Smell the whisky tang
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This is undeniably an entertaining read but the memory has taken a battering over the years. He comes out with some ridiculous stuff like "I paid all the band the same as U2 were getting" etc and banging on about others being sloppy and unprofessional. Half the the Fall concerts I've seen he's spent the gig forgetting words, walking off stage and twiddling amp knobs to no effect.
If you take his ramblings with a pinch of salt you'll find some hilarious moments; Japanese camp guard, Dad's advice and Vic and Bob's unexpected cameo.
Love the guy's music and glad he's doing what he's doing. Also glad I don't have to work with him.
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Curmudgeon speaks !
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I devoured this in one sitting and loved every page of it. It'll never be thought of as a brilliant opus, but I feel sure I'll read it again very soon. I find myself agreeing with much of what he has to say. Nice to see that he isn't as one-sided in his attitudes as I previously suspected.
I could have read another couple of hundred words of it without trouble. Absorbing. Crucial. Significant.
Can't wait to hear his new CD.
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The "SS Frappuccino"
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It's great - easily readable and very funny. There's musings on everything from Rigsby to Kurt Cobain, Knut Hamsun's train surfing habits ["it cleared his cough..."], very perceptive comments on Burroughs and Ginsberg, why New Labour's election footage will be seen as future Nazi propaganda, Lindsay Anderson films, the differences between tarot and poker... oh, and lots of tales about being [in] The Fall. His telling of the New York incarceration incident and 9/11 is as scary as "Cropdust".
Dylan's Chronicles was one of those rare rock bio's that's worth reading; this is even better.
All in all, a good week for Fall fans, this, and Imperial Wax Solvet, both corkers!
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Mere Pseud Biography-ah
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I agree with the other gentleman's review...this ISN'T an autobiography, it's basically a collection of 'conversations' stuck together by a not so invisible ghost writer (previews in the Guardian/Observer suggested to me it was self-penned) it is a collection of ramblings about his life and gripes about ex band members (can you imagine working with him?!) some of it makes no sense what-so-ever (well, not to me)
That said, I devoured it in an afternoon, reading it with a frown and the occasional giggle. He is an intriguing character who has consistently gone against the musical grain for thirty years now, the music is always fresh and challenging as are a lot of his creative ideas. How many other carmudgeons can you think of who have penned avant-garde ballets or written plays about deceased popes?
So if you like the Fall and you've got a spare £15 stuffed round the back of the clock on the mantle-piece then buy the book!
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Lazy, rambling rubbish
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Was quite looking forward to reading this book. However, it is clear that (aside from some brief incoherant interludes which show no aptitude for prose writing) the book consists entirely of a series of transcribed monologues, tacked together to create a 'book'. This is just lazy and sloppy. It reads like an extensive interview with Mark E Smith, which isn't such a bad thing for a page or two. After that it's irritating. There's no insights, and the way Mark feels the need to bash everyone he's ever met become oh-so-boring by the end. We've heard it so many times before mark; tell us something new. It's frightening how little self awareness the man has: He drones on about those that have angered him, without showing any awareness at all of what a thoroughly unpleasant guy we all know he is. Fell like I've wasted money on this, but am still looking forward to the new fall album next week!
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