when chatter did happen, he spoke of the local China Town and mentioned Canal Street - "Don't tell me you don't go there" - and, come the second dodgy bottled beer and the plate of seaweed that was not on the menu - "We'll pay extra", he confidently stated - I bolted for the toilets and vomited my heart out, convinced that the Bard of Salford had caused this physical state to happen. Perhaps it was the jokes about my being a student at the time - how could he have guessed? Was he in fact the pot washer at the greasy spoon café only a few hours ago? I returned, praying that he wouldn't notice that I was whiter than the last time he saw me. Conversation only became more horrific.

"And then the epilogue. It was now late on a wet Tuesday evening and we nipped into the local branch of Oddbins on our way to the tram station. Mark was replete and the situation had eased off, so we marked the occasion with another imagined promise that I had given to his sister on the phone. 24 tins of Skol lager were bought and split equally, the man behind the counter cheerily calling Mark "son" despite being 30 years his younger, and so we went off into the night, shook hands and parted. I bolted off in a mixture of horror, confusion and excitement, and then a shout. "Oi!", said the toby-jug-faced Fall leader, "Here's your lighter." He's a better man than me."

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Many thanks indeed to parishiner Ian Greaves for excavating and scanning these old music press clippings:

• Sounds, December 3, 1977, p. 44
  Review of a Band on the Wall, Manchester gig (perhaps November 13) by Ian Brown
• Melody Maker August 12, 1978, p. 18
  Review of Bingo Master's Break-out by Colin Irwin
  
• Sounds August 12, 1978, p. 35
  Short review of Bingo Master's Break-out by Vivien Goldman
  
• Sounds, December 16, 1978, p. 30
  Review of a late 1978 Bolton gig by Mick Middles
  
• Sounds, April 21, 1979, pp. 20 & 21
  "The Famous Five Fight On: The Fall and Rise of Original Persons" by Dave McCullough
• Sounds, May 5, 1979, p. 2
  Short news snippet about band line-up changes
• Melody Maker, July 28, 1979, p. 23
  Live review of July 20 gig at The Factory, Manchester by Steve Redmond
• Sounds, February 23, 1980, p. 26
  Single of the week: Fiery Jack - review by Mick Middles
• Sounds, June 21, 1980, pp. 18 & 19
  "Totale Turnaround" article by Dave McCullough
• Sounds, July 19, 1980, p. 2
  The Fall confirmed to play at the 1980 Deeplydale Peoples' Free Festival; great photo
• Sounds, July 19, 1980, p. 21
  Review of How I Wrote Elastic Man by Garry Bushell
• Sounds, July 19, 1980, p. 42
  Live review - Edinburgh by Johnny Waller
• NME September 6, 1980, p. 21
  Review of Totally Wired by Danny Baker
• NME, November 29, 1980, p. 37
  Review of Grotesque by Graham Lock
• NME, May 2, 1981, p. 31
  Slates reviewed by Andy Gill
• NME, June 27, 1981, p. 47
  Live in New York by Richard Grabel
• NME, November 21, 1981, p. 21
  Lie Dream single review by Richard Cook
• NME, March 13, 1982, p. 37
  "These Fallish Things" by Richard Cook (review of Hex Enduction Hour)
• NME, October 2, 1982, p. 31
  Review of Room To Live by Amrik Rai
• NME, July 30, 1983, p. 38
  Review of the July 15 1983 Brixton gig by Don Watson
• NME, January 20, 1990, p. 27
  "Ring the Noise" by Stephen Dalton (interview with Coldcut re: Telephone Thing)
  

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Kyle has kindly scanned and posted the NME interview from April 7, 1979 that's been reprinted in NME Originals #2 (the "Punk" issue), pp. 116-117.

http://www.kurtchristian.com/fall_nme.html

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John Roberts kindly scanned in a couple of vintage music press ads and a live review:

• Original NME ad for Dragnet
  
• Original NME ad for Slates
  
• Live review and pic from Sounds 1 December 1979 of Retford gig

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Arjan Plug:

Essential of course, alas no Bingo Master's Breakout...

from http://www.punkrockbaby.com

"Don't leave your childs musical taste to chance - indoctrinate now.
"Punk Rock Baby is a collection of punk classics in a lullaby style - Now you can rock you toddler to sleep with soothing instrumental versions of:

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
Ever Fallen in Love (with someone you shouldn't've)
Smash it Up
London Calling
Teenage Kicks
Sheena is a Punk Rocker
Pretty Vacant
White Riot
No More Heroes
Into the Valley
Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
Sunday Girl
Hong Kong Garden

Punk Rock Baby is the first in a series of nursery compilations for judicious parents. Forthcoming releases"

Dance Baby (including versions of 'Unfinished Sympathy', 'Back to Life' , 'Always There')

and:

Rock Baby (including versions of 'Black Hole Sun', 'Whole lotta Rosie', 'Sweet Child of Mine')

also:

Terry Edwards & the Scapegoats ska-cover version EP, seems finally available on CD again. Got my copy last week although http://www.terryedwards.co.uk still doesn't list it yet, should be soon though.

Tracklist:

• "681": live at the Royal Festival Hall : London September 22nd 2000 (8 tracks)
• "Plays the music of Jim and William Reid": Never Understand, Everything's allright when you're down, The hardest walk, Break me down
• "Salutes the Magic of the Fall": Totally wired, bingomasters breakout, The dice man, Container drivers
• "Executes Miles Davis Numbers": Eighty-one, Four, Seven steps to heaven, Half nelson

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Patrick Lusk:

This looks an awful lot like the membership of the Fall over the years... http://www.orgnet.com/inetindustry.html

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That Pete:

A thoughtful review of Palace of Swords Reversed by Chris Smith of Stylus Magazine:
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/musicreviews/the_fall-palace_of_swords_reversed.shtml

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Tom Hingley (ex-Inspiral Carpet) and the Lovers (including Steve and Paul Hanley) tour dates:

Aug. 22    New Roscoe, Leeds
Aug. 23    Scooter Rally, Isle of Wight
Sep. 13    Hull Adelphi
Sep. 14    Bridge Street Tavern, Salford
Sep. 16    Barfly, Sheffield
Sep. 19    Little Civic, Wolverhampton
Sep. 28    Blowup Metro, London
Nov. 01    Leopard Club, Doncaster
Nov. 02    Barfly, Cardiff

http://www.tomhingley.co.uk/