Mark E. Smith Rip
 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ction-14199592

He has passed at age 60. hard livin'

RIP

This one really stings. The Fall were my favorite band for the longest time, only recently supplanted by Johnny Dowd. Deepest sympathy to MES' family, friends and fans of his music.

Goddamn motherfucking shit.



https://news.google.com/news/search/...n&gl=US&ned=us

I'm destroyed. :( :mad: :(

WHAT?!

He was not appreciated (enough)

:(

Fuck life!

This is the worst and most personal one in some time. Since Reed, perhaps. I spent my twenties under the spell of Hex Enduction Hour and TNSG and Room to Live and Grotesque and... and... and...

Goddammit.

RIP.

Who says it's good, good, good to be alive, baby?
Same ones who keep it a perpetual jive, baby
Who says it's good, good, good to be alive?
It ain't no good, it's a perpetual dive

Well, when you will fully choose to not promote your band this is what happens. All of this despite your obvious talent.

what a strange morning.

RIP.

the world was unappreciative of him in his health..
mark e. smith will be called "a genius" much more often now..

i'm sad and pissed off.

I don't think that is true, my understanding is that he was very hardworking and generally frustrated with lack of success

Normally famous people deaths are not something that mean that much to me, but this one shocked and saddened me

Yes, this is my impression too.

Success being success in his own terms — as it always should be, of course. This is what Kieron Melling, drummer in The Fall's last :( lineup, said last year, around the time New Facts Emerge was released:


Incidentally, that last lineup lasted for eleven years, an eternity in Falltime. (Elena Poulou left in 2016, but what's 12 months or so ;)). Here's a convenient timeline courtesy of Wikipedia:

 

Some of the many reactions on social media-uh:

http://www.undertheradarmag.com/news...cians_react_t/

He hadn't been in good health. I'm kind of surprised he lasted this long. He came from a chemical generation, its amazing he lasted this long. He came from the same 1970's chemical culture of Motorhead and the Ramones that popped speed and ludes and acid and any number of pills, all washed down with an unending amount of alcohol.

I made up a list of all the times I saw the Fall, that I could remember, I managed to see them about 10 times. I still don't know how I talked me mum into letting me drive to Boston from Maine when I was in high school to see their matinee at The Rat. They were incredible that day - I think we got a 30 minute Smile - but in 1993 they played Slim's in San Francisco on the Infotainment Scan tour that knocked me out and I went back the next night. I used to tell people HEx INduction Hour was my favorite all time album, I don't know if that that is still not true.

Mark leaves an incredible body of work. The Fall will be forgotten.

Funny, to me, thinking he was only 60 caused a great surprise.
I knew he had been drinking a lot, yet I didn't expect him to be a human being, that is weak enough to be in bad condition.

The last time i saw The Fall was at a festival in London in 2010. I went up the front, then came back to my friends who had been doing something else, and asked "so what did you think" and one of them said "That is the worst thing i have ever heard". And i thought "YES!".
I may blab more about my Fall experiences in the next few days, because The Fall were the best of the best

You have less than zero respect for the English language.

this one's hitting me really hard again. the concept of a world without the fall is pretty mind boggling.....

keep having flashbacks to seeing them 3 nights in a row a couple of years back and thinking they were far better than any band deserves to be after four decades....autochip's gotta go down as one of their utter masterpieces right? will more than happily go in to bat for pretty much everything they've done in the last decade.

Bit harsh there, lad

He is the Soup Nazi, after all.

Bit mild, actually, compared to my posts on the Trump thread. Which are GLORIOUS! ;) :D In any case, I'm pretty sure t69's got me on his "ignore" list, so it's not like I'm putting a gun to his head. I think.

I like their more recent stuff as well. I’ve taken a bit of shit for liking Fall Heads Roll because “Blindness” was featured in some commercial. I couldn’t give less of a shit. It’s a properly ass-kicking song from an ass-kicking album from a band that’s been incredibly consistent for how completely inconsistent they’ve been personnel-wise.

The Wire has set up a Mark E Smith & The Fall Archive Portal. (I'm afraid you have to be a subscriber to access all its contents, though). Incidentally, here are some (just some!) of Savage Pencil's takes on MES through the years:

April 2006:





June 2009:



March 2015:

Mark E Smith's final Uncut interview
Smith discusses The Fall past and present, America and art in this feature from September 2017

Essential reading. One of my favorite bits is...


...which squares perfectly with Cate Le Bon's recollection as it appeared on The Guardian:


Cate's music certainly has a dash of The Fall in it, and it's more so with DRINKS, her project with Tim Presley. If you don't have their album Hermits On Holiday (great fuckin' title!), seek it out at all costs.

Those Savage Pencil pieces are just brilliant

The Record Collector issue with MES on the cover is hitting Stateside...

missed this....fall heads roll for some reason I'm not the biggest fan of, the songs are routinely excellent but the production is weird, heavy on these really thick sounds that are mixed as to be thin? doesn't make much sense. and the takes on the tracks feel really sluggish, especially what about us (much preferred the live versions with the reformation group). but midnight aspen is astonishing, and have a real soft spot for break the rules, ride away's sick too. closer is one of the worst fall songs ever put to tape though.

new facts emerge is similar to me, interesting songs but they're made middling by the production which makes them sound like a drowning pub rock band. re-mit's fun though, yfoc obviously great (weather report's a wonder) and sub-lingual tablet has some real highs. ersatz is weird, think my enjoyment of it's largely perverse but it's just got such an odd, erratic atmosphere that it overcomes how trashy it is. will also defend reformation endlessly, total rush job but that line-up was really something special, and all the tracks tim presley chucked onto those later records were all top.

Can you explain what you meant a little bit, because I think this untrue - if by "not promoting" you mean they should have done more than tour globally regularly and do print interviews along with radio and TV appearances regularly? Mark was known to be unfriendly to stupid journos if thats what you mean. I went to a free show at the old Virgin Megacenter Union Square, its ridiculous but they were working to promote their record as best they could while in NY.

At the end of the day, I just don't think Rolling Stones level-stardom awaited them. When I was in high school in the early 80's, I was in the unique position of turning on a bunch of adults to new wave music, they loved the B52s and Clash and Police and XTC and T-Heads and Delta 5 and Slits I played for them, but not even Totally Wired could bring them around to the Fall.

Probably exactly how they/he wanted it.

Maybe not Rolling Stones - level stardom, but some of the albums in the early 90s seem to contain more than a few licks and production sounds that wouldn't have been out of place on a New Order album at their most commercial around the same time. The first Fall song I've ever heard on the radio is ''It's a Curse'', which is an example that springs to mind.

I never got to see a bad show-maybe the boogaloo - we crammed into a hallway while they played around the corner out of sight in a small room
The Rat, Boston 1983
The New Ritz, NYC 18 May 90
Slim's, San Francisco 4 Sep 93
Slim's SF 5 Sep 93
The Fillmore, San Francisco 24 Sep 94
Knitting Factory, NYC 7 Jul 03
Knitting Factory, NYC 9 Apr 04
Boogaloo Bar, South Williamsburg, Brooklyn 22 May 2004
Virgin Megacenter, Union Square, NYC 15 Oct 04
N. 6th, Williamsburg, NYC 15 Oct 04