A Festival for Fall Fanatics
There has never been a group quite like The Fall. The word "group" is used deliberately, as calling them a "band" once drew a sharp rebuke from the late Mark E Smith, who insisted that a band was something you'd find in Blackpool. Smith, the irreplaceable frontman, died in 2018 at age 60, ending the group he led his entire adult life. Yet The Fall's legend only grows, fueled by reissues, spinoff groups, podcasts, and books. The nine-track Post Script, billed as the "official final album" by former manager Ed Blaney, was announced recently for a September release. It was the perfect time for The Fall: Futures and Pasts, a three-day festival held at Manchester's Band on the Wall, celebrating 50 years of the group and drawing fans from as far as Australia and the US.
Fans and Former Members Mingle
On an average day in Manchester, you're rarely more than 12 feet from a former Fall member. At the festival's packed bar, this distance shrank to zero as fans rubbed shoulders with stalwarts from every era, some musicians meeting for the first time. No fewer than 10 former members gathered onstage for a photo. The weekend offered interviews, talks, walking tours, a film, a play, a quiz, and a DJ set from poet laureate Simon Armitage. Live music kicked off with Lost in Music, a bespoke group of Fall royalty fronted by indie singer-songwriter BC Camplight. A self-described "six foot two, 110kg American," Camplight brought his own style to a set of songs The Fall had covered—a fitting tribute, given that many of The Fall's best songs were covers.
Tribute Bands and Uncanny Accuracy
Smith once told me he was proud that no credible Fall tribute band existed. That changed with The Look Back Bores, who prefer to be called "Fall fans playing Fall songs for Fall fans." Concentrating on the classic pre-millennium period, they closed Friday night with an uncanny recreation of the Fall sound. Guest appearances from Simon "Funky Si" Wolstencroft (drums 1986-97) blurred the lines further. "Even the wrong notes are note perfect," said Paul Hanley (drums 1980-85), one of the festival's organizers. The vocals came from a two-singer lineup: a khaki-clad revolutionary and a young lad in box-fresh Adidas—Mark Edward Smith never wore training shoes.
Global Fans Share Their Stories
British Fall fans often discovered the group through John Peel and the NME, but international fans had unique tales. Marcel from Switzerland ordered a record by a London band called The Wall and received The Fall's first album by mistake, sparking a lifelong obsession. Kevin from San Francisco drove a delivery truck while listening to a 51-track Fall playlist: "It awoke something in my brain." He now runs a record store and gives away Fall albums to curious customers. Ray from LA came with his wife and recalled a show 30 years ago when Brix Smith Start (guitar 1983-89, 1994-96) pulled a candy bar from under her shirt and threw it into the crowd. Ray caught it and still has it. Lars and Jesper from Denmark made a Fall documentary and recalled Mark having kippers in the kitchen. Kitty from Alabama walked into a record store playing Hex Enduction Hour but never saw the group live. Amy from Port Talbot came as a tribute to her late friend, a big Fall fan.
Frank Skinner on His Fall Obsession
Comedian Frank Skinner is one of many comedians obsessed with The Fall. "They added an extra-thick strand to my life," he said after hosting a hilariously shambolic Fall quiz. Skinner once did a gig with The Fall at Glasgow University but missed their set due to a delay—Bad Manners and The Fall had a falling out, and a knife was allegedly pulled. "I never got to see them," he lamented. Later, he discovered them through the compilation 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong. "It changed my life," he said. "I used to go to Fall gigs and laughed more than at most comedy gigs." He found humor in Smith's struggles with mic stands and gaffer tape, his unpleasantness toward the band, and the sense of being part of a magical world. "I cried the night he died," Skinner admitted. "It just means so much."
The Post Script Controversy
The elephant in the festival room was the emergence of a track from the final Post Script album, recorded at an unknown time with an unconfirmed lineup. Released with the approval of the Smith estate (represented by Mark's sisters), the news drew mixed reactions. Former members remained tight-lipped. A misquote often attributed to Smith—"if it's me and your Granny on bongos, it's the Fall"—might justify Post Script as a Fall album, but the identity of the percussionist remains a mystery.
Other Highlights and Smith's Legacy
The festival also featured a restaging of Smith's play Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I, and comedian Adam Buxton presented a short film with a previously unseen interview of Black Francis singing a snippet of "Totally Wired." Smith would likely have hated it; when I told him in 2015 that Pixies opened gigs with a cover of his song "New Big Prinz," he replied, "I hate the fucking Pixies." Fiercely anti-nostalgia, what would Smith have made of the festival? According to Marc Riley (guitar 1978-83), "Mark was a contrarian, so if he did like it he would say he didn't, and if he didn't like it he would say he did."
Karaoke: Eat Y'Self Fitter
The weekend concluded with the Fallen Women karaoke show, where audience volunteers sang Fall songs with a live all-female backing band. One fool—our writer—signed up for "Eat Y'Self Fitter," spending the entire weekend with a knot in his stomach. When his name was called, he took the stage, dipped into a plastic bag of lyrics, and ambled around barking into the mic while dying inside. He pretended to fiddle with an amp and received a deserved kick from bassist Heidi Heelz. Six minutes felt like a week, but eventually it was over. Mark E Smith remains irreplaceable.
