Good friend of mine, who ended up being the landlord of a Salford pub. Said he would come in late at night occasionally. According to my friend, he was very polite and quiet. He just stayed a typical bloke from north Manchester.
A venue manager I used to know who put them on several times said he could either be very polite and quiet or a nightmare. If her was polite it was usually because his mum had joined them on the tour!
@@pov_music he didn't bite my head off, @limelight further backstage & tried to offer me a CD, which offer was knocked on the head by a roadie /minder. give me a bottle too!
MES responding to the "you changed my life" line was actually fairly tender for him. I'll always feel bad for comments I made to friends at my last Fall show. He was shockingly bad. Didn't know he was sick.
Mark E hasn't got to explain anything. He's not prickly. His legacy is important. There are top drawer songs in there. Living to late. Cut down on the drinking though.
@seadonkeyridesagain I LOVE the Fall & Mark E Smith. He's one of my all time favourite musicians, but I think people often throw the term 'genius' around too often.
You gotta love Mark e Smith, pure working class genius, f##king brilliant, I was lucky enough to have seen the fall once and I was kinda expected the worst for some reason or thuther but they were outstanding and that's the beauty of them, you don't quite know what's gonna happen
Saw em in Barrow, not long before mes died...they were really fucking great..I'm not a fan and had never seen em before but fuck me, they were the dogs...also as I left, high on e, Mark, wearing a Christmas style jumper,was outside on his own smoking a ciggie, I had a new phone that took photos and for a split second I thought about asking him for a photo, fuck knows why cos I ain't an autograph type of bloke but I didn't n I fucked off home....
Most MES interviewers seem like: "I love Mark E. Smith and how he doesn't care about what anyone else thinks, then I interviewed him was upset because he didn't care about what I think!"
I can't believe some of things said here. If you're a fall obsessive you should know all there is to know. Plus i'd have thought it a bit strange if Brix hadn't popped up, she was married to him after all. Also, it was Mark that brought up his sisters not Frank. The comment after this was probably the most honest anyone would have made. Your comment actually makes you sound like some sort of church goer, dull & boring.
I hate Frank Skinner. Of all the comics/fans to go and interview MES...why not get Stewart Lee? Skinner is a conceited miserly greedy unfuuny comic. He had his day in the 90s, but sadly the beeb-those who kicked him out when he demanded a pay rise-seem keen to bring him back of late. MES just takes the piss. If he doesn't think yuo're worth talking too or taking seriously he will misbehave, and that's what he's doing here. Its like sending a lamb to the slaughter
Everyone tries to 'interview' MES. Don't they get it? He doesn't 'do' interviews. Just enjoy the ride and try to return the wit. He's hilarious. Every time interviewers try to slot in a normal question the interaction drops a few levels. But unfortunately they do insist on trying.
My (terrible) old band supported them. Our drummer tried to talk to him after they played and he just blew smoke in his face. He was alright with everybody else though. Drummers are pretty thick and this lad isn’t the most articulate of individuals.. Gawd bless him anyway. RIP.
skinners alright eh? bit gushing but he is not talking total shit, which can often be the problem with interviwers. and it's all alot of pish really at the end of the day, isn't it every one. i'm a big fall fan. see ya mate. see ya mate. yeah, see ya mate.
Is there anyone who still hasn't heard 'Cheap Space Chant' ? In RU-vid, search for 'Timekode, Mark E Smith' and listen to the strangest and best MES/Fall collaboration of them all...
Wish I was, Mr. Brent. She was in a great deal of pain and did have to resort to frozen peas on occasion. I work in an environment where repetitive-strain injury is common and I'm just glad I haven't come down with it yet - it doesn't seem like much fun.
I'm just getting into the Fall. I've heard Frank Skinner discuss Mark e Smith on his radio show a number of times. I'm can't believe so many people I really relate to are big fans. Stewart Lee, Grayson Perry, Frank, Johnny Greenwood. I think I've come to the right place.
There is nothing working class about him, he was lower middle and went to decent schools and did O levels. That is all good. The point never made is all the big English bands were upper middle class, in the case of Genesis upper class.
Mark E. Smith is an idiot savant. He can make any random thought into fabulous verbal rhythms, he has all these bizarre character studies and little catchy stories and jingles. Been a fan since the eighties.
Discounted tickets for The Fall in the Liverpool 02 Academy 2 on the 19th of May. They're normally £17 but we have them for £10. Send us a message on this if you'd like one!
I hate Frank Skinner - the guy is so up himself. He has this affectation of being an intellectual and serious thinker who just happens to be very humorous too. Well he is no intellectual - his crappy newspaper column reveals him to be a very mediocre thinker. He is not that funny either.
Unfortunately, Brix is still plagued by vestiges of the Carpal Tunnel [tendinitis] which incapacitated her in the mid-1990s. At one point the pain was so unbearable that she was reduced to walking around with frozen food strapped to her arm.
i've never been able to truly enjoy The Fall cos the music itself is f**kin' ace but I can't understand what Mark Smith is going on about. Seeing in him interviews he seems sort of infantile and employs the simple distraction techniques of a six year old child. I used to work in North Manchester General A+E and saw him when he came in. He didn't seem hard then I can tell you. In fact he was shaking like a shitting dog and his heart was going like a fucked clock.
Interviews are a game, usually a band or whatever wants promotion, so they make the most of their few mintues to push themselves. Or they're young men who have lots of ideas about the world, and want the world to listen. MES has either made his peace, or never gave much of a shite to start with. He's got nothing he wants to say, so the usual interview stuff, where they ask a token question and let the interviewee get on with it, doesn't work. I think what'd be best is to get a couple of drinks down him, though not so many that he becomes a pain, and just chat about life and stuff. Make it a long-form thing, then edit down the highlights. From reading "Renegade", one problem with MES is boredom. He gets bored, and if he's pissed he'll start little fights, verbal or otherwise, just to amuse himself. But the bloke spends half his life in the pub, he must talk to people about something, so get him going like that, and record it. The usual 2-minute thing only works on people who are desperate to be heard. MES has some interesting things to say, but doesn't really care about getting them out to people.
