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 ...

There are plenty of people better qualified to write about music than I am. There are plenty of people better qualified to write about The Fall than I am. But that's not going to stop me. Fall songs have featured heavily in the 'Track of the Week' diary posts over at my  Tea at Johnny's  blog but I wanted to do a bit more - so this is it. The idea is for me to pick one track that was released or broadcast for the first time in each year of the Fall's 40-year recording career and write about it. This isn't going to be easy. Some of them may have personal connections with where I first heard it or what it reminds me of. Others will be simply because they are stunning records that deserve a wider audience and I want to hear them again (and again). I'll try to focus on studio recordings and Peel sessions (some live stuff may creep in) and I'll also hope to keep it purely the Fall despite Mark E Smith making a couple of fantastic collaborations with...

Handsome, well-meaning, but slightly a careless type. Not malicious, I hope you understand and grasp. (Athlete Cured) The Fall were part of the soundtrack of my life for about 35 years. After Mark E Smith's death in January 2018 it's still hard to believe that there will be no more Fallsound. I can't remember the first Fall record I heard. It may have been Totally Wired, Rowche Rumble or Bingo Master's Breakout. I'm sure my friend David would have been the person who played it around 1980 or 1981. I can't remember the first Fall record I bought. It could have been either of the above or maybe How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'. The first fall gig I went to was at Swindon's Brunel Rooms on 26 March 1982. All I remember is two drum-kits and someone who kept shouting for Spectre vs Rector. I'm fairly sure the first Fall album I bought was Dragnet. Most likely from Kempster's on Commercial Road in Swindon. What I do remember is buying a...