Friday Photo #24

A couple of phone shots from my Edinburgh wanderings (click on either to enlarge)

Last week's Edinburgh blogging meet-up was an overwhelming experience for someone whose life these days usually revolves around either working, walking or sitting in a room listening to records. The whole trip has already attained a mystical status in my mind and I've thought of little else since arriving home. Half a dozen bloggers of this parish and a couple of their respective partners, the very finest of company one and all, some coming face to face in the real world for the very first time, others renewing old friendships. It really was was an absolute joy from start to finish. Then there's Edinburgh itself - what a magical place. I'd only visited the city once before, very briefly, about 15 years ago and had always wanted to return, though even with this longer stay I feel I've barely scratched the surface.

The Fall - Edinburgh Man

No-one Gets a Retraction

2018 has been a pitiful year for me in terms of live gigs - I barely scraped into double figures. A pathetic effort, easily my worst annual total since the mid-1970s. Fortunately I already have tickets for five 2019 concerts in my back pocket (two of which I'm ridiculously excited about) - a good start, let's hope it will continue.

My last gig of 2018 was the final stop on Brix Smith and the Extricated's 'Breaking State' tour. With two strong albums of original material under their collective belts, these days the band concentrate on their own songs, featuring just four from The Fall's back catalogue in their set - 'Totally Wired', Dead Beat Descendant', 'Feeling Numb' and a superb 'Glam Racket'. If I had one quibble, it would've been nice to have heard Brix's voice a smidge higher in the mix, but that really is me being very picky. They were absolutely terrific - seeing Brix and the Hanley brothers in full flight once again was a joy to behold.

Brix and the Extricated - Dog Face (Lost in Gdansk)

Check the Guy's Track Record

Marc Riley paid warm tribute to former gaffer Mark E.Smith on Wednesday evening, when announcing Smith's death on 6Music. Their relationship wasn't always a smooth one (can anyone claim to have had a truly smooth relationship with MES?), but Riley acknowledged that Smith '...taught me a lot about life and he taught me a lot about music. The Fall were my favourite band when I joined and they were still my favourite band when I got kicked out.'

MES could be cantankerous, funny, ornery, mischievous, confrontational, grumpy, chivalrous, obnoxious, uncompromising, charming, single-minded, exasperating.....plus a thousand other things that made him the complex human being he undoubtedly was, but the unique noises he made with The Fall for over 40 years were wonderful, frightening and often utterly gobsmacking, right until the very end. We'll not see his like again.

The Fall - Auto Chip 2014-2016 

The Fall - Couples vs Jobless Mid 30s

Viv, Rat and Brix

On Saturday, the Norwich Sound & Vision festival put on a series of interviews with three punk and post-punk legends. First up, Viv Albertine was quizzed by musician and journalist John Robb, who teased a fascinating series of anecdotes and memories from her. She talked frankly about The Slits, her 'lost' years, the cancer that so debilitated her and her artistic rebirth via the 'Vermilion Border' LP and essential memoir, 'Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys'.

Next, Rat Scabies was interrogated by close friend Christopher Dawes. Rat discussed his Damned (and pre-Damned) career, spoke very fondly of Marc Bolan ('...he would've produced the next Damned album...') and chillingly about how close he came to drumming for his friends the Eagles of Death Metal at Le Bataclan last November, hinting at the great trauma the band continues to struggle with following the tragic events at the concert. Dawes and Scabies also talked at some length about their other shared passion, as detailed in their co-authored book 'Rat Scabies and The Holy Grail'. 

Brix & the Extricated

Finally, Brix Smith took to the stage for a Q & A hosted by Adam Buxton. Brix has had quite a life - one minute living in a Prestwich mid-terrace with Mark E Smith in the creative eye of the chaotic storm of The Fall, the next hobnobbing with royalty and football millionaires on the arm of Nigel Kennedy. More recently she's suffered a breakdown, which happily seems to be behind her now. As the interview drew to a close, Buxton invited questions from the audience. I stuck my hand up and asked Brix to talk a little about The Adult Net, her on/off side project during the Fall period. The Adult Net lasted for the best part of five years, though produced relatively little music, one LP and a few singles, but I loved them then and still do. Brix appeared chuffed at my question and gave a proud rundown of the various line-ups, which at different times included members of The Fall, The Smiths and Blondie. She also took this opportunity to remind everyone that releases are imminent from her new band, Brix & The Extricated. The group (featuring fellow ex-Fall stalwarts Steve and Paul Hanley) recently played a blinding session for Marc Riley - I'm looking forward to the new material already. Meanwhile, here are a couple of Adult Net corkers.

Addendum.... I should also mention that Brix's recently published memoir, 'The Rise, The Fall, And The Rise', was warmly recommended by Buxton as a 'rollocking page-turner'. It's on my list.

The Adult Net - Take Me

The Adult Net - Spin This Web

British People in Hot Weather

We're back home in Norfolk after a week down in olde London town. What was that bloody weather all about? Temperatures in the mid 30's with ridiculously high humidity does not make The Swede a happy boy. I had a big wobble on Monday and genuinely thought I was going to pass out while I was on the Tube, even though I'd kept my water intake high. To top it all, the car's electric windows jammed shut on Tuesday and have refused to open since - there's no aircon, it's been utterly stifling. As I type this though, it's 19° and raining steadily - absolute bliss. Time to start catching up with what's been going on while I've been away.

The Fall - British People in Hot Weather

Always Different, Always the Same

Three unrelated artists came to mind while I was watching The Fall in concert a couple of nights ago. 1) James Brown. OK, so this comparison isn't between Mr Brown and Mark E Smith themselves, but more so between The JB's and the sterling work of Elena Poulou, Dave Spurr, Pete Greenway, Keiron Melling and Daren Garratt. Both combos so tight that you couldn't get a rizla between them and in each case leaving the front man free to improvise, safe in the knowledge that they'll be right where he left them, when he chooses to reconnect with the groove. 2) Miles Davis. In later years Miles, like Mark E Smith, enjoyed amending the sound and positions of the band while on stage, physically pushing them forward or pulling them back as they played. During 'First One Today' the other evening, Smith pushed Peter Greenaway to the very lip of the stage, turned Dave Spurr's bass amp up so that his playing briefly became a deafening funky rumble and then unaccountably walked off with one of Melling's cymbals. And Number 3? Chuck Berry. Legendary for not overstaying his welcome in the live arena, invariably clocking off within the hour. Similarly, The Fall gave us 59 thrilling minutes and were gone.

The current Fall line-up is the longest serving in the group's 39 year history and is about to release a new LP, 'Sub-Lingual Tablet'. Listen out for the epic centrepiece ' Auto Chip 2014-2016' when the record hits the streets in May. Meanwhile, this is 'Dedication', filmed in concert late last year.

55 From 55 - 2010

55 songs in 55 days - one for every year of my life...so far. 

In 2010 I hit 50. It was a year that began with an unexpected work related triumph and ended in deep personal sadness. In the Spring, at the company's annual conference, I was named store manager of the year, in front of 3000 of my peers. The award was a complete shock and came with a significant financial reward. On the day, though grateful, my mind was elsewhere. After Christmas 2009, Mum's condition had deteriorated sharply. Up to then she'd still been quite active, but now she couldn't walk more than a few steps and was unable to leave the house unaided. Her medication was no longer keeping her illness under control.

Mum encouraging me to take my first steps in 1961.

I applied for a period of unpaid leave from work, which was eventually granted, and spent the next 6 months staying with Mum for 4 or 5 days a week, while professional care was given by daily visits from District Nurses. I bought a collapsible wheelchair that I could throw in the back of the car and, when she felt up to it, took her out for country drives, trips to the coast and pub lunches. Throughout this period her health waxed and waned and she spent a number of short spells in hospital, 'to recharge the batteries'. It was a privilege and joy to be able to share so much time with Mum during those months and when she passed away in December, the grief was, and is, exceptionally crushing. 

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My most prominent musical memory of 2010 is from Friday June 25th, when Mark E.Smith strolled onstage at Glastonbury, wearing one glove, to join Damon Albarn, half The Clash and the rest of The Gorillaz for a storming, glamtastic, 'Glitter Freeze' from the 'Plastic Beach' LP. It's just perfect, from Mick Jones' welcoming, '..alright Mark?', onwards. The only thing missing from the performance is MES's classic spoken intro to the studio version of the song - 'Where's North from 'ere?'.

Saturday Scratch #41 - The Mark E. Smith Connection

Did someone put together a compilation of tunes from the Amalgamated label for Mark E Smith in the early 1990s? If so it would help to explain The Fall's brief foray into the fine art of the reggae cover version. Best known is 'Why Are People Grudgeful' issued as a single in 1993 and based on a fantastic 1968 Joe Gibbs 7", released on Amalgamated, which was itself a reply in song to Lee Perry's scathing, 'People Funny Boy'.

Less familiar is 'Kimble', originally issued on Amalgamated by Perry (under the pseudonym, The Creators) as the b-side to Stranger Cole & Gladdy's, 'Seeing is Knowing', also in 1968. The Fall recorded their version of this obscurity in 1992 for a John Peel session - and it's a corker.

Telephone Thing

Like most things that come into my possession, I'll continue to use my mobile phone until it, or I, conk out. I'm the same with cars, CD players, computers and clothes. I use them until they are unusable and only then do I go out and look for an upgrade or replacement. I've had the same simple pay-as-you-go phone since the previous one died in 2007.

Although it goes everywhere with me, I use it chiefly as a watch. I put £10 credit onto it in March, the only time I've topped up since October last year, and my balance is currently £6.14, so that gives you some idea of how often I reach for it to make a call or send a text. So when the phone slipped from my pocket and down inside the sofa while I was enjoying a coffee this morning, I was caught off-guard by my initial reaction to its inaccessibility - something approaching mild panic. After virtually disassembling the sofa to retrieve the blighter, I'm forced to acknowledge that this little-used lump of technology in my pocket is my own version of a mid-life security blanket.