a bit more on the fall

Actually, there's quite a lot of interesting Fall stuff up on their official website, while I'm on the subject - some interviews with Mark E Smith, new and old, which I've not seen before, and more info on Fall-related stuff. I'm up in Edinburgh for a few days shortly, although sadly just after the festival ends, but note that Stewart Lee is there a few days earlier, taking part in the "guest micro-celeb DJ" programme. He's at the Cafe Royal from 11.30pm - 3am on Thursday 25th August and intends to play, apparently, three and a half hours of "The Fall and only The Fall", which is just as it should be.

The site also reproduces a short interview with MES from The Metro. He's always good value; excerpts follow. The whole thing is here (but scroll down a bit).

The Fall operate regardless of trends. Do you listen to what's happening in new music today?

The group members are all a good ten years younger than me and they keep me informed on Green Day and all that. That Party Bloc, or Bloc Party - whatever they're called - they're not bad. I'm also using that thing on TV where you can get subtitles so you can read the band's lyrics. That's always a good laugh. Some of the lyrics they come out with are quite absurd. You get this really heavy guitar music, the band going DA-DA-DA, really loud and the words are just like, 'You passed me in the street. You said hello. I said no. We went up the hill. Then we went down the hill.' You would think from the music that they're saying something really profound.

Do The Fall have anything left to achieve?

We haven't done a really personal record yet and I think that'll happen in the next year or two. There's still a lot to do. All the time, I think I'm only halfway there.

When you appeared on Later With Jools Holland recently, is it true you had an agreement that Jools wasn't allowed to do any 'boogie-woogie piano' on any of your songs?

Yes, we told the producers that. They were cool with it. I wouldn't have anybody messing about with The Fall's stuff, not just Jools.

There's a brief interview with Kitchen Sink Magazine there, too, which isn't very interesting 'til you note that they provide the full transcript as well as the polished version. It's much more entertaining.