When talking about The Fall John Peel said, ”they are always different, they are always the same.” This is true despite the ever changing lineups the whole experience is the same. Mark E. Smith looked liked he had lived the three decades of rock and roll to the full. When he appears onstage, I at once felt relieved that I had given up smoking. .
I first saw The Fall just over 25 years ago, which is recent in their 40+ year history, it was at Glastonbury in 1992. Between every song people were shouting, Hit the North. This was their most famous song and was made popular by Mark Radcliffe’s BBC Radio 5 programme of the same name.
Hit the North is on the album The Frenz Experiment which contains most of The Fall’s commercial songs such as There’s A Ghost In My House and a cover of the Kinks’ Victoria. There is some criticism that the cover versions on this album are not performed with enough irony and they are a cash-in. Yet other songs such as Frenz are completely uncommercial, held together very loosely by Smith’s vocals. Guest Informant is one of the all time classic Fall moments, it’s paranoid and quirky at the same time. A song about a hotel that becomes a deranged scene from Cluedo,
The miserable Scottish hotel,
Resembled a Genesis or Marillion, 1973 LP cover
This album featured Brix Smith (before she went off with violinist Nigel Kennedy), and her and Marcia Schofield (keyboards) on the album cover has a strangely glamorous feel. Each different format of the album has different songs on it. It is not the best Fall album, but it was released at a time when indie music was gaining mainstream recognition.
The Fall : The Frenz Experiment
Frenz 
Carry Bag Man
Get A Hotel
Victoria
Athlete Cured
In These Times
The Steak Place
Bremen Nacht (Alternative)
Guest Informant (Excerpt)
Oswald Defence Lawyer
Tuff Life Booogie
Guest Informant
Twister
There’s A Ghost In My House
Hit The North Part 1
Inside
