Category: Fall

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

It was inevitable that, at some point, a day would dawn when more than one session was broadcast on a particular date across different years. And it happened more than once as you will see in due course!!

Session #23 was broadcast on this day, 13 March 2003, having been recorded on 19 February 2003.

And, the longest period between Peel Sessions reflected the turbulence within the group in this era (it had been four-and-a-half years since Session #22). However, the session represents an incredible rebirth.  The recording is detailed in the Smith/Middles book, ‘The Fall’, reporting Smith continually railing against band complacency and BBC-supplied material from the forthcoming ‘Country On The Click’ album. ‘Contraflow’ is here with its false ending, and after a snatch of Mr. Bloe’s No.2 1970 hit ‘Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe’, there’s an appropriately relaxed version of ‘Green-Eyed Loco Man’, with its refrain of ‘say goodbye to Glastonbury’.  ‘Mere Pseud Mag. Ed’ makes a surprise reappearance given it was 21 years old at the time, and given Smith’s mistrust of the look back bores.  “He thought he was a mster of double-entendre, Carry On etc” replaces long obsolete critical references to Not The Nine O’Clock News.  Middles himself is rewarded by adding his ‘fevered and reptilian’ vocals to the Greek World-Cup victory-predicting ‘Theme From Sparta F.C.’, one of the finest, punchiest Fall songs of recent years.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Theme From Sparta F.C. (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Contraflow (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe – Green-Eyed Loco Man (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Mere Pseud Mag. Ed (Peel Session)

Produced details unknown

Mark E Smith – vocals; Ben Pritchard – guitar, backing vocals; Jim Watts – bass, backing vocals; Dave Milner – drums, backing vocals; Eleanor Poulou – keyboards, backing vocals

Session #16 was broadcast on this day, 13 March 1993, having been recorded on 28 February 1993.

Freed from the constraints of major label Phonogram, The Fall recorded some of their best-ever music for their debut Permanent album. ‘The Infotainment Scan’. With Dave Bush now fully established on keyboards and machines, the band performed some of their strongest material for years.  Bush was able to incorporate modern dancefloor techniques (is that a sample from ‘Stakker Humanoid’ at the end of ‘Paranoia Man?) into the group’s material without it in any way sounding gauche.  The performances on ‘Paranoia Man in Cheap Shit Room’, the then-latest chronicle of Smith’s ageing process, are watertight.  ‘Service’ continues this melancholy over slowed down Italio-house keys.  However, The Fall’s garage punk roots have not been abandoned with the stomping cover of The Sonics’ ‘Strychnine’.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Ladybird (Green Grass) (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Strychnine (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Service (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room (Peel Session)

Produced by Mike Robinson, engineered by James Birtwistle

Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums

JC

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Session #21 was broadcast on this day, 3 March 1998, having been recorded on 3 February 1998.

The final recording of ‘the old Fall’, if you will, pre-the New York on stage disintegration.  If anything, it demonstrates why the schism in the group was sorely needed.  For the first time, the group actually sound jaded. Compare ‘Touch Sensitive’ here with the one that appeared on ‘The Marshall Suite’ over a year later, you know what I’m talking about.  Tempos seem to be mired in sludge.  The ‘Masquerade’ B-side, ‘Calendar’ fails to thrill, and only its flipside’s trickery comes near the album version.  ‘Jungle Rock’ is actually, er, not very good.  At all. The tape intro of ‘Masquerade’ deeming that ‘this is new, fresh’ sounds doubly ironic.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Calendar (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Touch Sensitive (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Masquerade (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Jungle Rock (Peel Session)

Produced by Mike Robinson

Mark E Smith – vocals; Steve Hanley – bass; Julia Nagle – keyboards, guitar; Simon Wolstencroft – drums; John Rolleson – backing vocals

JC

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Session #15 was broadcast on this day, 15 February 1992, having been recorded on 19 January 1992.

Although not one of their greatest sessions, imminent single ‘Free Range’ is tight and focussed; and the group’s version of The Creators’ ‘Kimble'(a not-too-distant relative of the following year’s ‘Why Are People Grudgeful?’) is both rich and amusing.  Smith covering Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry has got to be worth the price of admission, two great music eccentrics, etc.  ‘Immortality’ and a low-key ‘Return’ round off what was a barren period in the group’s existence

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Free Range (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Kimble (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Immortality (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Return (Peel Session)

Produced by Dale Griffin, engineered by Mike Engles & James Birtwistle

Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums

JC

And at the third time of asking, the series finally delivers in the way it is supposed to.

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Session #17 was broadcast on this day, 5 February 1994, having been recorded on 8 December 1993.

Recorded a full five months before the 3rd May release of the album that was to house all four tracks, ‘Middle Class Revolt.’ Apart from a lacklustre ‘Behind The Curtain’, with a seemingly disinterested and on-off mic Smith, there’s a crunching reading of city paean ‘M5’. It also contained ‘Hey! Student’, which was a re-working of ‘Hey, Fascist’, heard by John Walters as that very first Fall gig he attended in Croydon, 15 years earlier. Possibly the ultimate Fall mancabilly, complete with album lyric ‘as you stare in your room at Shaun Ryder’s face’ becoming irresistibly ‘as you masturbate with your Shaun Ryder face’.  This reference to Manchester peers Happy Mondays after they had peaked and before Black Grape, captured the out-of-date hipness of many students perfectly.  ‘Reckoning’ may be the closest The Fall ever came to Steely Dan instrumentally (!?) and Smith at his most sloppily venomous and lucid with corkers such as ‘And you’re sleeping with some hippie half-wit who thinks he’s Mr. Mark Smith/Reckoning’

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – M5 (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Behind The Counter (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Reckoning (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Hey! Student (Peel Session)

Produced by Tony Worthington

Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums

JC

A quick reminder that this is a new series for 2025 which will feature all twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Each session will, going forward, be posted on the actual dates each session was first broadcast, but this one and the one which opened up the series last week, were originally broadcast in the very early days of January, and to stick fully to the plan would have involved new material while the blog was on its festive break.  We’ll get fully on track next time around.

Session #7 was broadcast on 3 January 1984, having been recorded on 12 December 1983.

Another transitional session: the debut of Smith’s then-wife Brix, with the band on the cusp of signing to Beggars. While future B-side ‘Pat-Trip Dispenser’ is tentative, ‘2×4’ points to the Wonderful and Frightening rockabilly that lay ahead and Brix’s increased role within the band. ‘Words of Expectation’, all nine minutes 15 seconds of it, was originally to be featured on the last Sanctuary Peel sessions CD, but it didn’t.  Now you can hear again its low-key detective music, which was an intermittent concert favourite between 83-86, with its vocal patterns predicting ‘Living Too Late’. The refrain of ‘I’m The Head Wrangler’ provides one of Smith’s classic moments, backed by some almost fretless-sounding bass.  Of course, ‘C.R.E.E.P.’ divided The Fall audience when released as a single, and here it is in a early form, all bright and poppy.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Pat-Trip Dispenser (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – 2×4 (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Words of Expectation (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – C.R.E.E.P. (Peel Session)

Produced by Tony Wilson, engineered by Martin Colley

Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – drums; Karl Burns – drums

JC

A new series for 2025.  It’s an idea that came to me a few months back.  Some of you will hate it…….

The Fall recorded twenty-four sessions for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.  Back in 2005, these were issued as a 6xCD box set by Castle Music, a collection which has long been out of print and has a going rate of upwards of £70 on Discogs, with the price being a little bit more if you want one carefully looked after by any previous owner and can be described as being in ‘near mint’ condition.

The plan for the series is not to feature them in chronological order, as that would be far too sensible.

Instead, I’m going to post them on the actual dates each session was first broadcast, which will almost certainly interfere with the regular stuff which you’ve come to anticipate/expect/dread * on Saturdays and Sundays, and perhaps on Wednesdays if The Robster is willing to extend his guest series beyond his initial commitment of ten parts.  Each post will also include the commentary within the booklet for each of the sessions.

*(delete as appropriate)

The thing is, the series is getting off to something of a stuttering start as a couple of the sessions were broadcast in the very early days of January, and to stick fully to the plan of posting on a particular anniversary would have involved new material while the blog was on its festive break.  We’ll get fully on track in due course.

Session #13 was broadcast on 1 January 1990, having been recorded on 17 December 1989.

Introducing the new sound of the full-on, pop reborn Fall, signed to a major label, welcoming back original guitarist Martin Brammah and heralding the imminent release of February 1990’s ‘Extricate’. We have a tight and humorous ‘Hilary’; a cover of The Monks ‘I Hate You’, re-titled ‘Black Monk Theme’, marking the flailing debut of Kenny Brady’s fiddle. ‘Chicago Now’ gives the recorded version a run for its money. ‘Whizz Bang’, which was to see the light of day as ‘Butterflies 4 Brains’ on the back of ‘Popcorn Double Feature’ was never broadcast, and it makes its debut here.  It’s not the greatest slice of The Fall you’ll ever hear. But it is here.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Chicago Now (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Black Monk Theme (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Hilary (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Whizz Bang (Peel Session)

Produced by Dale Griffin, engineered by Mike Engles.

Mark E Smith – vocals; Martin Brammah – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Marcia Schofield – keyboards, vocals; Simon Wolstencroft – drums; Kenny Brady – fiddle

JC

As usual, I’m (kind of) closing the blog down over the festive period.

Every day, weekends and holidays included, up to Monday 6 January 2025, you will find an hour-long mix featuring one particular band.

mp3: One Hour of……The Fall (Volume 3)

Green Eyed Loco Man
Industrial Estate
Victoria
Totally Wired
Hit The North
Idiot Joy Showland (Peel Session)
Fiery Jack
Cab It Up!
Telephone Thing
Cruiser’s Creek
Spoilt Victorian Child
Just Step Sways
Dead Beat Descendant
Hey! Student
New Face In Hell
No Bulbs 3

There’s a party going down around here……

JC

As usual, I’m (kind of) closing the blog down over the festive period.

Every day, weekends and holidays included, up to Monday 6 January 2025, you will find an hour-long mix featuring one particular band.

mp3: One Hour of……The Fall (Volume 2)

Hip Priest
Fantastic Life
I’m Frank
Why Are People Grudgeful?
C.R.E.E.P. (12″ version)
Jawbone and The Air-Rifle
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
The Man Whose Head Expanded
Couldn’t Get Ahead
Hey! Luciani
Hilary
Living Too Late
Return (Peel Session)
Oh! Brother
Theme From Sparta F.C.

Ours is not to look back, ours is to continue the crack.

JC

As usual, I’m (kind of) closing the blog down over the festive period.

Every day, weekends and holidays included, up to Monday 6 January 2025, you will find an hour-long mix featuring one particular band.

mp3: One Hour of……The Fall (Volume 1)

Repetition
New Big Prinz
It’s The New Thing
The Classical
How I Wrote ‘Elastic Man’
Bingo-Master
Two Librans
Everything Hurtz
Prole Art Threat
Touch Sensitive
High Tension Line
Psycho Mafia
15 Ways
Mr. Pharmacist
Lie Dream of A Casino Soul
2 by 4
Free Range
Terry Waite Sez

As the title hints at, there will be further volumes.  Can’t ever have too much MES at Christmas. Or indeed at any time of the year.

JC

Things haven’t quite been what they should be round these parts in recent weeks.   There have been daily posts, but just about all of them, with the exception of some guest offerings, have come from a big box of things that have been written and readied for use on occasions when time has been pressing.

The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed something was amiss from my failure to go into the comments section and look to identify and credit as many as I can rather than having them attributed anonymously.  I think there were around three weeks worth that I went through just last night.

I’ve also not been anywhere near any of the brilliant blogs listed in the links section either to the right or at the foot of your screen, depending on whether you are using a laptop/Mac/PC or hand-held device.  Again, I’m looking to rectify things over the coming days, but kind of like that huge IT failure from Microsoft just last week, things might take a bit longer than  hoped.

I won’t go into any details as to why it’s come to this, suffice to say I’ve been far too easily distracted by some things going on with people who are close to me, while there’s also the fact that my recovery to full health isn’t proving to be along the most smooth of roads, albeit everything is relatively minor.  I’m just not used to having to take pills and measure blood pressure levels on a daily basis!  Getting old and into my pensionable years is not without its issues.

I’ve been dragged out of my stupor somewhat by a fellow blogger, who asked if I’d be up for writing a guest posting.  It took me quite a few days to get round to pulling it together, but I finally managed yesterday, and afterwards I immediately followed up with making the adjustments in the TVV comments section.  I’ll make reference again to said guest posting as when the time is right…..

In the meantime, thanks for sticking by this place when the quality on offer has occasionally slipped below acceptable standards.   

mp3: The Fall – Return

From the album Code: Selfish, with a co-writing credit for bassist Steve Hanley.   There was also a magnificent Peel Session version, initially broadcast on 15 February 1992, some five weeks ahead of the studio version.

mp3: The Fall – Return (Peel Session)

Not everyone who is a fan of The Fall is actually a fan of this song.  Steve Pringle, the author of the indispensable ‘You Must Get Them All : The Fall On Record’ (Route Publishing, 2022) is largely positive about the direction the band took on the album with some comments about its songs embracing contemporary indie-dance,  but he is quite scathing about Return:-

…..the guitar and keyboard churn away aimlessly and Smith sounds disengaged at times….the repeated refrain of ‘Baby Baby Baby come back to me’ eventually becomes tiresome.

Funnily enough, it’s the way MES sounds – as if he’s taking the piss out of the lyrics of most love songs – that makes it one I’ve long been very fond of.

JC

Top of the flops in the summer of ’79?

mp3: The Fall –  Rowche Rumble

The Fall‘s third single.   Of the five personnel who had been involved in the debut single in June ’78, just the one remained.  Can you guess who it might have been?

One of the most instantly recognisable of the band’s early tunes. It opens with some pounding drums, over which MES rants about drug addiction via prescription pills.  Just short of a half-a-minute later, the rest join in to create a quite magnificent noise. The review from Ian Birch in Melody Maker indicates that he got it – “Brimming with well-meaning wryness, it careers along in entirely its own way, independent of all fashions and alert to every possibility. Improves with every play.”

mp3: Chris Sievey – Baiser/Last

The Freshies, a Manchester-based punk band, had released a couple of singles on their own Razz Records during 1978 to almost complete indifference.   In July 1979, lead singer Chris Sievey teamed up with producer Martin Hannett to release this double-A sided single on Rabid Records, the label that had brought Jilted John to the attention of the record buying public.  This 45 didn’t do much, and Sievey was soon back in the folds of The Freshies,  with the band continuing to release material through to 1984, at which point Sievey began performing as Frank Sidebottom.  But that’s another story altogether.

JC

The reputation of Mark E Smith and The Fall seems to have grown in quite an extraordinary fashion since his death back in January 2018. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about him, and there’s even been a bit of critical reassessment of some of the more awful and near-unlistenable albums to the extent that the cost of picking up any vinyl via the second-hand markets could well be edging towards silly money.

Looking at my own purchasing history on Discogs going back to 2008, I can find the following examples when it comes to The Fall:-

15 Ways – 10″ on clear vinyl : September 2013 – cost £2.75
Free Range – 12″ Ltd Edition, Numbered : October 2014 – cost £3
Totally Wired : The Rough Trade Anthology – 2 x CDs : July 2015 – cost £4
Hey! Luciani – 12″ : January 2019 – cost 5.80 euro (from Germany)
There’s A Ghost In My House – 7″ : July 2020 – cost £3.29
Oh! Brother – 12″ : October 2020 – cost £7.50
Hi Tension Line – 12″ : May 2022 – cost £9.10

None of these were ordered as stand-alone purchases – in other words, I’d have gone deep into whatever else the seller had on offer, and they would all end up in a package alongside as many as nine other records/CDs.  The fact that the prices in October 2020 and May 2022 were much higher than the previous five purchases got me thinking that I was likely to find big increases if looking to buy today.

15 Ways – 10″ on clear vinyl : February 2023 asking price – 16 euro (from Spain)
Free Range – 12″ Ltd Edition, Numbered : February 2023 asking price – £8
Totally Wired : The Rough Trade Anthology – 2 x CDs : February 2023 asking price – £5
Hey! Luciani – 12″ : February 2023 asking price – 4.50 euro (from Germany)
There’s A Ghost In My House – 7″ : February 2023 asking price – £3.99
Oh! Brother – 12″ : February 2023 asking price – £11
Hi Tension Line – 12″ : February 2023 asking price – £10.50

Six out of the seven are more expensive today; the surprise was that buying a piece of vinyl from Germany would be marginally cheaper today, but any savings would be more than swallowed up by the huge rise associated with shipping costs in the post-Brexit era.

I paid approx £34.75 for the seven items between 2013 and 2022.   To pick them up today, it would be approx £56.50.   That’s an increase of 62.5%.

I’ll admit that I was expecting it to be more, but then again, except for the 10″ of 15 Ways, none of my purchases have been of things that are difficult to find, which probably means there are still some second-hand records by The Fall out there at prices which won’t break the bank.

The expensive ones are those that had limited releases on vinyl in the era when CD was dominant.  For instance, Susan vs Youthclub can be had on CD for £2, but the asking price for the one copy of the 7″ version currently on sale is $60 (US).

There’s an obvious song for today’s posting

mp3: The Fall – F-oldin Money

Funny enough.  One of the more expensive CD-only singles out there on the market at approx £8 a pop.

JC

The blog, for the best part of a year, was turned over to The Fall every Sunday so that all their UK singles and b-sides could be looked at.  It was 3 October 2021 for the turn of Cruiser’s Creek.

For those who don’t recall that particular post, here’s a repeat of what was said.

“Cruiser’s Creek is brilliant.  It’s also bonkers.

Putting the backstory together nowadays is much easier, thanks to the internet and the various fan sites devoted to The Fall, but trying to work it all out back in 1985 was a very tough task. Mark E Smith, in a contemporary interview with one of the music weeklies, said ‘it’s a party lyric with a party twist’.  I’m thinking he was referring to the utter danceability of the song, with a pacey riff and sing-along-chorus, albeit so many of the words in the verses are hard to pick out or fathom.  Reading them written down many years later and there’s confirmation that MES is having a sly dig at two of the year’s biggest happenings in the music world – Red Wedge and ZTT Records.

One of the most astonishing things to emerge in later years is that Cruiser’s Creek was the name of a library on a ship on which MES had spent time with Brix’s family after her grandparents had taken all the relatives on a fiftieth wedding anniversary cruise.  It seems that MES, in trying to escape all the fuss that was happening throughout, retreated to Cruiser’s Creek where he did some writing, seemingly using the location for the title but making the narrative about an office party.  Whether he was comparing the agonies of an office party at one of his former places of employment on Salford Docks with having to spend days at sea with the extended Salenger family, we can only make an assumption……”

The thing is, the version of the song which appeared with the post came from the compilation album The Fall 45 84 89. I’ve since, quite recently, picked up a second hand copy of the 7″ single, thanks to stumbling across it unexpectedly in a shop that mainly sells new vinyl.

If you’re not careful, it’s possible to have a John Peel moment with the single as it spins at 33.33rpm and not the traditional 45.  In other words, that’s me confessing I got caught out the first time I put it on the turntable.  The reason for using the slower speed is that the song actually extends to more than six minutes, as opposed to the album version’s running time of a bit more than four minutes.  As such, this is a debut appearance on TVV:-

mp3: The Fall – Cruiser’s Creek (7″ version)

The b-side is the largely instrumental track written by Brix Smith in homage to her home city.

mp3: The Fall – L.A.

The Fall’s line-up on these two tracks?  Mark E Smith (vocals), Brix Smith (guitar, vocals), Craig Scanlon (guitar), Steve Hanley (bass), Simon Rogers (bass, guitar, keyboards) and Karl Burns (drums).

Cruiser’s Creek reached the giddy heights of #96 in the UK singles chart.

I’ll sign off today with a little bit of housekeeping.

As in previous years, I’m going to take a bit of a break from the blog over the Festive period, but there will still be something posted every day….it’s just that, unsurprisingly, the visitor numbers fall away at this time of year and I prefer to come up with some sort of series or theme to tide things over.

Tomorrow, being a Saturday, will see the usual Scottish song posted.  I have also got something lined up for Christmas Day, (and for once, it’s not Xmas Bubblegum Machine by The Sultans of Ping F.C.), and then Monday will see the first of what will be an 18-part series on a particular theme, that will take us all the way through to almost the middle of January at which time I’ll get things back to normal.  Oh, and if I get my act together, there might be a bonus post on New Year’s Day.

My thanks, as ever, to everyone who has dropped by this year, whether to read, comment or offer up a guest contribution.  I couldn’t keep things going without you.

JC

I know that another ICA by The Fall appeared on the blog only a few days ago, and we’re not long removed from an extensive series looking at their many singles.

The thing is, I not too long ago picked up a vinyl copy of This Nation’s Saving Grace, the album released in September 1985. It’s taken me a couple of months, but I finally got round to putting it on the turntable at the same time as hooking everything up to the laptop to create a high-quality digital copy of its songs.

I can’t help but use the words written by Steve Pringle in his excellent new book, You Must Get Them All – The Fall On Record, as he’s captured perfectly all that makes today’s track such an essential and riveting listen.

….Steve Hanley wrote the riff during his paternity leave, (and it) kicks the album into gear in wonderfully boisterous fashion.  Smith gets his megaphone out for the striking introduction. It doesn’t make sense grammatically, but the message is clear : don’t give me any of your bullshit, or you’ll know about it.

What follows is an absolute marvel. It’s like Steve Hanley came up with three great riffs and then thought, what the hell, let’s weld them all together and see what happens. It clashes, it grinds, it thrashes; it almost feels as if the song itself is trying to punch you in the face. There’s no real song as such here, but it’s a glorious slab of music.

mp3: The Fall – Bombast

Now that you’ve reacquainted yourself with Bombast, don’t you reckon Steve Pringle has nailed it?

JC

There’s a temptation while the ICA World Cup is being played out to avoid adding any new entries to the series for the fear that they will sort of get lost among all that’s going on.

There’s also the question of whether this blog actually needs another ICA from The Fall, especially as it’s not that long since the very-long running singles series came to a halt.

But it’s been inspired in part, by the ongoing series over at No Badger Required where SWC is undertaking a rundown of the best songs with one-word titles, as voted on by his readers.  Victoria made into that rundown at #49 from an original longlist of more than 130 songs.  SWC said that the only other Fall tracks he had thought of including at the expense of Victoria had been Repetition and Iceland. 

It got me thinking that while there were very few one-word Fall songs, there are loads with two-word titles, so much so that an ICA could be compiled.

SIDE A

1. Psykick Dancehall (from Dragnet, 1979)

‘Is there anybody there?’

One which probably sounds like a typical song by The Fall to those who perhaps have little time for the band.  Opening track on Dragnet, the second studio album, there’s a repetition about the music and the vocals as such are half-chanted and half-sung.  And it’s meant to sound a tad off-key all the way through…..it was one of the ways MES wanted to distinguish his mob from any other gang in the post-punk era.

2. Cruiser’s Creek (1985 single)

The full six plus minute version, guaranteed to fill any indie disco dance floor filled to the brim.  Described by MES as having ‘a party lyric with a party twist.’

3. Industrial Estate (Peel Session)

MES mentioned the song, at length, in his ghosted autobiography Renegade, published in 2008:-

4. Hip Priest (from Hex Enduction Hour, 1982)

The alter ego of the unappreciated MES, and famously used in the 1991 film Silence of The Lambs. Selected for this ICA ahead of The Classical, as I didn’t want to get into any more debate about the use of the N-word in its lyrics.

5. Two Librans (from The Unutterable, 2000)

I wasn’t paying too much attention to The Fall at the turn of the century, but I ‘discovered’ this trashy rocker of a track thanks to its inclusion on Revolutions 04, a CD given away with Select Magazine in early 2021.  Two Librans was voted in at #23 in the Peel Festive 50 of 2000.

SIDE B

1. No Bulbs (from Call For Escape Route, 1984)

The Fall have rarely sounded more coherent or commercially ready than at this time in their career.  MES, Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley, Brix Smith and the dual drumming machines of Paul Hanley and Karl Burns made some great music together. This is your full near eight-minute version from the 12″ EP on which Draygo’s Guilt was the lead track.

2. Edinburgh Man (from Shift-Work, 1991)

The break-up of the marriage to Brix led to MES upping sticks and moving to Edinburgh to live for a period of time.  He would later pen an affectionate number to his temporary home.

3. Free Range (from Code: Selfish, 1992)

This is the album version, which is slightly shorter and a different edit, musically, from the single version that featured a while back on the blog.  I do prefer the version which made it all the way to #40 in the UK (the highest position for any Fall original in the singles chart), but this take seems to fit in perfectly at the mid-point of Side B of this ICA.

4. Cowboy George (from Your Future Our Clutter, 2010)

I’ve not too long finished making my way through You Must Get Them All – The Fall On Record, a new book written by Steve Pringle which goes through every record ever released by MES & co.  The author suggests that there is a strong case to be made for Your Future Our Clutter to be the last ‘great’ album on the basis of its consistency and that the latest incarnation of the band had got to grips with a sound that was utterly their own.

Cowboy George is a fast and furious effort, with nods to surf rock and the soundtracks of spaghetti-westerns.  A song of two quite distinct halves, it’s another long one at almost six minutes long and was played live regularly in the sets over the final few years.

5. Fantastic Life (b-side, 1981)

Not only did this get featured when I had a look at Lie Dream of Casino Soul, but it found its way into one of the two volumes of my most recent mixes which popped up just yesterday.

If you want my opinion, and you’re going to get it in any event, this is one of the very best Fall tracks of them all.  Ripped direct from the vinyl, so there’s a couple of minor clicks along the way.

JC

The Fall released a new record in July 2017. It was their 32nd studio album – New Facts Emerge – nobody had any idea it would be their last.

MES gave UNCUT magazine a lengthy and decent interview for a lengthy feature.  The opening paragraph comments are priceless:-

“There are some fucking weird people around, aren’t there?” says Mark E Smith, taking a sip of Jameson’s in Manchester’s Crown & Kettle public house. He’s talking about musicians, a group of people he famously detests. “I suppose you meet a lot of ’em. I’m not one to talk, but a lot of them can’t give it up, can they?”

The interview also acknowledged that the band had been reduced to a four-piece, with Elena Poulou having taken her leave the previous year when she and MES separated and then divorced.  New Facts Emerge proved to be a disappointing effort, with Elena’s keyboards replaced only by more guitars, bass and drums, leading to an even heavier and more pounding sound, which is no surprise given the way the current and now-long standing musicians had been performing on the most recent releases.

No singles were lifted from the album, which would indicate Cherry Red Records were perhaps thinking the band was treading water and that the next set of songs, maybe with someone new brought into as Elena’s replacement, would be slightly more commercially-orientated. Sadly, with MES passing away a few months later in January 2018, (with a gig in Glasgow proving to be his last ever), the theory was never put to the test.

The label had previously issued a 7″ single for Record Store Day on 22 April 2017.  It was done, seemingly, without MES’s knowledge far less blessing, which left him a bit pissed off to say the least.  In the olden days, this would have led to him ripping up the contract and seeking a new home, but seemingly tired of battling with record company bosses, he told Uncut that “Cherry Red are all right (to work with)”.

It wasn’t even as if a really old track had been resurrected. Masquerade had been released in February 1998, on 10″ vinyl and 2 x CD singles, on Artful Records, selling enough copies to reach #69 in the singles chart.  The RSD effort didn’t even offer up any new version, with the b-side being a remix that had been included on the original 10″ release:-

mp3: The Fall – Masquerade
mp3: The Fall – Masquerade (PWL mix)

All in all, a rather limp ending to the singles/EP career of The Fall, but it certainly wasn’t planned that way…MES’s body finally gave up on him before any new music could be written, recorded and released.

I’d like to thank everyone who has stuck with this series, and I’ll apologise to those of you who aren’t fans who probably feel it has long overstayed its welcome.  The first part was actually just over a year ago, on 13 June 2021, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing the research involved for each release.  I haven’t always enjoyed the music, but it’s fair to say there have been way more hits than misses.

One thing I will add is that if a fairly recent book on The Fall had been in print when I began this series, then my life would have been a lot easier.

You Must Get Them All : The Fall On Record is a 656-page hardback epic written by Steve Pringle, issued by Route Publishing.  I don’t think at this stage you can get it anywhere other than via the publishers, and while as yet I’m only just over halfway through its contents, it does feel as if it’s the first book to tell the full chronological story by concentrating on every release, weaving in the various line-up changes and the live and often punishing touring schedules.  Click here for more details.

Tune in next week for the start of a new(ish) Sunday series…..its success or otherwise will rely heavily on audience participation/involvement.

JC

Here’s a contemporary review of the Wise ‘Ol Man EP, released on Cherry Red Records on 19 February 2016, thus ending the run of singles/EPs specifically issued on Record Store Days.

“The Fall’s current line-up has been its most durable one since Mark E. Smith started the band in the mid-’70s, and that’s really saying something. Just go to Wikipedia and see if you can nail down a halfway steady lineup through the Fall’s career. Smith, his wife/keyboardist Elena Poulou, guitarist Pete Greenway, bassist David Spurr and drummer Keiron Melling have enjoyed a steady string of studio albums, EPs, and live albums for the past ten years or so. The Wise Ol’ Man EP serves as a companion piece to the previous year’s Sub-Lingual Tablet, featuring a handful of new songs along with reworked Tablet tracks.

As is true to recent Fall tradition, Wise Ol’ Man goes down as smoothly as a pint of motor oil. Age may mellow some artists, but Smith seems to be going the opposite direction as the years pass. His lyrics and their meaning are being tucked further and further back into the mix, his vocal delivery relies on growling and stretched vowels more than ever, and the band he has chosen to surround himself with plays with all the serenading power of a two-ton hammer. Newcomers to the Manchester phenomenon won’t be able to tell if Wise Ol’ Man is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders or the sound of a band coming apart. Let it be known that the Fall never makes things easy, for neither themselves nor their fans.

The title track, a new song that kicks off the EP, really injects the “punk” into the group’s post-punk origins with a three-chord pattern that absolutely pounds. Poulou sings the title’s three words while Smith moans, howls, and laughs at the top of his voice, sounding very much like a man who is amused by the fact that he knows something we don’t. “Wise Ol’ Man” turns up again on the EP’s second half, misleadingly labelled as the ‘Instrumental’ version since there are plenty of vocals to be heard on that one. Another new song, “All Leave Cancelled”, also gets two renditions. The first is an eight-minute sludge pummelling with vocals that screech, keyboards that sustain noisily, and a bass part that could never get clean after ten showers. The version of “All Leave Cancelled” that closes out the album is two minutes long, sounds substantially cleaner, and features no vocals. Sub-Lingual Tablet‘s legacy is carried on by “Dedication”, a remix of “Dedication Not Medication”, and “Venice with Girls”. The skewed disc-pop of “Dedication” sounds about as far-out and futuristic now as it probably would have back in the late ’70s, while “Venice with Girls” has a sliver more in common with the late ’80s/early ’90s Britpop movement.

This is all just to get you ready for “Face Book Troll / No Xmas For John Quay”, seemingly a medley of two new songs where Smith uses his one-of-a-kind voice to goad his band into reaching new heights with their noise. Splicing a studio recording with a live one, this track bulldozes full speed ahead for over seven minutes. Smith’s voice cracks over the cacophony, the last beat falls, and the appreciate audience bellows its approval. Thus ends another Fall release, one of many that have come before and, for all we know, just as many to come. Wise Ol’ Man won’t go down as one of the essential puzzle pieces to the story of the Fall, but it at least boasts a killer title cut.”

This was written by John Garratt for the popmatters website.  It’s not the worst review in terms of how the music sounds, but it fails on a number of fronts such as dating Britpop to the late 80s/early 90s, and then there’s the ‘burn them at the stake’ offence of failing to recognise that No Xmas For John Quays, far from being a new song within a medley, dates all the way back to 1979 and the debut album Live At The Witch Trials. The version on this latest release was recorded at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on 28 November 2014.

mp3: The Fall – Wise Ol’ Man (edit)
mp3: The Fall – All Leave Cancelled
mp3: The Fall – Dedication (remix)

mp3: The Fall – Wise Ol’ Man (instrumental)
mp3: The Fall – Venice With The Girls (remix)
mp3: The Fall – Facebook Troll/No Xmas For John Quays

mp3: The Fall – All Leave Cancelled (X)

I could feasibly end the series here in that the final 45 released by The Fall in MES’s lifetime would prove to be another RSD effort in 2017, a 7″ single in which both tracks had previously been available.

Tune in next week for what, unfortunately, is a bit of an anti-climax, but which somehow seems appropriate given the sprawling and occasionally shambolic nature of The Fall’s single and EP releases. Besides, one more week makes for prefect timing for what kicks-off on Sundays come the month of July…..

JC

I’m going to wiki today:-

The Remainderer is an EP by the Fall, released on 9 November 2013. It features five new songs by the group and a medley of two Gene Vincent covers.

The Quietus described the title track as “full of mischief and malevolence” and the rest of the EP as “answering the call of the weird”. Pitchfork noted the longevity of the line-up as “an encouraging sign that stability has yet to ossify into stagnation with this ongoing iteration of the band, who formidably exercise their elasticity over the course of these six wildly divergent tracks”.

The Line of Best Fit commented that the EP “isn’t necessarily consistently solid, but it’s decidedly close. Fundamentally though it’s reaffirmation of their aptitude for quantity and quality”.

NME found the EP to “sound like someone’s brought Elvis back to life”.

mp3: The Fall – The Remainderer
mp3: The Fall – Amorator!
mp3: The Fall – Mister Rode

mp3: The Fall – Rememberance R
mp3: The Fall – Say Mama/Race With The Devil (live)
mp3: The Fall – Touchy Pad

Again, you’ll find it’s MES (vocals), Peter Greenway (guitar), David Spurr (bass), Keiron Melling (drums) and Eleni Poulou (keyboards) with Cherry Red Records the label.  The days of line-ups constantly changing and shifts from one label to another were firmly in the rear.

Two more weeks left in the series.

JC

It was a quiet twelve months for The Fall between the release of Night of The Humerons for Record Store Day 2012 and the next again time any new product was in the shops.  Indeed, it was Record Store Day 2013 when 1,500 copies of a 7″ single found their way onto various shelves and racks.

mp3: The Fall – Sir William Wray
mp3: The Fall – Jetplane
mp3: The Fall – Hittite Man

The now well-established quintet of MES (vocals), Peter Greenway (guitar), David Spurr (bass), Keiron Melling (drums) and Eleni Poulou (keyboards) were the musicians on board, and again it was Cherry Red Records on which it was released.  All three songs would be included on the album Re-Mit, which came out a couple of weeks after RSD 2013.

I hadn’t heard any of these prior to pullling this post together. I was surprised to discover that they are quite diverse, which is something to behold given that The Fall had now, at this point, been making music for 35 years, but I feel that Jetplane is the only one worth repeated listens.

Having said that, a different version of Hittite Man was put out on Facebook (!!) just after the album was released, and is an improvement on the original.

mp3: The Fall – Hittite Man (alternate version)

This line-up of The Fall, it has to be said, sound quite professional and polished in many places but, to my ears, without the spark of the classic line-ups who have featured in past postings.  Indeed, as you can hear best on the alternative version of Hittite Man, they are almost a bog-standard rock band. Or am I being unfair??

This series is drawing to its natural conclusion, and I’ve already decided what’s going to take its place on Sundays going forward.  I hope most of you will be happy…..

JC

I mentioned last week that I never bought anything The Fall issued while with Cherry Red Records as I’d lost my way with the band by this point in time.  Drew over at Across The Kitchen Table remained a devotee, but all too often he would tell of going along to a gig and feeling let-down and/or short-changed.

I might have felt the same way if I was the type who made something out of Record Store Day as the next 45 to be released by MES & co was for that event in April 2012, with a limited run of 1,000 copies of a 7″ single with the title Night of the Humerons, but neither the a-side nor b-side featured a song of that name.

mp3: The Fall – Victrola Time

The a-side was seemingly developed from an instrumental track called Damflicters that had been worked up during sessions for the Ersatz G.B. album, released in November 2011.  It might have been a limited edition 45, but it became widely available in May 2013 when it was included on the next studio album, Re-Mit.

It’s electronica Fall, and MES doesn’t start singing until about 70 seconds in….and it, to be frank, is awful.  Here’s your lyrics in full:-

Science hasn’t recorded it yet…
And I don’t want bennies….jellies….

I said MDMA years!
You can’t feel, you can’t feel Victrola
Victrola teller, Victrola teller
From ’28 from ’16,
Victrola,
DMA years,
Stop!
J-j-just stop
J-just can’t
Just can’t
Post meth and DMA years
The pre non-MDM and net years
The post meth MDMA years
The pre-non-MDM and meth years
The post meth and also DMA years
The MDMA years
The pre-black eyes and tears of today years
The post-meth MDMA years
MDMA years…
Can’t feel I could cry
Joy
The pre-black eyes and tears of today years

The b-side was a live version of a track from Erstatz G.B.:-

mp3: The Fall – Taking Off (live)

At least it’s marginally better than the a-side.

JC