Thursday 1 January 2015

The Fall. Done.

And I'm done. I certainly never want to hear Mr Pharmacist again. iTunes says that I have 1136 songs by The Fall, for a total of 3.4 days solid listening. I'm not quite sure I covered every single track, I think some may have snuck through the cracks somewhere. At times this felt like an ordeal, especially in the periods where I would end up with a 5/6 hour playlist that would spill out over numerous commutes. I missed podcasts - though still found time to catch up with them later in the year.

But, like life, The Fall just keep going. Mark sacks the band, puts his head down and magically they're back in the zone. He's probably recruited them from pubs in Salford. I read the Steve Hanley book, the most surprising thing was how Mark would call everyone cock. It's a Manchester thing.

The early years, the time I spent with The Fall growing up, was still as fresh and vibrant and urgent as I remember. Room To Live is still the one that gets me - though by the sound of Hanley, all the band hated the record. To me it's the Fall in one easy package - rockabilly, post punk and avant all in one record.

The later years were wobbly but there were some peaks amidst surprisingly few troughs. Elena brought something genuine to the group and the two records before the last two were as good as any of the good early records. And the two spoken word records were a true revelation - just Mark doing what he does. Total commitment.

And that was what I did in 2014. I spent a lot of time on trains, subways and busses listening to the Fall. In 2015 I will probably be doing the same but more on an Iron Maiden type of tip...

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