The Fall's Mark E. Smith Dead at 60
- by Mark Moody Release Date: Label:
Founder, leader, and only permanent member of legendary post-punk band The Fall, Mark E. Smith, passed away January 24 at age 60. Suffering with health issues for at least the past year he cancelled a planned week long plus run of shows in New York late last year and had been falsely reported dead by the BBC earlier in 2017.
Born in Broughton, Salford, England, Smith worked in his early days in working-class jobs before founding The Fall at age 19. Noted as an uncompromising iconoclast, Smith hired and fired countless band members over the course of 37 studio albums and endless live performances. The band’s early work tended to the dour and challenging, but took a turn to the more accessible when his wife-to-be Brix Smith Start joined the band during their mid-80s heyday, though Smith’s inscrutable and largely spoken vocal delivery was a constant.
Not one to shrink from an altercation physically or with those brave and persistent enough to interview him it is safe to say he cut his own path without regard for much. Not everything they put out was great, even sometimes self-referring to “product”, but it was always fiercely their own and outside the bounds of fashion of the day.
Fiery to the end with last year’s New Facts Emerge, without it’s leader of over 40 years The Fall’s history unfortunately comes to a close with Smith’s passing.
