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All Music Guide:
Mark E. Smith was the lead vocalist, songwriter, bandleader, and general mastermind of the Fall, the longest-lived and most prolific band of the British post-punk movement. Smith's uncompromisingly abrasive music and bitterly cranky persona made him a cult icon in underground rock circles, and even if the Fall's appeal was far from universal, their harsh experimentalism left a huge imprint on '90s indie rock. Notoriously confrontational and difficult to work with, Smith had a penchant for firing bandmembers on whims, yet the Fall's sound remained essentially the same: jagged, angular guitars, tense rhythms, and stabbing keyboards, all overlaid with Smith's snarling monotone vocal rants. There were flirtations with pop and/or dance as the years went by, but only on a relative scale; Smith's original vision for the band endured largely intact. His lyrics -- at least, when he delivered them intelligibly -- were generally the Fall's focal point: abstract poetry filled with complicated wordplay, bone-dry wit, cutting social observations, and general misanthropy (sometimes more implied than clearly stated, but apparent nonetheless). Weathering the original wave of post-punk in the late '70s, Smith had some minor chart success in the U.K. during the mid-'80s, and stuck around long enough to become a press favorite for his colorful, opinionated interviews and fondness for beer. Recording with various lineups into the new millennium, Smith remained defiantly working-class, provocative, alienated, and above all -- for better and worse -- himself.
Smith was born in the Salford area of Manchester, England, on March 5, 1957. As a teenager, he listened mostly to '60s garage rock (of the Nuggets variety) and experimental rockers like Can, Captain Beefheart, and the Velvet Underground. He auditioned for several different heavy metal groups in the Manchester area, but was far from a gifted singer, and was consistently rejected. In the meantime, he worked as an office clerk for two years, then took a job as a dock worker in 1976; a year later, in January 1977, he formed the Fall as a more personal vehicle of expression, tailored to his own idiosyncrasies and musical tastes. Their debut single, "Bingo Master's Breakout," was followed by the full-length Live at the Witch Trials, which kicked off a string of difficult, challenging, amateurish releases that were clearly connected to punk rock, but also far artier and more ambitious. In 1983, Smith met and married guitarist Brix Smith while on tour in the U.S.; she brought a stronger melodic sensibility to the band's clattering art-punk cacophony, making it as close to accessible as it would ever get. Albums like The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall, This Nation's Saving Grace, and Bend Sinister were among the group's most popular and critically acclaimed, and amid numerous lineup changes, the Fall even hit the lower reaches of the British singles charts a few times over 1986-1988.
However, the Smiths divorced, and Brix left the group in 1989. Smith carried on through the '90s, recording a couple of albums for the American Matador label over 1993-1994. By that point, indie bands on both sides of the Atlantic were acknowledging the Fall as an influence, and Smith had become an enduring cult hero in the U.K. (especially in his hometown). In 1996, as part of his increasing interest in electronic dance music, Smith guested on the D.O.S.E. single "Plug Myself In"; he'd previously appeared on a Coldcut track, "(I'm) In Deep," from the 1989 What's That Noise? album. 1998 proved to be one of the more disastrous years in Fall history; Smith took the band on a brief, tension-filled North American tour, which ended with his arrest in a New York hotel on misdemeanor domestic assault charges. Allegedly, Smith punched, kicked, and choked his girlfriend -- the band's keyboardist, Julia Nagle -- one week after Nagle reportedly hit him in the face with a telephone, giving him a black eye. He pleaded not guilty, and was ordered to undergo counseling for alcohol abuse and anger management; after six months of good behavior, the charges were eventually dropped. Nagle remained in the band -- oddly, since the rest of the lineup had quit in a huff. Smith took some time off from the Fall to record his first solo album later that year; The Post Nearly Man was chiefly a spoken word outing, backed with snippets of electronica and past Fall songs. After recording with the Fall a bit more, he returned with a second solo spoken word album, Pander! Panda! Panzer!, in 2002.
Wikipedia:
Mark Edward Smith (born 5 March 1957) is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk group The Fall.
Biography
Early life
Smith was born to a working-class family in Broughton, Salford, in Lancashire, England, and moved to nearby Prestwich, to the north of Salford, early in his life. In his autobiography, Smith claimed that Alfred Henry Hook – a soldier who fought at Rorke's Drift – was an ancestor of his father, which led to the Smith family being invited as guests of honour to the Whitefield showing of Zulu, where the soldier was played by James Booth. Originally a Labour supporter, he then joined the Socialist Workers Party.
The Fall
He formed The Fall (named after the novel by Camus) with friends after dropping out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job at Salford docks shortly after to devote his full energies to The Fall, and has continued to do so ever since. Smith married Chicagoan guitarist (and Fall band member, 1983–89, 1994–96) Brix Smith on 19 July 1983, though they divorced in 1989. He has since remarried twice; his second wife was Saffron Prior who used to work for The Fall's fan club. He married his present wife, Eleni (sometimes called Elenor or Elena) Poulou, in 2001, and she joined The Fall in September 2002.
When British DJ and Fall champion John Peel died in 2004, Smith made a notorious appearance on the BBC's Newsnight show. Regarded by many as a bewildering performance, Smith has made his appreciation for Peel clear in several subsequent interviews. Nevertheless, the two only met a handful of times. Though he broke his hip while promoting the album The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click) in 2004, Smith refused to cancel an upcoming American tour, instead choosing to perform in a wheelchair. Unfortunately the pain and medication caused a number of dates to be cancelled.
In January 2005, The Fall were the subject of The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith, a BBC Four television documentary. The following August, Smith received the "Contribution to Music" award at the Diesel-U-Music Awards. Smith's autobiography, Renegade: The Gospel According to Mark E. Smith, recorded with Manchester-based writer Austin Collings, was published by Viking Books in April 2008. The latest studio album by The Fall, Ersatz GB, was released on 14 November 2011.
Lyrical style
Smith has won acclaim for his lyrical style, which mixes elements of social realism, surrealism, and absurdism addressing diverse topics such as drug use, unemployment, football violence, time travel and the supernatural.
In interviews, he has cited Colin Wilson, Wyndham Lewis, Thomas Hardy, Philip K. Dick as influences, as well as Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Chandler, and H. P. Lovecraft, whose short story "The Colour Out of Space" he read in Christmas 2007 for the BBC Collective website.
Work outside The Fall
Music, writing and acting
Alongside his work with The Fall, Smith has released two spoken-word solo albums: The Post-Nearly Man (1998) and Pander! Panda! Panzer! (2002). Both albums feature readings of Fall lyrics, samples of Fall songs and contributions from members of The Fall, and the line between Smith's solo career and his work with the group remains somewhat blurred.
Smith has also appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwyn Collins, Elastica, Gorillaz, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut, and Ghostigital. His contribution to the Inspiral Carpets' 1994 song I Want You won UK top 20 recognition, topped the Festive Fifty and resulted in Smith's first appearance on the classic UK TV show Top of the Pops. Most recently, Smith has worked with Mouse on Mars on the collaboration project Von Südenfed, whose first album, Tromatic Reflexxions, was released on 21 May 2007. Smith more recently provided guest vocals on the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, on the song "Glitter Freeze", and joined the group Shuttleworth to record the World Cup song England's Heartbeat.
In 1986, Smith wrote the play Hey, Luciani based around the short-lived reign of Pope John Paul I. Smith has also periodically acted as guest contributor to publications including the NME. He has appeared in an acting role in several television programmes and films. He made a cameo in the Michael Winterbottom film 24 Hour Party People (2002), while his younger self was portrayed by UK actor Sam Riley in a section that was deleted from the final cut of the film, but is featured as a deleted scene on the DVD. In May 2007 Smith made an appearance on the BBC Three sitcom Ideal, playing a foulmouthed, chain-smoking Jesus.
He has also appeared in several films made by the artist Mark Aeriel Waller, including "Glow Boys" and "Midwatch".
