A superb gig by Mark. He performed part of it from behind the speaker with just the top of the back of his head showing. I thought it was strange but looking back he was most probably ill.
Mark E Smith and the Fall – 2012 Hull – photos
The Fall in Hull – 2012
Mark E Smith and the Fall in York 2014 – Photos
Goodbye Mark E Smith – Thank you!!
The Fall were one of the few bands left that I would travel a long way to see! Now they’ve gone. Mark’s grandmother playing bongos on her own would just not be the Fall.
What can you say about Mark? He couldn’t sing, he couldn’t dance, he was an irascible old git, but somehow he was a genius who created an unbroken series of brilliant albums from their inception in Manchester in 1976 right through to now. They never disappointed.
As John Peel said – Always the same and Always different.
The Fall were never the same – they actually transformed themselves through 65 different musicians over that 40 years – but they were always consistently the same. Mark, who once said ‘even if it’s just me and my Grandma on bongos it’s the Fall’, had a vision for the sound. It was based on those great repetitive riffs that took it into a groove that drove the music into pulsating life. Mark, with his plastic face and ability to gurn, was the anarchic Prince of Punk. He treated the stage, the performance, the audience and the musicians with utter disdain. He seemed intent on disrupting the whole thing. He seemed intent on undermining any attempt to create a slick musical event. He would stride around scowling, shouting the lyrics over the beat, bashing the symbols out of beat, detuning the guitar as the guitarist vainly persisted in playing, pushing his wife aside to plonk discordantly on the keyboards, pushing musicians around and generally doing his best to disturb the flow and interrupt the musicality. Yet it worked. It was theatre. It was experimental. It added to the tension. It simply worked. It was the Fall’s equivalent of John Cale’s avant garde contributions to the Velvet Underground.
You could hear shades of Captain Beefheart, Sex Pistols, Clash and New York New Wave but there was nothing quite like them. You could see why John Peel adored them. They were unique.
Then there were the words. Poetry? Lyrics? Just words? Who gave a fuck. They worked.
There were times when Mark would slouch off stage halfway through a song. At one gig in Hull he delivered half the concert from behind the speakers with his back turned to the audience and just the top of his head showing. He’d sing (used loosely) a song while holding his writing pad in front of his face and reading the words off the page. In York at the last gig I saw him at he disappeared into the dressing room and delivered the last part of the gig flopped out on a sofa invisible to most of the audience (I could just see him through the door from where I was on the balcony). He’d turn up so drunk that he slurred indecipherably and fell off the stage. Yet he propelled the audience with him. The places were always packed. They yelled the lyrics back at him. They bopped and chanted. They loved every minute. They loved Mark.
Mark was uncompromising. He never sold out to anything. He made the Fall the greatest Punk Band in the World. They rocked. They were one of the most exciting acts you could ever see. This was anarchy in action.
Somehow the chemistry that was Mark E Smith created some synergy that propelled it to other heights. It was a formula that was beyond analysis.
The Fall Play Hull 2012 – Photos
The Fall play Hull in 2009 – Photos from 2012
Photos from 2012 gig in Hull.
Fall in Hull 2009
It was a cold, dank night on the Costa del Humber. The wind carried a touch of snow and blew in the Fall. Inside the Welly it was hot with anticipation. What a club! The smell of fresh paint and dust of refurbishment has long ceased to bother the noses of the faithful. The dark scarred walls record the vibrations of many a gig but never a night such as this.
From the moment they hit the stage, following a rather bemusing (and much too long) distorted video projection, the band were in top form, hitting powerful rhythms and churning out their driving brand of energy. Mark was imperious as he stalked the stage. The Hull crowd, often accused of being discerning, bounced and raved in one united entity. The small club reverberated to the driving riffs and the band fed off the enthusiasm. Mark roamed and sang, recited his lyrics over the top of the continuous wall of sound, commanded the stage and orchestrated events. He randomly adjusted the sound levels, detuned the guitar as the guitarist resolutely tried to continue playing, distorted the theramin and took over the organ to create discordant noises, seeming to be thoroughly immersed and enjoying himself – a disruptive anarchic force. Amazingly it all worked wonderfully.
From beginning to end they never lost the groove and the encore was, like the set, just too little. We could have done with another hour or two.
Afterwards, with ringing ears and making involuntary exclamations of ‘White Lightnin’, I staggered off home to reflect on one hell of a night. The wind blowing in from the Pacific regions of the North Sea had become unseasonably warm.
Mark E Smith Quotes
They don’t come much more strange than the Fall. I’ve heard Mark sing half a concert while lying on a sofa in the dressing room. I’ve seen him singing behind the speakers with just the back of his head visible. He accosts his musicians, detunes instruments and generally disrupts. He is largely indecipherable. Yet the Fall have produced a body of work that is incredible. There is a Beefheart influence and a pile of riffs. The words are interesting. I don’t know where it’s coming from but it sure connects.
The thing with me, I can’t talk about my work. I find it very difficult.
Every day is great for me. I dislike rose-coloured glasses.
A lot of musicians are really hard to deal with. They aren’t as smart as me..
I used to be psychic, but I drank my way out of it.
When I was 18, the vision was to make music that didn’t exist, because everything else was so unsatisfactory.
Blue cheese contains natural amphetamines. Why are students not informed about this?
If you’re going to play it out of tune, then play it out of tune properly.
If it’s me and your granny on bongos, then it’s the Fall.
Mark E Smith Quotes – A man who does it his way.
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.
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The Fall play Hull in 2009 – Photos from 2012
Photos from 2012 gig in Hull.
Fall in Hull 2009
It was a cold, dank night on the Costa del Humber. The wind carried a touch of snow and blew in the Fall. Inside the Welly it was hot with anticipation. What a club! The smell of fresh paint and dust of refurbishment has long ceased to bother the noses of the faithful. The dark scarred walls record the vibrations of many a gig but never a night such as this.
From the moment they hit the stage, following a rather bemusing (and much too long) distorted video projection, the band were in top form hitting powerful rhythms and churning out their driving brand of energy. Mark was imperious as he stalked the stage. The Hull crowd, often accused of being discerning, bounced and raved in one united entity. The small club reverberated to the driving riffs and the band fed off the enthusiasm. Mark roamed and sang, recited, his lyrics over the top commanding the stage and orchestrating events. He adjusted the sound, distorted the theramin and took over the organ seeming to be thoroughly immersed and enjoying himself.
From beginning to end they never lost the groove and the encore was, like the set, just too little. We could have done with another hour or two.
Afterwards, with ringing ears and making involuntary exclamations of ‘White Lightnin’, I staggered off home to reflect on one hell of a night. The wind blowing in from the Pacific regions of the North Sea had become unseasonably warm.
Photography and writing – The Fall – Hull 2012
Mark E Smith and the Fall – even if it is only Mark and his grandmother on bongos – are one of the most consistent and outrageous bands to come out of Punk. Not that they are Punk. They are a law unto themselves. Influenced by Beefheart and total uncompromising. They terrify and titillate audiences all over the country. Mark may be pissed out of his mind, staggering about, incomprehensible and spent most of his time crouching behind the speaker system or lying on a sofa back stage, but they remain one of the most uncompromising, consistent and aggressive bands on the circuit. He might like loud riffs, sack musicians regularly and treat the audience with disdain but Mark E Smith is still utterly compelling and the band always good value. You never quite know what you’re going to get. There are no rules.
He’s unique and outrageous.
He’s a few photos from the Hull gig in 2012.
