Every band has had its fair share of members who’ve taken over the running of the band. Smashing Pumpkin’s Billy Corgan has been known to take over recording sessions and re-record parts of songs, Talking Head’s David Byrne has taken over sessions and kept the band from reforming. However, there’s one band that never really exploded in popularity but gained a well sized cult following: The Fall. Formed in 1976, the band’s life spanned 42 years, and consisted of 66 different members all cycled throughout those decades. The band’s lineup would change so much, that fans would recall the frontman’s famous quote “If it’s me and your granny on bongos, it’s The Fall.” Most of the changes are all attributed to that one frontman, who despite an authoritarian rule, kept the band alive all the way until his death in 2018: Mark E. Smith.
Born in 1957 in Broughton, Lancashire, England, Mark E. Smith didn’t begin his interests in music until the age of 14 when his father finally allowed a record player into their household. He left school at 16 and moved in with his at-time girlfriend and first keyboardist of The Fall: Una Baines. He tried college, but dropped out at age 19. During that time, he formed the Fall after attending a Sex Pistols concert that too saw the forming of many other 80’s Alt bands. Smith’s singing style can be described as improvised ramblings and spoken word; all sung with a thick Mancunian accent, almost in a drunken banter. That was what made The Fall. M.E.S. was the centerpiece, and he made sure all of his fellow band members knew.
Mark E. Smith held such a tight hold on the Fall that there were many incidents where members couldn’t take the treatment anymore. The most infamous mass departure was during a concert in New York City in 1998. The concert started off without a hitch but Smith soon began acting unruly. He stopped singing sometimes leaving the stage mid song, complained about his bandmates, began unplugging amps, threw the drummer’s sticks on the ground, and slammed his hands on the Keyboard. All of the absurd behavior prompted drummer at the time Karl Burns, to get up and physically shove Smith! More on-stage arguments ensued with the crowd demanding they play again, and in the end, three of the five active Fall members quit the band that night. Before leaving the stage, bassist Steve Hanley joked with the crowd saying “Who’s gonna play me in the movie? Sting?”.
Other notable departures of The Fall members include bassist Marc Riley, supposedly fired for dancing to Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”. Guitarist Craig Scanlon who was dismissed for a supposed “slovenly appearance”. Additionally, a sound engineer was fired for eating a salad (It was “the last straw”, and guitarist Brix Smith, wife and bandmate of
M.E.S. left both the marriage and band in ’89 to form her own group with other former members. They were Brix and the Extricated. Extricated meaning “to be freed from a difficult situation” Another note, The Fall released their 12th album titled Extricate shortly after her departure. Quite ironic.
The Fall definitely had its fair share of tumultuous line-ups, but people today still honor Mark E. Smith as a troubled but talented musical genius. His unorthodox methods of singing and his poetic lyrical writing highlighted him as one of Britains greatest alt rock stars. One thing is for certain, if you or someone you know was ever alive in Britain sometime between 1976 and 2018, they were very likely a member of The Fall.
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If you would like to learn more about The Fall’s members and their places in the band’s forty-two years, then click here!
