Fall News - 14 Sep 1998

There's a few sort of confirmed US venues up at www.monsterclub23.com.

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Steve Beeho:

From an interview with David Thewlis in this month's Select:

Is it true you based Johnny partly on Mark E Smith out of the Fall?

No, but I listened to the Fall when I was doing Johnny because I thought the character would have been into the Fall. I don't think I've ever heard Mark E Smith talk but I knew his records, from growing up in Blackpool at the time. I listened to John Cooper Clarke as well, for the humour of it. Johnny was based on someone real, like all Mike's characters, someone I knew. But he doesn't know and I don't think he'd be flattered, so enough said.

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stefan:

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Graeme Park wrote:

> MES: The visitation of an American poet
> Thus began a slow palaver subtle, unconscious in its loss of identity
> Running and growing through the back end of the years 94 to 98 (to six and
> now)
> To explain, where to begin,
> The soft green leaves (of Massachussets)
> The visitation took place outside Salem
> A dolphin restaurant, the fish tasted peculiar
> It was (orson?awesome)

Not sure if this amounts to a Hank hill of beans, but the above might refer to the Fall's first visit to the Boston area in 1979. They played a club called The Club, which was either in Harvard or Central Square (anyone know where this place was?), Cambridge, on December 3, 1979. Near Harvard Square is a local institution called the Dolphin Restaurant (serves good fish whenever I go there...) and very close by it, in 1979 at least, was the Orson Welles Cinema (long gone now and missed).

So perhaps we can add the Dolphin to the Hilltop Steak House (inspiration for the Steak Place) for a Boston-area Fall-con restaurant crawl.

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Oliver Czoske:
A quote of St. Augustine, as surely someone noticed before:
"I understand time till I'm asked about it"

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al:

http://www.rabyd.com/covenpride/digital_necromancy.html

Note that the quote below is not word-for-word what MES says, which suggests a different, though related source. Everything that follows is lifted from the above URL:

********************************************************************

Computer-enhanced Necromancy and the Lovecraft Project, a study by Bobby Rabyd

with an introduction by Lovecraft Scholar E. Robert Arellano, Adjunct Lecturer, Departments of English and Modern Culture & Media, NW Orb University

Coven Pride

"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."

Name that quote!

Except for the archaic diction and the oddly macabre delight of the author in the face of a "new dark age," it might be another intrepid pundit of electronic text and the Internet, calling for caution or resistence in the face of the sweeping changes being inaugurated in the way we think by the adolescence of the personal computer. But the quote comes from none other than Coven Pride's own godfather of horror, Howard Phillips Lovecraft. It's the opening paragraphs of The Call of Cthulhu, (Found Among the Papers of the Late Francis Wayland Thurston, of Boston), part I., The Horror in Clay. The year is 1926.

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More Pre-Cog from the man Smith
SimonF

By Jackie Burdon, Showbusiness Correspondent, PA News Once a detective, then a barrister, ratings-winning actor John Thaw is to get a new role as a plastic surgeon, it emerged today. Two two-hour specials with the working title Plastic Man and starring Thaw, formerly Inspector Morse and now Kavanagh QC, have been commissioned for ITV, it was announced. ITV head of drama Nick Elliott told Broadcast magazine the series would concentrate on the professional life and private loves of a plastic surgeon. Independent producer Sally Head worked on Prime Suspect, the award-winning occasional drama starring Helen Mirren. Mr Elliott also said the next series of Kavanagh QC might be the last, but makers Carlton were already dreaming up another series to star John Thaw. Both new series could be on screen next spring. end

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From: Carlton B Morgan
Subject: <fallnet> bunch of quacks deja vu

A discussion re parallels between Ark and Mallard (what the original Magic band became when they left Beefy) yielded the following list, which I felt behooven to share with y'all.

Mallard: singer replaced by jobbing hack from various country bands
Ark: singer replaced by jobbing hack from various indiewuss bands

Mallard: complete waste of world's greatest bassplayer, Rockette Morton
Ark: well I needn't spell it out, need I?

Mallard: crap name that just might be pathetic pun/jibe at former vocalists first name (Donald-duck-Mallard)
Ark:ditto

Mallard: former drummer of CB & the MB Drumbo works with them as lyricist
Ark: former drummer of Fall P Hanley works with them as keyboardist

Now all we gotta wait & find out is if the Ark vocalist (see I've forgotten his name already) was suggested by, say, Marc Riley (as Sam Galpin was suggested by Winged Eel Fingerling), if they get signed to Virgin, etc. Shit, if only Gerry Hanley had still been bassist for MB when Mallard was formed we'd be able to get this in Fortean Times!

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Graham C:
Subject: <fallnet> Furious Iran lyrics

Found a programme for "I Am Furious, Iran" from the Kings Theatre in Basingstoke. Just lurking in the oven. Anyway, inside are the lyrics for Furious Iran. Here they are.

Verse:

Furious ee-ran, O furious eye-ran
He is furious ee-ran, they are furious eye-ran

Chorus (spoken):

Anonymous and furious they were, that is they are
they are furious, furious
furious at Reagan furious at Saddam
burrupapa babapapa ba ba puh parrr
they put a fatwah on dumb fellows like you
they hate the world as you know it
all the systems you embrace
they rode slipshod over every fuckface
they were furious Iran

back in nineteen seventy eight
drew 0-0 with Scot foot team
now it's nineteen ninety eight
they're still furious eye-ran
they are furious eeh-ran
they disliked presbyterians
they disliked episcopalians
and they don't think much of you
but their camels loved them, and their
donkeys loved them too
they were furious Iran
built the goddam pyramids in one day
invented the internet too
they need no slacks
their robes are cool in the desert sun
turned Khomeini over and didn't know
they made Rushdie laugh in pain -
they were furious Iran
they were positively Koran
they invented the Taliban
they were ridiculed, invulnerable to -
hydrochloric shaving cream

Part Two

brrrp ba ba ba ba ba ba ran see oh aitch oh eh oh eh oh
they were furious I-ran
at a Flock of Bleedin Seagulls man
they were furious at Duran Duran
and not at all happy with D Bowie lookalikes
kept missionary in Arab states
I wrong a song about it: T Waite
and the Sun-baked men did shake
at the furious Irans
and their curious Islam
pains in the arse man they were
fundamental
beep beep ba ba ba ba goo goo g'joob
they were: anti semantic
ante diluvian
prelapsarian, you name it man
they were against it
and everybody in the world
burned infotainment scan
they were furious Iran
chop off your thieving hand
hubbly bubbly smoking
they were beyond kankerlijers
invisible scapegoats to a man
they were furious Iran
and their capital is Tehran

PC Camp (1998)

----

al:

PAT-POST DELIVERER

He's stop-frame animated
It's Pat the post deliverer
He came with parcels in his van
The post deliverer

Owns monochrome cat entitled Jess
It's Pat the post deliverer
In slow red van he drives around
with black/white feline nutter

Pat thought he could deliver the post
with his imitation hands
But he had not accounted for anatomically unsound number of fingers
He did not know there are no postcards in the sack
And even if there were, stamps could not be affixed upon them

His head was made of balsa wood
A cavity of nothing
It's Pat the post deliverer

Meet Mrs Groggins at cardboard supermarket
With paper
With paper
It's Pat the post deliverer

----

from the Edinburgh Evening News, May 5 1998

THE RISE AND THE FALL OF A PUNK LEGEND - EXCLUSIVE

Scots guitarist Tommy Crooks has sensationally walked out of legendary Manchester punk band The Fall after an on-stage bust up with controversial frontman Mark E Smith.

But Ormiston-based Crooks, 34, today confessed to still having "a soft spot" for the eccentric singer, although he and two other band members have vowed never to work with him again.

The group's month-long American tour ended in a blaze of controversy when Smith allegedly attched the band with a microphone stand just two numbers into their penultimate gig, at Brownies in New York's East Village.

RELEASED

Smith was subsequently arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend (and Fall keyboardist) Julia Nagle after the bust up with the other band members continued back at their Manhattan Hotel..

He was released on bail after two days in the cells, but must return to America for another court appearance on September 30.

Unpeturbed, Nagle appeared on stage with Smith at Dingwalls in London last week, after he had drafted in a female drummer to allow the scheduled shows to go ahead.

But today, Tommy Crooks warned that this latest episode in The Fall's exlosive career could be the last chapter in their colourful history.

"Typically of The Fall it all ends in chaos, madness, and on this occasion the police got involved," he said.

It was a sad end to Crooks' relationship with his musical hero - it was a shock when he was asked to join the band after designing an album cover for the long-running group.

The unpredictable Smith had already fired and rehired his colleagues on two occasions, and the latest rumpus was the final straw for him and veteran Fall members Steve Hanley and Karl Burns.

"It was dreadful, because there were fans in tears. We had played two songs when it turned to mayhem. It was such a shame for people who had travelled up from America's Deep South to struggle to get a ticket, then that happens."

The threesome have now formed a new group called Ark, and Crooks is reflecting on the frantic 12 months spent playing with his former music idol.

"It has been a real eyeopener and an exciting rollercoaster ride" he said.

"As a band we got on really well, but Mark kind of ruined it. Perhaps he can still carry on, because it would take a lot to keep someone down when he has so much charisma."

Now Crooks has high hopes for the future with Ark, but doubts over how long The Fall can continue in the long term. "I have been down in Manchester rehearsing with Steve and Karl all weekend, and we already have seven new songs written and ready to go."

EXHIBITION

"Mark may be carrying on but I think some things come to a natural end, and after 20 very intense years, who knows?"

Tommy hopes Ark will be snapped up by a record company, and is also planning an exhibition of his photography in Edinburgh this autumn.

*The Fall had hits with There's A Ghost In My House (No 30 in 1987) and Victoria (No 35 in 1988) and have enjoyed the support of Radio 1's John Peel.

---------
Tale of the Week:

Tom Tit Tot
England

Once upon a time there was a woman, and she baked five pies. And when they came out of the oven, they were that overbaked the crusts were too hard to eat. So she says to her daughter: "Darter," says she, "put you them there pies on the shelf, and leave 'em there a little, and they'll come again." -- She meant, you know, the crust would get soft. But the girl, she says to herself: "Well, if they'll come again, I'll eat 'em now." And she set to work and ate 'em all, first and last.

Well, come supper-time the woman said: "Go you, and get one o' them there pies. I dare say they've come again now." The girl went and she looked, and there was nothing but the dishes. so back she came, and says she: "Noo, they ain't come again." "Not one of 'em?" says the mother. "Not one of 'em," says she. "Well, come again, or not come again," said the woman, "I'll have one for supper." "But you can't, if they ain't come," said the girl. "But I can," says she. "Go you, and bring the best of 'em." Best or worst," says the girl, "I've ate 'em all, and you can't have one till that's come again."

Well, the woman she was done, and she took her spinning to the door to spin, and as she span she sang: My darter ha' ate five, five pies today. My darter ha' ate five, five pies today. The king was coming down the street, and he heard her sing, but what she sang he couldn't hear, so he stopped and said: "What was that you were singing, my good woman?" The woman was ashamed to let him hear what her daughter had been doing, so she sang, instead of that: My darter ha' spun five, five skeins today. My darter ha' spun five, five skeins today.

"Stars o' mine!" said the king, "I never heard tell of anyone that could do that." Then he said: "Look you here, I want a wife, and I'll marry your daughter. But look you here," says he, "eleven months out of the year she shall have all she likes to eat, and all the gowns she likes to get, and all the company she likes to keep; but the last month of the year she'll have to spin five skeins every day, and if she don't, I shall kill her."

"All right," says the woman; for she thought what a grand marriage that was. And as for the five skeins, when the time came, there'd be plenty of ways of getting out of it, and likeliest, he'd have forgotten all about it. Well, so they were married. And for eleven months the girl had all she liked to eat, and all the gowns she liked to get, and all the company she liked to keep. But when the time was getting over, she began to think about the skeins and to wonder if he had 'em in mind. But not one word did he say about 'em, and she thought he'd wholly forgotten 'em.

However, the last day of the last month he takes her to a room she'd never set eyes on before. There was nothing in it but a spinning wheel and a stool And says he: "Now, my dear, here you'll be shut in tomorrow with some victuals and some flax, and if you haven't spun five skeins by the night, your head'll go off." And away he went about his business. Well, she was that frightened, she'd always been such a gatless [careless] girl, that she didn't so much as know how to spin, and what was she to do tomorrow with no one to come nigh her to help her? She sat down on a stool in the kitchen, and law! how she did cry!

However, all of a sudden she heard a sort of a knocking low down on the door. She upped and oped it, and what should she see but a small little black thing with a long tail. That looked up at her right curious, and that said: "What are you a-crying for?" "What's that to you?:" says she.

"Never you mind," that said, "but tell me what you're a-crying for." "That won't do me no good if I do," says she. "You don't know that," that said, and twirled that's tail round. "well," says she, "that won't do no harm, if that don't do no good," and she upped and told about the pies, and the skeins, and everything. "This is what I'll do," says the little black thing, "I'll come to your window every morning and take the flax and bring it spun at night."

"What's your pay?" says she. That looked out the corner of that's eyes, and that said: "I'll give you three guesses every night to guess my name, and if you haven't guessed it before the month's up, you shall be mine. Well, she thought she'd be sure to guess that's name before the month was up. "All right," says she, "I agree." "All right," that says, and law! how that twirled that's tail. Well, the next day, her husband took her into the room, and there was the flax and the day's food. "Now there's the flax," says he, and if that ain't spun up this night, off goes your head."

And then he went out and locked the door. He'd hardly gone, when there was a knocking against the window. She upped and she oped it, and there sure enough was the little old thing sitting on the ledge. "Where's the flax?" says he. "Here it be," says she. And she gave it to him. Well, come the evening a knocking came again to the window. She upped and she oped it, and there was the little old thing with five skeins of flax on his arm.

"Here it be," says he, and he have it to her. "Now, what's my name" says he. What, is that Bill?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail. "Is that Ned?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail. "Well, is that Mark?" says she. "Noo, that ain't," says he, and he twirled his tail harder, and away he flew. Well, when her husband came in, there were the five skeins ready for him. "I see I shan't have to kill you tonight, my dear," says her; "you'll have your food and your flax in the morning," says he, and away he goes.

Well every day the flax and the food were brought, and every day that there little black impet used to come mornings and evenings. And all the day the girl sate trying to think of names to say to it what it came at night. But she never hit on the right one. And as it got towards the end of the month, the impet began to look so maliceful, and that twirled that's tail faster and faster each time she gave a guess. At last it came to the last day but one. The impet came at night along with the five skeins, and that said: "What, ain't you got my name yet?"

"Is that Nicodemus?" says she. "Noo, 'tain't," that says. "Is that Sammle?" says she. "Noo, 'tain't," that says. "A-well, is that Methusalem?" says she. "Noo, 'tain't that neither," that says. Then that looks at her with that's eyes like a coal o' fire, and that says: "Woman, there's only tomorrow night, and then you'll be mine?" And away it flew. Well, she felt that horrid. However, she heard the king coming along the passage. In he came, and when he sees the five skeins, he says, says he: "Well, my dear," says he. "I don't see but what you'll have your skeins ready tomorrow night as well, and as I reckon I shan't have to kill you, I'll have supper in here tonight." So they brought supper, and another stool for him, and down the two sate.

Well, he hadn't eaten but a mouthful or so, when he stops and begins to laugh. "What is it?" says she. "A-why," says he, I was out a-hunting today, and I got away to a place in the wood I'd never seen before. And there was an old chalk pit. And I heard a kind of a sort of a humming. So I got off my hobby, and I went right quiet to the pit, and I looked down. Well, what should there be but the funniest little black thing you ever set eyes on. And what was that doing but that had a little spinning wheel, and that was spinning wonderful fast, and twirling that's tail. And as that span that sang: Nimmy nimmy not My name's Tom Tit Tot.

Well, when the girl heard this, she felt as if she could have jumped out her skin for joy, but she didn't say a word. Next day that there little thing looked so maliceful when he came for the flax. And when night came, she heard that knocking against the window panes. She oped the window, and that come right in on the ledge. That was grinning from ear to ear, and Oo! that's tail was twirling round so fast. "What's my name?" that says, as that gave her the skeins. "Is that Solomon?" she says, pretending to be afeard. "Noo, 'tain't," that says, and that come further into the room. "Well, is that Zebedee?" says she again. "Noo, 'tain't," says the impet. And then that laughed and twirled that's tail till you couldn't hardly see it.

"Take time, woman," that says; "next guess, and you're mine." And that stretched out that's black hands at her. Well, she backed a step or two, and she looked at it, and then she laughed out, and says she, pointing her finger at it: Nimmy nimmy not Your name's Tom Tit Tot. Well, when that heard her, that gave an awful shriek and away that flew into the dark, and she never saw it any more.

* Source: Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1898), pp. 1-8. * Jacobs' note on his source: Contributed by Mrs. Walter-Thomas (née Fison) to the "Suffolk Notes and Queries" of the Ipswich Journal, 1877, and reprinted by Mr. E. Clodd in a paper on "The Philosophy of Rumpelstiltskin" in Folk-Lore Journal, vii [1889], 138-43. I have reduced the Suffolk dialect.... One of the best folk-tales that have ever been collected, far superior to any of the continental variants of this tale with which I am acquainted. Mr. Clodd sees in the class of name-guessing stories, a "survival" of the superstition that to know a man's name gives you power over him, for which reason savages object to tell their names.

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Recent news....
------------------------------------------------------

980907 NME interview, Post Nearly Man reviews, Mojo's How to Buy The Fall, Something Beginning With O
980831 Inertia tour details
980825 various snippets
980817 Observer interview, Manchester and LA2 gig reports
980811 Melody Maker interview, Live Various Years details, previews. Rick.
980802 Spoken word LP press release, Northern Attitude key & sleevenotes, Edwyn Collins, TBLY #12 details
980727 FallNet address change
980719 Spoken word LP and band details (from NME), Disney's Dream Details
980713 MES & Elvis, several lyric/literary refs, a few reviews of the rereleases
980706 Some Grotesque/PBL details, Twilight Zone stuff
980620 MES communication, MES font, Falling Through Time, Grotesque/PBL rerelease details, Northern Attitude ripoff, British Grenadiers
980614 Fall cover version details, US tour provisional dates, BEF
980607 not much...
980531 The Fall as a can of beans with a dead mouse inside, Lovecraft, Bracewell
980525 Lay of the Land, old fan club stuff
980517 Alchemy, chiliasm, Michael Bracewell spouting bollocks
980510 Another NME report
980504 Dingwalls and Reading reviews; Guardian, NME articles; pointers to Fall pics and PSF's Fall tribute
980426 German Levitate review, Dee Pop's tour diary
980419 NME online report, Lathe of Heaven
980414 Wire Levitate review
980410 More Philly reviews, Black Cat DC, NY Brownies reviews. Loads of stuff on the Thule group. Select interview from January
980405 CIH, Loop Lounge, Middle East Boston, Plilly Troc reviews. Various press reports.
980331 Details of Live in Melbourne 82 CD, Smith on Smith spoken word CD, Nine Unknown Men, initial Coney Island High reports
980329 bollocks Smile comp details
980322 Vox interview, other stuff
980315 TBLY/Info service details
980308 Peel session details; US tour dates
980227 a few bits & pieces, RTL, PoSR out
980222 NME interview
980215 Destroy punk covers exhibition, Masquerade single details
980207 Brats award transcript
980130 Bits on NME Award, POSR/RTL reissue details
980125 Shanley i/view
980118 Time Out interview w/pics, Melody Maker review, Oh Brother press release, Oxford review
980111 Dutch Opscene interview
980104 Melody Maker interview
971221 Not much
971211 Portsmouth, London, Cambridge, Norwich, Bristol reviews
971203 Oxford, Stoke, Leeds, Liverpool reviews; Esquire interview
971125 Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stoke reviews
971116 Manchester reviews, Loaded interview
971112 Band back together, teletext interview
971110 NME report, various Dublin/Belfast disaster reports
971109 First Dublin/Belfast reviews

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