The Fallen

The last few days have seen me reading Dave Simpson's The Fallen - my current non-work or climbing related reading. This is actually rather a fun book - a search for as many of the past members of The Fall as he could find. At least half the names are people I've never heard of.

As usual, this sends me back to the vast collection of cds I have by The Fall. Today I heard Grotesque for the first time in perhaps 20 years - I had forgotten just how great Container Drivers and especially Impression of J Temperance were. This was followed by Slates. I remember buying the vinyl version when it came out - the 10" version.

I saw The Fall about a dozen times in the early 1980s, and then once a few year's later. They played Oxford a couple of years ago. I should have gone (and taken Linda). I have bought most of the cds over the years, and generally find some tracks I like every time. But the peak for me was around 1983 with the Peel session that featured the stupendous track, Smile - perhaps one of my personal top 5 tracks.

A few years ago there was a superb documentary of tv about them - The Wonderful and Frightening world of Mark E Smith. I should have another look for that - I think I downloaded it at the time.

. Around the last time I saw The Fall - late 1980s, with the rather scrummy Marcia Schofield on keyboards