Mark E. Smith: Featured Artist for 28/01/18

Teatime Featured Artist: Mark E. Smith I suppose I have probably grown biased, from years of experiencing British music festivals. In my opinion, the UK simply does a better job of open air festivals than Americans do . . . and perhaps can ever do. There are any number of reasons why I believe this but primarily, two. Firstly, music festival culture in the UK is, much like pub culture, a social leveller; everyone, young and old, rich and poor, families as well as confirmed singles—EVERYONE goes to festivals. There, you will find conservative academics and accountants dancing happily and chatting away with extremist revolutionary PETA activists and eccentric UFO enthusiasts. People that may typically disagree on most topics will find some common ground, generally (and literally) speaking, on the well-trodden festival sod. Everyone there has come with a primary, shared purpose: to enjoy music in the open air . . . Secondly, though very well organised, many British festivals are not (or at least never used to be) overly zealous about security. ‘Open air’ means just that; simple stages with limited barriers (be they physical or social). It is not uncommon lose to yourself in the music of a current stage performance, then incidentally bump into the person next to you and find that they are one of the headliners. Of course, in Britain, it is considered poor form to fuss, so one generally smiles apologetically and keeps dancing . . . (Which I imagine, were I a headliner, I would appreciate.) It was during just one of these sorts of occasions (a happenstance/happendance) that my husband Paul and I met Mark E. Smith. We were attending a small music festival just shy of Northern Wales. It was an extraordinary weekend. For us, it was an almost impossibly perfect festival line-up; almost as if we had made a list of our favourite artists/bands and someone had decided to produce it for us. One of the bands that had played was The Fall. Exhausted from having grooved through a couple of brilliant sets, we had collapsed, stretched out on the grass, making the most of a privileged patch of shade (along with a few lucky others) when Mr. Smith walked by. As it turned out, his band was sitting on the other side of the tree and he had noticed that we (Paul and I) had resting between us, a carrier bag with a record we had just purchased, by a band called, Föllakzoid, that Mark had heard play and also liked. He stopped by to chat with us for a few minutes; very casual, very pleasant, lovely smile. We had always hoped to run into him again some time at some other festival (again, not that uncommon in the UK) and were both so very sad to hear of his untimely passing. Here now is a little bit of information gathered from the Internet about Mr. Mark Edward Smith; to be honest (granted, based upon our very limited interaction with him, but still) we hardly recognise the person described in online sources . . . he was very charming, funny and kind . . . All I can think—keep thinking— is ‘there but fortune’ . . . ? Anyway. Variously described as passionate, uncompromising, complicated, difficult and infuriatingly brilliant, Mr. Mark E. Smith appears to have been a person that blew through relationships the way a man with a bad cold goes through a box of tissues. Yet not one intimate relation from his life, has said that they wished they’d never met. On the contrary, every single person that knew him at all, was at a loss for words, had only had good things to say or couldn't help but laugh when they talked about how contentious he could be. I believe this goes beyond the typical tendency to never speak ill of the dead . . . I think that it is something more interesting. I do not know if Smith was ‘complicated’ or not. What I can see, just from what I have read, is that the people that knew Mark E. (and in some cases cared deeply for him), have very complicated emotions to sort through about him, in his absence. Here are few excerpts from the various memorials that are ‘out there’ at the moment: At various points in the band’s four-decade career, the Fall might sound like punk, hard rock, psychedelia, funk, blues-rock, jazz-rock, electropop or sheer noise. “If it’s me and your granny on bongos, it’s the Fall,” Mr. Smith once declared. The BBC disc jockey John Peel, an early and steadfast supporter, said of the Fall that “they are always different, they are always the same.” Through it all, Mr. Smith maintained his role as a brain-twisting wordsmith, a contentious bandleader and a perpetual irritant. In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, he boasted: “People still cross the road from me; I’ve still got that. I can clear a pub when I want to. It’s a talent.” —https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/obituaries/mark-e-smith-of-the-fall-dies.html Smith formed the Fall in 1976 in Prestwich [where Smith grew up and continued to reside throughout his life] and was the only constant member of the band. He was known for his tempestuous relationship with his bandmates, and frequently fired them – there have been 66 different members over the years, with a third of them lasting less than a year. ” —https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/24/mark-e-smith-lead-singer-with-the-fall-dies-aged-60 In the 2000s, Smith collaborated with artists including Gorillaz, appearing on 2010’s ‘Plastic Beach’. The Fall have had a significant and wide-reaching influence on modern music, with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy citing Smith as a major influence and The Last Shadow Puppets regularly covering The Fall’s ‘Totally Wired’. — http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/mark-e-smith-obituary-the-fall-2227837#TRq3v6vxSFbOVUhr.99 Mr. Smith was 60 years of age at the time of his death and as yet there’s not been a conclusive statement released about cause of death (although generally poor health and respiratory complaints have been mentioned). Famed and much beloved broadcasting iconoclast John Peel, always seemed to have time for ’The Fall’ on his show, once referring to them as one of the bands ’worth bothering about’. Bloke’s Teatime Radio, Mr. Peel and 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong. Many thanks for the music and Requiesce in Pace, Mr. Mark E. Smith.

Post Script:

Paul here. Mark E. Smith was inspired to form a band along with other 40 members of the audience, when he saw The Sex Pistols in June of 1976 at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall. Out of that gig came The Fall, The Smiths, Joy Division and of course The Buzzcocks who organised the gig. Check out the film 24 Hour Party People if you want a laugh and to know a little more. As Kirstin wrote, the frequent turnover of band members in The Fall is notorious. If you want to read more about the many ex-members of The Fall, there is a 2008 book on the subject, called 'The Fallen: Searching for the Ex-members of The Fall' by Dave Simpson. Here is a link to the book review posted in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/sep/06/biography2.

Next Week's Featured Artist: Linda Perhacs