# Mark E Smith reported dead again; - this time it's true.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-e-smith-reported-dead-again-this-time-its-true/807408>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 24, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-e-smith-reported-dead-again-this-time-its-true/807408 "2018-01-24T21:05:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\
**Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-e-smith-reported-dead-again-this-time-its-true/807408/21 "2018-01-26T23:42:06Z")

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Gotta admit they fell quite off my radar after _Frenz Experiment_, which was the tour I saw in '88 at the Commodore in Vancouver. Great gig, except for when some loser threw a bottle at Smith. (A week later I talked to a friend who was bastard-lucky enough to have a beer with him afterwards - apparently my friend needed to have his wits about him during their quaffing).  
Total toss-up, for me, between their cool-as-shit _Witch Trials_ period and the slicker John Leckie-produced _Wonderful, Frightening World of…_, _Bend Sinister_, and _This Nation’s Saving Grace_ period.  
Always _loved_ his thing for hot keyboardists! (And guitarist Brixie looked like a _dream_ at that gig).  
Apparently there used to be a card-issuing Fall fan club, like, way back in the day, and I knew of someone who was Fall member #48.

Anyway Smitty you mangy, kicker-conspiracy sod, you!  
You had a pretty good kick at it.

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-e-smith-reported-dead-again-this-time-its-true/807408/22 "2018-01-27T00:09:40Z")

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Here’s probably my favourite piece of Fall footage. It’s from The Old Grey Whistle Test, on the BBC. It’s the band doing the tremendous _Lay of the Land_, and it also includes Michael Clarke (the later collaborator on _I Am Kurious Oranj_) and his troupe of contemporary dancers with the arses of their costumes cut out. Oh, and there’s a pantomime horse too.

The wonderful and frightening world, indeed

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**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mark-e-smith-reported-dead-again-this-time-its-true/807408/23 "2018-01-27T01:08:03Z")

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> [@Baron\_Greenback](#):
>
> Here’s probably my favourite piece of Fall footage. It’s from The Old Grey Whistle Test, on the BBC. It’s the band doing the tremendous _Lay of the Land_, and it also includes Michael Clarke (the later collaborator on _I Am Kurious Oranj_) and his troupe of contemporary dancers with the arses of their costumes cut out. Oh, and there’s a pantomime horse too.
> 
>   
> The wonderful and frightening world, indeed

Gosh.  
That’s quite, the interpretive…ballet.  
Funky! Too bad they didn’t bring them on the road.

(slight derail) A little [background](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hanley_(musician))on awesome long time Fall bassist Steve Hanley.  
Hm - darned curious, now (ha - orange?:p) about Hansen’s 2014 autobiography _The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall._

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