A sad day yesterday, learning of the death at 60 of Mark E Smith. He was the leading force in the Fall (or the Mighty Fall, as John Peel used to call the band), and provided a soundtrack to my youth.
I went to quite a few Fall gigs in the early-mid 80s as my boyfriend of the time was a massive fan. At one gig at Leicester Polytechnic we passed the great man himself on the pavement as we were walking to the venue and he was walking away from it (possibly in search of a pub) … he looked very dapper in a bright red satin shirt. The gig was blistering, as they all were. I found their music challenging and infectious: it took me a while to get in to it. I feel the band went off the boil in the later 80s and never regained the glory days of the late 70s and early 80s, but what a legacy. Here are some of my favourite Fall tracks:
Thanks Mark.
Guardian report and link to obituary
A quick bit of google-fu and lo, the internet giveth: photos of the very Fall gig I mentioned above, with Mr Smith resplendent in his shiny red shirt. Apparently the support band (that Mark almost certainly missed) was Felt – I’d completely forgotten that. The gig was on Saturday 19 November 1983, so my boyfriend and I must have come to Leicester from Cambridge for the weekend as our college term didn’t end until early December. Happy days.