The Fall online - latest Fall News

Fall News

added 9 June 2020

Thank you to an emailer who prompted me to resurrect the Fall News in remembrance of Kay Bateman, formerly Kay Carroll, who died of lung cancer on 6 June at her home in Portland, Oregon.

As The Fall's fearless manager from the beginning until their sudden split in Boston, Mass. on 18 April 1983, Kay was integral and crucial to The Fall's early years.

The sad news was announced on 6 June by a friend of Kay's on Facebook. Punk Girl Diaries followed with a tribute and there are some good comments beneath. The Quietus's Fergal Kinney gathered words from several people who knew Kay during her Fall years, and it's a terrific tribute. And our forum has a thread for Kay.

Here's the famous clip of Kay berating Tony Wilson in 1982. It was originally included in the Perverted By Language Bis videotape from 1984.

And here's a less known clip of Kay on the radio in Sydney in 1982. Thank you to asiffromheaven for recording and sharing.

---------------------

added 10 June 2020

@fallnews followers and Graham Duff fans will have heard about "The Otherwise", an upcoming book co-authored by Mark E. Smith and Graham. It should be out on Strange Attractor next spring.

Here's Graham's announcement on Facebook:

And here's the cover, revealed this morning.

---------------------

added 10 June 2020

2020, eh? I hope you're surviving all right. Here in the USA I feel like I've been living inside a graphic novel since at least 2015, and its climax is approaching. The stakes this November haven't been higher in my lifetime. Onward.

As for the status of the Fall News, as many of you know, I'm active on Twitter under @fallnews, and have posted dozens of Fall bits and pieces there since the last update here. You don't have to sign up for Twitter or anything to read them or click the links, just bookmark this page.

For your other Fall fixes we still have the Fall Online Forum, and if you're on evil Facebook there's a really good group called The Mighty Fall. It's very active with over 6000 members and we share a lot of Fall things not easily found elsewhere. As I type this they're having a Light User Syndrome synchronized listening party. The Annotated Fall has been down for a couple of days, but should I hope be back soon. The Reformaton Post TLC website has been relaunched as The Track Record, which was Clayton Hayward's site lo these many years ago. And the creaky old Fallnet emailing list is still creaking along, still on Yahoo Groups. Hard to believe I've been a subscriber for almost thirty years, and that I'm not the only one!

As for me, I've been keeping busy researching, transcribing, editing, and contibuting to the story of my mother's half-sister, Barbara Newhall Follett. I set up a self-publishing company, Farksolia, and have published two books so far. Why am I so interested in Barbara? I find her writing and her life utterly compelling.

In brief, Barbara was born in 1914 to a literary family on the East Coast. By four she'd taught herself touch-typing and was writing stories and letters to friends. She began to formulate an elaborate imaginary world, Farksolia, and also its language, Farksoo—complete with grammar and syntax. At twelve she published a novel with Alfred Knopf, "The House Without Windows", which was well received by the press (lucky Britons may have seen a new edition of this book in their shops, since Penguin published it there last year with lovely illustrations by Jacke Morris. It's been translated into Portuguese, Dutch, and Indonesian. At fourteen she published her second book with Knopf—an account of her voyage from New Haven to Nova Scotia as "cabin boy" on a lumber schooner where she unsuccessfully urged the crew to mutiny. She was crazy about the sea and sailors.

In 1928 my grandfather deserted his family for a much younger woman, who would become my grandmother. Distraught, Barbara and her mother, Helen, took to the sea with their typewriters with no clear destination in mind and little money. They lived in poverty for a year at sea, exploring islands in the Caribbean and the South Pacifi. Barbara suffered a psychological crisis in Tahiti and became suicidal. On arrival in California she was enrolled in Pasadena Junior College (she'd been homeschooled and had never attended a school before) and ran away to San Francisco. She was arrested, tried to escape (or attempt suicide?) through her hotel window, but was caught and confined in jail. Helen had returned to Hawaii and a guardian had to be found. Being a minor celebrity from her books, newspapers around the country carried the story. Helen sailed back from Honolulu and eventually they settled in Manhattan, where the stock market was crashing.

Barbara put herself through secretary school and got a job. She was sixteen. She started writing her third book, "Lost Island" (which I recently published in an expanded edition). She'd fallen in love with a sailor on the voyage from Honolulu and corresponded with him. She met a recent Dartmouth graduate and they hiked and canoed five hundred miles, roughly following the Appalachian Trail, which was in its infancy. They married and moved to Boston. Her sailor correspondent was heartbroken and became desperate. He abandoned his young wife, traveled from Seattle to Boston, tried and failed to find Barbara, and a couple of weeks later his body washed up Cape Cod. I don't think Barbara ever learned about his fate. But by now her marriage was failing also and her husband was having an affair. He wanted a divorce. On 7 December 1939 Barbara left the apartment and was never seen or heard from again. She was 25.

Barbara was one of the most gifted, natural writers I've ever read. She left behind a great deal of correspondence and stories and I published much of it in "Barbara Newhall Follett: A Life in Letters". If you'd like to read more about her, I have a website, Farkolia.org. My biography there will flesh out this brief account.

10 June 2020

This is the latest news and gossip off the message board, Fallnet, and elsewhere. If you have something to contribute, please email Stefan Cooke at fallnews@gmail.com.

To subscribe to Fallnet, send mail to:
fallnet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Recent news...

17dec18 MES in Irmin Schmidt's CAN book; Martin Bramah's "The Story of Dragnet"; Damo Suzuki + Imperial Wax; Levitate reissue; DJ Marcelle's MES 10" tribute; Drinks; Mark Aerial Waller exhibition; Tommy Mackay's "40 Years of The Fall"; "Fall's 58 Golden Greats" compilation; IAKO reissue; RIP Ken Sproat aka Granny on Bongos & David Cavanagh aka Zoot Horn Polo.

26apr18 MARK E. SMITH • IN MEMORIAM

24jan18 "New Facts Emerge"; Lots of MES press, including 60th birthday; 2017 UK gigs; Cherry Red's singles box set; The Fallen Women; Paul Hanley's "Leave the Capital: A History of Manchester Music in 13 recordings"; Wyndham Lewis talk (cancelled); Brooklyn gigs (cancelled); Keiron Melling attacked; R.I.P. ElvisChomsky; R.I.P. Mark E. Smith

17dec16 R.I.P. Alan Wise; UK, Slovenia, Berlin, Oslo, Tel Aviv gig; Wise Ol' Man; October Mojo interview (w/news that Elena is out of group); Channel 4 News interview; Brix book and interviews + Extricated Marc Riley session; Christchurch airport 1982 photos; Jeffrey Lewis' "100 Fall Songs" poster; Mastermind; Teddy Bear MES; 1981 interview recording; Blue Orchids/Martin Bramah; Deeply Vale vinyl; David Bowie r. i. p.

28nov15 UK & Australasia gigs and press; RIP Tom Head; Brix and the Extricated tour and press; "Good Night and Good Riddance"; new & ugly Fall t-shirts.

30aug15 Euro gigs, UK tour Apr-May; festivals (incl. Glastonbury); "Sub-Lingual Tablet" LP; Connie & Cookie; "I'll Be Your Mirror" Una Baines comic; London 27 Nov '14 videos; Charlie Hebdo; a new Official Fall Website; Brix's book; Louder Than Words (Hanleys, Wolstencroft et al.); 1978 photos; Iceland Rector; "Totally Wired World of The Fall" BBC6; Luke Haines "Caravan Man"; IAC,O Mojo; WFMU Fall specials (April 2015); Action Records story; Dedication Not Medication cycling clothes; "Touch Sensitive" court case transcript; Q interview (July); Noisey/Vice int.; Jon the Postman r.i.p.

27dec14 Sept>Nov gigs: UK + Helsinki; Uurop VIII-XII live CD; Simon Wolstencroft's memoir; more "The Big Midweek" press; Mark E. Smith Predicts; Brix & The Extricated; Ultraradio Fall comics issue; Deeply Vale box; Una Baines int.; MCR Evening News, Granada Reports, BBC 6music ints.; "It's Not Repetition, It's Discipline" screenings; Fat White Family's "I Am Mark E. Smith"; discography revamp.

01sep14 UK & Euro gigs, Steve Hanley's "The Big Midweek" book launch + Q&A for the Fall News, Danish Fall documentary, Q's "Let's Do Lunch With Mark E. Smith", Loud and Quiet interview, RIP Gary Burger & Scott Asheton," disavowal of "13 Killers" and "White Lightning", Luke Haines's MES micro-opera, BK's "The Skriking", American Tourister rips off "Touch Sensitive", "21 Again" on Mouse on Mars comp, Claus selling signed Perverted By Language posters.

17jan14 Ireland, Portugal, France, London, NL, Leeds, Germany gigs; The Remainderer; Lou Reed (inc. MES poem); Louder Than Words video w/Hanleys + Simon W; Noisey interview; "What I See in the Mirror"; Bal Speer's "Black Charity"; Mutation LP; Tony Millionaire.

05aug13 May/June gigs, Re-Mit, Vulture, Independent int., Stuart & Maconie chat, Beggars Archive 5cd box, Copenhagen exhibition, SHanley joins The Membranes, Craig Robinson's Fall timeline, SF 2001 on Ozit, The Real New Forum LP

29may13 Nov/Dec '12 gigs, April '13 gigs; Re-Mit preview; Sir William Wray RSD 7"; Guardian, Q Mag Q&As; Lancashire Telegraph, Going Thru Vinyl, Viva Brighton, Scotland Herald interviews; Ding on Salford Radio; IAKO video; Beggars 5xcd box; Steve Hanley book deal; Fall Fans Round Table, 2 Librans Lockdown.

23oct12 European gigs (Greece, France, UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden); Ginger Wildheart's Mutation; Woog Riots LP; Fall-A-Thon in Ohio; Night & Day and Greek interviews; NME Heroes, Blaine Harrison & MES; The Frenz Equivalent cover LP; Night of the Humerons 7"; Another Nice Mess "Worst of the Fall" special; Sex, Drugs & HIV; MES T-shirts, Action Man, and Birthday Cake; Simon W's "You Can Drum But You Can't Hide" book; Pascal Le Gras paintings; Magic Band magic footage.

22dec11 Ersatz GB + reviews + press + interviews, Laptop Dog 7", summer festivals in Europe and UK, Nov UK tour, Live at the Hac pt. 2; Kill Pretty (Mike Leigh); Perverted by Mark E. promo vid; Brian Blessed Alarm Clock + Skinnybrain (Dave Milner); Uncut w/MES on old Fall lineups; Julia Adamson int.; Steve Trafford album; Pascal's "Blue Christmas" video.

31aug11 Live at the Hacienda DVD; MES Guardian Q&A; Timekode & MES video clips; Fall sign to Cherry Red; Marshall Suite, Wonderful & Frightening World and TNSG reissues; Before the Fall compilation

28apr11 TNSG Omnibus; Danny Baker; Euro/UK/OZ/NZ/Israel gigs; Don Van Vliet, Rex Sergeant, Steve Ormod, r.i.p.; Before The Fall comp; White Lightning promo vid; Pop Fiction; Marshall Suite 3xCD; FoF's "Hex Enduction Ours"; Bracewell & Wilde "The Art of The Fall" (1992); Middles' "Story of The Fall" doc; The Fall in Iceland press; Sex, Drugs & HIV; M.E.S. I.P.A.; MES Quietus interview; Factory Star's "Enter Castle Perilous"

25oct10 East Village Radio session; Ideal; new Scanlon demos; UK/Euro festivals; NZ/Aus tour preview; Eat Y'Self Fitter redux; Susan Vale; Quietus, Vice & Brag ints; Mike Joyce, Adrian Sherwood ints.

03jun10 YFOC reviews; UK tour + Primavera; Times (London & New York interviews); "worker bees" interview; Bury, England's Heartbeat videos; caption comp.; Beleaguered Fall Fan; Paintwork conference book; Bury/Cowboy Gregori 7"; Mojo, Tim Cumming Q&As.

02apr10 Berlin gig; FIGFALP; Domino YFOC press release; Tate's "Sound & Vision" series; Gorillaz' Glitter Freeze; Gavin Friday int.; Beggars archive update; #1 Cult Figure (Alex Chilton, rip); MES as Narrative Lyric Writer; Quietus, Independent interviews; couple of Youtubes.

Fall News archive