Mark E. Smith Rampages Across Philly and NYC -- April 1998

With all the talk of pop tarts like Britney and Amy Winehouse being walking disasters, it's almost imaginable that we could forget about the Fall's Mark E. Smith.

Almost.

Ten years ago this month, Smith and his legendary avant-punk band were in the midst of one of their wildest tours on record, the east coast leg of which looped them through NYC, Jersey, and Philadelphia for concerts at Coney Island High, Brownies, the Loop Lounge, and the Trocadero. Although I didn't get to attend any of the shows myself, I had the fortune to be on the air at WPRB on the evening of the Trocadero show (April 4th), when Smith physically battled onstage with his bandmates. Fellow DJ Greg Lyon witnessed all of the action live, and on his way back from Philly, visited me on the air at WPRB to deliver a play-by-play of the evening's most shocking events.

The voices you will hear in this MP3 are my own, my WPRB co-host Jen Moyse, and Greg. There were definitely some other PRB DJs of the era lurking about in the studio that evening, but I can't remember exactly who.

[Listen] (Poor sound quality alert... This MP3 was made from a cheap cassette, and the levels being blown out certainly isn't helping.)

I have only vague recollections of what happened the following week, but I remember that the Fall scheduled two consecutive shows at the Brownies nightclub with only one or two days advanced notice.  (The band's popularity notwithstanding, tales of the on-stage antics in Philly made their way up the coast quickly, and both shows sold out immediately.) According to the Fall's gigography page, only one of the Brownies shows actually happened due to Smith being arrested on assault charges at 3 AM on the morning of April 8th. If my memory serves correctly, the opening band for the Brownies show was none other than the Chrome Cranks, whom I later heard had most of their gear tossed onto the sidewalk by Smith. Yeesh, what a night! Courtesy of Brian Turner, here is an audio snippet of the Fall onstage at Brownies, in the midst of the chaos. At around 4 minutes in, it sounds like someone from the crowd gets ahold of the mic and the whole thing quickly devolves into a violent cussing match between the crowd, band members, and Smith.

[Listen]

In the ten years and however many millions of lineup changes that followed these events, the band went on to release three of their best albums, in my opinion. (Country on the Click, Fall Heads Roll, and The Unutterable.) May they ring on for another decade at least! As Smith famously professed at around the same time these recordings were made: If it's me and your grandma on bongos, it's the Fall.

The Fall - Theme from Sparta F.C. [Streaming Real Audio]

Comments

[Stefan]

Thanks for the mp3 and Greg's eye witness account. Great stuff. A few things to clarify: the 1998 US tour only had an east coast leg, and the two Brownies shows were always part of the itinerary (they weren't added later as you suggest). They did indeed play only one of the scheduled gigs there, however. The on stage brawl on the 7th continued back at the hotel before management finally called the cops and Mark was arrested. He spent about 48 hours in NYC lockup near the WTC. Steve, Karl, and Tommy Crooks quit and flew back to Manchester.

The keyboard player was Julia Nagle, not Marcia Schofield. MES's black eye at Coney Island High was allegedly due to her hitting him with a telephone, so you can see the tour didn't get off to the best of starts. I was at both of the Coney Island shows and the second started really late - about 1:30 am I think - due to Mark oversleeping at the hotel. The tour had a few halfway decent gigs: the Middle East, Cambridge, Mass. was pretty good (the third one I caught), and the DC show was good, too, judging by the recording.

The new album, Imperial Wax Solvent, out yesterday in the UK, is just great! The best in many years. I don't know what's up with US distribution though.

I'll stick a link to your mp3 on the Fall news tomorrow. Thanks again.

http://www.visi.com/fall/news/fallnews.html

[Julia]

Thanks for this re-account of these shenanigans a decade back :)
A few more things to clarify and add to Stefans reply: the UK tour prior to the US had also been a shambles, as the group had received a large VAT/TAX bill and were not happy chickens (threats of houses being lost etc. were the main topic of conversation or argument). Also, regarding to the incident at the beginning of the US tour, I defended myself with my fists during an argument about sharing a room with Mark and in the morning he had a black eye from that fracas. (there were many fracas's during this time in The Falls history and they were nothing to be proud of). The Unutterable album released later, was something to be proud of though.
I am having to address some of these matters again as not only is it a decade ago, but Mr Smith has a new book out and also talks about this time in the groups history.. I haven't read it all yet, but I'm glad they changed the title to 'Tales of Mark E Smith' rather than the 'Gospel According to Mark E Smith' (as was the original title) as it isn't that factual but is an entertaining read!
Thanks again.