An A-Z of The Fall - E

 

E is for...

Eagles Of Death Metal

A Californian band co-founded by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme. On 13 November 2015, a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks took place in Paris; at Bataclan concert hall, where the Eagles of Death Metal were playing, gunmen killed 90 people. The band are referenced in the 2017 Fall track 'Couples Vs Jobless Mid 30s' (you can hear their name in the faux-operatic backing vocals from 3:46).

Echo Beach

A 1990 hit for Canadian band Martha and the Muffins. There are echoes (pardon the pun) of the guitar line in The Fall's 1994 cover of Henry Cow's 'War'.

Ed

In his excellent memoir, You Can Drum But You Can't Hide. Simon Wolstencroft recounts an episode from The Fall's May 1988 US tour involving him, MES and their soundman Ed.

'The sun was just coming up as we thundered down a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. Mark asked our driver to stop for a while so we could get out and breathe in some of the fresh sea air... the three of us climbed down the steep rocks to the Pacific. Mark and I started to climb back up to the bus after twenty minutes, thinking Ed would follow us, but instead he started to walk out into the ocean in the white bed sheet he was wearing. When he finally got back on the bus he was dragging handfuls of yellow seaweed in his wake. Me and Mark were doubled over laughing at this vision of Ed in his makeshift toga. Mark got down on his knees going, "Oh Squid Lord, all hail Squid Lord", etc. Hence the song "Squid Lord".'

Edinburgh

Smith moved to Edinburgh following his split from Brix, transported by Simon Wolstencroft. It was his home from January 1989 to February 1990. During this period, he met violinist Kenny Brady (he lived just down the street from him) who played violin on Extricate and Shift-Work as well as Peel sessions 13 and 14 and several 1990-1991 gigs. According to Wolstencroft, MES belonged to a Edinburgh whisky society.

Smith found leaving Edinburgh a painful experience: ‘I was nearly in tears and I went to this pub round the corner carrying all these plastic bags full of me clothes and stuff.’ 

The song 'Edinburgh Man' was a poignant paean to his briefly adopted home (‘I don't mind being by myself / don't wanna be anywhere else / just wanna be in Edinburgh’), although it does contain a little dig at the city’s most famous cultural event (‘keep me away from the festival’).

MES recorded a piece about Edinburgh for Granada Tonight in 1994.

By 2015, his affection for the city had abated somewhat: in an interview for Vice, he described it as 'a fucking boring, yuppie place now'.

Edits

Several Fall tracks contain rather clumsy edits. Examples include:

• 'And This Day' (5:46 and 8:13)
• 'One Day' (2:20)
• 'Glam Racket / Star' from The Twenty Seven Points (2:24)
• 'Masquerade', the Peel session version (9:04 on this video)
• 'Latch Key Kid' (0:38)
• 'Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s' (1:48)
• 'Nine out of Ten' (3:30)

Dave Eggers

Eggers is an American writer famous for his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. His 2013 novel The Circle (made into a 2017 film starring Emma Watson and Tom Hanks) was a dystopian take on the negative potential of social media. Mistrust of modern technology was a theme that ran through 2015's Sub-Lingual Tablet, and MES expressed admiration for Eggers' novel in a 2015 interview with Daniel Dylan Wray. Smith couldn’t actually recall the author's name, however, referring to him as 'some daft cunt'.

Elastica

MES contributed to two songs on Elastica's 1999 release, 6 Track EP - 'How He Wrote Elastica Man' and 'KB' (see here).

Elland Road

On 1 July 1987, The Fall acted as an unlikely last-minute support act for U2 at Elland Road. Craig Scanlon ended up with a black eye and a badly bruised arm after being dragged down a staircase by U2’s security; he and Steve Hanley had tried to get backstage to procure autographs for the bassist’s Irish relatives. 

The incident was referred to obliquely in 'In These Times': ‘Diluted Jesuits pour out of mutual walkmans from Elland Road to Venice Pensions and down the Autobahns’.

Error 500

A 2013 album by Ginger Wildheart's 'supergroup' Mutation - Smith provided vocals on 'Mutations' and 'Relentless Confliction'. (See here)

Stuart Estell

Over the years, hundreds of fans made vocal contributions to Fall gigs when handed the microphone by Smith. Estell is the possibly the only one who was handed a guitar. He did his best to play along to ‘Industrial Estate’ at Reading Alleycat in April 1998, which earned him a place in Dave Simpson’s The Fallen.

Chris Evans

Steve Trafford and Spencer Birtwistle, stuck in traffic, failed to make the group’s December 2004 gig in Bristol. Evans, drummer for support act Rag Week, filled in for Birtwistle. Like Nick Dewey (see D), he did a remarkably good job given the circumstances.

Steve Evets

Tom Head’s brother, and a long-standing friend of Smith’s. Filled in for the recently sacked Jim Watts at one gig in Turkey in March 2003; he also played on a two-song performance recorded for Granada TV (also in March 2003), had a backing vocal credit on The Unutterable and contributed on-stage backing vocals on several occasions – most notably the 2002 Blackburn Touch Sensitive DVD gig (see below). MES and Evets also appeared together in the 1997 BBC drama Diary of a Madman (see D) and Mark Aerial Waller’s films Glow Boys and Midwatch.

Exclamation marks 

The Fall were fond of an exclamation mark in a song title - there were 19 in total:

1. Mother-Sister! (1979)
2. Clear Off! (1984)
3. Oh! Brother (1984)*
4. Hey! Luciani (1986)
5. Riddler! (1986)
6. Cab It Up! (1988)**
7. Chicago, Now! (1990)
8. Sing! Harpy (1990)
9. Two Face! (1992)
10. Hey! Student (1994)
11. Shut Up! (1994)
12. He Pep! (1996)
13. Hey! Fascist (2000)***
14. Hey! Marc Riley (2007)†
15. Over! Over! (2007)
16. Reformation! (2007)
17. Bury! (2010)††
18. Amorator! (2013)
19. O! Zztrrk Man (2017)

*The version that appeared on Live 1977 wasn't given an exclamation mark.

**Lost its exclamation mark on the single version.

***Didn't have an exclamation mark on Live 1977, but did on The Fall Box Set.

†Entitled 'Ma Riley' on the 2011 This Nation's Saving Grace reissue, but was 'Hey! Marc Riley' on The Fall Box Set.

††On the 7" single the A-side is called ‘Bury! #2+4’ on the front cover, ‘Bury 1 Bury 2’ on the back cover and simply ‘Bury!’ on the label; on Your Future Our Clutter it became 'Bury Pts. 1 + 3'.

The group's first release was 1978's Bingo-Master's Break-Out!, although the song itself was ‘Bingo-Master’ on the sleeve and ‘Bingo Master’ on the label.

Also released in 1978, 'It's The New Thing' had an exclamation mark on the front cover, but not on the rear cover or label.

MES's second spoken word album went for three exclamation marks:

A  B (pt1)  B (pt2)  C (pt1)  C (pt2) D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M (pt1) M (pt2)  

N/O  P/Q  R  S (pt1)  S (pt2) T  U/V  W  X/Y/Z

Fi5 Main Page