Mark E Smith is one of those people you love or hate – you get him or you don’t. Fall fans think he can do no wrong. I’m one of those – but I can see the other side.
One gig I went to he was so paralytic that he could hardly stand. At another he spent half the time sitting behind the speaker stack so that you could just see the top of his head. Another time he sang most of the gig from in the dressing room sprawled out on a coach. A lot of his drawl becomes so slurred it is incomprehensible. When he does emerge he constantly harangues his musicians, detunes guitars, bashes strings, bangs on drums, messes with the organ and seems intent on causing the maximum mayhem and disruption, cacophony and noise. Yet it works wonderfully. It’s all drama, hilarious and interesting. Nobody does anything like it.
The basis of it though is the music. Since the 70s he has consistently produced hard riffing music that throbs with energy, creativity and individuality. There are hints of Beefheart but there is no compromise. John Peel loved him.
There is nobody quite like Mark E Smith.
I like to push people till I get the truth out of them.
He certainly pushes people.
If it’s me and yer granny on bongos, it’s the Fall.
The number of musicians that have been through the band could fill an army.
I do feel like an outsider, but I don’t lose any sleep over it.
I can’t think why he thinks that? He’s a one off.
The thing with me. I can’t stick musicians. I’ve thought about this. I can’t stand them, and being stuck in a studio with them I think that’s my strength I can hear what they can’t.
That’s probably why he keeps firing them all.
When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn’t exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.
He certainly achieved his ambition.
“If you going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly…” The story of his life. Brilliant weirdo…
Exactly – well put!!