Vanity and Presumption

? October: Single - Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy "Way down to heaven" With a great album (IMHO) fading into the rear view mirror and music for a new one already written it was surely time for another big Fall fall-out. Eight years and one month after the very public split at Brownie's in New York another Fall 'engine room' walked out. Ben Pritchard, Steve Trafford and Spencer Birtwistle headed home after a curtailed gig in Phoenix that had included MES scuffling with the singer of support band The Talk. This seems to have been the final straw in a tour that also included Smith pouring beer over the tour bus driver while they were doing 80 mph. MES being MES this was just a minor bump in the road for the group. They were playing again two days later with Mr and Mrs Smith now joined by Tim Presley and Rob Barbato of Darker My Love plus Orpheo McCord of On the Hill. There was one last release from the old line-up to come though. Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy was another

28 February: EP - Rude All The Time 26 September: Single - I Can Hear the Grass Grow 3 October: Album: Fall Heads Roll "A work in progress, due about 2026" With Jim Watts making a second and final exit from the group towards the end of 2004 The Fall are now a five piece - MES, Elena, Ben Pritchard (guitar), Steve Trafford (bass) and Spencer Birtwistle (drums). Both singles this year are limited editions. The Rude All The Time EP was actually recorded in 2001 and features Watts and Ed Blaney. The Fall Online says that the title track was pulled at the last minute by MES so the 2,000 copies feature  Distilled Mug Art (Mix 15),  I Wake Up In The City (Mix 5),  My Ex Classmates Kids (Mix 4) and what I shall refer to as 'Taxi'. I've written about the first three tracks previously and I won't bother with 'Taxi'. There were just 1,000 copies of the I Can Hear the Grass Grow/Clasp Hands double A-side which came out a week before the album. I don