A row has broken out about what is reportedly “the final” Fall album, over eight years since founder, frontman and sole original member Mark E Smith died.
Post Script is being released next month and contains nine tracks of Smith’s unmistakable vocals set against music that has been created – after Smith’s death – by long-time Fall associates Ed Blaney and Simon Archer.
However, Smith’s final partner and manager Pamela Vander is far from happy at this. Speaking to the Guardian she said: “They’re selling it as ‘the final album’ so people will think Mark made it on his deathbed, but none of it (vocally) was made after (2017’s) New Facts Emerge.
"I have Mark’s actual last recordings – he was working on a cover of Madonna’s Material Girl – but by the time of his death he had made the decision that New Facts Emerge was the final album, made by the longest-lasting lineup of the Fall, who were with Mark for 10 years. So I don’t think anyone else should override a decision he made when he was alive.”
(As an aside, who wouldn’t have loved to hear a Mark E Smith version of Material Girl?)
Anyway, Post Script is coming out on The Fall’s own label Cog Sinister on 2 October. Vander describes it as “a cash grab... just a collection of some shit from the cutting room floor. I wouldn’t have minded if it was being released as ‘the Mark E Smith archive’ or something, but there’s something ethically wrong with releasing it as the Fall.”
However, Blaney and Archer maintain that they have done nothing wrong. “Making this record was intended as a fitting tribute to Mark/the Fall because the vocals were there waiting to be put to good use.
"Words like ‘cashing in’ make me laugh. It was about love and respect for Mark: he was the Fall, and Mark’s vocals were recorded as the Fall, hence it’s being released as the Fall.”
Though they weren’t in the final Fall lineup, Blaney and Archer were both involved in the Fall during the group’s final phase. Archer played bass between 2003 – 4 and either produced or engineered the last nine Fall albums.
Writing on Facebook, he explained that he recorded most of Smith’s vocals for 12 years. “Some of these ideas went to the band for development and some were dropped. Others went into the vault with phrases like ‘put that in the safe’ or ‘you can do what you like with that one, cock’. I’d never had the time to check the safe but Post Script provided an opportunity for these loose ends to be tied up.”
What would Smith think of this? Not much, in all likelihood. The Fall leader was notorious for his determinedly forward-looking vision. He looked upon the archival arm of the music industry with disdain, and at any Fall gig you’d be lucky to hear anything older than the most recent couple of albums.
Perhaps this is what has prompted Vander to speak out. “It’s been eating me up,” she says. “I feel it’s still my job to stand up for Mark.”
