I tried to compliment a bloke on his MES t-shirt yesterday and he just glared at me. Reminded me of Frank Skinner saying he thinks Fall fans often end up affecting a bit of Mark Smith’s misanthropic edge. Is this people’s general experience? Or are we fans actually a cuddly, social bunch for the most part?
Just read on bookface there's a new fall lp planned, stuff Mes recorded obviously before he snuffed, it's Fall stuff not solo
last year some friends and i got together to play some fall tunes for a charity gig (it was not for spastics and somehow we managed to make more than five shillings and seven and a half pence for charity). i saw someone else on here posted their group, so here’s our cover of wings. MES said it couldn’t be done, i’ll let you lot be the judges! i’ve got a tape of the gig, but i need to digitize it, but when i do i’ll share it with you all. myself on vocals, hope my northern accent is alright, i’m from rural canada lol
Tricky one, but has there been discussion over the potential antisemitic imagery of City Hobgoblins and in particular the cover art for the Elastic Man/City H EP? As noted with unsurprising scholarly precision by dannyno on Discogs, the building with the hexagram on the left is actually a Catholic Church/school. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to read it as a Star of David, especially in conjunction with the ‘hobgoblin’ design, since the antisemitic association of goblins and Jewish stereotypes has been discussed more broadly in lots of forums. Moreover, seen next to the smashed windows of 23 Fairfax Road, it’s possible to interpret the imagery through the (broken) lens of the Kristallnacht and antisemitic vandalism in general. I don’t mean to suggest the song might itself be antisemitic — the lyrics and imagery show MES at his neo-gothic, syncretic best and it would be far too simplistic to give so blunt a reading. I just wonder if antisemitism and its historic imagery are one of the many things being called into play…
P.S. I await an inevitable link to an archived post where this has all been said before. I did try to find an existing discussion of this before posting — honest!
Up here in the North there are no wage packet jobs for us
Thank Christ
'Underground Medecin' debuted live in November 1978, and was recorded for Live at the Witch Trials in December. The album was released the following March.
In June 1978, the case of one Dr Clive Arkle was widely reported. A surgeon Lieutenant with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (not a colonel), he had been a competition-winning marksman in the 1950s and 1960s (I confirmed this from contemporary newspaper reports).
The police had refused to renew his firearms license on the grounds that he was always drunk. Arkle appealed the decision but was unsuccessful in having the license restored.
A few months later, it was reported that he had been banned from driving for three years for drink-driving.
I also found out that in 1991 he sadly but perhaps unsurprisingly died of a stroke, aged just 68.
Anyway, among the coverage I found was this article. Note the headline:
Source: Daily Mail, 27 June 1978, p.3.
MES may have changed "doctor" to "colonel" (or perhaps misremembered it, but "colonel" is a better fit), but this is so nearly-but-not-quite the lyric that I would put money (not much, mind you) on it being his source.
Im just wondering if anyone else had this thought- with the first song on the album. When MES is saying ridin’ is it suppose to sound like riddim, of course becuase its a raggae sounding song?
I know that Mark E. Smith was a regular amphetamine user in the 1980s and 1990s, and seems to have been an addict and alcoholic in the period leading up to the 1998 NYC meltdown show. But as far as I know, there was no "detox" period after, he seemed to keep thundering along with the same appetites (for drink at least). Did he quit using speed post-1998? Kurious.
I would love to see the overall packaging, if there's anybody who wouldn't mind sharing some pictures.
I perchance.
