I wasn’t entirely sure about including this in the series, but given it is on 7″ vinyl, albeit in very limited numbers, I’ll use it to take the story forward.
2000. The Fall line-up that had recorded The Marshall Suite, from which Touch Sensitive and F-oldin Money had been lifted as singles, stayed together for the writing and recording of The Unutterable, a CD-only album that received a decent amount of positive press. It was issued by Eagle Records, yet another new label for the band to spend some time with, albeit the album proved to be the only original release. Looking at the history of Eagle Records on Discogs reveals a distinct lack of singles, and none were taken from The Unutterable.
2001. The line-up was no more, either through decisions to quit or having been sacked. It’s a real state of flux, and out of the chaos emerges a 7″ single, but only available if you happen to subscribe to Flitwick Records, a little-known English label.
mp3: The Fall – Rude (All The Time)
mp3: The Fall – I Wake Up In The City
The on-line info(as well as printed on the sleeve) reveals that the musicians involved were MES (vocals), Ed Blaney (guitar, vocals), Jim Watts (guitar, bass) and Spencer Birtwistle (drums), although only MES and Blaney were involved on the a-side, in terms of writing and performing. Other on-line info reveals that Rude (All The Time) was originally recorded by Blaney’s band Trigger Happy in 1996.
It’s a very peculiar a-side, just Blaney on acoustic guitar and MES offering up some sort of vocal. The b-side is much more of what you might expect, albeit there’s a fairly lo-fi, fuzzy production over which MES does his thing. Enough fans liked I Wake Up In The City to vote it in at #30 in the Peel Festive Fifty of 2001.
The other thing which is strange is that Ed Blaney was never officially a member of The Fall, and he’s more often referred to as a ‘contributor’ on this 7″ and Are You Missing Winner?, the album released later in 2001, but from which no singles were lifted. Given that ‘Winner’ is regularly cited as possibly the worst Fall studio album of all time, this might well be a blessing.
Oh, and further information gleamed from various sources indicates that Blaney was, for a long time, a close friend of MES, taking on managerial responsibilities for the band for a period of time, while 2008 saw the release of Smith and Blaney, an album’s worth of material which, I think is is fair to say, was critically savaged on release.
Only 500 copies of the 7″ single were pressed up and given away. The asking price on Discogs is £275. To really confuse things, a later single on EP would be released in 2005, with the title Rude (All The Time) – I’ll deal with that in a few weeks time, but in the meantime will just say the EP was a CD only release and the track Rude (All The Time) wasn’t on it….
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Did Pete Frame ever do a ‘The Fall’ family tree? If so what size paper was used A1? Thanks for maintaining the story, it s fascinating and confusing, but you have me hooked – I know there are a number of books on ‘The Fall’ is there one you would recommend?
Never heard it. Don’t know this line-up. Always a chance that MES lyrics will be interesting and off-kilter, but I don’t imagine giving this release a lot more listens.
I think I discovered both tracks via some Youtube trawling over the years. Neither really manage to hold my interest.