MES: Collaborations & Guest Appearances (Part 1: 1978 - 1999)
Mark E Smith had a generally disapproving attitude towards Fall musicians working with other artists. In a 1994 Melody Maker interview, he stated that 'I'm very down on working with other people... I think it's fucking phoney. I put all my bands on contracts, so they can't do it'. This was, for example, one of the causes of Marcia Schofield's dismissal in 1990. However, it was not a rule that he applied to himself. From the mid-90s onwards in particular, he worked with a range of artists to produce a series of intriguing and generally very rewarding side-notes to The Fall's back catalogue.
This post focuses on guest appearances and collaborations that were not released under The Fall's own name. As a result, it doesn't include things like 'Calendar', recorded with Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy.
Louie Louie - John The Postman (1978)
Smith's first ever appearance on record. Jonathan Ormrod (known as both Jon and John the Postman) was a well-known figure on the punk scene in Manchester in the late 70s. His first public appearance came at a Buzzcocks gig at Manchester’s Band on the Wall in May 1977 when he spontaneously jumped on stage after the final song and sang an a cappella version of 'Louie Louie'. (He performed the same song with The Fall at Stretford in December 1977, as captured on Live 1977.)
His first album, Jon the Postman's Puerile, was released on 17 June 1978. It opened with a shambolic (to put it mildly) 13-minute version of 'Louie Louie' that featured a spoken introduction by Smith. It wasn't released on CD until 2002.
Adult Net - Naughty or Nice (1986)
Smith added backing vocals to the b-side of 'White Nights (Stars Say Go)', the third single by Brix's side project.
Coldcut - (I’m) In Deep (1989)
Matt Black and Jonathan More of Coldcut deployed Smith's vocals on this track from their debut album What's That Noise? The album also featured 'My Telephone' (with vocals by Lisa Stansfield, owner of Gracielands Studio, where parts of Real New Fall LP, Fall Heads Roll, Reformation Post TLC and Imperial Wax Solvent were recorded) which would form the basis of 'Telephone Thing'.
Tackhead - Repetition (1990)
Tackhead producer Adrian Sherwood also worked on Slates and Extricate. 'Repetition' was a b-side to the 'Dangerous Sex' single.
Inspiral Carpets - I Want You (1994)
The song that led to Smith's one and only Top of the Pops appearance. The Inspiral Carpets were all Fall fans, but fully expected their invitation to record with them to be dismissed by MES. To their surprise, his response was 'get me a bottle of Pils and I’ll be there in a minute.'
Smith's contribution to the single is perfectly matched to the Carpets' thundering blast of Madchester-flavoured 60s garage punk, and is one of his best collaborations.
The TOTP performance (sandwiched between a Michael Bolton video and Morrissey's 'The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get') is also a treat. Smith, clad in black leather, doesn’t look entirely comfortable to begin with, almost as if he doesn’t know where to place himself, unused to sharing the stage with another front man. He soon warms up though, even performing a little dance (of sorts) at one point. Singer Tom Hingley keeps his eyes glued to the front, seemingly having to concentrate hard in order not to be put off by Smith’s melodic waywardness when they sustain the final note in the title refrain together. Not for the first or last time, Smith avails himself of a written reminder of the lyrics, just as he had done in the promo video. Entertainingly, he was later to be castigated for this by the young viewers of Saturday morning show Live And Kicking.
Long Fin Killie - Heads Of Dead Surfers (1995)
An engaging piece of folk/jazz-tinged post-punk, with Smith contributing some trademark distorted megaphone backing vocals. It appears (along with several other MES collaborations) on the 2001 compilation A World Bewitched.
D.O.S.E. - Plug Myself In (1996)
D.O.S.E. were Jason Barron and Simon Spencer. Barron was part of The Filthy 3, a track of whose formed the basis for 'The Crying Marshal'. Spencer, along with Keir Stewart, started production work on Levitate before being dismissed by MES. The Fall performed the song live a few times in 1997-98, with variable results.
Two years after their dismissal from the Levitate sessions, Spencer and Stewart released 'Inch', a version of '4 1/2 Inch' featuring some secretly recorded MES dialogue.
Edwyn Collins - Seventies Night (1997)
Smith enjoyed recording with Collins and asked him to produce Levitate. Collins declined, but did offer the use of his Hampstead studio - his guitarist Andy Hackett also played on the album.
Clint Boon Experience - Now I Wanna Be Your Dog (1999)
The Fall had a bit of a history with this Stooges song, having borrowed it for 'Elves' in 1984 and returned to it for 'Rememberance R' in 2013. In 1999, Smith appeared on stage with The Clint Boon Experience (the band that Boon had formed following the Carpets’ demise) to perform the track. It was the b-side of their single 'You Can’t Keep A Good Man Down'.
Elastica - How He Wrote Elastica Man / KB (1999)
Despite the fact that he'd sacked him four years earlier, Smith found himself working with Dave Bush again on Elastica's 6 Track EP. Justine Frischmann described the experience:
'We were in the studio and [MES] was in a pub around the corner. Dave bumped into him and invited him to come down. He was up for doing some stuff so we did. I was initially too scared to come out of the control room but when I did he was charming. I think he probably can be quite scary but he chose to be the perfect gentleman when he was working with us. He was actually very inspiring to be around – really cool. We’d had that track for a while and we didn’t know what to do with it and he walked into the studio room and plugged his mic into an amp, turned it up until it was all feeding back and started shouting ‘E!- L!-A!’ doing his cheerleader bit which was quite bizarre.'
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