1 July	The Ritz, Manchester, part of the Manchester International Festival. Tickets on sale. Support: readings from the Perverted by Language short story collection.
6 July	Von Südenfed at Fabric, 77a Charterhouse Street, London, EC1. Ticketweb.
13 July	Von Südenfed at the Melt Festival, Ferropolis, Gräfenhainichen, Germany CANCELLED
14 July	Ashton Court Festival, Ashton Court Estate, Bristol. Tickets.
17 July	Carling Academy, Islington, London. Tickets (£15 or £50 for all four nights) available from ticketweb and wegottickets.
18 July	Carling Academy, Islington, London
19 July	Carling Academy, Islington, London
20 July	Carling Academy, Islington, London SOLD OUT
4-5 Aug	Tales Of The Jackalope Festival, Kimberley Hall, Norwich.
17 Aug	Von Südenfed at the Pukkelpop Festival, Hasselt, Belgium. It appears that it's Mouse on Mars playing, not VS.
2 Sept	Electric Picnic, Crawdaddy Stage, Stradbally, Ireland. SOLD OUT
6 Sept	Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin. Tickets
23 Sept	Von Südenfed at the Arches, Glasgow (not the ABC as previously listed). Tickets.
24 Sept	Von Südenfed at Liquid Room, Edinburgh. Tickets available from Tickets Scotland 0131 220 3234 and Ripping Records 0131 226 7010
25 Sept	Von Südenfed at Irish Centre, Leeds. Ticketweb
18 Oct	Von Südenfed at Heaven, London. Ticketweb, Seetickets
2 Nov	Albert Halls, Bolton. Tickets on sale on Ticketline, Seetickets, and it's now listed on the Albert Halls site, so I guess it's going ahead after all.
8 Dec	Von Südenfed at the Festival des Transmusicales de Rennes, France, according to this page

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added 8 September

Thursday, 6 September     Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin

Reformation / Senior Twilight Stock Replacer / Wings > Wolf Kidult Man / I've Been Duped / Pacifying Joint / My Door Is Never / Fall Sound / Strange Town / Theme from Sparta FC / Alton Towers / Mr. Pharmacist / What About Us // Blindness / White Lightning

Reviews on the message board.

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added 5 September

There are a couple of reviews on the message board of The Fall Box Set 1976-2007, which is released next Monday, 10 September.

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added 3 September

Sunday, 2 September     Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Ireland

Wings (partial) > Wolf Kidult Man / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / Theme from Sparta FC / What About Us / Strange Town / My Door Is Never / Over! Over! / Mr. Pharmacist / Blindness

Setlist TBC. Reviews on the message board.

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added 31 August

After a hard-fought battle that went into overtime, Leave the Capitol vanquished Garden in the forum's Fall Cup 2007. The final result: 97-96. Links to all the draws, results and discussion here. Congratulations to the winner.

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added 30 August

Elena has asked me to warn Fall fans that there's a predatory MES impersonator on Myspace. I assume she means this guy: http://www.myspace.com/smith_e_mark. It's blatant to me that that page has nothing at all to do with the real Mark, but in case you were fooled... The Myspace MES is a very popular guy, though. I wish I had 707 friends.

Are we the Official Fall Website again?

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added 28 August

Von Südenfed are releasing The Rhinohead as a single on 24 September, backed with a new song -- Slow Down Ronnie -- and a 7-minute remix of the title track.

 

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added 28 August

There's a good article about Wyndham Lewis on the Popmatters site, including a quote from MES.

These days, modern English curmudgeonly wordsmith Mark E.Smith calls him “a funny old stick...the most underrated writer this century...hard to read...a man years ahead of his time.”

 

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added 28 August

Mark's reading of the football results in November 2005 made BBC3's TV's Most Annoying Pop Moments programme. He came in at #31.

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added 28 August

Big New Prinz will be on Andrew Weatherhall's Sci Fi Lo Fi Volume 1 mix CD. It's out on Soma on 8 October. Full tracklisting and discussion on progressive-sounds.

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added 22 August

Mick Middles has a second Fall book out soon, entitled The Fall: The Complete Guide to Their Music. It's out on 14 September according to Amazon.

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added 22 August

Thanks to Tom for spotting this post about London's strip bar history on the Undressed to Kill forum. The Fall connection's about half way down.

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added 21 August; updated 22 August

Sanctuary will release a CD + DVD set of the Fall's gig at the Hammersmith Palais last April Fool's Day. The tracklist for both discs is

Senior Twilight Stock Replacer / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta F.C. / Hungry Freaks, Daddy / Wrong Place, Right Time / My Door Is Never / The Wright Stuff / White Lightning / Blindness / Reformation!

Tentative release date is 29 October.

Also, Sanctuary's 5-disc box set has been pushed back two weeks to 10 September. The tracklisting is in last month's Fall news.

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added 12 August

Volkmar has kindly translated the Von Südenfed review posted on the taz.de site.

THE GRUMBLER AND THE MICE

Mark E. Smith and Mouse on Mars call themselves Von Südenfed. And by the way they cleared up the contradiction of Rock and Electro.
By Jörg Sundermeier (translation: Volkmar Helgenberger)

The band name alone! Von Südenfed! No Brit can pronounce it, even the Russians will have their problems, presumably the Chinese, too. Funnily, Germans have their problems, too. Yet it claims to be a German name. And presumably everyone will recognize it as a German name. Because of that strange umlaut. The album title alone: "Tromatic Reflexxions"! The title of its first track alone: "Fledermaus Can't Get Enough"! How really daft is that? What does a band want to achieve with titles like these? One assumes: nothing concrete. Anyway, these weird neologisms do impress. This alone seems to be the intention of this band.

The video of the first single alone! Three beautiful drag queens, or drag queen actors, with a lot of make up and beards, lip-synch and dance to the song "Fledermaus Can't Get Enough", which is a stomper. Although they teasingly flutter their eyelashes and bare their teeth, they have one problem: the singer -- whose words they should be singing -- babbles, rants, barks, and coughs his words, and much of it is simply incomprehensible. Does he sing 'I can't get enough cause I can't get it' or does he sing 'I can't get enough, but I can get it', or does he sing 'I can't get it now, but I can get it'? The lip-synchers decide to do resolute babbling and dramatic grimacing.

At least: This band alone! They're formed by Jan St. Werner and Andi Thoma, who usually perform as the duo 'Mouse on Mars', and Mark E. Smith, who has probably sacked more members of his band The Fall than he's ever had shirts. Von Südenfed are said to be a supergroup.

And it really is a supergroup. For years Mouse on Mars have proved at their gigs that they don't want to be intellectual mice, they want to party. They always prefer the raw beauty of a fat and deep bass rumble to the fragile stiffness of musical patchwork art. During the last years their albums increasingly tend to prove not what hip stuff they've read or how many unique samples there are on their laptops.

Now as Von Südenfed, where they are responsible for the music while Mark E. Smith writes the lyrics, they are forced by their singer, this weird stage hog just turned 50, to even more limitation. The singer, who even gave the members of the Fall line-ups the greatest possible freedom (within a narrow framework) -- provided the result was anything but "pop" -- used to surprise Toma and St. Werner -- in their own words -- by saying 'Well, it's OK now'. Suddenly, during the session. Just so. And then it was over.

Logical consequence: "Tromatic Reflexxions" is anything but overproduced. But they didn't do too little, either. The sound is heavy, the beat fat, and the sounds are pleasant. Von Südenfed made a record that would have been catalogued as 'Big Beat' some years ago. Rough party music with hints to the sound of Fatboy Slim. But then there's a -- hmm -- shouting backed up by good old guitar. Prole art threat -- like one must say thank God, it sounds like another Fall record. Every band for whom Mark E. Smith was a guest singer, he forced them to do at least one song that sounded like The Fall; only Long Fin Killie and Prefab Sprout successfully got him into their own.

Mouse on Mars are obviously devoted to the myth of Mark E. Smith much of the time. This record -- which is not planned to be the only one -- is even built up like a Fall record. There's a field recording track ('Jbak Lois Lane'), which should shock and awe anyone who plays this record as background music. It's something like the 'hidden track', though it's not hidden at the end of the record, but put between the traffic of boomin' and barkin'. There's the nearly concillatory 'Dear Dear Friends' and the sung-to-guitar 'Chicken Yiamas', which ticks off wonderfully at its end. Only the (for Fall records) obligatory cover versions you won't find.

Also, the structure of these songs are like The Fall's song structures. A stiff beat is recorded and mercilessly held for 3 or 4 minutes while keyboards and guitars build upon it. Were this a Fall record, it should have been released in 1997, just after the record 'Levitate', which was mainly influenced by keyboard player Julia Nagle. 'Levitate' was more electronic, it deeply irritated the more 'rockish' - the majority - of fans of The Fall. The Fall, who Godlike John Peel in his unlimited admiration for Mark E. Smith, always called 'the Mighty Fall', always recorded tracks more than songs. Even on their first record 'Live at the Witch Trials' (1979) it was obvious that this band was influenced as much by krautrock and experimental American rock as by punk.

But it stayed rock. Now 'Levitate' was one of the most exciting records in The Fall's history just because Smith gave his keyboarder free reign. Some of those songs even name her as composer, though all others also name him. Had the band returned to rock after this album, and had they not released -- after several lineup changes -- the fairly miserable "Are You Are Missing Winner" in 2001, where the band nearly got lost to pigrock, "Tromatic Reflexxions" could possibly have been a Fall album. But now - again with several changes of the line-up - The Fall recreated themselves as an almost stoic super rock group and 'Von Südenfed' seems to be the electronic job of Mark E. Smith.

But don't think The Fall and Mouse on Mars are contradictions. It's more that two equals found one another. You would do wrong to Toma and St. Werner (Mouse on Mars) to say this record was only created by the honoured master. Smith is called a misanthrope, but maybe he's more a cynic and a secret melancholic. He insists on being working class, hates right-wingers and left-wingers, and most of all stays uncomfortable with his barkin' and slurrin'. Some time ago a review wrote the dumb but true sentence: 'I never understand the lyrics, but I always know what he wants.' Mouse on Mars obviously met old grumpy at eye level, despite their admiration, and were improved by his mood. Both had been stars and Mark E. Smith can't fire them. He really seems to like that. Here we have an album that's unique. If ever there's a reason to party it's this one. That's nice.

[Note by the translator: I translated this mainly to let you understand the content. Several points are not my own opinion. And if you found mistakes, PM me at the Fall-Forum. Sorry, my English is not that good anymore and I had problems to translate idioms. In some - very few - points this is not a translation, but more an interpretation. Volkmar.]

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added 11 August

Very sad news: Tony Wilson died last night following a battle with cancer. Among the hundreds of obituaries and tributes are these on the BBC site: obit / tribute. RIP, Tony.

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added 5 August

Saturday, 4 August     Tales of the Jackalope Festival, Kimberley Hall, Norwich

I Am Me Mark / Pacifying Joint / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta FC / My Door Is Never / Fall Sound / I've Been Duped / What About Us / White Lightning (aborted) / walk off

Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Michael for the setlist and wristband and to Conway for the flyer.

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added 2 August

Another Von Südenfed interview, this one from the June issue of Chord magazine (chordmagazine.com). Thanks to Michael Layne Heath for sending it in.

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added 24 July

A couple of recent European articles:

- Zone 5300 #530 (PDF - 639k) - thanks to the author Neil Young.

- Jungle World #28 (12 July). Volkmar kindly translated this German interview into English:

Them Bastards Hooted

Bands, names, fashions and music styles come and go. But he lives in the same house in Manchester and sings for 30 years in The Fall. Without doubt this 50 year old is an icon of underground music. An interview with Mark E. Smith about fame, poorness and the advantages of being a plumber.

The failed terror-attacks in London and Glasgow recently headed the news. Did the events effect Manchester ?

No, not really. People of asian decent seemed to be a bit more nervous. All others took out their trash as usual and didn't think about it.

Do events like these precipitate in your music or your lyrics, or do you seperate between The Fall and what's happening in the world ?

Sometimes things like these do influence me. But what happened in London didn't surprise me that much.

What motivates you to compose your lyrics ?

Well, I write every day. It's a very common activity for me.

Just to name an example: With the musicians of 'Mouse on Mars' you're in a band called 'Von Südenfed'. At the record, which was released in may, there's a song named 'Speach Contamination / German Fear of Österreich'. What do you think germans fear of Austria ?

Actually this song title has no sense at all. The others said, I couldn't name a song like this. And I told them: You do your things, I do mine. (laughs)

So the title of this song is just an example for your preference for absurd humour ?

Indeed, it's a joke. The other two lads alwas had these serious titles to suggest. So I just had to contradict. But the germans I met so far always found the title very funny. But now I remember why I named this song the way I did! We were on tour in Germany and Austria and played some gigs with Berlin band Doc Schoko. It was strange: Those guys had always been very professional, you could really drink with them. But as we played in Vienna, they got very nervous and unbalanced.

On The Fall's last record there's the song 'Das Boat'. On 'Tromatic Reflexxions' by Von Südenfed' there's not only this mentioned song (Speach Contamination). You also use the line 'It fits well to your new skirt'. Obviously you're doing your jokes with german language.

No, not really. It's more like this: You're on tour in a foreign country. The roadies and the members of the band always try to learn some sentences in the respective language. Of course that's funny. Cause everyone who hears that, thinks they're idiots. How does that sound if I - as an English - say 'ich' or 'mein' (what means 'I' or 'mine'- VB) in german ? I always write down some sentences in the actual language into a notebook for the crew, so they know how to order their breakfast. Sometimes I write some very wrong stuff (laughs). But say: How did you like The Fall's recent record 'Reformation Post TLC' ?

'Immer anders, immer gleich!' John Peel's statement about your band still hits the truth. The Fall never really disappointed me.

You're one of the few!

Do you really think so ?

No, no. But to be honest, I don't really care whether people like my music.

Do you use a computer ?

No, not at all. I was interested in computers in 1984, when they entered everyone's homes. I couldn't really get warm with computers, so I gave mine away.

So you don't download music from the internet. What do you think about people getting your music from the internet ?

I never really worried about this. There are about 100 different records by The Fall, not to count the bootlegs. Why should I prosecute someone, who copies these records ? In the 80s there were several bands who sued people just because they copied records to tapes. But you can't prevent or forbid this. People want the music. And they're too many. You can't catch them all.

Facing The Fall's 100 records: what would you suggest a newbie for a start ?

'Hex Enduction Hour' would be quite good. And of course our latest record 'Reformation Post TLC'. And 'Fall Heads Roll' from 2005.

With your publishings you influenced quite a lot of musicians and writers. At the International Festival in Manchester recently the book ' Perverted by Language: Fiction inspired by The Fall' had been introduced. The authors of all those short-stories referred to you. Are you flattered by this ?

It's a horrible book. It's been presented at the festival. But we declared very distinctly that it's got nothing to do with me.

When will your own book, the autobiography 'Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith', be published ?

It's goin' to be released in September. It is really good.

What can we expect ? A typical Rock'n'Roll biography ?

The original concept was to write the book like the biography of a soccer player. Like: 'I can really remember my first match for Liverpool'. But this idea didn't stand the test. There already are books about The Fall. But they're crap. I wanted to clear up several things with this autobiography.

You have released this incredible amount of records. You are established as one of the most important figures of underground-music. Nevertheless you were flat broke in 2000.

Yeah, that's right. Fortunally Im a bit better now financially. But its a very weird contradiction: You're on the frontpages of many musicmagazines, but don't even own an egg. You can't live on positive record reviews.
But it was also my own fault. I signed wrong contracts. Of course I could bother about all those Fall-bootlegs other people earn their money on. But I prefer to make music and lyrics. In addition I would need about 8 employees to get all the money people owe me. That'd be a real fulltime-job.

Would you as an author and musician still say you're working-class, where you came from ?

It's always up and down with The Fall. In the meantime I enjoy the advantages of age. I live at the same house for 25 years now. The situation in Britain is really strange. The government was successful making people believe they belong to the middle-class.

When you were a teenager you had a job in the docks. Could you have imagined a life staying at this job ?

I think I'd be better off in this job nowadays (laughs). At least regarding the money. My father was a plumber. You earn more money as a plumber than as a psychiatrist.

About 30 years ago, august 1977, when you and The Fall were at the beginning of your career, Elvis Presley died. Was this a remarkable event for you and the band ?

I remember the day when Elvis died. We played at a Punk-Club in Manchester. It must have been our 2nd or 3rd gig at all. We just finished and left the stage when someone announced that Elvis died. All those bastards hooted and applaused. So we went back on stage and said: 'This is for Elvis!' And we played a Rockabilly-number. People spit at us and threw bottles. It's quite funny how times change. Half the people who were at this concert now work for television, are musicjournalists, or play in their own bands. Nowadays they all say Elvis had been a great influence on them. Well, people tend to paraphrase history.

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added 21 July; updated 24 July

Friday, 20 July 2007    Carling Academy, Islington, London

Wings / Pacifying Joint / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta FC / Fall Sound / What About Us / Ponto / My Door Is Never / I've Been Duped // I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Hungry Freaks, Daddy // Systematic Abuse / White Lightning

Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Mark for the setlist, and for this clip of a bit of Wings. And here's a great clip of MES bashing the cymbals during Blindness, thanks to madprof. And a load of photos by Caacrinolaas on Flickr.

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added 20 July; updlated 24 July

Thursday, 19 July 2007    Carling Academy, Islington, London

Wolf Kidult Man / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta FC / Fall Sound / Ponto * / My Door Is Never / Hungry Freaks, Daddy / Systematic Abuse / I've Been Duped / Blindness // White Lightning // Strange Town

* Either Ponto with Like to Blow lyrics added, or simply Like to Blow. Either way, I don't think LTB's been played/sung live since 1978. Reviews on the message board, and lots of photos by Caacrinolaas on Flickr. Thanks to Mark for the setlist.

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added 19 July

Wednesday, 18 July 2007    Carling Academy, Islington, London

The Man Whose Head Expanded (!) / Pacifying Joint / My Door Is Never / Theme from Sparta FC / Fall Sound / I've Been Duped / Hungry Freaks, Daddy / What About Us / Mountain Energei // Senior Twilight Stock Replacer / Strange Town / Reformation

By all accounts a better gig than Tuesday's. TMWHE last played in November 1985? Reviews on the message board, and lots of photos here thanks to Neil McNab. And thanks to Mark for the setlist!

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added 19 July

There's a blog by Michael Hahn on the Guardian site about whether the Fall should pack it in. You can have your say if you like.

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added 18 July; updated 24 July

Tuesday, 17 July 2007    Carling Academy, Islington, London

Senior Twilight Stock Replacer / Over! Over! / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Fall Sound / Ponto / Wrong Place, Right Time / Mountain Energei / My Door Is Never / I've Been Duped / Strange Town / White Lightning // What About Us // Blindness

Same UK lineup. Reviews on the message board and one of the tabloids (Daily Mirror?). Thanks once again to Mark for the setlist and Graeme for the clipping.

There's a blog by Michael Hahn on the Guardian site about whether the Fall should pack it in. Comments welcome.

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added 18 July

Derek Erdman (www.derekerdman.com) is doing another Fall night in Chicago -- Four Hours of The Fall -- on Wednesday, 25 July. It's at Danny's, 1951 W. Dickens, and runs from 10 pm - 2 am.

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added 17 July

The Fall reviewed on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered"

In the better late than never department...

I was shocked to hear Robert Christgau review Reformation Post TLC on NPR a couple of minutes ago. This program is heard by millions of people throughout the USA and beyond; it may well be the biggest exposure the Fall has had on American radio to date. The transcript and audio of the review are on this NPR page.

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added 15 July

14 July 2007    Ashton Court Festival, Bristol

Wolf Kidult Man / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta FC / What About Us / I've Been Duped / walk off / Strange Town / My Door Is Never / Blindness // White Lightning

Fall UK lineup: same as the Ritz. Reviews on the message board.

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added 14 July

There was a 30-year retrospective on the Fall in the November 2006 issue of Norway's Backstage magazine. It's a PDF, in Norwegian.

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added 9 July ; updated 11 July

6 July 2007    Von Südenfed at Fabric, London

Speech Contamination / The Rhinohead / Flooded / Fledermaus Can't Get It / Family Feud / Duckrog (instr.)

Reviews on the message board, and an interview with Jan St. Werner on the Dround in Sound site. And excellent photos of The Great MES on flickr.

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added 1 July; updated 11 July

1 July 2007    Manchester International Festival, The Ritz, Manchester

Wolve Kidult Man / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / Over! Over! / Theme from Sparta FC / Hungry Freaks, Daddy / Wrong Place, Right Time / My Door Is Never / I've Been Duped / Mountain Energei / Strange Town (a Groundhogs cover) // Blindness / Reformation // Senior Twilight Stock Replacer

Lineup UK: MES / Elena / Pete / Dave / Keiron

Reviews on the message board; the Manchester Evening News; the Metro. And a BBC interview with Peter Wild, editor of the support.

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added 30 June

Another one of those Q&A's in today's Independent - this one entitled "My Secret Life: Mark E. Smith, Singer."

 

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