22 replies · 405 views
Fracas at the show in Phoenix last night where the singer of the opening band pelts Mark E Smith with a banana. Show ends. The band quits and flies back to England that night. M.E.S. and wife fly back to England. the crowd gets pissed, demands their $25 ticket fee refund.
this is why I love this band. God Bless the Fall.
If only Messrs Sumner, Hook, Morris et al had the stones to keep it real like this and abort tours via punch-ups and conflict....
that's a real disappointment. (Most likely) my one to chance to ever see them in my life was to be May 27. Somehow, I knew it was too good to be true. The Fall in Boulder, Colorado???
Didn't think MES was allowed back in the US?! At least, not without facing prosecution?!
Didn't he smack fcuk out of his last wife on the last tour?! Or something? 
That was about 8 years ago. They sort of tried a tour last year but he quit that halfway through as he couldn't be bothered to play, but this time the band have walked out on him and have returned to England. He's staying with his missus and hiring a Chicago-based alt-country band to be his backing group. Looking forward to hearing one of these!
Pat McCrotch wrote:
oldmonkey wrote: Nope. Never again. Texas smells.
Smells like what?
Teen spirit.
Had The Frenz Experiment on today, and then found out about this. 
oldmonkey wrote: That was about 8 years ago.
Something like that.Saw them at dingwalls immediately after, makeshift lineup, backing tapes, absolute shambles.Fucking brilliant.
volatile molotov wrote:
oldmonkey wrote: That was about 8 years ago.
Something like that.Saw them at dingwalls immediately after, makeshift lineup, backing tapes, absolute shambles.Fucking brilliant.
I went to one of the Dingwalls gigs. "Mark E Smith on karaoke" was how one of me mates described it. Didn't recognise one track. Utter drivel. None of us stayed till the end.
Why does he act like a bastard these days then? Why? he's got everything: money, fame, 50.000 fans. And I used to listen to him
Christopher Owens wrote:
Pat McCrotch wrote:
oldmonkey wrote: Nope. Never again. Texas smells.
Smells like what?
Teen spirit.
Had The Frenz Experiment on today, and then found out about this.
oh there's no arguing with tracks like Oswald Defence Lawyer and carrier bag man.
Mark E Smith, genius and bell end.
Al Jarvis wrote:
I went to one of the Dingwalls gigs. "Mark E Smith on karaoke" was how one of me mates described it. Didn't recognise one track. Utter drivel. None of us stayed till the end.
Aye utter drivel sums it up, anybody else would have cancelled the shows, bloody cheek or balls of steel? the wonderful and frightening world,still, i didn't bother going back the next night for a second helping!
Twist, singer of the Blessing Way wrote: Keep us posted Tim. This MES alt country hybrid sounds interesting.
Can't wait to have another Neil Young?
The new Fall played thir first gig last night in San Diego, and all went well apart from the second song, where Eleni started up one number on the keyboard and the rest of the band played a completely different track, and they managed to keep it going for several minutes! Mark apparently mumbled the words to both songs at various stages......
Should get a recording of this pretty soon.
oldmonkey wrote: That was about 8 years ago. They sort of tried a tour last year but he quit that halfway through as he couldn't be bothered to play, but this time the band have walked out on him and have returned to England. He's staying with his missus and hiring a Chicago-based alt-country band to be his backing group. Looking forward to hearing one of these!
Jumping to massive assumptions, that could be really interesting, aren't Ministry/RevCo etc from Chicago and Al Jourgensen is a massive country fan, so ....?
"The Fall Tour Descends Into Chaos"...well, duh. Is Mark E. Smith capable of doing anything that doesn't descend into chaos? I feel like he goes to brush his teeth in the morning, and the next thing you know, the sink is shattered, wild dogs are tearing up the bathtub, and there's toothpaste and blood all over the place.
The Fall's current American tour, which kicked off on May 2, has been no different, although there doesn't seem to have been any toothpaste involved. Last night's show at the Brick House in Phoenix was cut short when Justin Williams, frontman for the tour's opening act, the Talk, threw a banana peel at Smith's head. A banana peel! That's gotta hurt.
According to Williams, the peel-throwing was the culmination of days of frustration with Smith. In a MySpace bulletin entitled "FUCK MARK E. SMITH HE SUCKS," Williams wrote: "MARK E. SMITH a.k.a MR. BURNS has managed to piss off his band so bad they quit and left him in america with his crazy wife slash one fingered keyboard player... MARK pulled a corkscrew on his bass player poured beer and ashed on the head of his tour manager while driving (who has also quit the tour) and played only one full set without slithering off stage to his R.V. to dive into a bottle of scotch."
(The Fall's booking agent confirmed that the tour manager had quit, but countered that Smith had indeed played full sets at all of the trek's three previous shows.)
Williams continued, "the man is in his late 40's and looks older than my dead grandfather i'm sorry to those out there who are fall fans but you do not know this guy he is an idiot the three other members of the fall are great guys nice as can be and i wish the best for them..."
As far as the incident in Phoenix, Williams wrote, "i was told by the falls tour manager he and the rest of the band were going home without mark knowing and this would be the last show this really pissed me off BAD!!! if this had happened a few years ago i would have beat the shit out of him but i'm older now so i picked up a dirty banana peel ran onto the stage and threw it in his face as hard as i could and walked away he ran after me with some 1800's English boxing hands and wanted to fight i laughed and walked away knowing in my head this man has only a few years left..."
Pitchfork reader Jeff Moore, who attended the show, wrote in to say that Smith returned to the stage a few minutes later. "Mr. Smith distractedly continued the set while removing bits of flung matter from his hair, several times smirking. After several half-hearted attempts to reassert his trademark amp-twiddling, mic-disdaining stage persona, he approached [wife Elena] Poulou at the keyboard. After a brief discussion, the two left the stage, once again leaving bass, guitar, and drums to finish the song in a vocal vacuum. At the close of the song, they too stoically filed offstage."
"Several minutes later Ms. Poulou returned to the stage to announce that the Fall would be unable to continue the show. Her brief announcement was cut from the 'we were not shown the respect that we deserve' mold, which was not well received by audience members since the assault came not from members of the crowd, but from the opening band. She also referenced technical difficulties early in the set before telling the crowd "'I'm sorry' and vacating the empty stage to a chorus of booing and chants of 'USA, USA'."
"USA, USA"??!! WTF? Is this a punk show or a NASCAR rally? Reader Bill Smith added that the crowd also yelled "Down with the British!" Come on, people, what's wrong with you?!
Williams offered an apology: "p.s. sorry to everyone in phoenix i threw a banana at mark during the show i know you payed good money to see that shit but if it was not for us talking the rest of the band to come to phoenix they would not have even showed up so be lucky you even got that much do not be mad at us be mad at MARK E. SMITH he does not care if you were there or not he does not care about his fans trust me i know first hand"
The Fall's official website said only, "Apologies to all for the curtailed set, caused by technical problems." I guess bananas do technically count as technology...if you're a monkey.
As of right now, the fate of the rest of the tour is obviously in doubt. But we'll keep you posted about what's going on-- whether it's another fight, more fruit projectiles, or just plain old drunken craziness.
pitchforkmedia.com _________________
|| | ||| 6217|| 8 || 3 wrote: Are they coming back to Texas?
The highly, highly provisional pre-tour speculation had The Fall playing in freakin' EL PASO!!!! of all places, but then was scuttled (why, I have no idea).
The only annoyance I have with this tour is that they're playing in SALT LAKE CITY (I'd presume because it's between California and Colorado, there's no way in HELL any one in the world can convince me that a show there would draw more bodies than a Fall gig in either Portland or Seattle, two other rumoured gigs that got scuttled as well). I' guess that some one in the Fall's camp actually looked at the geography and travelling distances involved for SLC to be added.
