[kj] and you thought the Killing Joke tour had some problems.....

Tue May 9 12:20:19 EDT 2006

What is up on that?

You know I never really got into The Fall, but I have heard stories over  the 
years of Mark E. Smith's antics. That is pretty sad when you are nearing 50. 

~LB

In a message dated 5/9/2006 7:12:18 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
dwish2000 at hotmail.com writes:

The  Fall Tour Descends Into Chaos
>Amy Phillips reports:
>"The Fall  Tour Descends Into Chaos"...well, duh. Is Mark E. Smith capable  
>of
doing anything that doesn't descend into chaos? I feel like he  goes to brush
his teeth in the morning, and the next thing you know, the  sink is 
shattered,
wild dogs are tearing up the bathtub, and there's  toothpaste and blood all 
over
the place.
>
>The Fall's  current American tour, which kicked off on May 2, has been no
different,  although there doesn't seem to have been any toothpaste involved.
Last  night's show at the Brick House in Phoenix was cut short when  Justin
Williams, frontman for the tour's opening act, the Talk, threw a  banana peel 
at
Smith's head. A banana peel! That's gotta  hurt.
>
>According to Williams, the peel-throwing was the  culmination of days of
frustration with Smith. In a MySpace bulletin  entitled "FUCK MARK E. SMITH 
HE
SUCKS," Williams wrote: "MARK E. SMITH  a.k.a MR. BURNS has managed to piss 
off
his band so bad they quit and  left him in america with his crazy wife slash 
one
fingered keyboard  player... MARK pulled a corkscrew on his bass player 
poured
beer and  ashed on the head of his tour manager while driving (who has also  
quit
the tour) and played only one full set without slithering off  stage to his 
R.V.
to dive into a bottle of scotch."
>
>(The  Fall's booking agent confirmed that the tour manager had quit,  but
countered that Smith had indeed played full sets at all of the trek's  three
previous shows.)
>
>Williams continued, "the man is in  his late 40's and looks older than my 
>dead
grandfather i'm sorry to  those out there who are fall fans but you do not 
know
this guy he is an  idiot the three other members of the fall are great guys 
nice
as can be  and i wish the best for them..."
>
>As far as the incident in  Phoenix, Williams wrote, "i was told by the falls
tour manager he and the  rest of the band were going home without mark 
knowing
and this would be  the last show this really pissed me off BAD!!! if this had
happened a few  years ago i would have beat the shit out of him but i'm older
now so i  picked up a dirty banana peel ran onto the stage and threw it in  
his
face as hard as i could and walked away he ran after me with some  1800's
English boxing hands and wanted to fight i laughed and walked away  knowing 
in
my head this man has only a few years  left..."
>
>Pitchfork reader Jeff Moore, who attended the show,  wrote in to say that
Smith returned to the stage a few minutes later. "Mr.  Smith distractedly
continued the set while removing bits of flung matter  from his hair, several
times smirking. After several half-hearted attempts  to reassert his 
trademark
amp-twiddling, mic-disdaining stage persona,  he approached [wife Elena] 
Poulou
at the keyboard. After a brief  discussion, the two left the stage, once 
again
leaving bass, guitar,  and drums to finish the song in a vocal vacuum. At the
close of the song,  they too stoically filed offstage."
>
>"Several minutes later Ms.  Poulou returned to the stage to announce that 
>the
Fall would be  unable to continue the show. Her brief announcement was cut 
from
the  'we were not shown the respect that we deserve' mold, which was not  well
received by audience members since the assault came not from members  of the
crowd, but from the opening band. She also referenced technical  difficulties
early in the set before telling the crowd "'I'm sorry' and  vacating the 
empty
stage to a chorus of booing and chants of 'USA,  USA'."
>
>"USA, USA"??!! WTF? Is this a punk show or a NASCAR  rally? Reader Bill 
>Smith
added that the crowd also yelled "Down  with the British!" Come on, people,
what's wrong with  you?!
>
>Williams offered an apology: "p.s. sorry to everyone in  phoenix i threw a
banana at mark during the show i know you payed good  money to see that shit 
but
if it was not for us talking the rest of the  band to come to phoenix they 
would
not have even showed up so be lucky  you even got that much do not be mad at 
us
be mad at MARK E. SMITH he  does not care if you were there or not he does 
not
care about his fans  trust me i know first hand"
>
>The Fall's official website said  only, "Apologies to all for the curtailed
set, caused by technical  problems." I guess bananas do technically count as
technology...if you're a  monkey.
>
>As of right now, the fate of the rest of the tour is  obviously in doubt. 
>But
we'll keep you posted about what's going  on-- whether it's another fight, 
more
fruit projectiles, or just plain  old drunken craziness.
>
>Dates:
>
>05-09 San Diego,  CA - House of Blues *
>05-11 Pomona, CA - Glass House *
>05-13 Los  Angeles, CA - Knitting Factory *
>05-14 San Francisco, CA - The  Independent *
>05-15 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
>05-23  Los Angeles, CA - Knitting Factory *
>05-25 Salt Lake City, UT - The  Depot *
>05-26 Boulder, CO - Boulder Theater *
>05-27 Kansas City,  MO - Record Bar *
>05-29 Minneapolis, MN - Varsity Theatre  *
>05-30 Chicago, IL - Logan Square Auditorium *#
>06-01 New York  City, NY - Knitting Factory *$
>06-02 Brooklyn, NY - Southpaw  *$
>
>* with the Talk
># with the Cairo Gang
>$ with  Vaz
>
>The Fall have a few shows scheduled after the American  tour. We don't know
what's going on with those either.  Sorry.
>
>06-10 Manchester, England - New Century  Hall
>08-12 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
>08-26 Reading, England -  Reading Festival
>08-27 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
>
>*  Pitchfork Review: The Fall: Fall Heads Roll
>* Pitchfork Review: The  Fall: The Complete Peel Sessions, 1978-2004
>* Pitchfork News: The Fall  to Tour America This Summer
>* Pitchfork Feature: The Fall Pick Up the  Thread
>* The Fall: http://www.thefall.info/fallsite/index.php
>*  Narnack Records: http://209.200.80.36/

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