Mark E Smith the inimitable poet and frontman of seminal cult post punk band the Fall , has died aged 60 after an extended period of ill health. Out of all the bands that emerged from mid-70's punk rock the Fall I have always continued to follow.
He formed the Fall after seeing the Sex Pistols at their famous concert at the lesser Free Trade Hall, in June 1976, He assembled the Fall in his home town of Prestwich, citing not only raw energy of the Pistols as influences but also krautrock, art rock ,the Velvet Underground , Captain Beefheart , Smith also had a fondness for rockabilly and garage rock.
Smith would be the constant mainstay of the band for more than 40 years, that would see constant lineup changes, as his fellow band members fell by the wayside, often not voluntarily. Throughout the groups tenure, Smith performed with a total of 66 band members.He was known as someone difficult to work with, because of his notoriously confrontational attitude,cantakerous, tyrannical personality, acidic tone and deadpan black humour, which was often fueled by copious amounts of alcohol.Not one who cared a fig about commercial success, the Fall still managed to release a total of 31 studio albums and 32 live albums, each one for me has a uniqueness and charm about them.His work simply defied categorisation, combining elements of satire, social commentary and sheer cunning wordplay that continue to dazzle.
To me he truly was a legend. Smith was born in the north of Manchester, Broughton, Salford, England in 1957 to a working class family, his dad was a plumber. He passed his 11-plus and went to Stand Grammar school, but quit at 16 and took a job as a shipping clerk on Salford docks. At night , he took on a A-level class in literature and numbered Kurt Vonnegut, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, HP Lovecraft, Phillip K Dick, JG Ballard, Arthur Machen , George Orwell among his favourite authors. Indeed his band was named after Albert Camus novel ' La Chute.' He took an interest in politics, and after a spell as a Labour supporter, went even further left and joined the SWP (The Socialist Workers Party) This did not seem to stop him from sprouting from time rather conservative and illiberal views.
An outsider, and even though not commercially succesful, his band still band still managed to score high in the independent charts with such songs as 'Totally Wired' 'How I managed to write Elastic Man ' 'kicker conspiracy' and a wonderful cover of 60's classic ' There's a ghost in my house.''
The extensive range of albums released under the fall moniker , to numerous to mention, started in 1979 with ' Live at the Witch Trials' and ' Dragnet.' leading to 1982's ' Hex induction hour.' 1983's ' Perverted by language.' 1984's ' Bend Sinister' ,1988's ' I am kurious oranj' 94's ' Middle class revolt,' 99's ' The Marshall Suite.' 2006's ' Fall Heads Roll' 2008's ' Imperial Wax Solvent,' to last years ' New facts emerge.'
A central legendary figure in the Manchester music scene, he was a crucial lyricist who delivered each line with a last-call bluster punctuated with an oratorial certainty, surreal word play and the use of blistering social commentary, delivered in a deadpan style of talk-rap singing which was instantly identifiable. but much imitated , an influence on many. his bands tense, often abrasive sound would be a key inspiration to bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, to my own country, Wales's very own Datblygu.
Pushing against those that described his work as ' stream of consciousness.' Smith once said "' I put a lot of hard sweat into them. I think about them. They have an inner logic to me, so I don'r really care who understands them or not." Aross lyrics he directed his ire at everything that rattled him from Nazis, British politicians, magazine editors, music critics to name a few.Like British poets across the ages , he seemed to understand from an early age that his lifes mission was to create a body of work that would outlive him.
"When I'm dead and gone." he uttered in an early song called "Psychic Dance Hall." my vibrations will live on, in vibes on vinyl through the years people will dance to my waves."
His career and that of his band would be forever associated with the DJ, the late John Peel , the Fall recorded an aming 24 radio sessions between 1978 and 2004.His first solo album ' The Post Nearly Man," appeared in 1998, and his second in 2002 ' Pander! Pander!Panzer! he also managed throughout his extensive career to find time to collaborate with many other musicians beyond the remits of the Fall.
Married three times, he first tied the knot in 1983, to Brix Sith who instantly became a band member. After their divorce he was then briefly married to Safron Prior , who had run the Fall's fan club, befoe meting Elena Poulou in 2000, who sunseguently became the Fall's keyboardist in 2002.
In 2005, BBC4 aired the documentary The Fall ; The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith. Three years later, he published an autobiagraphy called ' Renegade; The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith, written in collaboation with Austin Collins. Around this time I had the personal pleasure to meet him in Hay on Wye, and despite his reputation, he came across to me as a warm hearted kind, generous soul. In later years he would often perform in a wheelchair because of his ill health.
A true inspiration to me, such an iconic force, his music has been the soundtrack to my life since I first became aware of the Fall, when 13, in 1980, and though rather cliched to say this, there will never be another Mark E Smith , so sharp, clever, uncompromising . unique, a guiding light of stubborn fierce independence, and untouchably cool. Losing also Ursula Le Guin also this week , its been a hard week for me as I've lost two of my cultural heroes. R. I. P. Mark E Smith. Currently playing loudly in my home, long live the mighty Fall.
The frightening and wonderful world of the Fall
The Fall - Lost in music
The Fall - Jerusalem
The Fall - How I wrote ' Elastic man!
The Fall - Totally wired
The Fall - Eat Y'r self fitter
The Fall - Before the Moon falls
The Fall - The Hip Priest
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