The Rise & Rise Of The Fall

"Last night in Munich we played in that airport where the 'Busby Babes' crashed. They've turned it into a venue, can you believe that? Only the Germans could do that. But it's dead funny cos most of the group are, like, Man United fans and I'm a City fan going "Yeeaaay!""

Mark E. Smith, the wilfully idiosyncratic and wholly eccentric frontman of The Fall, is talking in distinctive Mancunian tones from his hotel room in Vienna.

And he's in a good mood, despite having just gigged in a country that he actively dislikes visiting - "I get the shakes when I just hear a German. My dad was in the Black Watch, and me Granddad as well, they spent their lives bloody killing SS guys, so I don't really want to know. I've got an SS dagger over me bleeding fireplace off me dad . . ."

But did he notice any changes in the feel of the country vis a vis the rise of the right? No, he noticed the lack of cleanliness of the streets.

"You used to be able to eat your fucking dinner off a German street, now it's a lot worse than Manchester."

Outspoken, vehemently political (and conservative with it), offensive, obnoxious . . . his reputation travels before him at the speed of light.

It's fifteen years down the line for Smith and The Fall and their cult/underground popularity shows no sign of either diminishing or breaking out above ground into the glitzy world of razzamatazz.

Their last album, The Infotainment Scan, ploughed more of the same brilliantly distinctive style of music that dates back virually to the outset of the band. And things aren't about to change now.

"I'm a big Fall fan believe it or not, honestly," Smith insists when questioned on his musical tastes. "I think The Fall are great. I like a lot of slow rave stuff, too, it reminds me of The Fall. And I like a lot of heavy bass, almost like dub, the old dub reggae stuff."

But what's it all for? Fifteen years to what end?

"I don't know, I keep enjoying it, so . . . We get the best of both worlds, really. Cos people really do like us, they're fierce about us. I earn a living out of it but I can also walk the streets at night and I'm not on fucking MTV all the time, which I wouldn't like anyway."

What! The godfather of alternative English music shying away from the limelight?

"I think it takes something out of you. I did an advertisement for MTV, for a show, and it's one of the few things I regret about my career in the last year or so. You get all these dirty old taxi drivers who watch it, all these wankers, stupid barmen, you know, people you don't like going 'I know you, you're in that band' . . . I like to walk round, I like to be a bit anonymous, you know."

And now to the heart of the matter: Mark E. Smith and his reputation. With numerous line-up changes, vicious arguments and generally spiky behaviour, does he blame people for assuming that he's an obnoxious, cantankerous bastard?

"I don't know, people just . . . take this for an example, I've been through like three tour managers in about the last six months. In America our tour manager lasted about a week, and in Europe the tour manager lasted about four days.

"I just can't stand a lot of people in the music business. They're jumped-up executives. They've taken all the fun out of it and they just want to run it like a business. They treat all the bands like idiots and they expect every group to be like a stupid kid, and I won't put up with it.

"I do shout a lot, but you just can't say anything to them. I'm a bit old-fashioned like that, you know, if you can't piss on the pot get off it!"

The Fall's visit to Ireland this month will be their first for over ten years. Mark E. insists that on their last visit they played The Eamon Andrews' Club. Despite the paucity of visits here Smith remembers that he was "virtually brought up by an Irish family". "I come from a very big family, so I used to hang around with the Irish kids and one particular Irish family round the block . . ."

Even so, this will not mean that Smith's arrival in Dublin will be just like coming home.

"Don't worry I'm not gonna start singing about my homeland and all that. We're not U2, you know."

The Fall play The Tivoli on October 23rd.