Why does anyone like the Fall?

Finally got round to reading Renegade, Mark E Smith's autobiography. It's pretty disappointing. It reads like it was transcribed in the pub from him rambling away and could've used a serious edit. Or even better, someone to guide him into different topics. Barely mentions anything of interest and certainly few insights. "Nobody understood but I was right" is his take on practically everything. There was a page about John Peel that sounds sincere but otherwise this amount of sustained MES-isms leaves him looking like insecure old fart.

Steve Hanley's book is the best book about the Fall and tells you a lot more about MES than this book does.

The mick middles book is good

everything otm, very disappointing book.

I've heard that Mr Smith is not well at all, and the multiple NYC performances next month are doubtful.

Word is that U.S. dates have all been canceled, but the NYC dates are going to be rescheduled.

That's per the organizers of the festival in Kentucky that The Fall were scheduled to play next month.

All US dates postponed until 2018 per the manager's Instagram account due to MES health concerns

And while certainly a bummer this is about the least surprising announcement ever.

New album is great.

Anybody read the Steve Hanley book - it sounds like it might just about be the best account out there of prime time Fall.

Yeah, I enjoyed it a ton, definitely worth checking out.

this is the post on instagram mentioned above btw: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYOQaRvDUT5/

Hanley's book is a definite must-read if you're seriously into the Fall - you do get the typical time-skip in the late-80s-90s era where tends to condense stuff, but if prime era to you is dual Hanley/Karl stuff you're in for a good time. The amount of bullshit he puts up with from MES over the years/pages is mind-boggling too.

BANANA!

christ, the pictures of a wheelchair bound MES on twitter rn

what this? https://twitter.com/wheelchairjunki

yeah that's not him

apparently it's a broken hip and he has his arm in a sling too, but upcoming live dates still going ahead afaict. get well soon mes

Och, so he's still gigging? It can't be that bad then.

is it this picture from 09?

http://thequietus.com/articles/01427-the-fall-s-nex-album-will-be-on-domino

no i was looking at these

Was at the Banshees gig when Siouxsie played with a broken leg, and last might Mark E Smith fronted it out during illness (pics Andy Yates) pic.twitter.com/muzgJcLZbs

— Room To Live (@DarrellTaylor66) October 21, 2017

Sorry to see Mark like this. Glad he's soldiering on. Apparently he was on good form in Wakefield. Get well soon #MarkESmith ! #TheFall pic.twitter.com/jk6ErcWHWV

— Matt Melia (@DocMelia) October 21, 2017

but i see now he's got his legs crossed in those so i'm not even sure it's a fracture

another one

nice to see that someone has added the lyrics from an unreleased fall song at the bottom of the comments on the quietus story though xp

MES is indestructible.

Pam in response to fans apparently giving her shit for singing some (all?) of "Bury" at the end of the gig

https://www.instagram.com/p/BagnvY3jkG8/?taken-by=pamela_vander

MES was always the epitome of healthy living. So surprising.

Fuck off

i wish i hadn't seen that footage.. :o. (On the last record, something his voice, made me think he's ill.) Let's hope he can keep going and crank out another 5 Fall albums before the inevitable curtain Falls.

nice to see a supportive Julia Nagle in the comments under that Instagram post

it's kind of weird how MES' exes tend to stay in the loop and continue to say nice things about him. maybe not that weird

I was wondering if that was she

Newcastle the other night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXECrDgDZEA

He doesn't look great in that vid, but my god he sounds better than he has in yrs, and seems like from views from the heads on the Fall board that it was a great, heroic gig. He definitely seems like he wants out of that chair, which hopefully is a good sign.

2017 came for MES and he said go back, go back to your disease-control room

"seems like he wants out of that chair" counterpoint: he can't fuck with the amps in the chair

hahaha totally, it's the burning desire to fuck with his bandmates that will heal him

SepticSceptic16 hours ago

The man whose head expanded.

guilty lol here

Haha nooo

LOL that's plain wrong

btw, I saw Dave Swarbrick playing sitting in a wheelchair with a tube coming down his nose and an oxygen tank sitting beside him and he lived, and kept performing, for like 20 years after.

i mean, it's osteoporosis, right? what happens with osteoporosis if you don't treat it?

Has anyone mentioned the new cherry red compilations yet?

7cd set of all the singles, a sides and b sides. 3cd compilation of all the a sides.

It's been mentioned on one of the other million Fall threads.

It's also going on my Xmas list for sure.

Oh! The Fall SINGLES box set! OH! you guys.

Oh, that's a NEW fall thread, not one of the thousands I have already bookmarked...

As you were...

But props for the naming consistency.

Last night in Bristol and tonight in London both cancelled for MES health reasons :(

Very sad. Apparently he traveled to the Bristol gig against doctor's orders and was too ill to leave the hotel room. The band came out on stage and announced it a few minutes before they were scheduled to go on.

Lots of rumours similar to this on Twitter:

I’m sorry to say that I think tonight’s cancelled gig in Bristol, due to Mark E Smith’s ill health, may well be the end of The Fall. A “source close to the band” told me that “he’s hanging on by a thread”. As a Fall fan of 35 years, this has killed me. God bless The Mighty Fall.

— Sir Francis Drake (@cruiserscreek85) November 29, 2017

Almost seems as if he's determined to do a Tommy Cooper.

This blows

OK I 'm just gonna brace myself for this one, for some weird reason (probably the local friend-of-friends aspect)I think Fred Cole's death has made me simply accept that all of these artists I care about are gonna die real soon.

the absence of MES from this level will be something that will give me grinding dissonance for years and years

i feel dread