[sonicl]

Originals: The Fall
The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith

BBC2, Fri 22 Sep, 11:35 pm - 12:35 am 60mins

BBC FOUR on BBC TWO. One of England's truly unique and under-rated bands - The Fall feature in this special documentary. One of the most enigmatic, idiosyncratic and chaotic garage bands of the last 30 years, The Fall are lead by the belligerent and poetic Mark E Smith and grew out of the fringe of the Manchester punk scene and to date have released in excess of three dozen albums, toured relentlessly, inspired two successful stage plays, recorded 24 Peel Sessions, performed with contemporary ballet dancer Michael Clarke along with various spoken word events. All this has happened under the guidance of Smith with various line-ups currently totalling over 40 different members. They have never conformed to fashion or musical trends and when asked why they were his favourite band, John Peel replied 'They are always different, they are always the same'. This is the first time that Mark E Smith has agreed to the story being told on television and he along with many of the major players take us through this unique English rock'n'roll story.

Their rollercoaster story is told alongside footage of their most recent and sadly now last Peel Session recorded in August at the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios, there is also film of John playing out the session at Peel Acres a week later. Contributors include past and present band members including Marc Riley, Una Baines, Steve Hanley, Ben Pritchard and Eleni Smith plus thoughts from key fans/critics including Paul Morley, Tony Wilson, Stewart Lee, promoter Alan Wise, original Buzzcocks manager, Richard Boon and Franz Ferdinand. This programme contains strong language.

[Glice]

Ah. This was very good the first two times it was on, I don't doubt it'll be great again. I shall have the tape player prepared.

[PAULYBEE2656]

great documentary. well worth viewing. gotta tape this again as i taped an episode of the bill on the original one for my wife! i was gutted in my very rare non tape labelling incident! thanks for the reminder

[Tokolosh]

Thanks sonicl. I'll be watching that for sure!

[Hip Priest]

It's cetainly worth a watch, but it's also fair to say that it suffers from the same problem as most Fall journo stuff, ie it concentrates for too long on the early years and whizzes past everything else with some speed.

[racehorse]

well that's gonna be recorded for sure.
cheers for the heads up

[johnnywinternoshow]

there's a torrent of this on dimeadozen.com if you happen to miss it or live in the states

[Toilet & Bowels]

cheers, i missed it the first couple of times

[Cantankerous]

i only get regular BBC.

[Tokolosh]

Watched it last night. Very interesting. Some great footage. Mark E Smith is quite a difficult person, but a genius. 49 different band members through the years.

[Hip Priest]

More now. THe line-up in that programme disintegrated during this year's American tour, leaving only Mark and Eleni. Other members were hastily recruited , and the current line-up according to the official site is:

Mark E Smith (vocals)
Elena Poulou (keys/vocals)
Tim Presley (guitar)
Rob Barbato (bass)
Orpheo McCord (drums)
The Eagle of Ramsbottom (bass)
Pete Greenway (guitar)

[Tokolosh]

Is he still taking speed? He looks quite unhealthy, and still drinks like a fish.

[Hip Priest]

He certainly enjoys the occaisional pint, but I don't know about other stuff. He certainly got himself back on track a little since the late 1990's.

[ni'k]

The bbc having been churning out quite a lot of these band docs recently. i hate them, they try so hard to make everything into a story, the rise, the fall and then look they are back on their feet again format. also all those stupid zooming in on black and white photos and missing the point and context of everything...

It's cool as fuck to see a band so great get attention like that, but can you really see anybody checking them out for the first time after watching it? There was so many quick clips of songs there wasn't much to stick in someones memory. But still, while it falls victim to as someone mentioned the usual fall journo crap, it was still interesting and enjoyable enough to see the footage and the interview with mark. Made me stick on "the classical" afterwards, couldn't fit the urge to thrash about to that song.

[Toilet & Bowels]

i missed it, again

[porkmarras]

Not really.We're missing the crucial point there:Mark E Smith.

[porkmarras]

Mark E Smith billy no mates?You should really learn what the italian football ultras think of him(a faction of them anyway).He's a kind of hero.

[porkmarras]

Now Diesel,i don't take criticism of Mr Smith lightly you know?

[Glice]

Diesel, honestly: The man is the only living genius. There are no more musical genius'. He is the last one alive. Perhaps there are others who will come, but for now, there is no-one else. And yes, he's probably a dick. Quite likely, in fact. But he's allowed. Because he's MES.

[Glice]

I can sing better than a lot of people, no fucker's making a documentary about my ass.