The Fall In Fives

  If you ask someone who has little more than a passing interest in / knowledge of The Fall what they know about them, it's likely that the sheer number of people who were in the group will be one of the things that they mention. This aspect is epitomised by Dave Simpson's Guardian article, Excuse Me, Weren't You In The Fall and his book, The Fallen . The notion that MES repeatedly fired band members on a whim is undoubtedly overstated (as the info below will hopefully demonstrate) although it is true that there were periods - for example the late 90s - where Fall fans would turn up for gigs not entirely sure as to who on earth would be on stage with MES (a feeling very familiar to fans of The Wedding Present ). Defining who counts as a 'proper' or 'full' member of The Fall is a tricky business, and it's something that I've been wrestling with when finalising the You Must Get Them All book. In The Fallen , Dave Simpson includes anyone who ever appea...

  A recent post I made about which Fall live LPs  were worth acquiring  generated quite a lot of interest, so I thought I'd do something similar for the bewildering array of compilation albums. I did do this in quite some detail in  You Must Get Them All  a while back, and you can find those posts here: Part 1: 1981-1998 Part 2: 1999-2004 Part 3: 2006-present These three posts are pretty detailed, however, and I realise that not everyone will have the time and/or inclination to wade through all of them.  This is an abridged guide, using the assessment system that I outlined in Part 1 above. A: Worthwhile purchase, even for those who just have a few Fall albums B: Contains enough interesting material to make it worth a few quid to the more than casual Fall fan; or serves as a useful introduction to the inexperienced C: A few aspects of interest, but only for the really committed who have all of the ‘proper’ stuff already D: Only of interest to the reall...

A question that pops up frequently on social media (especially the two main Facebook groups, The Mighty Fall and  It's Not Repetition, It's Discipline ) is 'I've seen a copy of The Fall Live At xxxx on sale for £x - is it worth getting?' Sometimes this is a very easy question to answer; on other occasions it's a bit tricky. This is because their quality - in terms of performance, sound quality and packaging - varies hugely. Another factor to consider is how you define 'worth getting'. John Peel was quite clear on the matter: Given John's 'Live in Nova Scotia' comment, you could argue that by the Peel Principle the answer is always 'yes'. However, whilst I am certainly an advocate of this approach when applied to the studio albums (I did, after call, my blog You Must Get Them All , which will also be the title of my forthcoming book) it's difficult to apply it to all of the 70+ Fall live albums. There are some, for example  Mark...

  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 ...

  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 ...