The Fall in Australia 2011 – I Ain’t No Squealer But I Sing Like a Canary!

I wanted to write a story about the Fall’s recent dates in Australia for several reasons. Mostly because the Scrivener General is a Fall freak and was unable to get to see them. Other than that, I thought I could share my experiences with you from within this rarefied, delicate room that the General has carved out of the Magic Box (Internet) better than anywhere else has. I was asked by a music site to write a story. That would have been nice but that room allows a cavalcade of camp followers to trail their private parts – having dipped them in the Indian inkwell – across the bottom of the page in a contest of wit known as the ‘comments’ section. As you know, a person’s brains only reside in the nether regions in quite delirious, unconscious moments. When we are not knowing what we are thinking. Thank fuck. The General runs a tight ship here and the soldiers line up in an orderly fashion and let fly. No return fire is allowed. At ease.I was also asked by an actual physical newsprint from another state to write about the Fall from close proximity but I demurred from that as well. I ain’t no squealer! So, here I am. Unloading. Just for a stir. Under the illusion that something of the following may resonate, within this delicate chamber the General has allowed me to speak into.
The Fall are a band from out of time. That’s a tongue right there.
Forty or more albums. Constant lead face and voice and brain is Mark E Smith. From a certain part of Manchester, the name of which escapes me but is important to him and, thus, to us who are listening. Not the posh part, if there is one. Been going since 1976 or even further back. Their first single, ‘Repetition’, name checks Chairman Mao and Jimmy Carter. I mean, they were still in actual power.
Comedians love the Fall. Frank Skinner, Stewart Lee, Tony Martin. Something unknowable about them. Suspension. Great lines popping out here and there. Unpredictable. They are puzzling, not just a puzzle. Everything else seems to settle after a while. Sometimes it’s time itself that plays tricks. The Beatles were so passé, so out of date, when I was a kid. So badly, laughably antiquated. Then, after a while, they seemed to loom larger and fresher – seemingly more recent, focused and accessible. Those bends in time took decades. Bend Sinister is a Fall album title. The Fall have been through this kind of thing too. Sometimes in and out of focus and vogue. Out in the wilderness, looking sad and irrelevant, then suddenly and rudely back in the centre of all the hot talk. Like now!...

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Dave Graney @'The Scrivener's Fancy'