The Fall

Prestwich

The Fall formed in 1976 in Prestwich, Greater Manchester. Mark E. Smith, Martin Bramah, Una Baines and Tony Friel met to read their writings to each other. After seeing the Sex Pistols play their second gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in July 1976, they decided to start a group. Smith wanted to call it the Outsiders, but Friel suggested the Fall, after a 1956 novel by Albert Camus. Smith sang, Bramah played guitar and Friel bass. Baines hit biscuit tins instead of drums, then, unable to afford a kit, moved to keyboards.

Their song "Repetition", with the line "We dig repetition in the music / And we're never going to lose it", served as a manifesto. They played their first concert on 23 May 1977, recorded the Bingo-Master's Break-Out! EP that November, and saw it released on Step Forward in August 1978.

Step Forward and Rough Trade

In a single day in December 1978 they recorded Live at the Witch Trials, released in March 1979. By then the line-up was breaking up. Bramah left in April 1979, and Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley, who had been in the support act Staff 9, joined, with Marc Riley switching to guitar. Hanley's melodic bass lines became a vital part of the sound for almost two decades. Dragnet followed in October 1979.

In 1980 the Fall signed to Rough Trade. They released the singles "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" and Totally Wired, then Grotesque (After the Gramme) in November 1980, which went to number one on the UK Independent Chart. John Peel, who called them his personal favorite, had them in for 24 sessions in all, more than any other act. He said of them: "They are always different; they are always the same."

They are always different; they are always the same.

John Peel

Kamera and Iceland

Karl Burns returned in 1981 as a second drummer alongside Paul Hanley. In September 1981 the group played three concerts in Reykjavik and recorded Hip Priest there, in a studio with lava walls. Hex Enduction Hour came out on the small Kamera label on 8 March 1982 and was the first Fall album to reach the UK chart, peaking at number 71. Marc Riley was sacked at the end of the year.

Brix and the Beggars Banquet years

In 1983 Smith's American girlfriend and later wife, Brix Smith, joined on guitar. Songs she co-wrote often had strong pop hooks and more orthodox verse-chorus structures. The group had modest UK hits with a cover of "There's a Ghost in My House", which reached number 30 in 1987 and was their only top 30 single, and with "Victoria" (number 35 in 1988) and Hit the North (number 57). With producer John Leckie they made This Nation's Saving Grace in 1985, which Brix and Steve Hanley both rate among the band's best. Brix left the band, and the marriage, in 1989.

After Brix

The 1990s brought three albums for Phonogram, then a return to independent labels. With Dave Bush on keyboards, The Infotainment Scan entered the UK chart at number 9 in 1993, their highest-charting album. A row on a US tour in April 1998 led Steve Hanley, who had played bass for nineteen years, and Burns to leave. Smith kept the name going with ever-changing line-ups. They signed to Domino in 2009 and released New Facts Emerge, their 31st and last studio album, in July 2017. Smith's final performance was at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow on 4 November 2017. He died on 24 January 2018, aged 60, and the group ended with him.

Influence

Pavement, Franz Ferdinand, Happy Mondays, Sonic Youth and LCD Soundsystem are among the acts the Fall influenced. Sonic Youth covered three Fall songs and "Victoria" in a 1988 Peel session, later released as an EP, and Pavement recorded "The Classical". The Pixies covered "Big New Prinz" on their 2013 tour.