The story of Mark E. Smith and The Fall
Below the grey skies and perpetually monochrome landscape of Prestwich, a small band of outcasts found solace in meeting to share experimental records and drugs. Down in the big smoke of London, the punk rebellion was in full swing, with the streets chocked full of performative students in bondage trousers with painted faces. Moving from the middle-class suburbia of Surrey to cosplay as working class in the squats of Brixton, there was something distinctly phoney about many figures within London’s punk scene. But this wasn’t London, it was Prestwich.
Growing bored of listening to Captain Beefheart and getting high, one member of Prestwich’s band of brothers set his sights on pursuing a life of music and writing. After being privy to the infamous Sex Pistols gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall, Mark E. Smith set about carving his own name into the pages of alternative rock. Forming The Fall in 1976, with a name inspired by an Albert Camus novel, Smith wasted no time in putting across the band’s raw and experimental manifesto.
The moody landscape of British post-punk has been awash with innovative groups since the get-go. However, few bands were quite so original or influential as The Fall. If you have listened to any post-punk group over the past 30 or 40 years, the likelihood is that they have borrowed something from the unique stylings of The Fall. While their punk contemporaries were concerned almost exclusively with the likes of the New York Dolls, the Ramones and Iggy Pop, Smith and The Fall were more concerned with the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler, and W.B. Yeats.
Thus began the band’s seemingly endless non-conformity. Even the most outlandish, rebellious groups within punk and post-punk could not stand up to the likes of Mark E. Smith – something that he would regularly let them know. After all, if anything came close to eclipsing the music of the group, it was the endlessly confrontational figure of Smith. Over the years, seemingly anyone who is anyone has come under fire from the frontman, with many deeming it something of an honour.
During their early days, The Fall adhered fairly closely to the usual sound of northern punk rock, with tracks like ‘Stepping Out’ and ‘Last Orders’ forming notable highlights of their early live shows. These two tracks were also the band’s first official release, featuring on Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus alongside the likes of Steel Pulse, Joy Division and John Cooper Clarke. From then on, The Fall operated with a revolving cast of musicians coming and going, with certain members leaving and certain members being removed by Smith.
For the first two years of operation, The Fall became a noted live band of the Manchester circuit. Their exposure to a wider audience came in 1978, with the first of many John Peel sessions. Over the course of their career, Peel would champion The Fall, even selecting one of their tracks – ‘Eat Y’self Fitter’ – as one of his Desert Island Discs. Peel was noted for championing a variety of groups to rise from the punk scene, but The Fall were undoubtedly one of his favourites.
Following their initial Peel sessions, The Fall set about recording their debut album, Live at the Witch Trials. In the typically DIY ethos of the group, the band recorded the entirety of their debut album in one day. That fact alone is a perfect encapsulation of the group as a whole. The Fall was a complete departure from the self-indulgence of the wider pop and rock music industry. Mark E. Smith was operating by his own rules, at his own will. This musical manifesto followed the group throughout their reign, as they moved from one musical style to another seemingly at will.
The Fall never seemed to have a sturdy line-up, but perhaps the most recognisable one came in the early 1980s when the group signed to iconic independent label Rough Trade. It was with the label that The Fall released some of their most beloved tracks, including ‘Totally Wired’ and the incredible live album Totale’s Turn. This era also saw the release of Grotesque (After the Gramme), one of Smith’s finest efforts, which shot to the top of the UK’s indie charts, cementing The Fall as legends of the underground scene.
The 1980s are looked upon in hindsight as a period of indulgence, with the emergence of yuppie culture and insurance brokers with BMW’s. Groups like Duran Duran and Wham capitalised on this optimistic image of the time, but it was bands like The Fall who represented the reality of life in 1980s Britain. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t bright; it was dark, dingy, depressive and storied by unemployment and austerity. Few bands have managed to capture the zeitgeist of Britain quite so effectively as The Fall.
As the decade drew to a close, and British music scenes became dominated by acid house and the few grunge bands that made the trip over the Atlantic, The Fall continued in their quest to go against the grain. Recruiting Smith’s girlfriend, Brix Smith, later to become his wife, The Fall adopted a sound which was not quite pop music, but it was as close as they ever got. For the first time in their history, The Fall witnessed some genuine commercial successes, with a run of hit singles, including ‘There’s a Ghost in My House’, a cover of The Kinks’ ‘Victoria’ and, of course, ‘Hit the North’.
Following the departure of Brix and the end of The Fall’s partnership with Rough Trade, Smith would have been forgiven for jacking it in entirely. After all, a new musical generation was dawning; post-punk was over, and the kids were enamoured with the shiny optimism of Britpop. In fact, some of The Fall – namely Dave Bush – jumped ship, joining the ranks of Britpop giants like Elastica. Smith was many things, but an optimist was not one of them. He certainly could not adapt to this new musical style. But then again, why would he want to? The Fall frontman had never concerned himself with trends; he was viciously anti-pop and anti-fashion, and so he valiantly carried on with the band.
As the new millennium dawned, The Fall was continually pushing the envelope, even incorporating influences of drum and bass at points on the 1997 album Levitate. Sure, they were no longer the new and exciting group that had formed in 1970s Prestwich, but they remained among the most fearlessly innovative groups that British music had ever witnessed. The Fall were constantly subverting expectations of themselves. For instance, by the mid-2000s, many had hypothesised that The Fall were past it – that they were yesterday’s news. However, the group then released Fall Heads Roll, one of their greatest albums outright.
Throughout the noughties, The Fall continued in their unwavering pursuit of originality, taking very little notice of musical trends and what their contemporaries were doing. While many of their early punk companions were embarking on sell-out ‘reunion’ tours, The Fall continued to write and record new music.
Ultimately, the story of The Fall is the story of Mark E. Smith. Throughout their five-decade reign, Smith was the only consistent member. Leading the group as something of a dictator, he famously once stated, “If it’s me and yer granny on bongos, it’s The Fall. ”Therefore, the only thing that could bring an end to the vast and illustrious career of the group was the death of Mark E. Smith.
At the beginning of 2017, shortly before the release of the 31st Fall album, New Facts Emerge, Smith was growing increasingly ill. Suffering the effects of a life well-lived, he continued to perform with the group until the very end, even performing in a wheelchair at points. The frontman who had changed music forever eventually died as a result of lung and kidney cancer on January 24th, 2018, where it had all started, in Prestwich.
While The Fall ended with the death of Mark E. Smith, the legacy of the group certainly did not. Look at the line-up to any rock festival this summer, you will see countless groups that took heavy inspiration from The Fall. Their unwavering innovation and refusal to bow down to trends or fashion meant that their music had a timeless quality to it. Even today, their early material still sounds utterly groundbreaking. The world will never see another musician like Mark E. Smith, and it will never replicate the unforgettable sounds of The Fall.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Post-Punk Newsletter
All the latest Post-Punk content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.