Tue 2008-05-06 From a BBC radio program I overhead this afternoon: Peter Hook, of Joy Division, talking on the about Love Will Tear Us Apart:
... You'd have to say that it is full of poetic technique. What it isn't full of is detail, there's just these wild abstractions, very much a young man's poetry. You never get a cup of bovril in an Ian Curtis lyric. ...
Sun 2006-11-26 This video of Wings by the Fall brought back memories for me, even though I had not seen the video nor heard the song before. It is classic early Fall: a rambling gothic tale backed by a driving beat. Great stuff!
Tue 2004-11-16 The late John Peel has a lot to answer for. A few months ago I came across three (yes three!) books about The Fall in the Reading Broad Street branch of Waterstone's bookshop. I thought that Mark E.Smith must have died, or at least have been given a knighthood.
I first heard The Fall when I was at Leeds University in 1978, on the Peel program of course. Back then they were very rough indeed, but I was impressed enough to seek out and buy Bingo Master's Break-Out! and Live at the Witch Trials. I followed them through Dragnet, Fiery Jack, How I Wrote Elastic Man, Totally Wired, and on to Hex Enduction Hour in 1982. After that, I must have become more responsible, for the only other Fall records I bought were The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall (1984) and Bend Sinister (1986). Then I lost track of them completely for several years. It was only when I started listening to BBC Radio 6 on broadband that I learned that The Fall, or rather Mark E.Smith and the current version of The Fall, are still active and producing good stuff in 2004.
The key element of The Fall has always been Smith's inscrutable lyrics which are completely unlike anything else in contemporary music. A lesser, but still important feature has been the driving wall of noise produced by the rest of the band. The overall effect is best summed up by quoting Danny Kelly's description (NME 1984 Nov 10):
As well as quotations, Ford's book is full of interviews with many past and present members of the band, some interviewed specially for the book, others culled from old music magazines and books. Smith comes across as almost impossible to live and work with, and one has to admire the dedication of Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon, Karl Burns, Martin Bramah, Kay Carroll, Brix Smith, and the others for sticking with him for as long as they did. Whenever the band looked like it was getting to be successful, Mark E.Smith would insist on making a new start, for example by changing their record company. On one occasion Smith apparently fired his whole band because they wouldn't make the sound that he wanted. A few days later he went and got his ears syringed and found out the problem had actually been in his hearing, not in their playing. But they stayed because they were in awe of his ability to come up with ideas and words. Some of this awe comes across in reading Marc Riley's reaction after the recording of 'Iceland' as recounted by Colin Irwin (Melody Maker 1981 Sep 26):
As Ford says, once you have been a fan of The Fall you can never escape it: even now when I walk past a pelican crossing and it goes beep-beep-beep... in the back of my mind I hear Mark E.Smith spitting out:
Got eighteen months for espionage,
Too much brandy for breakfast,
And people tend to let you down,
It's a swine....
Fantastic life!
Ours is not to look back, ours is to continue the crack. (Argggh! I think I had better go and lie down.)
Mon 2004-08-30 In February 2003 I broke my ankle while taking a short cut across the Inner Distribution Road in Reading and was off work for two months. After the first week of agony, the pain subsided and my life then became a battle against boredom and the wasting away of my leg muscles. To combat the the latter I would lie on my back and waggle my legs in the air as if I was walking; to combat boredom I would listen to the radio.
One of the highlights of that time was a Radio 4 serialization of readings by Nick Hornby from his book 31 Songs. This was broadcast in the mornings, just after my wife and daughter had left the flat. I would get dressed, stagger through to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee (a non-trivial operation on crutches), lean my crutches against the wall and sit down at the table with my ankle propped up on a stool. And then, because it had taken so much effort, I would sit there for the next hour or so listening to the radio. And during one week, each morning this down-beat sounding middle-aged man would come on and talk for 15 minutes about some pop song that he liked. Most of the songs he talked about I had not heard of but, in spite of that, I began to look forward to hearing him. There is a fascination in listening to someone enthuse knowledgeably about something, no matter how trivial that something might be.
Well, in time my ankle mended, I learned to walk again, went back to work and my life returned to normal. Then, a few months ago, I was wandering through Waterstone's one Saturday morning when the cover of 31 Songs caught my eye. I bought a copy there and then, and read it over the next few days. And yes, it was enjoyable, but not as enjoyable as listening to the radio programs when I was stuck in our flat with nothing else to do. And no, I have not bought any CD's as a result of reading this book, but I did use Google to find a free downloadable copy of Royksopp's Night Out.
