Vanity and Presumption

16 March 1979: Album - Live at the Witch Trials 30 July 1979: Single - Rowche Rumble 26 October 1979: Album - Dragnet "I get better as I get older" Yep. Two albums in little over seven months. Live at the Witch Trials was recorded the previous December (in one day after Smith lost his voice ahead of the session) and is an energetic round-up of the group's early work. Songs about drugs ('Underground Medicin', 'No Xmas for John Quays', 'Like to Blow') appear and recur throughout Smith's work. By the time of the excellent single Rowche Rumble in July Smith is the sole founding member remaining in the group. What started as a 'musician's collective' had already seen Smith take over as leader and the leaving, hiring and firing of group members that ran through the first 30 years of the Fall was under way. This year also saw Steve Hanley join on bass and his playing would come to define many people's idea of the Fall sound....

15 Jun 1978*: 1st John Peel Session - Rebellious Jukebox, Mother Sister, Industrial Estate, Futures and Pasts 11 Aug 1978: EP - Bingo Master's Breakout ?? Nov 1978: Single - It's the New Thing 12 Dec 1978: 2nd John Peel Session - Put Away, Mess of My, No Xmas for John Keys, Like to Blow "This was a beginning" After 30 or so gigs across 1977 and the first half of 1978 The Fall first reached a wider audience thanks to their first of what would be 24 John Peel sessions in June. Hot on the heels of that came their first vinyl appearance - two tracks ('Last Orders' and 'Stepping Out') on the live compilation  Short Circuit: Live at the Electric Circus . The group featured alongside other northern post-punk luminaries such as Warsaw (soon to be Joy Division ), Buzzcocks and John Cooper-Clarke . It's a mark of Smith's prodigious song-writing, quality control and the group's work ethic that neither of those tracks would feature on a ...