B is for...

Baghdad

Brix has given various explanations of her memorable chant in 'Guest Informant', including ‘Baghdad, space-cog, analyst’, ‘Baghdad, stay-cog, analyst’ and ‘Baghdad state cog analyst’. If she really is saying 'Baghdad' then it's a most peculiar pronunciation of the Iraqi capital. After a typically detailed discussion, The Annotated Fall settles on 'Bahzhdad State Cog-Analyst'.

Bananas

The cause of Smith's mishap in 'Jerusalem' ('I tripped up on a discarded banana skin'), bananas also get a mention ('banana rep') in 'Happy Holiday', one of the b-sides of the 'Behind The Counter' single. However, their best-known appearance in a Fall song was in 'Dktr Faustus', alongside apples, plums, strawberries and cherries. Brix was not a fan: ‘I cringe when I hear it. I hated having to say those stupid lyrics.’ The song was originally called 'Faust Banana', and appeared under that title in Peel session number nine.

Banjo

Not an instrument you might associate readily with The Fall, but it was used on 'Iceland' (played by Marc Riley), 'Pinball Machine' (Steve Hanley), 'Clasp Hands' (Simon 'Ding' Archer) and '50 Year Old Man' (Pete Greenway, presumably).

Baywatch

I've covered this before, but it's worth repeating that 'The Remainderer' borrows from 'I'm Always Here' by Jim Jamison, the theme tune to 90s lifeguard drama Baywatch.

Beards

The first sight of MES sporting a beard came in 2014. In the past, he had taken a very dim view of facial hair; so much so that on the fractious 1982 Antipodean tour Riley, Scanlon and the Hanleys thought that the best way to protest about Smith's behaviour was to go on a 'no-shave' protest. His attitude had clearly softened by 2006, with the recruitment of the very full-bearded Rob Barbato (pictured above). According to MES, Barbato was excused because his was a proper, manly beard whereas Riley et al ‘couldn’t even grow proper stubble’.

Gary Bennett

Credited on the sleeve of Reformation Post TLC for guesting on rhythm guitar, Bennett is a bit of a mystery. All that’s known about him is that he was a friend of Tim Baxter, a studio engineer at Gracieland Studios.

Steve Bent

Bent (pictured above) wrote and originally performed 'I'm Going To Spain', which The Fall covered on The Infotainment Scan in 1993. He was an actor who appeared on a variety of British soaps, including Crossroads, Coronation Street and Eastenders. In 1976, he performed ‘I’m Going To Spain’ on New Faces.

The song (which included such memorable lines as, ‘the factory presented me with some tapes of Elton John / they packed me up some sandwiches / and I hate them, yes I hate the cheese and pickle’) would later appear on the Kenny Everett-compiled The World’s Worst Record Show.

Bionica

At one point, the narrator of 'Lie Dream of a Casino Soul' dreams that he’s in a department store with ‘cameras in the clothes dummies’, a scenario possibly inspired by a March 1981 article in Titbits about an in-store surveillance mannequin called ‘Bionica’.

The Birthday Party

Nick Cave's first band (originally called The Boys Next Door) supported The Fall at the Hammersmith Palais in March 1982. It was one of Marc Riley's two favourite Fall gigs, the other being at Anticlub, Los Angeles in December 1979 (captured on Live From The Vaults - Los Angeles 1979).