Fall News

added 3 January

I'm back... thanks very much to Clayts and Conway for updating the Fall news while I was away.

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The Fall play ...
 

All dates above are confirmed by The Fall as at 22 December 2005.

We are currently awaiting clarification on further UK dates at The Charlotte, Leicester (17 March), Carling Academy, Bristol (19 March) and The Canteen, Barrow (exact date in March unknown).

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added 23 December, updated 3 January

2005 was a great year indeed for The Fall, and to commemorate this we had a poll on the Forum, asking our visitors to name their three highlights of the year. The results of the top 8 were as follows (displayed as percentages of total vote) :

Thanks to everyone who took part.

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added 30 December

The Fall have issued their New Years Honours for 2005/06 - these have been announced on the Forum, together with a Happy New Year message from Mark.

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added 21 December, updated 30 December

Refunds for the postponed show at the Carling Academy, Bristol on 31 October 2005 are now being issued by Ticketweb, as it has not been possible to reschedule the date in 2006 as originally planned - emails have been issued to all Ticketweb customers. Fans should contact the point of sale if they ordered from other vendors.

Thanks to Steve Hamilton for the heads up.

Update 30 December

It seems as if Bristol has now been squeezed into the itinerary in March, with an appearance slotted in for 19 March, according to Ticketline - we are currently awaiting official confirmation from the group.

added 15 December

If anyone is having difficulties obtaining refunds from the point of sale for the "advertised in error" Southend gig at Chinnery's on 20 January 2006, you are asked to contact Mr Sim, the promoter, who can be contacted via e-mail at downtherabbithole@msoundz.com

This may apply to anyone who ordered tickets from See Tickets or similar booking agents.

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added 28 December

The February 2006 edition of Mojo magazine carries a three-page interview with Mark, written by Mark Paytress. You can view here or if you prefer you can see it in PDF format here.

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added 28 December

UK visitors to Fall News may like to know that the Vauxhall Corsa "Hide and Seek" advert campaign is currently being re-run on commercial TV, complete with the jazzy version of Touch Sensitive.

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added 24 December

Thanks to R. Walker for the following snippet from yesterday's Guardian newspaper (UK), which carried a review of the best of 2005. One of just four albums to gain the coveted five-star treatment, the glowing endorsement of Fall Heads Roll is accompanied by a very nice catalogue-style pose by Mark.

However, in our trainspotter style, we do have to disagree on the number of albums: at the time of its release, FHR was the band's 86th album. We're off for some meat paste sandwiches and weak lemon drink at Paddington Station. In the meantime, here's the article for your festive pleasure:

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added 23 December

2005 was a great year indeed for The Fall, and to commemorate this we have started a poll on the Forum, asking our visitors to name their three highlights of the year. We'll publish the results here on Fall News in the New Year. Cast your votes here.

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added 23 December

BBC4 are repeating their superb documentary, The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith at 1.45am on 29 December. Thanks to Bob for the heads up.

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added 22 December, updated 23 December

This year BBC Radio's OneMusic continued the great tradition of the Festive 50, as originally broadcast by the greatly missed John Peel,  and The Fall achieved three entries :

• Number 14 Blindness

• Number 29 What About Us ?

• Number 32 I Can Hear The Grass Grow

OneMusic DJs Huw Stephens, Rob da Bank, and Ras Kwame broadcast the rebranded OneMusic Festive 50 during their respective shows on 21 and 22 December 2005.

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added 20 December, updated 23 December

Ever wondered what some of the former members of Fall gruppe were up to nowadays ?

Well, Dave Simpson of The Guardian asked himself that very question and as a result of his incredibly intensive research and some meetings in smoke-filled rooms, the newspaper will be running a feature on, we believe, Thursday 5 January 2006 (well, that's the target date, anyhow...).

As we type this, Dave is still transcribing hour upon hour of interviews. In an e-mail to Fall News, Dave noted that he has some very funny stories to regale as well as a few quite moving ones too. He successfully made contact with all ex-employees bar Jonnie Brown, Karl Burns, Mike Leigh, and the infamous debut gig drummer "Dave."

Some of the ol' gang were also rounded up for a photo shoot and we know that such luminaries as the Brothers Hanley, Marc "Lard" Riley, Julia Nagle, Kate Themen, etc were snapped and will feature in the article.

It's also worth mentioning that Martin Peters of The Pseud Mag, the Fall fanzine which has featured interviews with several ex-members of the group, gave Dave a hand in the research for his article. Not bought this august journal yet? Be off with you to the Pseud Mag site...

Back to The Guardian, we've also been contacted by Tim Cumming, who wrote a piece for the paper last year about ex-Fall members, featuring interviews with about a half a dozen former members. He says print copies of his extensive MES interview from Spring 2004 are available from Liar Republic at this email: paul.liarincltd@blueyonder.co.uk

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added 16 December, updated 17 December

Dodgy UK daily "redtop" tabloid The Sun has amazed Fall fans the world over by placing the band at number three in their Boxset of the Year awards in today's edition.

Rather worryingly, Fall gruppe failed to dislodge The Eurythmics at number 2 and....ready for this....Chris Rea (yes, we know....) at number 1.

There are hopes that, based upon their parents' current ownership of Eurythmics and Rea boxsets, several juveniles will be visiting HMV today to buy their fogeys the Complete Peel Sessions for Christmas because....The Sun Says (thanks to altfish for proposing this somewhat ridiculous, but eminently believable, scenario).

Thanks to colinham over on the Forum for the heads up on this Sun exclusive. Please feel free to add your thoughts to the merits of this Sun-sational award, folks, on the Forum.

Update

Thanks to John Procter for reminding us at Fall News that this isn't the first time the "Super Soaraway Sun" has endorsed The Fall, as this excerpt from 'serious' football cartoon, Striker, of 2 September 1986 proves beyond doubt :

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added 12 December

Just in time for your Christmas shopping (thanks Shedlord!)

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added 12 December

Two new press bits:

• 7 Magazine, Sunday Telegraph, 12 December (Peel Sessions box). Thanks to Mike for the scan.
• Spike Magazine, December 2005 (FHR review by Ben Granger)

The following you'll have seen before, perhaps. I'm moving the links here to keep all the press bits in one Fall news block.

• The January 2006 issue of Word has an interview with Mark. Many thanks to Ocelot for the scan.
• Cam Lindsay has written a brief history of the Fall for Toronto's Exclaim magazine. A few bits got past the fact checkers (e.g., Mark didn't yell "If it's just me and your grandmother on the bongos, it's still the Fall" at the audience during the 1998 Brownies gig; as far as I know Mark didn't "immortalise" Nigel Kennedy in a song called "Fiend with a Violin", etc. And is "US 80s-90s" really a "flirtatious attempt at rap"?). Overall it's not a bad retrospective for those new to the band.
• The Guardian got around to reviewing Fall Heads Roll in today's paper (5 stars).
• There are three Fall-related bits in the January 2006 issue of Mojo. Thanks to Clayts for scanning them in.

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added 9 December

I've added a great many press clippings from 1980-1985 to the gigography and bibliography, including this Sounds interview from 1983 that hadn't been posted anywhere before. Many thanks to David Flavell for sending the originals to Clayts, who scanned them in.

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added 5 December

The BBC Fall documentary is getting a rare (its first?) showing in the United States, at the International House in Philadelphia on 16 & 17 December. Details here.

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added 29 November

A song to brighten your dreary morning/ afternoon/ evening: Me and Your Granny on Bongos by the Armitage Shanks.

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added 21 November

Link Wray, r.i.p. Very sad news indeed. Link died on 5 November and his funeral was held last Friday, 18 November, in Copenhagen. There's a lovely message from his wife and son on their site.

Here's the interview the NME did with Link and Mark back in 1993.

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added 21 November

After a long delay Narnack is finally shipping vinyl copies of Fall Heads Roll. This is the edition with the alternate version of Blindness, an mp3 of which is available on their site.

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added 18 November; updated 21 November

As promised, Mark read the football scores on the BBCi "Score" programme Saturday afternoon (19 November). Steven has a Real media clip on his site, as well as the Fall bits from the recent "John Peel's Record Box" BBC programme.

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added 17 November

Michael Pollard has kindly sent in many of his excellent photos of the recent Sankey's Soap gig, a few from last August's Moorfest, and a couple of additions to his two Fall photoshoots from 1984 and 1985. Many thanks, Michael!

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added 16 November

Many thanks to Milkcan for scanning in a couple of old interviews for the bibliography.

• B-Side, August/September 1989
• Lime Lizard, July 1991

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added 14 November; updated 16 November

From Uncut:

The Fall will be featured on a free John Peel tribute CD given away with the January 2006 issue of UNCUT magazine (on sale December 1). The CD, titled JOHN PEEL'S FESTIVE 15, comprises 15 tracks which made Peel's annual Festive 50 listeners poll, including "Eat Y'self Fitter" which reached No 8 in 1983 and was also one of Peel's chosen records on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1989.

The CD also includes Half Man Half Biscuit, The House Of Love, The Sugarcubes, Billy Bragg, Felt, The Wedding Present, Pavement, The Field Mice, The Woodentops, Camper Van Beethoven, Spizzenergi, Wah!, The Bhundu Boys and Robert Wyatt.

Also, the December issue of The Word (#34) has a free CD with "Early Days of Channel Führer."

And the current Magnet Magazine (probably Oct/Nov, issue #69) has a free CD with "I Can Hear the Grass Grow."

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added 14 November

Tony:

"Have you picked up on a 7" single by a group called Necropolis, on a label called Columbus Discount Records out of Ohio? The A side's called "Stalking Mark E Smith Around NYC". Only came across it by accident, but how could I resist such a title? Luckily the track's pretty good too, a kind of angular No Wave guitar trio revival type of thing. Well worth checking out. The group's url seems to be: www.necropolisrocks.com."

Looks like the single was released in January 2005, so the Fall news is a bit late on this one, sorry.

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added 18 October; updated 9 November

Thanks to my good friend Jon in Reykjavik:

While reading this morning's newspaper in Reykjavik, I noticed that there is a festival cd being released here today (more information here). Track 19 of this cd features MES. The track is by the Icelandic band Ghostigital, which is fronted by Einar Orn Benediktsson, formerly of Purkur Pillnik and the Sugarcubes.

In Cod We Trust !

Oskar:

Icelandic band Kimono (http://myspace.com/kimono) has 3 of their songs (Sonar, Aftermath and Onomatopoeia) AND a remix of the 3rd song + the Ghostigital song "Not Clean", called "Codomatopoeia".

This wonderful Einar Orn Benediktsson + MES duet is an absolute must! MES's taste in fish has been made pretty clear by now.

There are loads of Kimono tracks (including Codomatopoeia) on their website (in the multimedia section).

9 November: the link to listen to and/or download Codomatopoeia has been removed from both of the above sites. No idea who requested its removal, but I could hazard a guess.

A bit more info on all the above from Spoilt Victorian Child (great photo!):

Einar Orn Benediktsson (ex singer from Sugarcubes) has recorded a track called 'Not Clean' for his forthcoming album "In Cod We Trust" under the name Ghostigital. It's a duet with Mark E.Smith and the track has so far appeared on The Iceland Airwaves 05 festival CD. The LP is getting a UK release by Honest Jons records.

Kimono are one of Iceland's biggest bands and have the same producer as Ghostigital a chap called Bibbi who also records under the name Curver. Kimono release records on Einar's label 'Bad Taste' and have an instrumental track called 'Onomatopoeia'. Somone has jammed the 'Not Clean' track on top of 'Onomatopoeia' and created 'Codomatopoeia'!

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added 7 November; updated 9 November

The Brighton council is trying to close Brighton's best music venue, Concorde 2, to under 18s. If you disagree with their decision, please take a moment to sign this petition. Nov. 9: good news -- the Brighton council has backed down.

And not to be outdone, the Northamptonshire County Council is considering withdrawing funding for Roadmender. Sign this petition, please!

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added 1 November

bits and pieces:

The Fall has recorded a session for BBC Radio 3's Mixing It program. Not sure why the long delay, but they're planning to air it on Friday, 10 February, 2006.

Mark is collaborating again with Mouse on Mars for their next album (due out next spring), according to this interview (the MES bit is at the bottom).

Stephen has three Fall-related, UK TV clips on his site (that Elastic Man cover from Frank Skinner, the Skinner House Band playing Jawbone, and Franz Ferdinand talking about the Fall).

Upcoming on UK TV:

• John Peel's Record Box -- part of Channel 4's "UK Music Hall of Fame" programming and provisionally set for 14 November. There'll be a section on the Fall.
• A reminder that MES is scheduled to read the football results on BBC1's "Final Score" on 19 November.

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added 31 October

Excellent news indeed from David Luff, publisher of 1985's "The Fall Lyrics." David has decided to unload the copies he has left over of the first edition (which has gone for as much as £81 on ebay) for a mere £10 (including p&p). The Fallshop has temporarily reopened for this item only, or if you prefer you can order a copy on ebay.

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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.

3 Jan. 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.

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.