One thing that doesn’t get mentioned a lot is that while The Fall are perceived as very male, women have played very prominent roles in various eras of the band.
Una Baines co-founded the band and established their early politics, though left quite early on. Kay Carroll’s management was by all accounts essential to their early 80s drive (supposedly MES learned his whole thing of terrifying people into submission from her). Brix’s songwriting shaped a large part of their sound in the mid to late 80s (and again briefly in the mid 90s), rounding off the rough edges into something a little more poppy and accessible but somehow without losing what had made them great to begin with. Julia Nagle spearheaded the late 90s/early 00s electronic direction. Elena was a steady hand in the later years through the last few lineup changes until she left towards the end. Among other contributing members like Yvonne Pawlett and Marcia Schofield.
When I think of other bands I love with high membership turnover (Guided by Voices, the Bad Seeds), they’re almost exclusively male (I know Anita Lane gets a few lyrical credits for the Bad Seeds but she was never an active member).
Not saying this suddenly changes MES’ politics or anything but I think the very male perception they often have is understandable but not necessarily justified
