[NetBehaviour] Mark E Smith, founder and lead singer with the Fall, dies aged 60

[Edward Picot]

I was genuinely sorry to hear this. He was a notoriously difficult 
bloke, and he had some unpleasantly non-PC views about things like the 
Falklands War and refugees. I suspect that if you sat in a pub with him 
for more than about 45 minutes you'd probably start to feel profoundly 
uncomfortable. But you've got to take your hat off to anyone who can go 
his own way and do his own thing as resolutely and completely as Mark 
Smith, and for such a long period of time. He was a genuine poet and a 
genuinely original artist. He never wrote about things anyone else would 
dream of writing about, and he never sounded remotely like anyone else. 
Nobody made music like The Fall: spiky, quirky and in-your-face. I saw 
them live in Norwich once, when they had their two-drummer lineup, and I 
remember them doing a crunchingly powerful version of 'Eat Y'self 
Fitter'. My favourite track of theirs is probably 'The Container Drivers'.

I love that line at the end of the Guardian obituary - 'His death was 
previously wrongly announced by the BBC in March last year, on his 60th 
birthday.'

Edward

On 25/01/18 10:45, marc.garrett via NetBehaviour wrote:
> Mark E Smith, founder and lead singer with the Fall, dies aged 60
>
> Sad to hear abotu the death of Mark E Smith. I will be playing The 
> Fall all day today. Will be missed. One of my many working class heroes...
>
> "Smith formed the Fall in 1976 in Prestwich 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. Smith famously once said: “If it’s me and yer granny on 
> bongos, it’s The Fall.”
>
> "He was a famously prolific musician. Last year the Fall released 
> their 32nd studio album, New Facts Emerge, and had been fitfully 
> touring in recent months when Smith’s health would allow. The band 
> played London’s 100 Club in July, while Smith performed from a 
> wheelchair in Wakefield in October."
>
> https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/24/mark-e-smith-lead-singer-with-the-fall-dies-aged-60
>
>
>
> Marc Garrett
>
> Co-Founder, Co-Director and main editor of Furtherfield.
> Art, technology and social change, since 1996
> http://www.furtherfield.org
>
> Furtherfield Gallery & Commons in the park
> Finsbury Park, London N4 2NQ
> http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery
> <http://www.furtherfield.org/gallery>
> Currently writing a PhD at Birkbeck University, London
> https://birkbeck.academia.edu/MarcGarrett
> Just published: Artists Re:thinking the Blockchain
> Eds, Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, Nathan Jones, & Sam Skinner
> Liverpool Press - http://bit.ly/2x8XlMK
>
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>
>
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