Mark E. Smith

Early life Smith was born to working-class parents Irene (née Brownhill) and Jack Smith, in Broughton, Salford, the eldest of four siblings. He had three sisters: Suzanne (who later painted the front sleeve for the 1980 Fall album Grotesque (After the Gramme)), Caroline, and Barbara. According to Simon Ford, Smith did not become interested in music until he was about 14, when his father "allowed a record player into the house." The first single he bought was "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, and his first gig was the Groundhogs at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. He attended Sedgley Park Primary School, and later Stand Grammar School for Boys before leaving aged 16. That year, he left home and moved in with his girlfriend and future Fall keyboardist, Una Baines, later of the Blue Orchids. His first job was in a meat factory before he became a shipping clerk on Salford docks. The Fall The Fall were named after the 1956 novel by Albert Camus, and initially consisted of Smith and his friends Martin Bramah, Una Baines and Tony Friel. By this time, Smith was unemployed, having dropped out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job as a shipping clerk at Salford docks shortly afterwards to focus on the band. Their early line-up was formed from early members of the punk rock movement. Their music underwent numerous stylistic changes, often concurrently with changes in the group's line-up. The Fall's 40-year career can be broken into five broad periods, based on the band's membership. These include their early, late-1970s line-up, the classic Fall period of Riley/Scanlon/Hanley, the Brix years of 1984-89, their early 1990s revival, and everything after the on-stage fight in New York, after which Hanley quit and Smith was arrested. She joined the group on guitar and vocals for the album Perverted by Language and co-wrote some of the best-regarded Fall tracks from the period, and is widely credited for introducing a more mainstream, pop-oriented element to the group's sound. She remained with the Fall until the couple divorced in 1989. Smith remarried twice after this. His second marriage to Saffron Prior, who had worked for The Fall's fan club, ended in divorce in 1995. and left in April 2016. Smith and Poulou divorced in 2016, and Smith's partner at the time of his death was his manager Pamela Vander. Marc Riley was fired for dancing to Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" during their Australian tour, although the two had had many arguments beforehand. Smith said that he often changed musicians so that they would not become lazy or complacent. After the influential British DJ and Fall supporter John Peel died in 2004, Smith made a notorious appearance on the BBC's Newsnight show in which he seemed stunned and incoherent, which he afterwards put down to a rare occurrence of stage fright. While the Fall never achieved widespread success beyond minor hit singles in the mid-1980s, they have had a loyal cult following throughout their career. Steve Hanley is regarded by many as one of the most talented bassists of his generation, equal to Peter Hook, Andy Rourke or Gary Mounfield. Solo work and collaboration Alongside his work with the Fall, Smith released two spoken-word solo albums, The Post-Nearly Man (1998) and Pander! Panda! Panzer! (2002). Both feature readings of Fall lyrics set to electronic sound collages and samples of Fall songs, as well as contributions from members of The Fall. Smith appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwyn Collins, Elastica, Gorillaz, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut and Ghostigital. His contribution to Inspiral Carpets' 1994 song "I Want You" won UK top 20 recognition, topped John Peel's influential Festive Fifty and resulted in Smith's first appearance on the UK TV show Top of the Pops. He worked with Mouse on Mars on the project Von Südenfed, whose album, Tromatic Reflexxions, was released in May 2007. In 1986, he wrote the play Hey, Luciani, based on the short reign of Pope John Paul I. Smith made a cameo appearance in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People (2002), while his younger self was portrayed by Sam Riley in a section that did not make the final cut of the film, but appears as a deleted scene on the DVD. Smith made an appearance in the BBC Three sitcom Ideal in May 2007, playing a foulmouthed, chain-smoking Jesus. A fuzzy, muted version of Fall song "Hip Priest" (1982) appeared in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs. Death Smith died on 24 January 2018 after a long illness with lung and kidney cancer, aged 60. His health had been particularly bad during 2017, which led to performances in a wheelchair. A heavy smoker, Smith had long suffered from throat and respiratory problems. His work ethic and output never declined, and throughout his illness he continued to release a new album close to once a year. Tributes to Smith came from Brix Smith, Tim Burgess, Liam Gallagher, Gene Ween, Andy Bell, Mat Osman, Billy Bragg, Win Butler, Cat Power, Edgar Wright, the Pixies, Garbage, Stuart Murdoch, Terry Christian, Graham Coxon, Irvine Welsh and Gorillaz. ==Lyrical and vocal style==

, 2011 Smith sang with a heavy Mancunian accent, and typically wrote in a cryptic style. His abstruse song titles, often derived from cutting out words and phrases from books and newspapers, reflect the same tendency, for example "To Nkroachment: Yarbles" (1985). His vocal style was similarly unusual, and his delivery is known for his tendency to end phrases with an "ah"-sound. He often speak-sang or slurred his lyrics, especially from the mid-1990s. His singing voice, particularly when playing live, has been described as "rambling", and he often interjected improvised rants between verses. He tended to write lyrics as free-form prose into one of his many notebooks, and only later set them to pieces of music composed by Fall musicians. He was a prolific writer who often wrote in dense, continuous prose, which he would later edit down into lyrics. He crafted compound-noun headline tabloidese titles (Petty Thief Lout, Joker Hysterical Face, Mere Pseud Magazine Ed, Oswald Defence Lawyer) but also worked with the semblance of narrative (Container Drivers; Jawbone and the Air Rifle: "The rabbit hunter said goodbye to his infertile spouse"; Leave the Capital; Sparta FC). Some of Smith's vocal tracks were recorded spontaneously at his home, when he sang into a dictaphone or cassette recorder, including sections of "Paintwork" from the Fall's 1985 album ''This Nation's Saving Grace'', which also includes the voice of Alan Cooper discussing main sequence stars, from a documentary Smith happened to be watching at the time. He later adapted the resulting sound effect in the studio; examples include for the intro to "Bad News Girl" (1988). Smith's ability as a prose writer is evident in songs that abandon the verse/chorus format in favour of a long continuous narrative. Examples include "Spectre Vs Rector" (1979), "The North Will Rise Again" (1980), "Winter (Hostel-Maxi)" and "Winter 2" (1982), and "Wings" (1983). Fall songs written in this style are often not concerned with character or story development, establishing a sense of place and atmosphere instead. By the late 1980s, Smith had largely given up this format. Some early songs concern one of his assumed alter-egos, though always from a third-person point of view. Examples include Roman Totale XVII, "the bastard offspring of Charles I and the Great God Pan", who appears in "The N.W.R.A" (1980), the live album ''Totale's Turns, "2nd Dark Age" (one of the b-sides to the "Fiery Jack" single), and the sleeve credits for Dragnet'', as well as the characters in "Fiery Jack" (1980), "Hip Priest" (1982), "The Man Whose Head Expanded" (1983), and "Riddler" (1986). Rare first person narratives include "Frenz", "Carry Bag Man", and "The Steak Place" from 1988's The Frenz Experiment, as well as "Bill Is Dead" (1990), "Living Too Late" (1986), and "Edinburgh Man" (1991). He did not respond to requests to explain the meaning or sources behind his lyrics. When asked by a journalist as to how much of his self could be found in the song's characters, he replied: "dunno, you're the one sitting there in your round glasses and leather jacket. You tell me what you think it's an extension of...for every bloke pulling a pint, there's about ten thousand journalists writing an article about it." Fragments of Smith's lyrics often appeared as handwritten scribbles on early Fall album and single covers, coupled with collages he assembled. In a 1983 interview with Sounds, Smith said that he liked artwork to reflect the album content and explained how his graphic choices reflected his attitude to music. He mentioned how he was drawn to cheap and misspelt posters, amateur layouts of local papers and printed cash and carry signs with "inverted commas where you don't need them." and whom Smith described as "mere Fall copyists." Smith's lyrics were described by critic Simon Reynolds as "a kind of Northern English magic realism that mixed industrial grime with the unearthly and uncanny, voiced through a unique, one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn." Smith described his approach as wanting to combine "primitive music with intelligent lyrics." Thematically, his frequently densely layered words often centre around descriptions of urban grotesques, gloomy landscapes, "crackpot history", and are infused with regional slang. ==Personality==

Smith had a difficult and often reactionary personality, and was defiantly Northern English in outlook. Brix said that he carried "a chip on both shoulders. I remember him talking about fucking southern bastards a lot and not wanting to come to London. He hated London intensely. He's quite contrarian as a person and as a writer, which is what gives him his edge." Throughout his career, he clashed with musicians, record producers, sound engineers, record label heads and fellow Manchester scene alumni such as Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Shaun Ryder and Morrissey, whom he disparagingly referred to as "Steven." Arthur Machen, Wyndham Lewis, Thomas Hardy, the autobiography of footballer Malcolm Allison, ''In God's Name'' by David Yallop, M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Clark Ashton Smith, and Philip K. Dick, as well as Edgar Allan Poe, Ezra Pound, Raymond Chandler, and H. P. Lovecraft. According to biographer Simon Ford, Smith often treated musicians as would "[a] bad-tempered despot." He was highly charismatic and cultivated a wry and misanthropic personality during interviews and live performances. During his later performances, he often walked off stage in frustration, or maliciously interfered with the musicians' instruments. This behaviour culminated during a 1998 gig at Brownies in New York, at a low point in his life when he was drinking heavily and band morale was dismal. During the performance he got into an onstage fight with the other musicians, Smith was ordered to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse and anger management. The police charges were dropped after a period of good behaviour. He was a passionate football fan and lifelong Manchester City follower: even appearing on the BBC's Final Score to read the classified football results. He admired mavericks such as George Best, whom he met and drank with, and remarked that as Best could draw a crowd of 40,000 people a week he should have been able to "do what he liked." Originally a Labour supporter, Smith left the party during the Falklands War (which he supported), then became further disillusioned with Labour during the Tony Blair era. In the 1997 election, he voted for the Conservative Party in opposition to Blair. Asked during a mid-1980s interview with Smash Hits as to what policies he would adopt if he became Prime Minister, he said: "I'd halve the price of cigarettes, double the tax on health food, then I'd declare war on France." In a 2012 interview, Smith jokingly stated he would put the Queen in charge of Britain when asked the same question. Smith also expressed support for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union. Although a longstanding member of the Musicians Union, he criticised their political outlook, saying, "all they say is vote Corbyn and stay in the European Union". Smith believed he was psychic, Later that same day, a female passenger was thrown from the ride and decapitated by an oncoming car, with visitors comforted by employees dressed as Disney characters. ==Legacy==

Smith was both resigned and ambivalent about his legacy, especially in terms of the fad-orientated music industry of which he was often harshly critical in his lyrics. He noted, somewhat bitterly, how "every artist wants credibility. A couple of years ago, I read a poll on the hundred best artists of all time. The Fall was in there between Mozart and Puccini. I was very proud of that. Of course, the next day I can pick up a paper and be the guy with no teeth who beats everybody up." Despite this, he was widely influential and critically acclaimed throughout his career. Similarly, he refused to look backwards; when recording, he was adamant that the Fall not repeat themselves stylistically, and when playing live, he refused to play old songs. The approach is further seen in his strategy of frequently replacing band members. Long-term fan John Peel said that "the Fall are the group against which all others must measure themselves", Several alternative rock artists have mentioned Smith in their songs. The Jazz Butcher released "Southern Mark Smith" in 1983. Barbara Manning's song "Mark E. Smith & Brix" appears on her 1989 album Lately I Keep Scissors. German rock band Tocotronic mentioned him in their song "Ich habe geträumt, ich wäre Pizza essen mit Mark E. Smith" ("I dreamt I went to eat pizza with Mark E. Smith") on their 1996 album Wir kommen um uns zu beschweren (We come to complain). Elastica released the track "How He Wrote Elastica Man" in 2000, which was co-written by, and features Smith, the title being a reference to the 1980 Fall song "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'", while in 2014 Fat White Family released an EP titled "I Am Mark E Smith.", a reference to the 1985 Fall song "I am Damo Suzuki". Sonic Youth covered three Fall songs, as well as the Kinks' "Victoria", which they released in 1990 as the 4 Tunna Brix EP. Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer for the American groups At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, described Smith as "one of the pillars of influence for me as lyricist and trouble maker." ==Discography==

The Fall Solo work and collaborations ==Literature==

• Mark E. Smith: Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith, Viking (2008), ==References==