The Fall In Fives

  S is also for... The Sirens Marc Riley, Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon's first band only ever played one gig, at Pips , a venue on Fennell Street near Manchester Cathedral. Joy Division, then known as Warsaw, also made their debut there.  You can read Sirens member Steve Murray's recollections here . Frank Skinner Skinner – as he explained on his 2010 Desert Island Discs appearance (from 32:53) - was a late convert to the group but soon became somewhat obsessed. He was tempted to just choose eight Fall tracks for his fictional exile, but plumped for ‘Rowche Rumble’ in the end. He used 'Jawbone and the Air-Rifle' as the them tune to his chat show in the 90s, but inevitably attracted a disparaging remark from MES: 'I mean what does he do now? Adverts for f*cking HP Sauce or something?' When MES died, he tweeted a rather touching statement: '‘I loved him. He was quite simply better than all the rest. I thought he’d live forever. He seemed too belligerent to ...

   U is for... U2 On 1 July 1997, The Fall acted as an unlikely last-minute support act for U2 at Elland Road, replacing World Party (download here ) . 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 U2 gig was referenced in ' In These Times ': ' Diluted Jesuits pour out of mutual walkmans from Elland Road to Venice Pensions and down the Autobahns'. Smith commented on the song’s origins in an interview with Dave Haslam: ‘In These Times was written at a time last year when things were pretty shocking and tasteless. There's a bit in the song relating to when I went to Italy for the first time in four years for a holiday with Brix. I thought at least I'd get away from cars and U2. And the first thing I heard were these two street-theatre people doing U2 songs on acoustic guitars, mixed wi...

  T is for... Tackhead Industrial hip hop/electronica outfit featuring musicians Doug Wimbish, Keith Leblanc and Skip McDonald (who played on ground-breaking early 80s rap records 'The Message' and 'White Lines') and produced by Adrian Sherwood (see S part 1 ).  ' Repetition ', one of MES's earliest collaborations , was a b-side to the 1990 'Dangerous Sex' single. Fred Talbot Before rising to fame as the This Morning  weatherman who leapt around a map of the UK floating in Albert Dock, Talbot was a biology teacher at Altrincham Grammar School for Boys, attended by Ian Brown and Simon Wolstencroft.  He was referenced in ' A Lot Of Wind ': ‘[the] weatherman… [who] used to teach all our friends’. In 2013 was arrested and charged with sexual offences against some of his former pupils. In his 2015 trial, Ian Brown gave evidence . Talbot was sentenced to five years in prison and was released in 2019. Talkabout The line ‘two hours with four left wi...