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The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is the extraordinary story, in her own words, of Brix Smith Start. Best known for her work in The Fall at the time when they were perhaps the most powerful and influential anti-authoritarian postpunk band in the world -- This Nation's Saving Grace, The Weird and Frightening World Of ... -- Brix spent ten years in the band before a violent disintegration led to her exit and the end of her marriage with Mark E Smith. But Brix's story is much more than rock n roll highs and lows in one of the most radically dysfunctional bands around. Growing up in the Hollywood Hills in the '60s in a dilapadated pink mansion her life has taken her from luxury to destitution, from the cover of the NME to waitressing in California, via the industrial wasteland of Manchester in the 1980s. What emerges is a story of constant reinvention, jubilant highs and depressive ebbs; a singular journey of a teenage American girl on a collision course with English radicalism on her way to mid-life success on tv and in fashion. Too bizarre, extreme and unlikely to exist in the pages of fiction, The Rise, The Fall and The Rise could only exist in the pages of a memoir.
The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise is the extraordinary story, in her own words, of Brix Smith Start. Although, best known for her work in The Fall, Brix's story is much more than rock 'n' roll highs and lows. Growing up in the Hollywood Hills in the '60s in a dilapidated pink mansion, her life has taken her from luxury to destitution, from the cover of the NME to waitressing in California, via the industrial wasteland of Manchester in the 1980s. What emerges is a story of constant reinvention, jubilant highs and depressive ebbs; a singular journey of a teenage American girl from riches to rags and back again. Bizarre, extreme, and utterly readable!
The only way to appreciate the legendary musician Mark E. Smith is to encounter the man in his own words. 'May be the funniest music book ever written' Observer The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, their music - odd,spare, cranky and repetitious - an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand. And Mark E. Smith IS The Fall. 47 members have come and gone over the years yet he remains its charismatic leader, a professional outsider and all-round enemy of compromise, a true enigma. There have been a number of biographies of the legendary Smith, but this is the first time he has opened up in a full autobiography. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst. 'A riot' Independent on Sunday 'Unbeatable' Time Out 'Vicious' Daily Telegraph 'Hilarious' Scotland on Sunday
Over the years, The Fall have given me more pleasure than any other band and, when people ask me why I always say, 'they are always different, they are always the same' John Peel. The first ever authorised biography of this most inscrutable of bands! Together music writer Mick Middles and Fall leader Mark E. Smith have written an exhaustive biography of The Fall. Spanning their years on the fringe of the Manchester punk scene, three dozen albums, numerous tours, two successful stage plays and various spoken word events, this book is as strangely compelling as the band itself. Laced with Smith's distinctive brand of working class intellectualism and trenchant broadsides this is a meticulously...
THE LOUDER THAN WAR #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR A ROUGH TRADE, THE TIMES, MOJO, UNCUT, THE HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR This is not a book about a rock band. This is not even a book about Mark E Smith. This is a book about The Fall group - or more precisely, their world. 'To 50,000 Fall Fans: please buy this inspired & inspiring, profound & provocative, beautiful & bonkers Book of Revelations.' DAVID PEACE 'Mind blowing . . . there is so much to enjoy in this brilliant book.' TIM BURGESS 'A container sized treasure trove . . . I strongly advise you to buy it.' MAXINE PEAKE 'The most wonderful, unashamedly intellectual, pretentious, ridiculous, exciting hymn to this incredible group.' ANDY MILLER, BACKLIS...
Ever been thrown off the bus in the middle of a Swedish forest or asked to play at one of the UK's biggest music festivals with musicians you've just met who are covered in blood? If so you've probably been in The Fall. Dave Simpson made it his mission to track down everyone who has ever played in Britain's most berserk, brilliant group. He uncovers a changing Britain, tales of madness and genius, and wreaks havoc on his own life.
A kaleidoscope of vivid, moving and highly entertaining accounts of the delights and benefits of dog ownership: an anthology of stories, freely contributed, from TV personalities, broadcasters, politicians, writers, and many others.
Presents an in-depth exploration of the musician's controversial electric period and the impact it had on the jazz community, as drawn from firsthand recollections about his artistic and personal life. Reprint.
Among the many near-mythical figures of the Manchester music scene, they call him the Nearly Man. You'd expect a drummer to have better timing. Yes, he parted ways before The Patrol became the Stone Roses. Yes, he turned down The Smiths. Right place, right time, wrong choices? Timing is everything. But while Simon Wolstencroft can see what might have been, cultivating bitterness bears no fruit. And 'Funky Si' has tasted the nectar. Spending an unlikely 11 years in The Fall and hooking up with old mate Ian Brown during his solo days, his memoir reflects on a life driven by a passion for playing.
This volume offers a comprehensive range of approaches to the work of Mark E. Smith and his band The Fall in relation to music, art and politics. Mark E. Smith remains one of the most divisive and idiosyncratic figures in popular music after a recording career with The Fall that spans thirty years. Although The Fall were originally associated with the contemporaneous punk explosion, from the beginning they pursued a highly original vision of what was possible in the sphere of popular music. While other punk bands burned out after a few years, only to then reform decades later as their own cover bands, The Fall continue to evolve while retaining a remarkable consistency, even with the frequen...