The main Fall website is now on Al Angen's server at www.visi.com, that's
or the http://cjb.fall.net will point you there as well. Many thanks to Al for providing the server space! Bye bye Geocities.
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The Fall play Edinburgh at Queens Hall, Edinburgh on Sun 22 Aug. This gig is part of the Flux Festival. Tickets @GBP10 can be bought on-line via the Flux Festival website or by telephone 0870 90 70 999 or 0131 220 4349 or 0131 668 2019
They also play Reading Festival on 27 August, Leeds Festival on 28 August on the Radio 1 Evening Session Stage. Tickets (GBP 33/day) from 0541 500 044, 0171 344 0044, HMV, Ticketmaster. Other details here.
Dutch tour dates:
14 sept Doornroosje Nijmegen
15 sept Paradiso Amsterdam
16 sept Vera Groningen
17 sept O13 Tilburg
18 sept V.K. Brussel
19 sept L.V.C. Leiden
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Artful will be releasing the new Fall single "F-Oldin' Money" (from The Marshall Suite) on the 26th July (maybe) on 2 CD singles (CDARTFUL3/CDXARTFUL3). B-sides are: cd -this perfect day, birthday song, cd -crying marshall, tom ragazzi, these being remixes/alt versions of some description
ALSO the new single from The Clint Boon Experience 'You Can't Keep a Good Man Down' released on Artful/Booney Tunes on August 9th features Mark E. contributing vocals to the b-side 'Now I Wanna Be Your Dog', recorded live and spontaneously at the Monarch in Camden on April 19 this year, and continues the Inspirals/Mark E. connection...this track will only ever be available on this single, CD-CDARTFUL31...7"-7ARTFUL31
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On Friday 16 July, MES appeared at the premier of the film Glow Boys, at the Lux Cinema in London (review to follow!)
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From www.nme.com
MES on Elastica's new EP
sings on "How We wrote Elastica Man"
ELASTICA release their first new material for four years on August 23 through Deceptive - but have warned fans it is not a "big comeback record".
The six-track 'Elastica EP', which is not eligible for the charts, features the Donna Matthews home demo 'Nothing Stays The Same' and 'Miami Nice', a song the now-departed guitarist wrote with singer Justine Frischmann.
The Fall's Mark E Smith provides guest vocals on 'How We Wrote Elastica Man' and 'KB'. The other two tracks are 'Operate', which was recorded live, and 'Generator'.
Frischmann told NME: "The material has been chosen to allow people to hear rarities and demos which reflect all stages of the band's recordings between 1996 and 1999. The EP is certainly not intended to be some big comeback record. We're really pleased to be putting something out at last.We've gone through a lot of different stages in the writing and recording process and I think fans will enjoy these tracks, which reflect this well, but which are mostly too raw for the album itself."
====
A few snippets dug out by John Howard:
Subject: <fallnet> From Chumbawamba website
THE IRRESISTIBLE FRANK ZAPPA TANGENT
Moreover, we began to realise that all our influences did not reside in the same basket. Crass had a strong influence on some of our early stuff, but we remembered that we also loved Lenny Bruce, Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, Grimms and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band when we first started writing songs together as potential Chumbawambas during the summer of 1981. Frank Zappa, especially during The Mothers of Invention albums, had a profound influence on how Chumbawamba evolved. Zappa was a joker and as well as fucking with form and making musical jokes by fusing pop, jazz and classical music, all the songs ran into each other, a technique still in evidence in late 1990's Chumbawamba; Zappa's Mothers also had a quirky, bizarre, but inexplicably humourous undercurrent to everything they did. What made Zappa truly punk, in the sense that Mark Perry and Mark E Smith were 'punk', was that he not only took satirical swipes at middle America in songs such as "Bow Tie Daddy" "America Drinks and Goes Home," and the mournful "Idiot Bastard Son" but he also lambasted the phoney hippies descending on San Francisco in "Flower Punk". And with the cover atwork to the 'We're Only In It For The Money', where The Mothers naturally enough wore dresses, Zappa launched an offensive on the sacred cow that was The Beatles circa 'Sgt. Pepper.'
*
Subject: <fallnet> Fall Article
POP BEAT; The Man Behind Rise of the Fall; Mark E. Smith's
genius and stubbornness keep the British band on the cutting edge. It performs
at the Roxy Sept. 7.; Home Edition
POP BEAT The Man Behind Rise of the Fall Mark E. Smith's genius and stubbornness
keep the British band on the cutting edge. It performs at the Roxy Sept. 7.
By LORRAINE ALI, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Los Angeles Times Saturday August 21, 1993 Home Edition Calendar, Page 1 Type of Material: Column; Profile
Mark E. Smith's reputation precedes him, sort of the way a flash of light precedes a mushroom cloud.
The English singer's scathing sensibility and sneering attitude have elevated him to the level of genius curmudgeon, while his stubborn drive has kept his band, the Fall, consistently influential and cutting-edge for well over a decade.
"I say what I want, that's why our managers resign," says Smith. "They don't come back at ya. They never say, 'Shut up, Smith!' And to me, that means they have no faith in their beliefs. They smile and nod as your head gets bloody bigger and bigger."
Obviously, compromise has not been a hallmark of the Manchester-based band, which has drawn an intense cult following over the years. Smith didn't exactly plan on the kind of longevity the Fall has enjoyed.
"I never thought it would go this long," says Smith, who brings the group to the Roxy on Sept. 7. "We take it three months at a time. The record company is on about what's gonna happen after the American tour, but I'm just looking to get through it. I'm a nerve bag, as it is, between recording an LP and it coming out. I've been walking around the house, cleaning the dishes over and over again out of pure tension."
Tension is also what fuels the Fall's high-strung mix of disjointed rhythms and scrambled, bite-size pieces of social and political commentary.
Rather than sing, Smith tends to ramble bluntly about everything from the collapse of communism to football hooligans, never stopping to explain. If you don't get it, too bad. The Fall thrives on the fact that its sharp and cynical sound is often as assaulting and confusing as our environment.
Fans seem to like the challenge. "Infotainment Scan," the Fall's latest album--its 17th!--hit No. 1 in England and No. 4 in the United States on the college music charts. The turbulent and erratic feel of the album reflects Smith's feelings after he left his former record company, Polygram, and began recording "Infotainment" with his own funds.
"I was really nervous about this album, more than I have been in the past," says the 35-year-old chain-smoking Smith, sitting by the pool of a West Hollywood hotel with a shot of Scotch and a beer. "It's because when we were recording it, we were label-less, but it's good because it actually shows in the music. There's even more of an underlying tension."
The band, which also includes guitarist Craig Scanlon, bassist Stephen Hanly, keyboardist Dave Bush and drummer Simon Wolstencroft, finished the album in fellow Manchester band New Order's studio before signing with New York-based Matador Records last February.
Says Smith, "We walked out of Polygram last fall and I was really nervous. Everyone was saying, 'C'mon, mate, you've been on like 12 labels, what's new?' I just get annoyed with people. They take the Fall for granted because we're not starting out and we're not dead and we're not a revival band or mega-huge. The record companies don't know what to do. When I see that 'what's in it for us' attitude creeping in, I just walk out."
Smith, with influences ranging from Lou Reed to the German electronic group Can, started the Fall when he was 18 after two years of loading ships on Manchester docks. It was around the same time the punk scene began thriving in England, but the connection was marginal at best.
"You always read that the Fall were survivors of the punk scene and it's not at all true," Smith says. "The punks never liked us. We played working-men's clubs instead. If we played punk clubs, we'd get bottled off because we didn't have the clothes or spiky hair. We couldn't play long-hair places 'cause they hated us too."
Smith is already writing material for album No. 18. Though he seems fairly content in his relationship with his new record label, well, give him some time.
"They always want to mess with your work. It's not like I want total control, but record companies are there to sell records. It's like too many chefs. Everyone's got an opinion, but I'm the one that gets paid to have one."
Copyright, The Times Mirror Company; Los Angeles Times, 1993. ALI, LORRAINE, POP BEAT; The Man Behind Rise of the Fall; Mark E. Smith's genius and stubbornness keep the British band on the cutting edge. It performs at the Roxy Sept. 7.; Home Edition., Los Angeles Times, 08-21-1993, pp F-1.
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A reader writes, at 5 a.m.:
DEAR FALLNET
JUST TWO QUESTIONS TO ASK 1. IS IT JUST ME OR DO THE NEW "fall" SEEM LI KE A fall TRIBUTE BAND TO YOU , WITH ALL THE FALLNET STANDING AROUND (that'll be the day) SAYING "IT DOES IT DOES IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE THE REAL THING"
IS THERE ANY TRUTH IN THE RUMOUR THAT ARK! ARE GETTING TOGETHER WITH EX-MEMBERS OF ELASTICA TO RELEASE THE SINGLE "HOW I CO-WROTE ELASTICA MAN"
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Recent news....
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990711 TBLY #16 details
990704 bits & pieces
990624 Meltdown reviews, Calvin Klein rubbish
990613 not much
990606 NME Forum review
990526 Wire interview, more reviews...
990517 Salisbury, Sheffield, Cheltenham, Cambridge,
Southend, Luton, London reviews
990509 Leicester, Leeds, Birmingham, Brighton,
Salisbury reviews; NME fave songs bit
990426 Guardian interview, Brix interview, more
album reviews, MES' radio session
990419 more Marshall Suite reviews, NME chat, live
at Sound Republic XFM session, tbly#15 out
990411 Couple of Marshall Suite reviews, Live 77
details, 1985/1987 interviews
990330 Touch Sensitive reviews, Marshall Suite
details
990320 Shake-off lyrics, tour details
990314 MES Escape interview
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
Old stuff: Nov 1997 - Dec 1998
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