An A-Z of The Fall - W
W is for...
Terry Waite
As the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy, Waite negotiated the release of hostages in Iran, Libya and the Lebanon in the early 80s. In 1987 he was taken captive by the Islamic Jihad Organization and held as a hostage for four years.
Brix saw The Fall track 'Terry Waite Sez' - recorded four months before Waite' kidnapping - as an example of Smith’s ‘pre-cog’ abilities:
‘We record the song. He ends up getting kidnapped. The song is released. Then his family call Beggars Banquet record company. They believe there might be clues in the lyrics as to where he’s being held.’
Smith claimed on more than one occasion that the song was simply about a bloke he met down the pub.
Bec Walker
A 17-year-old aspiring singer who was doing work experience at Gracieland Studios whilst the group were recording Fall Heads Roll, she wrote the lyrics for ‘Breaking The Rules’.
Mark Aerial Waller
British artist whose short film Glow Boys featured MES playing ‘The Caterer’. It included snippets of 'The Caterer' (from The Post Nearly Man) which was re-worked as 'Das Katerer' for The Unutterable.
Smith appeared in another Waller film called Midwatch, which was set in the galley of a ship returning from Operation Mosaic, a series nuclear tests conducted by Britain in 1956. Waller's own website describes the film as:
‘…an intensely claustrophobic scenario shot in infrared that depicts the plight of two individuals trapped in the galley of a ship returning from the first British nuclear test… the characters, played by Steve Evets and Mark E. Smith of the band The Fall, act out their frustrations with each other in a comic rambling exchange.’
Waller also produced a film called The Sons of Temperance, although this doesn't appear to have any Fall connection other than the title.
Pete Waterman
Record producer, songwriter and railway enthusiast, best known for his collaboration with Matt Aitken and Mike Stock and the label PWL, home of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Mel & Kim, Steps and 2 Unlimited. He has been responsible for 22 UK number one singles.
The Post Nearly Man and Levitate (in part) were recorded at Waterman's PWL studios in Manchester. MES's collaboration with D.O.S.E., 'Plug Myself In' was released on the Coliseum label, part of the PWL group.
Smith expressed admiration for Waterman – ‘he’s not about the “rock” world, he’s about the real world’ – and declared himself a fan of The Reynold’s Girls’ ‘I’d Rather Jack’ (see R).
Cassell Webb
Contributed backing vocals to Extricate, Shift-Work and Code: Selfish. Performed the lead vocal on ‘Ed’s Babe’ b-side ‘The Knight, the Devil and Death’. Married to Craig Leon (see L).
The Weeds
Not to be confused with the Las Vegas 60s garage outfit also known as The Lollipop Shoppe, The Weeds were a Manchester band who supported The Fall in 1986 and only released one single, 'China Doll' (as featured on the Fall in Fives Radio Show episode 12). Following the gig at The Mean Fiddler on 11 February, MES poached The Weeds' drummer Simon Wolstencroft, who would go on to occupy The Fall's drum stool for the next eleven years.
What You Need
One of a long line of Fall songs inspired by The Twilight Zone (see T and also this playlist). In this case, two episodes were involved: one actually called What You Need, the other being The Four of Us Are Dying. The latter told the story of a con man who can change his face to make it look like anyone he chooses. Smith admitted that he got the two episodes confused, probably because they were shown on British TV as a double bill in 1983.
What’s In The Box?
'Open The Boxoctosis #2' is another Fall track with a Twilight Zone connection, this time to a 1964 episode called What’s In The Box? where a man's television set displays his past, present, and future, revealing to him that he will kill his wife.
Barry White
Known as 'The Walrus of Love', White had a series of memorable hits in the 70s, including 'You're the First, the Last, My Everything' and 'Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe'. He died in 2003, aged 58 which seems quite an age to have reached if it's true (as his Wikipedia page suggests) that he smoked 150 cigarettes a day.
During The Fall's 1994 US tour, MES and Simon Wolstencroft attended White's 50th birthday party in New York, where, according to Funky Si, Lisa Stansfield ‘stuck her tongue down [Smith’s] throat’.
Wickwire
Yet another Twilight Zone connection. ‘Wickwire’, the first word in the lyrics of ‘Slang King’, is a character from the 1960 episode Elegy, in which 22nd century astronauts discover an Earth-like planet populated by people frozen in time.
Bernie Wilcox
Rock Against Racism's Bernie Wilcox was the promoter of The Fall's RAR benefit gig at Stretford Civic Centre on December 23 1977. Chris Hewitt (see H) was in charge of the PA at the gig and gave Wilcox a recording of the gig on a C90 which he eventually passed on to MES. According to Wilcox, ‘years later, [Smith] found it at the bottom of his wardrobe’. It received an official release in 2000 as Live 1977.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah's connection to The Fall comes, of course, from the lyric to 'Two Librans', where Smith asserts that the billionaire talk show host 'studied bees'.
This lyric is also notable for being a prime example of The Fall fanbase's ability to generate endless heated debate about seemingly trivial issues - whether Slates is an album, EP or something else being perhaps the most notable.
One contributor to the Annotated Fall’s page on the song made around 20 posts insisting with increasing exasperation and irascibility that the word ‘bees’ doesn’t appear at all, claiming that it’s ‘peace’ and ‘being’. This debate spilled over into the Fall Online Forum, where a poll was set up to decide the issue which in turn generated over 100 posts. (‘Bees’ was a clear winner, attracting 82% of the vote.)
Dick Witts
Witts, a percussionist with the Hallé Orchestra - alongside Trevor Wishart, composer in residence for North-West Arts Association - established the Manchester Musicians’ Collective in early 1977. It aimed to support local bands through sharing equipment and providing a venue at the NWAA basement at King Street on Monday nights. Tony Friel made contact with Witts to organise the first Fall gig, which took place on 23 May 1977.
When Friel left The Fall, he and Witts formed The Passage: the highlight of the band’s brief career was reaching number 41 in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1982.
Wolverine
The wolverine is a heavily built short-legged carnivorous mammal related to the weasel (as well as a character from X-Men). There are five Fall tracks that mention wolverines:
- 'Session Musician' ('one day they'll turn around and say they've been screwed by the wolverines'; 'he'll vent his anger on the wolverines')
- 'Arid Al’s Dream' ('behind tormentor was wolverine')
- 'Service' ('time of the wolverines'; 'not fit to be in the company of vulperines and wolverines')
- 'Clasp Hands' ('the lights were wolverines')
- 'Bury' ('I'm Wolverine')
Smith also referred to the animal when performing 'Spectre Vs. Rector' at London's Acklam Hall on 11 December 1980 (released as Live In London 1980 and later The Legendary Chaos Tape): 'Oh, go tell your passion, go tell your weepings to the K-Tel marines; to the publishing wolverines' (see 8:33 in the video below).
In this interview for QRM (almost certainly from 1993, not 1983 as the title suggests) Smith offered a typically less than helpful explanation of one of these references:
QRM: What do you mean when you mention "...time of wolverines.." in "Service?"
MES: Well it is the time of the Wolverines. I mean everybody's looking
after there own arse, aren't they? I don't know what it's like in Georgia, but it's like that 'ere.
The Worst
Manchester punk band who were on the bill of The Fall's second ever gig - the 'Stuff the Jubilee' festival at The Squat, Devas Street on 3 June 1977. They appeared with The Fall at several 1977 gigs, including the Electric Circus performance (although they didn't feature on Short Circuit) and the Rock Against Racism gig at Stretford (see above).
Ian Wright
Although Matthew Wright hosted a TV show called The Wright Stuff, it's more likely that the Fall song of the same name refers to Arsenal and England striker Ian. 'He would see his... parents, naked', according to The Annotated Fall, probably refers to an episode of Wright's prank show Spy TV which involved Arsenal fan Wayne Akehurst being set up to believe that his girlfriend's parents were naturists.
John Wriothesley
Designer of the Live At The Witch Trials cover, also known as John Godbert and 'psychedelic lounge karaoke singer' Herb Diamanté.
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