Totally Wired - The Rise and Rise of The Fall

Mark E Smith - under the weather

Formed 31 years ago, we are only recently beginning to realise the impact The Fall have had on the music world. Triumphed by John Peel, hugely influential to Pavement, Suede, LCD Sound System and Bloc Party, yet almost totally commercially unsuccessful.

Indeed craggy faced lead singer (and only constant in a band which has had 52 line-ups) Mark E Smith was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000. 26 studio albums and mountains of live recording have done little to swell the coffers. Hit The North has to date been the bands only single with any manner of chart success.

The Fall are not a band which care too much about being liked. Actually The Fall aren't so much a band as a collection of musicians who perform with Smith. The sound is always distinct, always the same despite the turnover in band members. Punk guitars, drum machine, sometimes keyboards and Smith's voice. It's this voice more than anything which is recognisable. From a traditional perspective he cannot sing. Rather he snarls, spits, barks and spews the lyrics to his songs. Speaking of his lyrics sometimes they are the most articulate yet vitriolic you will hear and other times you genuinely wonder why he hasn't been sectioned. I guarantee you after one listen you will either love it or hate it. For Smith's bank manager the problem is most people hate it.

Smith is as venomous and unhinged as his lyrics suggest he might be. Stories abound of his antics. These memorably include threatening a band member with a corkscrew, leaving midway through a gig to fight the support band in the car park and being arrested for one of a number of onstage fisticuffs. Fall crowds could be just as badly behaved and mass brawling at gigs was at one point not uncommon. So what can be ascertained from all of the above? That Mark E Smith is a temperamental incoherent lunatic with no real commercial success and penchant for jettisoning his peers on a whim? Pretty much.

Musically The Fall are one of the UK's greatest treasures. This was confirmed last year when the BBC aired a special documentary titled The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith. Also Q magazine (before it fell so spectacularly from grace) rated The Fall as one of the 50 Bands to See Before You Die.

Manchester, perhaps more so than any other city is responsible for some of the truly great UK acts. Whilst The Fall may not compare favourably with the bigger names when it comes to exposure and level of album sales their artistic value is on a par with any. The Fall you see may not have been easy to listen to but they were doing something new and exciting all the same. 1982's Hex Enduction Hour is regarded by many critics as one of the most important albums ever created. Likewise Live at the Witch Trials released in 1979, whilst sounding like it was recorded down a well is perhaps one of the first albums to prove that technical ability can be lacking as long as energy and meaningful lyrics exist. This Nation's Saving Grace 1985 is again another example of The Falls consistently well regarded work. Right up till his death John Peel included a Fall song on every top ten singles of the year list he compiled.

Stephen Erlewine hit the nail on the head when he said" Only hardcore fans can differentiate between the Fall's many albums." Only hardcore fans would possess more than one Fall album anyway! This is where we come to the key issue with the band, they are one of the few groups you can only ever love or loathe, their style is too unique to simply ignore. When they were in Aberdeen prior to my exile, I tried to persuade almost everyone I could bear to spend more than half an hour with to come and see them play live. Not one single solitary soul would even contemplate it, most of the people I asked were making a decision based purely on Marks promotional photograph. It's a shame that for a band who have given so much to music the public generally will not go and see them, but then you sometimes get the feeling they wouldn't have it any other way.

Written By Hammond