“Who decided it was time to start liking her again?”
The Fall‘s Mark E Smith has been stirred back in to action by the Manchester Evening News, and in the firing line this time are Kate Bush, festivals and Metallica.
“I never even liked her the first time round,” he remarked of Kate Bush, who is currently in the middle of her first live UK shows since the late seventies. “It’s like all these radio DJs have been raiding their mam’s and dad’s record collections and decided that Kate Bush is suddenly cool again. But I’m not having it.”
Turning his attention to festivals, Smith described The Fall as ‘not being a festival band’, and said he forced himself ‘to watch five minutes of Metallica without vomiting’ during last June’s Glastonbury festival.
“The Fall aren’t really a festival band,” he continued. “We’re a city group, and we prefer to perform in cities. Festivals have become totally over-priced; they’re all about charging 900 quid a ticket so these rich parents can send Jemima and Tarquin for a nice weekend away. I watched a bit of Glastonbury on BBC for the first time in my life this year – I literally forced myself to watch five minutes of Metallica without vomiting.”
Not far off four decades since they were formed, Mark E Smith is now the only remaining original Fall member. The prolific band was last active in the May of last year with ‘Re-Mit‘ – their 30th studio release.