Trailer for Route’s collection of books about The Fall:
You Must Get Them All: The Fall On Record by Steve Pringle
The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall by Steve Hanley and Olivia Piekarski
Have A Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour by Paul Hanley
You Can Drum But You Can’t Hide by Simon Wolstencroft
More info on all four titles can be found on this link.
Footage of The Fall recording their final session for John Peel at Maida Vale Studios, London, 4th August 2004.
For full context of The Fall’s Peel Sessions read Steve Pringle’s You Must Get Them All.
The entry for this session in the Peel Sessions Index reads:
Session 24 Recorded: 4th August 2004 Broadcast: 12th August 2004 (Job Search broadcast on 31st August 2004) Mark E Smith – vocals; Ben Pritchard – guitar; Jim Watts – guitar, bass; Steve Trafford – bass; Spencer Birtwistle – drums; Eleni Poulou – keyboards; Ed Blaney – guitar, vocals Clasp Hands / Blindness / What About Us? / Wrong Place, Right Time – I Can Hear The Grass Grow.
Recorded less than three months before Peel’s death, the final session includes a magnificent ‘Blindness’ that a majority of fans consider the definitive version. The group recorded a fifth track, ‘Job Search’, that was pressed as a one-off acetate and presented to John Peel for his 65th birthday. There’s further context in the main body of the book.
Paul Hanley recalls The Fall’s trip to Iceland in September 1981, where they spent the day in a recording studio built into a cave. They recorded three songs, including two which were included on the album Hex Enduction Hour: ‘Hip Priest’ and ‘Iceland’. Paul is talking to Ben Cottam for a BBC Radio 3 documentary, Cave Life For Beginners.
For Paul’s full account of the trip to Iceland and the making of the album, read his book Have A Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour. Click here for details.
You Must Get Them All is the first book to capture the full, incredible story of The Fall, from Live At The Electric Circus to New Facts Emerge. It covers every release – album, EP, single, compilation, live album – every line-up change, every setback and every triumph. It is a comprehensive chronology of the life and times of Britain’s most remarkable group, based on contemporary accounts, the recollections of Fall members and the experiences of the Fall community – the gig-goers, the record-buyers, the lyrical analysts and the factual obsessives.
It’s a book that challenges the clichés, lazy assumptions and common misconceptions about The Fall. But above all else, it celebrates the astonishing and significant body of work that the group created over their 40-odd years of existence.
People write to me and say, ‘I heard The Fall, which record should I get?’ And I never have any hesitation in telling them: you must get them all, because it’s impossible to pick one… and in fact I’ll go further. I say: anybody who can tell you the five best Fall LPs, or the five best Fall tracks, has missed the point, really. It’s the whole body of the work that is to be applauded. John Peel
It should no longer be our job to explain to people why The Fall are the greatest English rock band of the last 40 years. In fact, I’d politely suggest the onus is now on others to find out for themselves instead of us having to draw them a f***ing map. John Doran, The Quietus
Foreword by Paul Hanley
By buying direct from Route, you are helping to support independent publishing. If you prefer other options, here are links to Amazon and Kindle
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Playback links for Tim’s Twitter Listening Party sessions for four Fall albums: Grotesque, Slates, Hex Enduction Hour and The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall.
Grotesque Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Grant Showbiz, Tim Burgess plus assorted guests post live responses to Grotesque. (18th October 2020)
Slates Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Grant Showbiz, Tim Burgess plus assorted guests post live responses to Slates. (18th October 2020)
Hex Enduction Hour Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Grant Showbiz, Tim Burgess plus assorted guests post live responses to Hex Enduction Hour. (17th October 2020)
The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall Paul Hanley, Steve Hanley, Brix, Tim Burgess plus assorted guests post live responses to The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall. (2nd April 2020)
Book links:
The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall by Steve Hanley and Olivia Piekarski
Leave The Capital: A History of Manchester Music in 13 Recordings by Paul Hanley
Have A Bleedin Guess: The Story of Hex Enduction Hour by Paul Hanley
Novelist Michael Nath talks about The Fall.
This is an extract from the podast A Drink With Michael Nath. Click here to listen to the full podcast.
For more on Michael Nath and his books, visit his website here: michaelnath.wordpress.com
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