The Fall play:
4 May Leeds Irish Centre (York Road)
5 May Birmingham Foundry (Suffolk Place, off the Inner ring Road Suffolk
St Queensway)
6 May gig now at Hove Town Hall (not Brighton)
7 May Salisbury Arts Centre
8 May tba
9 May Sheffield University
10 May Cheltenham The Attic
11 May Cambridge Junction (Clifton Road, 01223 511511)
12 May Southend Cinnery's
13 May Luton Venue 21 (27A Upper George Street, 01582 749740)
14 May London Kentish Town Forum (cc booking 0171 344 0044)
New album The Marshall Suite will be released on April 19. The Touch Sensitive single is out on Mar 15.
==========
Pete Kulawec...
The latest key mail order update lists a reissue of HEH on Cog Sinister:
FALL Hex Enduction Hour 08/04/99 CD COGVP119CD 9.99
-----
Escape's MES interview (thanks to Peter Reavy)
Background: Escape was a quarterly comics magazine which featured Krazy Kat through to Raw artists through to Alan Moore. Each issue had a theme and this one's title was Spellbound. Also in this issue is an MR James short story illustrated by Savage Pencil and Ed Pinsent.
ESCAPE 17, SPRING 1989
MARK E. SMITH
KURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER
INTERVIEW BY MARC BAINES
Last year The Fall went all out to prove themselves 'the hardest working band in showbiz'. They collaborated with the Michael Clark ballet company in an extraordinary exchange of ideas that produced 'I Am Curious Orange', a ballet built around the accession of William of Orange to the throne of England. They played live with the dance troupe over twenty nights, toured twice in their own right, released two fine LPs, 'The Frenz Experiment' and 'I Am Kurious Oranj', launched their own record label Cog Sinister, and finally made the long put off move from the independent Beggars Banquet to Phonogram, a major label.
All this activity marked the tenth anniversary of their debut release, the 'Bingo Masters Break Out' EP, which married punk aggression with black Mancunian humour and a Dada sensibility. Under the helmsmanship of Mark E Smith, who styles himself 'the original rapper', 'the white crap that talks back', they've remained at the cutting edge of rock music, pushing forward into exciting and often unexpected areas.
The arcane is one area the group have continually explored and in a more convincing manner than their peers or the ill-named 'Goth' groups. Smith's obsession has always been with the true Gothic monstrosities lurking around him.. 'Dragnet', the second of something like a dozen studio LPs, is rife with references to the supernatural; just look at those song titles - 'Spector vs. Rector', 'Psykick Dance Hall', 'A Figure Walks'. Spooks have cropped up more recently in their slapstick version of R. Dean Taylor's 'Ghost In My House' and 'Bremen Nacht', a song loaded with foreboding. 'It'll be a long, long time gone/Till my spirit will by accident/Go back and come from Bremen Nacht.'
The past intruding into the present is a strong theme of Smith's. In 'the only place to get a decent pint of Boddington's in Manchester', I asked him about this aspect of his work.
. You use a lot of archaic words and images in your songs, tying up the past with what's happening now. In I Am Kurious Oranj, you have William of Orange arriving in Brighton and minutes later there's a Rangers v Celtic football match. Do you have an overall view of some kind of continuum?
- Yeah, I think there's some kind of common knowledge within yourself that comes out in all sorts of things. Some people call it a gene pool, which is how what I'm doing has been described. Apparently, you know things about history subconsciously, things you've never been taught, they're already in you. This could explain something like Belfast; people have got it in their bones and there's nothing they can actually do about it. What they think is the truth, that's what it is. Also I was very into Philip K. Dick and he used time changes a lot.
. Another similarity between Dick's stuff and yours is his use of working class characters like mechanics. They're going through all this shit already, divorce proceedings or whatever, and then this really off-the-wall shit comes down on them ...
- They find out they're living in 2080 rather than 1957. What's that one? Time Out Of Joint.
. Right. Robert Crumb did a strip based on the introduction to Valis; Dick has a vision and sees that the world is stuck in the time period just after Christ's death, when the disciples started out on their mission. Generally accepted 'reality' is stripped away and Dick gets an insight into how the world really is.
- Ha, yeah. Things got really sad towards the end of his career. He used to take speed continually, and that's what it does to your mind after a while ... I'll tell you who I like as regards comics, I'm very into Luther Arkwright, always was. I used to read Near Myths years ago when it was banned. What I liked about them was their Jerry Cornelius - Michael Moorcock approach. Arkwright is the most brilliant thing, it's similar to that continuum you were asking me about, all those time shifts - great! On this alternative Earth, Cromwell never lost and his descendants kept control, so there's no Royal family and Britain's Fascist and everything's fucked up. I'm pleased they're putting out the Arkwright books, but I'm not a comics buff, I don't like the hedonism of comics. I was addicted to comics when I was a kid, but something went wrong down the road there ...
. Did your interest in the supernatural peak with Dragnet? There's been some recent stuff like 'Bremen Nacht' ...
- Yeah, I always wrote a lot of prose bits and I think that's on influence. What you read when you're teenage leaves an indelible mark on you. I left school when I was sixteen and my education was like M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Clarke Ashton Smith. H.P. Lovecraft was a big hero of mine. I don't read them now ...
. Do you read any modern horror?
- If I pick up a Stephen King, it just makes me sick. I've read it all before and better written. I'm a member of the Arthur Machen Appreciation Society, one of the only musicians in it. He's fucking brilliant.
. What about Poe?
- Yeah, especially the poems. The Raven is brilliant. I'll tell you who's a good writer - Isaac Bashevis Singer. I used to read a lot of Yiddish literature, still do. Singer wrote a great story called Satan In Goray. It was a true story about what happened in 1666 in this Polish village called Goray. It's all been covered up in Jewish history but Yiddish people still remember it. All the Orthodox Jews got out of hand, because they were so oppressed by the bastard racist Pole and Russians, that they had to keep to themselves, cut off. All these weird Jewish sects sprang up. One of them believed that if you did evil on the outside, your inside would be good - almost like a Rasputin scenario. They believed that doing evil was the best thing to do, because the inverse maths says your inside would therefore be pure. Can you believe this?! One of these guys vaguely connected with this cult went around with chains on his legs, and became highly respected in this village, regarded as some kind of prophet. He foretold that on the sixth day of the sixth month in 1666, the Saviour was going to arrive. So all the people in the village got ready for this great event when God was going to come down and take them away. They'd been harrassed by Cossacks and Ukrainians, pogroms, but the community still stuck together. There was this incredible hysteria - they all started to take the mud off their roofs.
. So they could be taken straight up to heaven?!
- Yeah. Even the villagers who are very together people, merchants and craftsmen, they all do it. And nothing happens on that day and their whole life just goes. It's really horrific, really horrible. And the implication is that this prophet is in fact Satan. Yiddish literature is quite fantastic.
The I Am Kurious Oranj soundtrack LP is available on Beggar's Banquet Records and due soon on the same label is a retrospective of the best of the Beggars years, 1982 to 1988, including as-yet-unreleased tracks, 'Squid Lord' and 'Dead Beat Descendant'.
------
Haircut:
Thanks to Dave Harrop
Bit grainy but you can probably get the general idea
http://www.visi.com/fall/haircut.jpg
-----
JeffC:
From Harmony Central:
> The Art of Keeping Band Members
>
> Before we look at some possible solutions to this dilemma, lets review
> the types of band structures that are out there. I like to refer to
> band structures as political formations and name them appropriately.
> The Dictator: This band is run by one person. Basically it's his/her
> way or the highway. Often these types of bands are named after the
> dictator (e.g. Bert Billings and the Bills). Dictator bands have
> members coming and going all the time, but the band goes on. The
> dictatorship often plays a lot of gigs due to the longevity of the
> group. As long as the dictator is going strong, so is the band. The
> advantage to this system is that things get done fast. The price to
be
> paid here is usually in the final product: the music. With at least
> one band member ready to quit at any moment and players being replaced
> often, the group usually doesn't get very tight. The other problem is
> that the side players usually don't contribute much in the way of
> creativity because they don't feel like they have much invested in the
> band.
Jon Varner:
For more points where the Fall consistently come up short, read the
unintentionally hilarious "The Show Must Go On" series at Harmony Central.
The author explains the importance of not just playing music, but putting
on a really good show.
http://www.harmonycentral.com/Bands/Articles/The_Show_Must_Go_On/
For a taste of where he's coming from, here's his description of the band logo:
"Continuing with the theme, we created a logo for ourselves (shown to the left). Once again we wanted something with a hard edge. Something with teeth if you will. I'm the graphic designer in the group. In designing this logo I used bold colors and violent imagery. Even the choice of fonts conveys the theme. The "Armed to the" is in a twisted and bent font, while the "Teeth" is in a strong, powerful font bending down into a pair of fangs. The tiger exploding from the vortex and the lighting flairs on the word "Teeth" complete the scene to let everyone know what they are about to experience."
Stuart:
Fuckin' hell, they _PLAN_ DRUM SOLOS. They have positions where they have
to be during bits of songs. They even worry about what the stage looks like
at ground level.
-----
Kent:
This is the best mis-spelling of Cerebral Caustic I've seen yet:
Artist - FALL THE
Title - SILLYBRALL CAUSTIC {XRCN7001}
Type - R Country-Jap
Release Date - 17/05/95
Order CDs @ $28.96 (US) -- No Cassettes Availabler --
No Albums Availabler
-----
Pete Ferreira:
The Ken Ardley Playboys?
Review sez: "Ken Ardley looks like someone named Uncle Leroy, and he sings exactly - no, painfully - like Mark E. Smith of The Fall (sorry, you must be 21 & over to remember)."
http://www.monsterbit.com/stammer/sept97/reviews.html
-----
Beleza Tropical 2
Rios, Pontes & Overdrives - Chico Science & Nacao Zumbi
includes a snippet of Light/Fireworks?
-----
The Future Pilot AKA vs A Galaxy of Sound CD / LP catalogue no. SUL001
Sulphur: claire@sulphur.demon.co.uk
RELEASE DATE: 26 APRIL 1999
Future Pilot is the brainchild of Sushil K. Dade, ex- member of the Soup Dragons and The Telstar Ponies and current member of the BMX Bandits and generally one of Glasgow’s most inventive musicians about town. Consisting of twenty tracks produced in tandem with a host of collaborators the album is definitely one to be filed under ’Classic.’
Sushil’s choices of cohorts is impresssive both in its breadth and quality. Supersonic rock legend Kim Fowley rubs shoulders with the Ranjit Nagar All Stars : an impromptu gathering of schoolkids on an Indian rooftop recorded on a walkman. Chart familiars Cornershop share equal billing with stalwarts of the Scottish Pop contingent, James Kirk (Orange Juice), The Pastels and Bill Wells (Falkirks answer to Sun Ra). Closer inspection reveals amongst others:
*Two Lone Swordsmen: Andrew Weatherall and former Sabres of Paradise engineer Keith Tenniswood team up to produce some of the most exciting and eclectic electronic music in the UK. Alongside their remix work for Sneaker Pimps and Galliano, they are also busy producing albums for Beth Orton and Primal Scream.
*Brix Smith: Brix started paying with The Fall in ‘83 doing a few numbers with the band at the end of gigs, including the surprisingly tuneful “Creep”. In due course her red Rickenbacker became a regular Fall feature - she was the Fall’s arranger, key melodic song-writer and undeniably the visual attraction.
*James Kirk: Alongside Edwyn Collins, Kirk was the founder member and original guitarist with legendary Scottish group, Orange Juice.
*Cornershop: Cornershop has been something of a staple in the British cultural melting pot ever since the release of their back-to-back hit singles “In the Days of Ford Cortina” and “Lock, Stock and Double Barrell” from the now classic ‘Hold on it Hurts’ album. The US release of “Woman’s Gotta Have it” helped earn them a spot of the 2nd stage of Lollapolooza and an SRO appearance at the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music. After criss-crossing the US 3 times, on their own as well as with Porno for Pyros and Sterolab, Cornershop barnstormed Europe releasing “When I Was Born for the 7th Time” in ‘96 which bore the pop hit “Brimful of Asha”.
*Alan Vega: singer with legendary band Suicide. With partner Martin Rev they carved a unique place for themselves in music. Alan is the true definition of the word artist - he sculpts, draws, creates video art and produces some of the most intense music there is. As a solo artist Vega continues to experiment and expand the boundaries of sound employing diverse musical styles and instrumentation.
*Scanner: Last sighted preparing an audience for a Brazilian body building contest, Robin Rimbaud is a techno data pirate whose scavenging of the electronic highways provide the raw materials for his aural collages of electronic music. The last year has brought him nose to nose, ear to ear working with Laurie Anderson, Bryan Ferry and Mike Kelly. In 1998 he was awarded a Fellowship in Sound, the first of its kind, at John Moore’s Uni, Liverpool.
*Kim Fowley: His career has spanned 4 decades - producer, manager, singer, songwriter and musical visionary - he has worked with everyone! from The Byrds to Kiss, Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Guns & Roses....
*The Pastels: seminal Scottish indie coated band who refuse to leave the stage! Their recent remix album collected together an admirable group of collaborators to re-interpret their woozy, jangley pop tunes.
-----
Heres's some old NME quotes, courtesy of Pete Conkerton...........
'There's a sort of strangeness about the Tories which I think is really
fascinating.. .I just think the Labour party sucks.'
MES, 1984
'if he'd have known about the way they burnt witches and that, Jesus would
have been mad. But if Jesus had seen U2 he would've been very mad indeed.
Jesus would throw bottles at U2.'
MES, 1993
'People still believe in the Bible and all that damp bedsheet crap, but I'm
not convinced. I think it was a real thoughtless hot night in the sheets
that put me here. The world is just pure biology and we're deluding ourselves
with all these spiritual notions.'
Captain Beefheart, 1986
'Johnny Rotten's got an autobiography out-- fucking pathetic! He's only 35!
That's not a book, it's fucking middle-class propaganda, man!'
MES, 1994
'Actually I think Nirvana are a load of wop, biggest heap of crap I've ever
seen. They're just lucky enough to have the money to sit around all day wearing
sweaty check shirts.'
MES, 1993
The only thing I've got in common with Mark E Smith is that Morrisey was
once asked which one he'd shoot, and he said he'd put one in front of the
other and shoot both of us.'
Robert Smith, 1992
'It annoys me when Tony Wilson - and I've told him about this - says Mark
E Smith is old hat and the Happy Nondays are the greatest. I like the Happy
Mondays, but Tony Wilson is the poor man's Richard Branson if you ask me,'
MES, 1990
' I'm not putting Elvis down, but he was a shitass, a yellowbelly and I hated
the fucker.'
Jerry Lee Lewis, 1989
'Once upon a time it was enough to know that U2 are crap, but not anymore.
Now you've got to know why they're crap.'
Julian Cope, 1983
'The journalist that went on about my jumper knew what Armani meant. I didn't.
I just thought it was a marvellous jumper.'
MES, 1992
'I look a damn sight better than I did at 22. I used to look like a piece
of shit, I used to look about 51!'
MES, 1990
'I've cut the liquor out. I must admit, I was losing friends and family because
of it. I was Just going for the jugular all the time, being gratuitously
obnoxious with people.'
MES, 1994
'It was obvious with Boy George that every interview he ever did he made
a point of denying drug use. Now it's going to be My Struggle Against Evil,
some dickhead spoiling it for everybody else. I don't mean him any harm,
but he's had all the good stuff, hasn't he? They always get it.'
MES, 1986
'I am your American Caesar. I am the coolest guy in the country.'
Iggy Pop, 1993
'Everyone thinks I am Just a miserable old cow.'
Polly Harvey, 1993
'Playing guitar, singing, fucking accountants and managers ripping him off
left right and centre, that can really drive you round the bend, I can tell
you - and a mad wife to boot! I know how he feels...'
MES on Kurt Cobain, 1994
'Top Of The Pops' was a bit strange, to be honest. But it's amazing the effect
it has on people. You get served quicker in the shops.'
MES, 1994
'People don't realise what a drag it was being Julian Cope in the '80s. If
people think you're totally mad you Just can't get off the starting block.
You get humoured and patronised.'
Julian Cope, 1993
'The media overestimates its own importance. I was on the cover of everything
for three years but I still only had half a bottle of milk in the fridge.'
MES, 1990
'I want to be promoted as a madman whose influences come from trees, wind,
earth, birds, fire and water, stamping my muddy boots all over EMI's well-tended
carpets. I'm the last dustbinman. Every record I've made is complete garbage,
especially the new one.'
Lee Perry, 1987
'There's nothing new in acid house for me, pal. I've been using that process
for years, bloody years.'
MES, 1989
'Protect my voice? From what? Vandals?'
Tom Waits, 1983
'John Major is the Antichrist. There's something in Nostradamus about him:
"A pearled isle will be destroyed by a man from the circus who has turned
to politics." It's a bit like The Omen, innit?'
MES, 1994
------------------------------------------------------
Recent news....
------------------------------------------------------
990308 Ashton Tuesday reviews, Falling Through
Time part 1, Dragnet reissue
990302 Ashton Sunday and Monday reviews
990221 LP announcement, Inch reviews
990214 not much
990207 various stuff
990128 Peel Sessions CD review
990118 Uncut pieces, Marcia interview, NZ art
collection
990110 NME LA2 review, modern rock sociology
990103 Manchester Ritz reviews
981220 Bristol F&F and London LA2 reviews,
cut-out-and-keep guide to recent reissues
981214 NME & MM short pieces
981206 Dazed and Confused interview
981130 Nottingham 92 sleevenotes
981123 NME and MM news
items
981116 nothing special
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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