My post script on “The Fall’s Post Script”

I long since learned I don’t need to have a public vocal opinion about everything on the internet anymore, but occasionally things occur and I feel the urge to put my head over the parapet. The release of Post Script by the Fall is one such moment.

If you haven’t been following the news, in June it was announced that some eight years after Mark E Smith died, there was to be a ‘final’ album by the Fall, to be called Post Script.

The announcement didn’t really make clear what the circumstances of the recording were, who was on it, or why it was happening at all. Fandom was instantly split over the idea, and the previous harmony in the Fall’s Facebook groups became very acrimonious.

Clearly enough people involved in the Mark E Smith estate had said ‘yes’ for it to happen, but some of those who were closest to Mark near the end of his life dissented. Dave Simpson wrote a very useful overview for the Guardian of the battle, posing the question: was it being done out of ‘love and respect’ or simply ‘a cash grab’?

People in support of the release – which uses posthumously added music by longtime Fall associates Ed Blaney and Simon “Ding” Archer to vocals by MES – urged people to listen to it with an open mind.

So when it came out a few weeks ago, I put it on. And I got about 30 seconds into the first track, which sounded absolutely fine, and then was just struck with unease. It just felt so wrong to me personally, given everything we know about his working methods, to be listening to an album by the Fall that Mark E Smith had never heard the music for. So I pressed stop.

I’ve nothing against those who have enjoyed the recording – go knock yourself out enjoying it. But it is not for me, thank you.

The one amazing thing out of all of this, though, is that nearly a decade after he passed, the Fall’s fandom is still going strong. There were two different Fall-based music weekends in Manchester this year, and next year I hope to be up there to see The Look Back Bores play Hex Enduction Hour in full alongside some other classics. I’ll never get to see the Fall live again, but seeing the fandom thrive is the next best thing.

[Picture caption: The Fall in 2017 at Transformer festival at Victoria Warehouse in Manchester, the last time I ever saw them]