Hello Michael.
I hope 2018 has started well for you. It’s a while since we emailed, but I was moved by hearing of the death of Mark E. Smith to share my experience of seeing The Fall.
Just two gigs by The Fall in my concert-going history. The first (1982) at Hammersmith Palais, co-headlining with The Birthday Party, attended with my then girlfriend Theresa: the second (1998) at The Purple Turtle in Reading, attended after separating from my then wife Sally.
There were probably a thousand people at the plastic palm tree-lined Palais, but just thirty at the sweaty and dirty bar in Reading. In both gigs, a suited Mark E. Smith slurred and ranted his scorching yet funny invective, his wired band members looking scared and exhausted. I left both with my ears ringing and thoughts jangling, certain I could never see and hear anything better. I had been thinking it was time to see him again, but have now missed that chance.
My day? Attending a meeting on junior doctor suicide in London, then travelling to Bristol to give a talk on anxiety. Whilst walking from the Hammersmith and City line exit to the mainline station at Paddington, I was surprised to see exactly the same battered portakabin still standing, where I had worked in the St Mary’s Hospital Drug Dependency Unit over thirty years ago. All around its temporary structure, new shiny buildings have appeared – but it will probably outlast them all.
As John Peel observed about Mark E. Smith and The Fall – Always different, always the same.
best wishes – David