Great Reading: The Fall Ultimate Music Guide Magazine

Bloody hell, it’s a whole rag on The Fall! So previously I’ve said somewhere on my little blog, they’re my most fave English band/artist of all-time and I would say Mark E. Smith is the best English vocalist/lyricist of all-time too! Maybe, a lot of peeps would disagree that? They started in late-70 punk and their middle name was chaos which they really stuck to that over a very long time line so to me, that’s just one reason they’re better than everything else from the U.K. Also been blogging something about some music books I’ve been reading, mainly what I didn’t do last year and those were done last month. So far this year, I’ve been reading a few, all at the same time but not yet finished any of them but then last month, I thrown a mag into the mix plus did a couple of books both about pretty much the very same thing tooo! It’s now coming close to the end of this month, May and I’ve not done any music books but I’ve still not finished all those ones but have enjoy this and just finished it this week! It’s been awhile still the last time blogging about The Fall and Mark E. Smith so let’s say/type something about this then, OK?

When Smith (MES from now on in this post) past away a few years ago, I have to say I was very disappointed because none of those English music magazines put MES on their front covers but now Uncut does kind-of make-up for it by doing this whole thing about him/them! Basic facts about it or it’s look is it’s a full color gloss pages which is 122 pages long and it’s like A4 size and it’s pretty great reading tooo! Re-printing old NME and Melody Maker interviews, the earliest is 1977 and goes up to 1998 when NME gave MES the Godlike Genius award plus Uncut’s last interview with him in 2017 just months away from his death. I guess, it was a fair call by MES himself about keeping his cancer diagnosed from public knowledge because it’s now known it when back to 2010 when MES had one of his kidney’s removed but goes straight from major surgery to recording studio. As point-out here inside this mag, that recording studio was upstairs and MES was wheelchair bound but legend as it: “Smith broke free from his wheelchair, clambered up the stair and burst into the studio to mark his authority.” A lot of reasons were gave in those last few years to cover-up his cancer and amazing MES got eight more years after that which means five more albums plus a more couple of EPs. That 2010 album was Your Future Our Clutter which Uncut now call: “the last truly great The Fall album” but I would say four of those five are bloody great or even totally classic albums in my opinion. The last wicked great one was Sub-Lingual Tablet of 2015 would be my pick of the the last truly great The Fall album, maybe because I got to see The Fall live three time on their last Aussie tour around that time, unbelievable now they even made it down here with all that going on in his life but so very glad I finally got to see them live. I think, albums Re-mit and Ersatz GB are also wicked great and are a truly unbelievable run of albums, even without knowing about his cancer which I were saying that back then tooo. The Fall finale with New Facts Emerge of 2017 wasn’t as great so kind-of agree with what they say inside these pages but off course, the end was so very close. In that re-printed last interview with MES was already planning the next album, that wasn’t going to be.

Each of the studio albums plus what I would call a couple of EPs plus some of the live albums get new two full pages reviews from 1979 to 1994 then the last two decades get four pages each, then live albums and comps also get four pages each tooo. I’ve got some of these Uncut Ultimate Music Guide Magazines before and this is the first time they haven’t done all the albums with at least one full page plus artwork in new reviews, maybe because The Fall was way more prolific than almost everyone out there so they just ran out of pages but couldn’t they added a few more pages? And just do full write-up about each of The Fall albums, oh well they didn’t! MES has this myth of being a totally bastard or something? But he seem pretty funny to me in all these interviews and the legend of his ranting on and on didn’t seem that bad, even if it’s repeat in every single article, maybe they heavily edited him before going into print or picked his best or better behavior ones or something? Other stuff you get inside is a graph of all The Fall members and how long each lasted: it’s 40 members in 42 years type of thingy with a bit of where are they now? Each song/album gets pointless star ratings but maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t like that kind-of shit?

Here’s some random songs selected by me in a big list for today’s post but even if it’s a bit long, I’m still missing some albums/EPs/singles and missing almost all the so-called hits. In order by late 70’s to 2010’s, beginning to end but it’s stuff I just wanted to listen to right now and could be something else, if I did this another time, you know?

Starting with Bingo-Master’s Break-Out! (1978) very early single:

Music Scene was the closing track from debut studio album Live At The Witch Trials (1979):

Muzorewi’s Daughter from Dragnet album (1979):

The N.W.R.A. which is short for The North Will Rise Again was the closing track of Grotesque (After The Gramme) (1980):

Prole Art Threat from Slates (1981) side-note I think, I would called an EP because it’s only six songs but it did get a couple of pages as new reviews bit in this rag:

Who Makes the Nazis? from Hex Enduction Hour (1982):

Joker Hysterical Face from Room To Live (1982):

Smile from Perverted By Language (1983):

Paintwork from This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985):

Mr. Pharmacist from Bend Sinister (1986) side-note is they actually played this one live when I’d seen them, it’s a cover but would be the earliest track they played when I’d seen them:

Oswald Defense Lawyer from The Frenz Experiment (1988):

Bill Is Dead from Extricate (1990):

The Birmingham School Of Business School from Code: Selfish (1992):

Hey! Student from Middle Class Revolt (1994):

Power Keg from The Light User Syndrome (1996):

The Crying Marshall from The Marshall Suite (1999):

Dr. Buck’s Letter from The Unutterable (2000):

Theme From Sparta FC from The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country On The Click) (2003) side-note is another kind-of old song they played live when I got to see them too:

Blindness from Fall Heads Roll (2005):

Flooded by Von Südenfed from their one and only album entitled Tromatic Reflexxions (2007) side-note on side-project but would be one of my most fave MES albums of all-time. Only got one photo, two sentence tiny review in this rag. If you don’t know it? It’s basically Mouse On Mars with MES on vox:

50 Year Old Man from Imperial Wax Solvent (2008):

Weather Report 2 from Your Future Our Clutter (2010):

Greenway from Ersatz GB (2011):

Noise from Re-Mit (2013):

Dedication Not Medication from Sub-Lingual Tablet (2015):

Couples Vs Jobless Mid 30s from New Facts Emerge (2017):

OK, I don’t know what else to say? But I really enjoyed this rag, has anyone else out there check it out? The Nick Cave Ultimate Music Guide mag and this one are both missing the most well-known/famous NME interview with Cave, Smith and The Pogues’ Shane McGowan so maybe they will re-print that if and when they do The Pogues Ultimate Music Guide mag? But did find that online pretty easy, if you want read that whole one it’s linked here. I’m still missing some copies of The Fall albums myself, I don’t even have all of them by now but maybe, you don’t need all of them with streaming but I think, I will get more of them? I’ve also got a copy of Brix Smith’s book for years but still haven’t read it, according to this, it’s not popular with the MES family but I guess, that’s not really a big surprise. So maybe, should do both of those thingy’s? What else? That might be it for today!