Wow, the Peel session is even better!
Still getting a 1 though.
Would be a nice if they finished last innit. The lionizing of angry English men is a culture that needs killing
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Knew he was a bit of a prick, didnāt really realise quite the levels til this thread. Gonna abstain on this one I think.
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Oh fuck, clear my diary for the day
You are right, bad choice of words from me. My annoyance lies with the fact The Fall as a band will be ignored mostly in this thread when clearly for at least 20 years of their career they were the sum of all their parts, not just MES. Hanley, Scanlon, Brix, Wolstencroft and others all played a massive part in their sound and that will probably be lost here.
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Yeah, this is precisely what Iām basing my score on.
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He was obviously a massive dickhead. Even beyond the Julia Nagle incident he sounds incredibly hard to work with, petty and manipulative, plenty of band members have walked out because they couldnāt take his shit anymore. You sometimes see interviews with later members like Ed Blaney who hero worship him and have fully bought into the mythmaking but when you read books by members of the classic early 80s lineup they loved their time in the band but arenāt afraid to dispell myths and make him look small. They are a fascinating band to read about, the anecdotes are endless.
An incredible back catalogue though and possibly my favourite band, although since MES died I havenāt gone back to them as much as I used to, without the trigger of a new album or a tour to bring them back in my sights. Thereās plenty of credit to go to other members who live in his shadow, particularly Steve Hanley on bass, Craig Scanlon on guitar, Karl Burns on drums, as well as Brixās guitar/songwriting stints. Later members too, who while not holding a candle to the old guard, still always managed to capture the essence of The Fall somehow.
5
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Yeah she plays the incident down a lot from what I remember, though whether sheās just trying to avoid getting into a whole thing about it is hard to tell - obviously I wouldnāt let him off the hook for it either way.
Fucking awful. If I wanted to speak to the tedious ramblings of an angry drunken bigot, Iād speak to my step dad.
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Could probably post 30 or 40 favourite songs but that would be a bit much.
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Totales Turns is one of my faves these days
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This was great at the time turning Mick Jones amp up and Paul Simonon looking like he was going to batter him. Lou Reed came on after think this set has got better with age apart from the begging to sing along at the end:
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Thought they were absolutely brilliant when they played the sunday night of camber sands (shellac one?) but then the bits i have heard on record have left me dead cold. So much so iāve never been inspired to properly check them out. There was always something a bit off-putting about MES in particular and then, well yeah, he was a rotter. Was going to give them a better score due to that atp gig but nah, 1.
Itās interesting that they started as a very outwardly left wing band, mostly down to the influence of Una Baines who was a founding member but only played on the first couple of singles, but MES later seemed to take pleasure in being a reactionary contrarian - I always get the sense he adopted most of his political opinions purely to wind people up.
Thereās an early live track called Hey! Fascist that was resurrected in the mid 90s and changed to Hey! Student instead, to target the real enemy (some funny lines in there though)
as is always the case in these threads people will be chucking down some utter bollocks whether factual or not. And Iām not talking about the assault charge as that was proven.
Bollocks like assuming he was racist as some sort of intellectual exercise?
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I tried to get into them ages ago, and fuck me it was like opening a door on a room full of shit. I was looking around wondering āwhy does everyone like this shitā and āwhy are you all standing in the room full of shit?ā and āwhy are you scooping it into your mouth and eating the shit?ā and so I closed the door.
a 1 from me.
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Originally a Labour supporter, Smith originally left the Labour Party during the Falklands War (which he supported), then became further disillusioned with Labour during the Tony Blair era.[58] In the 1997 election, he voted for the [Conservative Party](Conservative Party (UK) - Wikipedia) in opposition to Blair.[59] Asked during a mid-1980s interview with Smash Hits as to what policies he would adopt if he became Prime Minister, he said āIād halve the price of cigarettes, double the tax on health food, then Iād declare war on France.ā[60] Smith also expressed support for Brexit and Britainās withdrawal from the [European Union](European Union - Wikipedia). Although a longstanding member of the Musicians Union, he criticised their political outlook, stating āall they say is vote Corbyn and stay in the European Union."[61] He claimed that his outsider political viewpoint was best described in the title of his 1980 single āProle Art Threatā.
Mark E Smith murdered rabbits and secretly dressed as Hitler to get his kicks
1/5
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hahah, and you believe all you read? he was famed for telling porkies to the press, constantly. But there we go.