The Fall uncovered secrets and scandals of deceitful type proportions in the spontaneous cash 'n' carry house dance reverberation of this neurotic underground medicine. The Manchester noisemongers had put out Live at the Witch Trials Dragnet Totale's Turns (It's Now or Never) at Cargo Studios in Rochdale, England with production by The Fall, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, Grant Showbiz, and Red Krayola's Mayo Thompson; with engineering by John Brierley and mastering by George "Porky" Peckham. The sessions featured Mark E. Smith on vocals, tape operation, kazoo, and guitar; Marc Riley on guitar and keyboards; Craig Scanlon on guitar; Steve Hanley on bass guitar; Paul Hanley on drums; with Kay Carroll on "extra vocals"
Smith would exclaim at the time: "The third LP is going to be an improvement...it's going to be called 'The Grotesque Peasants' ... We've got a new drummer on it called Paul Hanley he's Steve's brother ...Paul took over for mike who left the band a while back for various reasons ...Mike was always a good contrast to the band ...Let's just say the Fall are ok ...Change is as good as a rest ...We've done a few sporadic gigs around ...We're doing an album soon which will consist of some songs with good stories and some melodies and voice as instrument exercises ...It probably won't be fill up the rubbish bin or clog up the coffee table like those of the 73 revival lp's masqueraging under various new wave trademarks ...But will put a bit of intelligence back into the state as ususal ...All groups immitate us but they always under rate us ...The main idea of the fall is to leave the mark and we have done and will carry on doing ."
'Grotesque (After the Gramme)' http://thefall.xyz/ http://thefall.org/ lyrics:
http://thefall.org/discography/data/album03.html "The Container Drivers" VIDEO VIDEO "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" stretched to number two on the UK indie singles chart. Smith says the song is about "how the public kill off their heroes' creativity ... I was talking more about Jimmy Greaves and George Best. Just ask them."
VIDEO "City Hobgoblins" was the b side. "Totally Wired" reached number twenty-five in New Zealand and number two on the UK indie singles chart. VIDEO "Putta Block" was the b-side.'Grotesque (After the Gramme)' full album: https://myspace.com/fallthe/music/album/grotesque-after-the-gramme-cd-bonus-tracks-19580690 VIDEO "Pay Your Rates" (Mark E. Smith) --
"English Scheme" (Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon, Smith) -- 3:05
"New Face in Hell" (Riley, Scanlon, Smith) -- 5:40
"C 'n' C-S Mithering" (Smith, Steve Hanley, Riley, Scanlon) --10:47
"The Container Drivers" (Riley, Scanlon, Hanley, Smith) -- 18:23
"Impression of J. Temperance" (Riley, Scanlon, Smith) -- 21:28
"In the Park" (Smith) -- 25:50
"WMC-Blob 59" (Smith) -- 27:35
"Gramme Friday" (Scanlon, Riley, Smith) -- 28:57
"The NWRA" (Scanlon, Hanley, Smith) -- 32:18
The Fall invited us to feel the wrath of their bombast while messing up the paintwork with this barmy illuminous quantifier. In nine years, the Manchester post-punk pioneers had released seven studio albums ( Live at the Witch Trials and Dragnet in 1979, Grotesque in 1980, Hex Enduction Hour and Room to Live in 1982, Perverted by Language in 1983, and The Wonderful and Frightening World Of... in 1984), two EP's ( Bingo-Master's Break-Out! in 1978 and Slates in 1981), and four live releases ( Totale's Turns in 1980, Live in London 1980 and A Part of America Therein, 1981 in 1982, and Fall in a Hole in 1983) with over a dozen different band members. Drummer Paul Hanley and his brother bassist Steve Hanley left the group in late 1984 and multi-instrumentalist Simon Rogers was brought in on bass to fill out the rhythm section with Karl Burns for two singles: "Couldn't Get Ahead"/"Rollin' Dany" and "Cruiser's Creek". When Steve Hanley returned to the fold after four months paternity leave, Rogers moved over to keyboards. 'This Nation's Saving Grace' was recorded at Music Works in London and Chapel Lane in Herford during June and July of 1985 with producer John Leckie and engineer Joe Gillingham. The sessions included Mark E. Smith on vocals, violin, guitar, and harmonica; Craig Scanlon on guitar and backing vocals; Brix Smith on guitar and vocals; Steve Hanley on bass guitar and backing vocals; Simon Rogers on keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, drum machine, and backing vocals; and Karl Burns on drums and backing vocals. The cover artwork was done by Michael Pollard and Claus Castenskiold.
Mark E. Smith: "This is a much happier band than ever before. I feel very proud with our output nowadays. We are even happy with Beggars. They know what they are doing and they will act quickly unlike, well, Rough Trade who... well, Travis is just an idiot."
Brix Smith: "Even with the old songs, I think I add some shadow and light to them. I give it a lot of drive, as well as adding some 'glamour' to it all ...We worked really well together. I tried to embrace all of their styles and not obliterate anyone or be like the arrogant guitar player that pushed in front, I didn't want to do that. Everybody was special in that band and played their own part. I'm so proud, so proud, to have been a part and it is genius, he is a genius, Mark, he is brilliant."
Rogers: “Mark would have piles of papers and plastic bags full of notes and stuff. We’d sit up all night and we’d listen to William Burroughs and Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. Lots of speed, lot of fags, lots of beer. We became pretty good mates and he stayed with me in London nearly all the time when he came down ...I think I gave them perspective about the way they treated Mark as well. Because I got on with him and it tended to be me, Mark and Brix and then the band somewhere else. I would give him a bit of lip occasionally, which they never did. And if they did say anything to him, it would usually boil over. And it had boiled over in the past and there’d be fights and someone would go or whatever. So I suppose it was a different setup.”
Hanley would write in 'The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall' "The only reason we're not fighting back is because we love being in the band,..In spite of [Mark]...Why should I pack it all in just because of him?"
John Leckie: “Mark was crazy. You’d do all the mixing and he’d take the tapes away home and he’d be very enthusiastic. But then you’d get to the cutting room and he wouldn’t like it.... We did three albums over a two-year period and then I suppose we got fed up with each other. They would do things like play a song once and then that would be it, they wouldn’t want to record it again. I can remember telling them to tune up and they played the song again and it didn’t sound as good. I thought, fuck, I’ve destroyed it! I got to a stage with Mark where I realised that, as far as he was concerned, when they’d finished the take, that was the record done. So we recorded some of it straight down to stereo, no multitrack ... Mark… would always have the last word.”
Mark E Smith: “Play a song only once? Yeah, that’s the way we are. But, like me, Leckie would just put out the mistakes, leave them all in ...Do I think it's Pop?! Er, I don't really know… I don't particularly think so. I listened to it recently just because of the reissue and you're talking about a different person altogether. I can relate to him but can't relate to him if you know what I mean."
'This Nation's Saving Grace' went to number fifty-four on the British album chart.
http://thefall.xyz/ http://thefall.org/ "Cruiser's Creek"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOm0RY0gbCc VIDEO "L.A"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDq5KKNVbA VIDEO "Bombast"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBP_3yTQhU0 VIDEO 'This Nation's Saving Grace' full album:
https://myspace.com/fallthe/music/album/this-nation-s-saving-grace-17490496 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ2ZVW2TA2rhC9OXJai5OPD_pusszzOQc VIDEO Side A
1. "Mansion" ( Mark E. Smith) 1:21 2. "Bombast" ( Steve Hanley, M. Smith) 3:08 3. "Barmy" ( M. Smith) 5:21 4. "What You Need" ( Craig Scanlon, M. Smith) 4:50 5. "Spoilt Victorian Child" ( Simon Rogers, M. Smith) 4:13 6. "L.A." ( Brix Smith, M. Smith) 4:10 Side B
7. "Gut of the Quantifier" ( Karl Burns, M. Smith) 5:16 8. "My New House" ( M. Smith) 5:16
9. "Paint Work" ( Rogers, Scanlon, M. Smith) 6:38 10. "I Am Damo Suzuki" ( Burns, B. Smith, M. Smith) 5:41 11. "To Nk Roachment: Yarbles" ( B. Smith, M. Smith) 1:23 bonus
12. Vixen ( B. Smith, M. Smith) 4:01
13. Couldn't Get Ahead ( B. Smith, M. Smith) 2:36
14. Petty Thief Lout (Scanlon, M. Smith) 5:20
15. Rollin' Dany (Stein/Edwards) 2:23
16. Cruiser's Creek ( B. Smith, M. Smith) 4:16
Omnibus Edition triple CD box set
CD1:
Original LP tracks.
CD2 (Rough Mixes And Out-Takes):
01. Demo Suzuki (Rough Mix) 5:54
02. Wonderful And Frightened Pt 1 (Rough Mix) 1:22
03. Wonderful And Frightened Pt 2 (Rough Mix) 1:46
04. Gut Of The Quantifier (Rough Mix) 5:31
05. Bombast (Rough Mix) 2:48
06. Barmy (Rough Mix) 4:51
07. My New House (Mark's Mix) (Rough Mix) 5:52
08. Paintwork (Rough Mix) 7:08
09. Ma Riley (Rough Mix) 3:48
10. Spoilt Victorian Child (Rough Mix) 4:26
11. L.A. (Rough Mix) 5:16
12. What You Need (Rough Mix) 4:57
13. Edie (Rough Mix) 4:00
14. Cruiser's Creek (Extended) 7:35
15. L.A. (Take 2) 4:24
16. Bombast (Blackwing Version) 3:05
17. Paintwork (Gloss) 7:03
All tracks are previously unreleased alternate versions.
CD3 (Singles And Sessions):
01. Couldn't Get Ahead 2:37
02. Rollin' Dany 2:26
03. Petty (Thief) Lout 5:23
04. Cruiser's Creek 6:08
05. Vixen 4:03
06. Ma Riley 3:28
07. Barmy (Extended) 6:02
08. Cruiser's Creek (Edit) 4:20
09. Spoilt Victorian Child (Peel session) 4:58
10. Gut Of The Quantifier (Peel session) 4:44
11. Couldn't Get Ahead (Peel session) 2:36
12. Cruiser's Creek (Peel session) 5:53
13. L.A. (Peel session) 4:36
14. What You Need (Peel session) 5:53
VIDEO interview 1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-Lqea64Z3o VIDEO live at the Haçienda
October 9, 1985
Mansion / ? (30 second track) / Bombast / Couldn't Get Ahead / What You Need / The Man Whose Head Expanded / Barmy / L.A. / Dktr. Faustus / 2 x 4 / I Am Damo Suzuki / Gut of the Quantifier / Spoilt Victorian Child / Kicker Conspiracy / Lay of the Land
The Fall sought the lay of the land and found a balance of fear and wonder in the conventional experiments and populist oppression of this debased dream. The addition of Mark E. Smith's wife Brix to the mix for their album 'Perverted By Language' "Everyone was watching me very critically to start with. After I proved myself, there was a spark that stimulated the band, a new way of looking at things. Even with the old songs, I think I add some shadow and light to them. At first, I was going to be a solo artist with Mark producing me. Then we decided that I could be a good contrast in the band. I give it a lot of drive, as well as adding some 'glamour' to it all...Most Americans have a particular view of The Fall. I didn't see it as punk rock or r'n'r, but unique in itself. 'Slates'was the first thing I heard from the band, when I was living in America. The words really infuriated me because I didn't understand them at all. In fact, the first thing I ever said to Mark was, 'That gig was the best I've ever seen, but those words ... they infuriate me so much!!...I'm almost frightened by this one, it's that good. Although I know that we can still get better, we're so close now. The first side is the frightening side and the second the wonderful side of The Fall. We've come close to what it should really be like. It shows our diversity and our different moods. You can listen to it over and over and still not grasp it. There's always new things you can see in it and new revelations you can come to about it. As you change, the music changes too. It's chock full of things. Mark's lyrics have this extraordinary freshness; it's called life. If you see his words on paper, they take on a whole new life of their own. Like sometimes, I think the words should be written down - 'cos people need to be punched in the face with words like that."
'The Wonderful and Frightening World Of The Fall' was recorded with producer John Leckie and features Mark E. Smith on vocals and tapes; Brix Smith on lead and rhythm guitar and vocals; Craig Scanlon on rhythm and lead guitar; Steve Hanley on bass guitar and acoustic guitar; Paul Hanley on drums, keyboards; and grand piano; and Karl Burns on drums, percussion, and lead bass guitar; with "friendly visitor" Gavin Friday providing vocals on "Copped It", "Clear Off!" and "Stephen Song". The band had left Rought Trade Records and signed with Beggar's Banquet.
Mark admited: "It was a lot simpler this time because we don't worry about the sound anymore. This is what I've always wanted to do in the past so I'm doing it now. We did more takes of one song on the early LPs, sometimes three or four times before we got it right. With this one, most of them are first takes. The best songs we do are the ones we get right first time. One of my problems is that I think too hard about songs. I'd rather just knock it out in one go. It all seems very 'together' on this one...I've destroyed loads of audiences. I hate the likes of Echo And The Bunnymen who panderto bedsit kids who are going through their nineteen year-old crises. I don't wanna know about that. That's why The Fall were formed. We've always picked up all the people who are fed up being treated like dicks...I can't work out what my role is in relation to British pop music. I don't know what the fuck's going on. People ask me why The Fall keep going. Well, it's about striving. I'm never satisfied."
'The Wonderful and Frightening World Of The Fall' peaked at number sixty-two on the British album chart. As with 'Perverted By Language' , the album cover was done by Danish artist Claus Castenskiold.
http://thefall.xyz/ 'C.R.E.E.P'
Mark: "I'm so proud of that song. I didn't see it as pure pop because it hasn't been accepted like that. It's got good words in it and that throws people off - their brains are so degenerate now, that if they hear something they don't understand ... they just drop it. I always thought it would appeal to children and it does. A lot of very young kids (seven or eight) seem to like it. I never thought, though, that the creep was the guy who smelt bad at school; it was always the most popular guy in the class, 'cos you knew damn well he wouldn't do well in life, the sort who'd cry when the exam results came out."
Brix: "Everyone always thinks that Fall songs are about themselves and that was especially so with 'Creep'. Some people thought it was about Morrisey which it wasn't. Marc Riley, our old guitarist, thought it was about him, which it wasn't. It's about every creep in the world."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGfjnVIduWE 'Disney's Dream Debased'
Brix: "Mark got off this ride with tears in his eyes he was so frightened. This ride is a mountain, 100 ft in the air, a replica of The Matterhorn; you ride at sixty miles an hour. Ten minutes after we get off, a woman fails out of her sleigh, gets trapped and decapitated by the oncoming one. They couldn't get her out, there was fire-engines everywhere coming out of the bushes, and all these Micky Mouse characters rushing out to distract people. It took them seven hours to get the body off. Everyone was pretending nothing had happened, they were all going 'Disneyland is wonderful land'. Mark was saying, 'Whaaat??? There's a woman up there with no head on', but Micky Mouse was just laughing away. Mark thought it was like a bad trip."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opt_pu3NVrI "No Bulbs"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIZ7AhqflYM 'The Wonderful and Frightening World Of The Fall'
full album:
VIDEO "Lay of the Land" 0:00 (Mark E. Smith, Brix Smith)
"2 × 4" 5:45 (M. Smith, B. Smith)
"Copped It" 9:23 (M. Smith, Karl Burns)
"Elves" 13:39 (M. Smith, B. Smith)
"Oh! Brother" 18:27 (M. Smith, Burns, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon)
"Draygo's Guilt" 22:28 (M. Smith, Scanlon)
"God Box" 26:58 (M. Smith, B. Smith)
"Clear Off!" 30:16 (M. Smith, Scanlon)
"C.R.E.E.P." 34:56 (M. Smith, Paul Hanley, S. Hanley, Scanlon. B. Smith)
"Pat-Trip Dispenser" 38:04 (M. Smith, B. Smith)
"Slang King" 42:04 (M. Smith, P. Hanley, B. Smith)
"Bug Day" 47:25 (M. Smith, Burns, P. Hanley, S. Hanley, Scanlon, B. Smith)
"Stephen Song" 52:23 (M. Smith, P. Hanley, S. Hanley)
"Craigness" 55:29 (M. Smith, Scanlon)
"Disney's Dream Debased" 58:32 (M. Smith, S. Hanley, B. Smith)
omibus edition:
VIDEO
The Fall expanded (uh) into new musical and emotional territory with this experimental post punk pop perversion. After releasing 'Hex Enduction Hour' and 'Room to Live' on Kamera Records, the band was convinced to return to Rough Trade. Guitarist and keyboardist Marc Riley had been fired from the band early on in 1983 after tensions arose between him and Mark E. Smith during their tour of Australia and New Zealand (documented by the live album 'In a Hole' on Flying Nun Records) the previous year. He was replaced later that year by Smith's new American wife Brix (Laura Elisse Salenger) Smith, who was instrumental in moving the group in a more pop friendly direction. The single "The Man Whose Head Expanded" became a hit on the UK indie chart and in New Zealand.
'Perverted By Language' Mark E. Smith considered at the time: “It’s wrong to spoil yourself with sound in my line of work. I like to hear my records distorted to a degree, but I am pretty fussy when it comes to other people’s records. I really love the sound of those early Elvis and Gene Vincent things. I’d like to capture that atmosphere myself...Everything sounds good in the studio but that isn’t the way everybody else hears it. Some things don’t come across too well on it though. The bass can be very fuzzy, but then I don’t like much bass anyway. I particularly hate the very clean thudding bass on a lot of new records which I find very irritating. It’s too clean and becomes like a metronome...I don’t like Walkmans. I can’t say why, I just don’t. But I usually take a small cassette player on tour and I use it on stage for echo and backing effects. At home I have a small Hitachi cassette player and a JVC portable cassette recorder with Dolby, which I use for demos. I use it to jot down ideas with just voice and guitar. Sometimes I like to use it in the studio, putting the vocal on to it and then from there on to a track, but out of sync, so that it adds atmosphere. Sometimes I do the same for the guitar. I use that trick a lot on stage too. I’ve got a little black box in the guitar and if I tune the JVC to FM [radio] I can put the guitar through it to get odd noises. I like unique sounds but as I’m not mechanically minded I prefer simple methods like that. You lose a lot of atmosphere when you try to recreate a demo in the studio, that’s why I like those early Elvis things. It’s all one-mike stuff. I don’t like using separate tracks for the drums, etc., in the studio but our latest album, ‘Perverted By Language’ 'Perverted By Language' http://www.visi.com/fall/ http://www.thefall.org/ 1. "Eat Y'self Fitter" Mark E. Smith 6:38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFCOt6wbm80 2. "Neighbourhood of Infinity" Smith, Karl Burns, Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon 2:41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_IF_qtgxLU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eNlbabuYk8 3. "Garden" M. Smith, Scanlon 8:42
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fIKzhUL2qs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJJmdlZoPw 4. "Hotel Blöedel" M. Smith, S. Hanley, Brix Smith 3:47
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDR-OISJX8c
5. "Smile" M. Smith, Scanlon 5:06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhk6ZT6T0xA 6. "I Feel Voxish" M. Smith, S. Hanley, Marc Riley 4:19
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93POvcAyQ08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENxezdcIa4Q 7. "Tempo House" (recorded live at The Haçienda, Manchester in July 1983) M. Smith, S. Hanley 8:51
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48z01TSaImM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTJdWN6BqwU 8. "Hexen Definitive / Strife Knot" M. Smith, Burns, Adrian Niman, Scanlon 6:57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LRobcK8ULk The full length video the band wanted to make for the album led to another falling out with Rough Trade. They funded it themselves.
VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO
