Park Life 71 Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 (edited) My rise and Fall Outspoken singer Mark E Smith has led his group the Fall for 32 years, surviving continual fights with an ever-changing cast of musicians to create dozens of albums in his own maverick style. At 51, he remains one of rock's most individual voices. In this first extract from his autobiography, introduced by Dave Simpson, he looks back at the formative moments of his childhood and the birth of the band Monday April 14, 2008 The Guardian Mark E Smith of The Fall in his younger days. Photograph: Corbis Mark E Smith has been called a drinker, a druggie, a tyrant and a nut. He has spent a night in the cells following one punch-up and been ordered to attend anger management. With his group the Fall, he has become one of the most influential musicians of the past 30 years. However, he is as famous for sacking band members as for his music, having dispensed with more than 50 musicians - including various wives and girlfriends - while making approximately 26 albums (there have been so many that no one seems entirely sure). http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,2273418,00.html "That creative tension produces both music and mayhem. Line-ups have imploded before and even during gigs - after one punch-up in 1998, Smith managed to lose an entire Fall. Some ex-Fallers - notably fashion queen Brix Smith and DJ Marc Riley - have gone on to other things, but most have disappeared faster than Lord Lucan. Meanwhile, Smith just dusts himself down, finds more willing recruits, and ploughs a unique furrow in British music. This month's new album, Imperial Wax Solvent, is among the Fall's very best and suggests that Smith's eye for observation is undimmed. "I'm a 50-year-old man," he declares, "and I like it. What are you gonna do about it?" Dave Simpson Edited April 14, 2008 by Park Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetleftpeg 0 Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 He's one crazy bastid. Never really been into The Fall, although I have always liked a lot of the stuff I've heard from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted April 14, 2008 Author Share Posted April 14, 2008 Mein favouriten magico mixer illusionaire? Yes I'm talking to you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammynb 3655 Posted April 14, 2008 Share Posted April 14, 2008 No fucking way he's only 51! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meenzer 15873 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 He had a tough paper round when he was a kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammynb 3655 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 He had a tough paper round when he was a kid. More likely to many visits to Mr Pharmicist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fish 11109 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Morning sammy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meenzer 15873 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 He had a tough paper round when he was a kid. More likely to many visits to Mr Pharmicist. Did he take the Sunday Times like? Ridiculous number of supplements, I'm not surprised he needed to make several trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 Some funny bits... 'I did heroin once, just to be sociable' Drugs are overrated, he's never met a guitarist he liked, and don't even get him started on students ... In the second extract from his explosive new autobiography, Mark E Smith, the wayward genius behind the Fall, offers his thoughts on everything from John Peel to the joys of Primark Tuesday April 15, 2008 The Guardian Mark E Smith from The Fall on stage in Ireland. Photograph: Kirsty Umback/Corbis The 'mad Mark' image I really do think people see me as a robot, or as insane, or suicidal. I get it in pubs. I'm a living caricature. I've been out with gangsters, coked out of their heads, taking the piss, and I've just put them in their place. And fellows are saying, "Do you know who that is? You're mad, you." I don't feel like I've done anything out of the ordinary. It's a blessing in one respect. I can walk down the street and nobody will bother me. There must be a feeling around me: the simmer ... Article continues The nanny state I really can't stand it when blokes feel the need to comment on your drinking habits. It's rampant, all that malarkey: New Labour trying to keep people alive for ever. I don't see them berating the royals or their backbenchers about having a cig or a large gin in the afternoon. If you put it in the context of the current climate, having a few pints and a Benson after work is hardly the worst crime. It's the same when you go to the doctor. It's common knowledge that some doctors are the worst degenerates in existence. They've been on everything in their time. But as soon as you tell them you've got a bad back or a gammy leg, their first question is, "Well, are you a smoker?" What the fuck does that have to do with it? I'm annoyed by the lack of smoking on TV as well. We should have more ashtrays on morning TV, and presenters wheezing. Love and marriage I've always believed very strongly in marriage. There's nothing worse than living with a woman if you're not married - from my experience, anyway. Because they're never sure what's going on. I'm conservative with a small "c" in these matters. For a start, you don't get fucked over as much - you can say, "That's my wife," and blokes will leave her alone. And she feels all right too. Groupies I don't want to be like the other lot - Mick Jagger and fucking Rod Stewart. My sex life actually went down when I formed the Fall. In fact, there have been occasions when I've been getting on with a woman very well and as soon as she found out I was in the Fall she went right off me. I've tried to cover it up sometimes. There was this one occasion where I was chatting a girl up in a pub near me and doing really well. But she kept saying, "I know you from somewhere." I thought she might have seen me on telly or something. But I didn't want to mention the Fall. I'm asking her if she wants to come back to my place or should we go back to hers, and then she started talking about one of my sisters, saying she used to knock about with her. It turns out I'm related to her. I should have realised. She had the same nose as me, the Smith nose. Bob Geldof Geldof's a brilliant chancer. He's built a whole career on Live Aid and do-gooding; a whole career that wasn't there before. I mean, who listens to the Boomtown Rats and who buys his albums? At least Bono, for all his faults, has a career outside of all that hand-shaking. Pop lyrics today What gets me is the lack of lyrical effort shown by bands nowadays. Me and the wife use that thing on the telly with the subtitles to read some of the lyrics. Jesus Christ! "I'm going up the hill, you're going to leave me, I'm going to leave you, why did you leave me?" It's pathetic: all meek and self-absorbed. I'm just not interested in hearing about some lad's break-up with some college girl. Lads today are a bit too open like this anyway: going to the doctor's every five minutes telling them how depressed and distanced they feel. I think it's because they've got too much time and space to think about themselves. You don't get lads like that in Russia. It's not part of the culture there. It's a uniform, if you ask me: an identity. You can hear the whingeing in their music. It's stale. They should stop hiding away in their bedrooms with their computers and get out a bit. Coping with clutter I have a clear-out every year. I hire a big yellow skip that sits proudly outside next to the cars, and in it I throw everything that's surplus. This can be all sorts - clothes, records, books. I can't work amid clutter. I crave space. I only have three chairs in the house: one for the wife, one for me, and one for a guest. No more. One guest at a time - that's my philosophy. You don't want your house turning into a hippy commune. Oasis I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" Guitarists I've never met a guitarist I liked ... A lot of them want the credit but not the responsibility. They want a say in all the songs, but they don't want to fill in the tax forms. And when the going gets good, they start acting like Keith Richards. Drugs I am one of the 3% who was made to take speed. It helps me sleep. It's not a big problem for me, but I can always tell when people are writing on drugs. On speed it's all nonsense. I did heroin once at a party in Manchester in the mid-80s, just to be sociable. I started writing, thinking, "This is the greatest thing ever written." Then I fell asleep. I woke up some time the day after, thinking I'd written the masterpiece of all masterpieces. I felt like shit, told myself I'm not taking that again, but at least I'd got this work of genius. And then I started reading it, or trying to read it - this four-page epic. It was a mess. I'd fallen asleep on the fifth page. I didn't even know what it was, whether it was a song or a story. The only hangovers I've ever had were off ecstasy. It's not nice. It's like going to hospital and being drugged up when you've had an accident. You're drying your brain up with that stuff - it's like a sponge. You feel sort of high, you go home, but in the morning it's as if you've eaten a lot of dust. I remember in the Hacienda days when you couldn't get any drink or speed - they'd all be dancing around and touching you. What the fuck is all this about? I don't need to feel like this. I can feel like this in hospital. It's like a gross antidepressant mixed with speed. They all want to love everybody. I'm not a big fan of pot, either. It cuts people off from their feelings, like Prozac. You've got to come out some time. At least you know where you are with booze. You drink two bottles of whisky and wake up in the morning, you know you've done something wrong. The computer conspiracy Every house should have a computer for the kids? It's ridiculous, it's like brain damage. When I was younger it was everybody should have a book to read - "Harold should have a book to read every day." And lads would be at home just staring at this thing, this book. And they're not reading it at all - probably having a wank instead. Which saved the government work, and the police ... Being the boss I suppose I have pissed a few people off with my way of doing things. People accuse me of being arrogant or self-centred or just plain ruthless when it comes to working relationships. It's as if I'm the only one who's ever thought of themselves as at the centre of this blue and green ball. It's ridiculous. You're not telling me that nobody else has ever thought the same way? What they can't handle is that I'm willing to admit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Sounds like a bit of a cock to me like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jusoda Kid 1 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You've got to laugh at some of it but he sounds like he's got his head up his own arse to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Prefer Mark E Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" But he probably said nowt and licked his arse at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyluke 2 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meenzer 15873 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? LIVE FOR YOUR TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYS EVEN THOUGH THEY MAKE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOISE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Prefer Mark E Mark. Canny actor imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyluke 2 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? LIVE FOR YOUR TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYS EVEN THOUGH THEY MAKE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOISE Well, quite. Little James isn't it? I really hope Oasis don't release a new album, I'm fed up of buying them out of some twisted obligation, listening to it once, then sticking it in a box that will never see the light of day again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo 175 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Prefer Mark E Mark. Canny actor imo. Worth canonising for Entourage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Prefer Mark E Mark. Canny actor imo. Worth canonising for Entourage. Steady on. It's alreet though, I'll give you that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? Don't think that's what he was saying. It's not about Liam's writing either is it...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Howay man Parky, the thread's moved on to something more interesting now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckyluke 2 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? Don't think that's what he was saying. It's not about Liam's writing either is it...? Sounds like exactly what he's saying to me. Regardless, he clearly hasn't heard Liam sing in about 10 years, his voice is awful now. He can only sing a handful of songs live, that's how they pick their setlists now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted April 15, 2008 Author Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? Don't think that's what he was saying. It's not about Liam's writing either is it...? Sounds like exactly what he's saying to me. Regardless, he clearly hasn't heard Liam sing in about 10 years, his voice is awful now. He can only sing a handful of songs live, that's how they pick their setlists now. Well....He says he's a good 'front man' and you start banging on about Liam's writing. On the cock front it's probably a draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zico martin 95 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 "I'd hate to have a brother like Noel Gallagher. What's he doing? Liam is Oasis - he's handsome, he's a good front man, great voice. What does Noel do except write Beatles-type tunes? I've met him a couple of times and you feel like saying, "Shut up!" You've got to be tapped to think that Noel is the bigger cock of the two. And has he heard the stuff Liam has written? Don't think that's what he was saying. It's not about Liam's writing either is it...? Sounds like exactly what he's saying to me. Regardless, he clearly hasn't heard Liam sing in about 10 years, his voice is awful now. He can only sing a handful of songs live, that's how they pick their setlists now. lol the idea of Mark E Smith criticising Liam's voice for being shit is hilarious! you have heard him sing havent you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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