The
Fall play London Astoria on 16 December. Tickets GBP 10.50 available from
box office 0171 434 9403/4, Stargreen 0171 734 8932 ( + unspecified large
markup), Ticketmaster 0171 344 4444 (+ 4 quid markup), Rough Trade, Rhythm
(Camden)
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Wednesday 4/11/98 : The Fall in session
John writes: "The Fall, in my head at least, is the band by which all others must be judged. They were first spotted by ebullient Radio 1 producer John Walters when they were supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees in the stews of Croydon. Walters wrote singer Mark E Smith a 'you don't know me but ...' letter and the first of some 21 John Peel sessions followed.. I hope I'm around to hear many more ..." Following the band's recently publicised split, this session features frontman Mark E Smith & a new line-up but still an unmistakable Fall sound. The Fall were formed in Manchester in 1977 under the guidance of mercurial miserabalist Mark E Smith.
They recorded the first of what is so far 21 Peel sessions in June 1978, at the same time as releasing their first EP, Bingo Master's Breakout on Step Forward records. However, by the time of their second single Smith the line had undergone the first of its myriad changes, this particular alteration notable for the arrival of Marc 'Lard' Riley on bass. In January 1979 they released their first album, 'Live At The Witch Trials', and by June Smith was the only original member of the line-up left. The press were intrigued by Smith and his band as their leader ensured notoriety with his grumpy and truculent proclamations in addition to the caustic lyrics and baffling word-play that filled their swiftly enlarging album back-catalogue, which now totals in excess of thirty full-length recordings.
In 1983 the arrival of Smith's future wife Brix marked a slight change in direction for the band which saw their traditional stance against prevailing trends challenged by moderate commercial success for their cover of 'There's A Ghost In My House'. By the mid-eighties the line-up changes had slowed and their output was down to one album a year, but come the turn of the decade Brix was gone, and Smith set about album releasing and label hopping with renewed fervour, the period 90-96 seeing 12 new recordings reaching the public.
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Mark Kaunisto:
I was just listening to "Antidote" from the Fall's latest Peel session, and I think I could detect the words "if chewing gum is chewed / the chewer is pursued", which of course is a line from a song in the Marx Brothers film "Duck Soup". It was sung by Groucho as Rufus T. Firefly, leader of Freedonia.
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Hannah was...
catching up on my 90210 updates when I come across this:
"how yesteryear is REM anyway, and what is the big love affair of 90210 with using REM as character outro music; like I remember once going to a 10,000 Maniacs concert years and years and years ago, I mean, I remember seeing them on tour while in France playing with X of all people and The Fall of all other people in a tour attended by like 20 people including me totally enamored of Exene Cervenka who was standing behind me in the audience which totally freaked me out since I wanted nothing more than to turn around and talk to her as we watched 10,000 Maniacs on the stage of some tiny club in Paris before they really hit it big in the States"
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Tom Wootton:
However the "lead singer" in that new prog. How to be a Rock Star was wearing
a Fall t-shirt in the "gig" sequence (fuck it, maybe I should put the whole
thing in quotes).
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Arjan came up with an excellent High Tension Line site: http://members.tripod.com/~aberkers/index.html
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Recent news....
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981109 Peel session reactions
981102 Melody Maker singles review, Action Records
details
981026 St Bernadette's Hall reviews, Astoria ticket
details, Nottingham 92 album
981019 various
981009 NME interview, TBLY #13
981005 F-olding Money lyrics, couple of PNM reviews,
Simon Rodgers' career
980927 Live Various Years details/review, 1994
interview
980920 more snippets
980914 bits & pieces
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
Old stuff: Nov 1997 - July 1998
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