RIP Mark E. Smith

all the same, this is how he dressed then:
http://thefall.org/gigography/79dec14_flyer.jpg

Ah, no need -- this story from Chris D. of the Flesheaters confirms it:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1816055401738951&set=a.101240486553793.2754.100000035277218&type=3&theater

I can't remember how I became friendly with Mark Smith, but it had to have had something to do with my writing for Slash magazine and the positive reviews Claude'Kickboy'Bessy and I always gave The Fall's records. In fact, everybody who wrote for Slash loved The Fall. I know I was already working at the record company in '81 when The Flesh Eaters opened up for The Fall and Blurt at Myron's Ballroom in downtown L.A. in that summer. I'm pretty certain that was the last live gig for the "Minute to Pray..." line-up until our 2006 shows. Below is a photo taken by Gary Leonard after everyone had played their sets. A dour Fall frontman and an unusually cheerful Flesh Eaters frontman. We were all shitfaced, but Mark, per usual was way ahead of all of the rest of us. I kept in touch with Mark through postcards and letters. I have the image emblazoned in my mind of a beautiful card he sent me of a snow-covered church in Iceland with a volcano spurting lava a mile or so behind it in the background pasted to my Slash Records office wall until I left the job in early 1984. Surprisingly Divine Horsemen got on the bill with the Fall (w/ Mark's approval) when they played the Palace in Hollywood in, what was it? 1985? -'86? Brix had joined the band and was singing backup as well as playing keyboards, if I'm not mistaken. Believe it or not, the bands meshed surprisingly well together. I was a big fan of The Fall and especially Mark's brilliant, surreal, absurdly funny lyrics, from "Bingo Master's Breakout" (one of my favorite song titles ever) and "Psycho Mafia" onward. I played the LPs "Live at the Witch Trials,""Hex Enduction Hour," "Grotesque," and "Dragnet" incessantly, though kind of lost touch with Mark and his music in the early 1990s. We saw each other for the last time in 1997 or '98 when Lydia Lunch kindly asked me to join her and Mark at a poetry/prose reading at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood. I was newly sober. I may have been paranoid, but I had a feeling my sobriety may have caused some uneasy moments between us. As always with Mark, it was hard to tell. We were both socially awkward. I'd been reading about his health problems in recent years, and I knew this day was probably coming sooner than later. It makes me sad I did not get to ever talk to him again. I hope he's resting easy. A brilliant, funny, acidic, cantankerous, sometimes-impossible-to-get-along-with person.

Said '81 photo:

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/26904566_1816055401738951_8790473706108392726_n.jpg?oh=c73902f4c96fc99dd5171e4ff80dc1b7&oe=5AE5A41B

xxxp you're right re. the editor, I stand corrected. The Brit was a woman who I think was senior editor or co-publisher or similar. I've switched off the DVD now so can't check.

my favourite fact from watching and reading up on Decline... (apart from he MES sticker of course) was that Exene Cervenka was married to Viggo Mortensen. But I'm sure everyone knows that apart from me!

So do I think the sticker is him, not really, but did they know the Fall back then, oh heck yes.

wow they did shows with Monitor! a Joe Carducci favorite

http://disasteramnesiac.blogspot.com/2013/04/monitor-st-world-imitation-1980-reissue.html

also wow would i love to have heard Mark's reaction to the Germs lol

Don't think it's MES on the sticker, but this has turned into a great story all the same

This is a fantastic detail from the show of 15th September 79:

"Supporting were Methodisch Tune (writer Ian Penman's band - that's not a typo!), Scritti Politti (in the days when they were experimental and before Green decided to become a pop star). In the audience were Peter Purvis from 'Blue Peter' and Mike Robinson from 'Fingerbobs'."

also important and relevant:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B0c3rgsIUAAmN5X.jpg

No, sorry, I'm not buying Peter Purves.

<3 Viggo

My next best guess for the identity of sticker person: Joan Jett

xp, yeah. More John Noakes' thing I suppose.

Quoting Captain Mainwaring? That is so perfect!

no, he's quoting napoleon. sorry i wasn't clearer there.

Mainwaring/ Napoleon, same thing.

Mainwaring/ Napoleon/Smith, same thing :)

"don't panic!"

https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/d/j/x/7/j/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620x349.1dg7oq.png/1471913713286.jpg

"Stupid boy" surely?

also: re the fall in slash magazine, there's a LOT (which still surprises me but it turns out that's my parochialism projected onto slash): mentioned on 56 pages in 29 issues

(most of them are capsule reviews on a larger page with other stuff but even so)

Is that the infamous "happy" photo of Riley arriving in NZ, which got printed in the local papers (Lie Dream of a Casino Soul was top 20 there!), and so hacked off MES that he fired him?

Yes, though I don't think that was the only reason. MES claimed that Riley wanted to wear a stetson when he played "Container Drivers", for instance.

Well, there was the incident earlier on that tour (shortly after arriving in Australia) where the band were drunkenly dancing to Rock The Casbah in some nightclub, so MES slapped them all. And Riley hit him back. They did an interview on TV the next morning, MES w/black eye.

The version I read said it was dancing to Deep Purple that was beyond the pale

The full details.

http://static.stuff.co.nz/1471318288/188/15625188.jpg

what was their Top 20 hit in New Zealand?

love the stetson hat story the most out of all these details (if true, even if not it's very funny)

also love the historical detour into the relationship the band had with the Slash scene

That poster that mark s. posted is A+.

"Lie Dream of a Casino Soul" got to #17 in NZ.

Great pair of pics.

I don't know about MES being bothered about Riley getting the magpic, he did make a joke about it on that live album. Which has the same photo on the front. Which did get MES approval until he found copies in UK shops before he'd received personal copies, at which point he insisted it get withdrawn.

Still, the MES photo would have been better - he looks a bit like Steve Marriott there.

The story I heard from Chris Knox or whichever NZ musician is that the music mags got distributed to NZ months before the actual songs being pumped up by the NME or whatever got distributed, which is why Joy Divison has a couple of top 5 hits in NZ

drunkenly dancing to Rock The Casbah

TO BE FAIR they were not slapped hard enough for this

Slapped hard with bonuses maybe

Still, the MES photo would have been better - he looks a bit like Steve Marriott there.

― Mark G, Saturday, February 3, 2018 9:53 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Feargal Sharkey, more like.

Marc Riley has a joker hysterical face

This should be a poll surely?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUeU4l7XcAARuZy.jpg:large

Harsh on Telly Savalas imo

Yes, a lot of that list deserves to be hated but not Kojak.

he is a tit tho

There's an article on Mark E Smith in the Waitrose free paper.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TuUOgzcfOeg/V2XBRTTzvrI/AAAAAAAAE2s/f4eB_81C0IIXhThpD3KpbGVAtUys9iaBQCLcB/s1600/Tina%2Bvs%2BErich.gif

Regarding L.A. 1979 gigs - there was an official CD release of the AntiClub gig - one of my fave Fall live recordings.

https://www.discogs.com/Fall-Live-From-The-Vaults-Los-Angeles-1979/release/994907

Wow, with a Pascal le Gras cover, no less.

The wonderful and frightening documentary is on bbc4 next Saturday

Xxxxpost not sure what he exactly "did" on it.but Claude Bessy gets a prominent thank you, literally, it says "TANK: Clde BESSY" on box for the Perverted by Language DVD. Didn't Catholic Discipline do the colorfully named punk chestnut "decadent jew"? I so, thats a rather Mark E Smithian title. Though he would more likely insert it into a line, rather than the title/chorus. Also, Big Thanks to the redoubtable Mr. Raggett on the awesome zine dls. Those are awesome to have around. And that pic of MES w/Chris D is classic!! Chris d smiling is pretty unusual. And MES looks so wasted, holy shit man. The pulled out pant pocket is a nice touch. Gives him thatch "just been rolled" look. Lol. Love you, Mark!! And will really miss catching new interviews and stuff, which often are more interesting than the later records. However, i can always dance to his vibrations for the rest of my crazy days. Thank you again and again Mr Smith.

Decadent Jew was by the Nuns.

The Nuns! O.k. Thanks. I figured someone here would correct me on that. Well, in that case, Catholic Discipline really didnt have ANY good material,I'm into C.B., as a human being/writer, but his band. Yeesh! BTW in the MES tribute at the world's finest Fall website theyve started posting DLable mp3s of various radio shows about MES, from BBC and other sources. Some great listening there.

Claude Bessey directed the "Kicker Conspiracy" and "Wings" vids.

I'm into C.B.

well done

MES seemed to have a pretty strong fascination with LA/West Coast early on, Claude, Richard Meltzer (Meltzer talks about he & MES ditching the "musicians" to go drink at some bar), Chris D, & MES, seemed to all be fast friends/drinking companions, which jesus christ seems like some serious trouble.

Mark apparently wanted to visit Compton and there's some early zine interview where he claims that Mexican dudes in low riders were all big Fall fans, which seems like his claim that only plumbers & working men came to their gigs in England.

Einar and MES, a match made in hell but they'll take you to heaven first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5q5J67Mrv0