Fall News

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The Fall play ...
 

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added 4 April

The Monks Beat Club clips have been doing the rounds on various blogs, youtube.com, etc. In case you haven't seen them, check out http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/music/index.blog?entry_id=1448020 (server is temperamental...)

youtube.com has more clips: Cuckoo / Complication / Boys Are Boys

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added 7 March; updated 3 April

Fall album survey

Conway received a total of 244 entries and the full results have been posted on the message board. Here's the top 10. The number in brackets is the total points scored for that album.

1 . . . . . . Hex Enduction Hour ( 1442 )
2 . . . . . . Grotesque ( 1148 )
3 . . . . . . This Nation's Saving Grace ( 1042 )
4 . . . . . . Perverted by Language ( 1001 )
5 . . . . . . Slates ( 864 )
6 . . . . . . The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004 (Box Set) ( 674 )
7 . . . . . . The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click) ( 657 )
8 . . . . . . Dragnet ( 624 )
9 . . . . . . The Unutterable ( 517 )
10 . . . . . The Wonderful and Frightening World of... ( 488 )

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added 27 March

Nikki Sudden, r.i.p. Another sad day for Swell Maps and music fans everywhere.

This link is to Nikki's tribute to his brother Epic Soundtracks, which Nikki posted on his site's message board only last Thursday.

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added 27 March

A couple of typically bizarre articles in Saturday's Guardian (25 March):

• Cult musicians (Arts section)
• Brix and mortar (Life and Health section)

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added 21 March; updated 23 March

Stewart Lee has written a lengthy Fall primer for The Wire (April issue; more info at http://www.thewire.co.uk). A scan is already on the message board; many thanks to Stevoid.

Also, The Fall appear in the latest Q special edition, on Manchester. It's a recap of the Beggars years. Many thanks to Neil for scanning it in.

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added 14 March

What Makes a Good Interview? by Gavin Esler. This BBC page includes a video clip of Mark's infamous appearance on Newsnight after John Peel's death.

Speaking of the mighty Peel, Pete has edited my Peelie Fall intros and outros mp3 to great, if surreal, effect. The original mp3 is here and Pete's edit here.

I'm still after contributions for volume 2 of Peel Fall intros/outros, so feel free to email me at fallnews@gmail.com. I'll be sending a CD of it all to Sheila at Peel Acres.

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added 14 March

Gojohnnygogogo is organizing a Fall Night in Leeds on 6 May. Five hours of the Fall, a quiz, prizes (including a life-sized M.E.S.), etc. Further information and advance tickets on this page.

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added 10 March; updated 13 March

10 March 2006 - Gagarin, Athens, Greece

Thanks to Damian for the ticket and Dimitris for the rough poster (before all the sponsor logos got plastered on; see Mylos poster below).

The Boss / Bo Doodak / Clasp Hands / Theme from Sparta FC / What About Us / Pacifying Joint / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Mountain Energei / Midnight in Aspen / Systematic Abuse / Touch Sensitive // Touch Sensitive (again) / Blindness

Reviews on the message board. Costas sent in some photos but Clayts has already posted them on the official site, and there's no need to duplicate them here.

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added 13 March; updated 17 March

11 March 2006 - Mylos Club, Thessaloniki, Greece

The Boss / Clasp Hands / Theme from Sparta FC / What About Us / Pacifying Joint / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Mountain Energei / Midnight in Aspen / Systematic / White Line Fever / Touch Sensitive / Blindness // encore of two songs, one of which might have been Touch Sensitive again?

White Line Fever is a Merle Haggard cover. Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Pit for the poster.

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added 13 March; updated 15 March

12 March 2006 - Cartoon Club, Croydon

You Wanner / The Boss (instr.) / Clasp Hands / What About Us / What About Us (again) / Pacifying Joint / Blindness

Excellent reviews on the message board and there's a photo on gigwise.com.

Steven Chandler sent in some excellent photos.

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added 14 March

13 March 2006 - Cartoon Club, Croydon

The Boss / Bo Demmick / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / What About Us / Mountain Energei

Another short (41min), aborted set. The planned setlist continued with Midnight in Aspen / Touch Sensitive / Assume / Clasp Hands / Systematic Abuse / Blindness. Reviews and photos on the message board. Thanks to Mark for the setlist and for the terrific photos posted on the message board.

Tim Cumming's review in the Independent (15 March).

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added 15 March

14 March 2006 - Cartoon Club, Croydon

Dr. Buck's Letter / Touch Sensitive / Systematic Abuse / Assume / Clasp Hands / Bo Doodak / Boxoctosis / White Line Fever / Pacifying Joint / Youwanner / Midnight in Aspen (aborted) / Blindness

By all accounts the third night was the charm. Reviews and photos on the message board, and thanks again to Mark for the setlist and photos.

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added 16 March

15 March 2006 - Cartoon Club, Croydon

Instrumental (possibly Systematic Abuse?) / Touch Sensitive / Bo Doodak / Clasp Hands / What About Us / Mountain Enegei / Theme from Sparta FC / Blindness

Reviews and photos on the message board. Once again, thanks to Mark for the setlist (although the gig didn't have much to do with it) and photos.

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added 17 March

16 March 2006 - Civic Hall, Stratford-Upon-Avon

The Boss / Pacifying Joint / Mountain Energei / Theme from Sparta FC / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / What About Us / White Line Fever / Systematic Abuse / Touch Sensitive / Blindness

Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Ocelot for the ticket and James for these photos (low resolution).

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added 21 March

20 March 2006 - Carling Academy, Bristol

Thanks to Jamie for the setlist and Splart for the ticket. Actual set played:

The Boss (instrumental) / Pacifying Joint / Assume / Mountain Energei / Theme from Sparta FC / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / What About Us / Touch Sensitive / Systematic Abuse / Blindness

Reviews on the message board.

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added 23 March

22 March 2006 - Lemon Grove, Exeter

The Boss / Pacifying Joint / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear The Grass Grow / What about Us / Theme from Sparta F.C. / Clasp Hands / White Line Fever / Touch Sensitive / Systematic Abuse / Bo Demmick / Blindness

Setlist may not be 100% accurate. Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Splart for the ticket.

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added 24 March

23 March 2006 - Fez Club, Reading

The set may well have followed the above. Reviews on the message board, and once again thanks to Mark for the setlist. Paul has posted a multi-sequence photo pack on his site.

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added 27 March

24 March 2006 - Charlotte, Leicester

The Boss / Bo Demmick / Pacifying Joint / What About Us / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Higgle-dy Piggle-dy / Midnight in Aspen / Touch Sensitive / Theme from Sparta F.C. / Systematic Abuse // Blindness

Reviews and great photos on the message board.

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added 3 April

31 March 2006 - Les Docks, Lausanne, Switzerland

Bo Doodak / Theme from Sparta F.C. / Pacifying Joint / What Bout Us / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Higgle-dy Piggle-dy / Touch Sensitive / Clasp Hands / Systemmatic Abuse / Mr. Pharmacist / Blindness / Big New Prinz / White Lightning

A lone review on the message board. Thanks to Herve for the images and Beppe and Marco for these photos.

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added 8 March; updated 13 March

Mark's autobiography - The Two-Year Gap - is due to be published by Penguin in November 2006. Brix is also writing a book about her time in the Fall. Can a made for TV film be far behind?

From the latest Penguin Rights Guide
http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/ri...nlondon2006.pdf

THE TWO-YEAR GAP
Mark E Smith with Austin Collins [sic - it's actually Collings, who did that MES interview in the Guardian last year]

Still going after thirty years, The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, their music - odd, spare, cranky and repetitious - an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand. And Mark E. Smith IS The Fall - 47 members have come and gone over the years yet he remains its charismatic leader, a professional outsider and all-round enemy of compromise, a true enigma. There have been a number of biographies of the legendary Smith, but this is the first time he has opened up in a full autobiography. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.

Manchester band The Fall was founded in 1977 and was one of a trio of great bands (with Joy Division and the Buzzcocks) to come out of the city at that time. They have released a remarkable 79 albums and still continue to tour at a punishing rate. Having survived punk, 80s indie, Madchester and Britpop, they continue to have a near religious following.

Mark E Smith was a founder member of The Fall and still lives in Manchester where the band was formed. This is his first book.

Viking
November 2006
288pp
US Rights: Penguin UK
Translation Rights: Luxton Harris

And from bookseller.com (Viking is part of the Penguin Group)

Tony Lacey at Viking has world rights in a memoir by Mark E. Smith, frontman of rock band The Fall. Smith will tell his story of infighting, drugs, imprisonment, bankruptcy and divorce in The Two-Year Gap, written with Austin Collins [sic]. Publication will be in April 2007. The agent is David Luxton at Luxton Harris.

So it appears that the UK edition will be out this November, and the non-UK editions in April 2007. It was the same for Simon Reynolds's recent postpunk book.

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added 7 March

Ivor Cutler : 15 January 1923 - 3 March 2006.

The Times website has an excellent obituary. I used to love listening to his stories from a Scotch sitting room on John Peel.

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added 6 March; updated 7 March

From the Official Fall Website:

The Fall spent all of last week holed up in a delightful studio in the deepest, darkest English countryside composing, rehearsing and recording initial mixes of their first new material since last year's Fall Heads Roll LP.

The recording sessions with Grant Showbiz resulted in a wealth of new material, some of which is likely to be aired for the first time at gigs in Greece and the UK over the next few weeks.

It is far too early at this stage to state exactly when this material will emerge in a recorded format, as there is still some distance to go.

Photos of the final sessions yesterday will follow soon….

Officially sanctioned photos now posted.

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added 23 February

In case you missed it last month, Mark E. Smith revoked this site's "official" status on Valentine's Day. Clayts has created a new Official Fall website. Press release in the 21 February Fall news.

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added 27 February

Mario:

As you know, it's MES Birthday on the 5th of March. I'm giving a party on Saturday the 4th in Berlin to celebrate his 49th. Its a tribute night to The Fall and their music. I will play Fall records only the entire night. There will also be an information board with copies of interviews and so on...

Details:

Jungs & Technik present:
"Happy Birthday Mark E. Smith - A Tribute Night To The Fall"

March, 4th 2006 at BARBI DEINHOFF 22.00
Schlesische Strasse 16 Berlin Kreuzberg, U-Schlesisches Tor

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added 23 February; updated 27 February

A treat for John Peel fans. Colin on the Peel list sent me a tape of his compilation of Peely's intros and outros to Fall songs, and I rooted around in my collection to add to what Colin sent me. The end result is about 46 minutes' worth.

With many thanks to Al, the mp3 has a new home here: http://www.weirdenergy.com/fall/peel_fall-intros.mp3 (right-click to save).

If you want to contribute intros/outros that aren't on my mp3, that would be great! I have a couple of things that I forgot to put on this recording, so I'm planning a Volume 2 anyway. You can email me at fallnews@gmail.com.

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added 14 February

A message from Cole Coonce of KeroseneBomb Publishing re Dr. Buck's Letters: An Unauthorized Extrapolation of The Fall :

If the Fall are Mark E. Smith and yer granny on bongos, then FallNet is an internet mailing list of ketamine-coated cockroaches crawling across a keyboard and dedicating itself to discussing all things Mark E. Smith and The Fall... FallNet has taken it upon itself to liberate sundry Fall song titles, dumpster the original lyrics and reinterpret the message with our own verse and prose.

Paypal and US checks accepted. Price is $10.95 + s&h.

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added 6 February

An announcement from Bert of the Praxis Hagen Gallery in Berlin, Germany.

The Fall : Paintwork
A Tribute to Mark E. Smith

18 May through 12 June 2006 in the Praxis Hagen Gallery.

For the 30th birthday of The Fall there will be a special event in Berlin.

Twelve artists who either made artwork for the record covers, referred their work to The Fall, got inspired by the music and the attitude or used the band as a code, a cultural phenomenon will exhibit old and new work. The artists in this group exhibition are very different -- and very much the same: they all relate to music and transfer this passion into art -- paintings, drawings, videos, sculptures, performances.

Especially the artists who did the old album covers have since then developed and will be showing new work. Now, as then, inspired by The Fall.

So the exhibition will not only be a retrospective but a "work in progress" like The Fall. Paintwork.

It is the first time these artists exhibit together. Their only link: The Fall.

It looks like it will be a great show with many familiar names and faces. Artist bios and websites are on the gallery's website.

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Claus Castenskiold still has some of his artist-signed PBL tour posters for sale on his site -- http://www.clauscastenskiold.com.

6 Apr. 2006

This is the latest news and gossip off the message board, Fallnet, and elsewhere 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.

21feb06 Official Fall site now Unofficial, Guardian ex-Fall members article, Mojo interview and poll results, IS, IAH, MCR & CC remaster details, Mixing It session, Antwerp & Wigan gigs, Ding's two new bands, Ghostigital, New Year's Honours, fashion corner: Brix interview & Lagerfeld show, Blue Orchids new album, history of Salford bands.

03jan06 Word MES interview, ticket refund information, Festive 50, misc. year-end press roundups and Fall forum poll results, preview of Guardian's ex-Fall members article, MES lego minifig, Armitage Shanks & Necropolis Fall-related songs, Ghostigital's "Not Clean" & "Codomatopoeia," Corsa ad back on TV, John Peel's Record Box.

08nov05 Fall Heads Roll reviews, UK tour, Incendiary, Rock Sound & Pitchfork interviews, PBL book preview, Commercially Unfriendly cd.

30sep05 Fall Heads Roll details, MES to read footy scores, Peel tribute CDs, ChronicArt preview, Blast Off DVD sampler, Frank Skinner, Jacob's Cream Crackers, Stewart Lee, Deisel-U-Matic award.

18aug05 Paul Hanley BBC radio int., MES Metro "60-second" & Kitchen Sink ints., 1979 Jamming! int., Deisel U Matic award, Paul Wilson's Fall Mix, Stewart Lee's favorite things.

26jul05 Berlin & Paris gigs, Fall site news, Diesel-U-Music & Mojo awards, Live from the Vaults: the "real" story, Sanctuary / Slogan Records announcement, Mayo Thompson, Commercially Unfriendly CD, links to loads of Peel box reviews.

14jun05 UK & Lyon gigs, Conway's guitar tab and Adult Net pages, Jools Holland, Deeply Vale cd, MES int. w/BBC on Peel, Lime Lizard 1993, Festive 50 book, Live from the Vaults delayed, Wake Up in the City, Cuz'n Roy's yard sale on ebay, Jahn Rhondos.

27apr05 UK gigs, Left of the Dial & Scotland on Sunday interviews, Deeply Vale CD preview, Bingo Masters press release, Scherzo Schist, Live from the Vaults, Simon Reynolds, Simon Armitage, Prenzlauer Berg, Fall Cafe, Poloraoids special offer, Brix & Gromit, MES on Funhouse, Fall documentary transcript, the Fall wants your photo.

25feb05 BBC4 Fall doc, Hex reissue, KFNY gig, Fall Forum's TNSG, Ice Magazine (UK) MES int., Sun Zoom Spark articles, Playlouder appreciation, unofficial Sparta FC video, Peel set postponed 1 month, MES's New Years Honours list, 9may81 photos, Hunter S. Thompson, RIP.

07jan05 Jim Watts resigns, UK gigs, Pseud Mag, Festive 50, Deeply Vale, documentary, City Bar "fall-out", Polaroids on the Fall, Wipe That Sound, Narnack sampler.