Post-punk band from Greater Manchester, UK. Late 1976 to date.
Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman and only constant member of the formation.
Formed in late 1976 or early 1977, they've released around 50 singles, 30 studio albums, and well over 50 live and compilation albums (although it seems like more). In August 2004 they recorded their 24th John Peel Session.
The band has gone through numerous personnel changes over the years (there have been well over 30 different line-ups so far), and since July 2007 consists of Mark E. Smith, Pete Greenway on guitar, Dave "The Eagle" Spurr on bass, Elenor Smith on keyboards, and Keiron Melling on drums. In 2014, Daren Garratt became a full time member as a second drummer.
Label: Cherry Red – BRED706 Format: CD, Album Country: UK Released: 28 Jul 207 Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock
Tracklist
01. Segue 00:30 02. Fol De Rol 06:35 03. Brillo De Facto 03:49 04. Victoria Train Station Massacre 01:14 05. New Facts Emerge 04:02 06. Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s 08:44 07. Second House Now 04:28 08. O! Zztrrk Man 03:50 09. Gibbus Gibson 02:38 10. Groundsboy 03:38 11. Nine out of Ten 08:48
"The Fall’s 32nd new studio album, New Facts Emerge, will be released on Cherry Red Records on 28th July. The album comprises 11 tracks and is being released on CD and limited edition vinyl. New Facts Emerge was produced by Melling/Smith and engineered by Ding. The artwork is by Pamela Vander.
The Fall is noted for its prolific output: in addition to the studio albums they have released more than triple that, counting live albums and other compilations.
Founded by its only constant member, Mark E. Smith, The Fall formed in Manchester in 1976 and has existed ever since. Musically, there may have been several stylistic changes over the years, but it is often characterised by an abrasive guitar-driven sound and frequent use of repetition, always underpinned by Smith’s distinctive vocals and often cryptic lyrics. The current line-up is as follows: Mark E. Smith (lead vocals); Peter Greenway (guitar, synth, backing vocals); Dave Spurr (bass, Mellotron, backing vocals); Kieron Melling (drums)." https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/new-facts-emerge/
Mark E Smith dead – tributes and reaction as The Fall singer dies aged 60
The lead singer of seminal Manchester band The Fall died at home on Wednesday
By Katie Fitzpatrick, Andrew Stuart, Rob Williams, Andrew Bardsley Updated 08:32, 25 JAN 2018
The lead singer of seminal Manchester post-punk band The Fall Mark E Smith has died, according to reports. A statement posted on The Fall Online website said that Mark, 60, died at home this morning. The statement, attributed to The Fall's manager, said: "It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Mark E Smith. "He passed this morning at home. A more detailed statement will follow in the next few days. "In the meantime, Pam & Mark’s family request privacy at this sad time. Pam Van Damned. The Fall - manager." Mark has been ill for some time and the band had been forced to cancel a number of shows recently. He performed at a gig in Wakefield in October in a wheelchair. Mark was the only remaining founding member of the group, which formed in Prestwich in 1976. The group released more than 30 studio albums, and dozens more live records and EPs which were devoured by an adoring cult fanbase.
These pictures taken by Andrew Stuart show tributes to Mark E Smith that appeared on lampposts around Prestwich last night.
Mark E. Smith, Uncompromising Leader of the Fall, Dies at 60
By JON PARELESJAN. 25, 2018
Mark E. Smith, the English songwriter and singer who since 1976 had led the Fall, a definitively uncompromising post-punk band, died on Wednesday at his home in Prestwich, England, near Manchester, where he had lived since childhood. He was 60.
His death was announced by his manager and partner, Pamela Vander. She did not specify the cause, but in August — shortly after the Fall released its 32nd studio album, “New Facts Emerge” — Mr. Smith’s poor health caused the group to cancel its first United States engagements in a decade, including a planned five-night residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn.
At the time, Ms. Vander wrote on the band’s website that the shows were not possible because of “a mix of bizarre and rare (true to form) medical issues that Mark is currently being treated for.” She added, “Mark’s current problems are connected to his throat, mouth/dental & respiratory system.”
Mr. Smith’s intransigent voice and anarchically caustic lyrics often rode pitiless, repetitive riffs toward an almost ecstatic bitterness and cynicism. His vocals veered between melody and various degrees of sneer, rant and cackle; he had a habit of adding an extra syllable — “uh” — to lines at whim.
Although some of the band’s albums reached the British Top 40, the Fall did not seek pop acceptance. A well-chosen 2004 compilation album was titled “50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong.”
But the astringent sound and attitude of the Fall’s early albums, with bottom-scraping bass lines under clattery, unswerving drumbeats and dissonant guitar, became a cornerstone of post-punk, echoing through bands like Sonic Youth, Pavement and Protomartyr. And the Fall found and built a loyal audience that welcomed the music’s corrosive intent while it parsed the spite, mockery, allusions and non sequiturs in Mr. Smith’s lyrics.
On Twitter, Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Texas post-punk band At the Drive-In called Mr. Smith “one of the pillars of influence for me as lyricist and troublemaker.”
Through the Fall’s studio albums and an avalanche of live recordings, the band’s style changed often, as Mr. Smith, its founder and only constant, hired and often fired more than five dozen musicians.
At various points in the band’s four-decade career, the Fall might sound like punk, hard rock, psychedelia, funk, blues-rock, jazz-rock, electropop or sheer noise. “If it’s me and your granny on bongos, it’s the Fall,” Mr. Smith once declared. The BBC disc jockey John Peel, an early and steadfast supporter, said of the Fall that “they are always different, they are always the same.”
Through it all, Mr. Smith maintained his role as a brain-twisting wordsmith, a contentious bandleader and a perpetual irritant. In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, he boasted: “People still cross the road from me; I’ve still got that. I can clear a pub when I want to. It’s a talent.”
Mark Edward Smith was born in Salford, near Manchester, on March 5, 1957, and grew up in nearby Prestwich. After dropping out of school at 16, he was working as a shipping clerk and studying literature at night school when he saw the Sex Pistols in a sparsely attended show at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester. He soon started his own band with friends. The Fall was named after an Albert Camus novel.
“When I formed the group,” Mr. Smith wrote in his 2008 autobiography, “Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith,” “it was because of sounds; of wanting to make something; combining primitive music with intelligent lyrics.”
The Fall released its first EP, “Bingo-Master’s Break-Out!,” in 1978, and its debut album, “Live at the Witch Trials,” in 1979. Manchester was a center of post-punk innovation at the turn of the 1980s, with bands like Joy Division, the Durutti Column and the Smiths. But the Fall — although less popular and more abrasive — would outlast them all.
The Fall’s closest approach to the rock mainstream, with songs featuring clear-cut beats, riffs and choruses, came in the 1980s, when the band’s guitarists (and Mr. Smith’s songwriting collaborators) were Craig Scanlon, who was in the Fall from 1979 to 1995, and Brix Smith, who was Mr. Smith’s wife from 1983 to 1989, her initial tenure with the band, and rejoined for two 1990s albums.
Her departure was followed by decades of fluctuations in the band’s music, by turns obnoxious and illuminating. Mr. Smith also recorded outside the Fall with Gorillaz and Elastica, and he made an album in 2007 with the German electronic duo Mouse on Mars under the group name Von Südenfed.
The Fall toured constantly through its four decades, playing sets that could be spellbinding or desultory. A notorious 1998 performance at Brownie’s in the East Village included fistfights among the musicians.
For the Fall’s final half-dozen albums, the lineup remained largely stable. From 2002 to 2016 the band included Elena Poulou, whom Mr. Smith married in 2001, on keyboards. They divorced in 2016.
In addition to Ms. Vander, Mr. Smith is survived by his mother, Irene, and three sisters, Caroline, Barbara and Susanne.
Mr. Smith garnered multiple reputations: as a drinker and a brawler, as a contrarian and an insult-slinger (particularly against politicians, institutions and other musicians), and as an artist and an experimenter. In concert, he disdained looking back or playing longtime fan favorites. The Fall’s live sets usually drew only on the band’s most recent recordings and even newer songs.
In his autobiography, Mr. Smith put it bluntly: “The Fall are about the present, and that’s it.”
Ben Sisario contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on January 26, 2018, on Page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: Mark E. Smith, 60, Uncompromising Leader of the Fall. https://www.nytimes.com/2018....es.html
