13. The FallSlates
This is my favourite album and period of The Fall. At that time they were really lyrically interesting and, musically, there was this lo-fi edge and grittiness to it. Mark E Smith wasn’t afraid to show his intellect, going against the stereotypes of the Northern working-class male: not being very educated etc.
‘Prole Art Threat’ is one of my favourite tracks – it’s a really punky tune, and I just love the name. It’s the idea that proletarian art is a threat to the system and I think it is. I come from pirate radio which is a working class art form, bred from areas where people had fuck all, so they made their own thing and that was a threat to the system, which is why they constantly tried to shut them down. I really rated ‘Leave The Capital’ as well because before I moved away to Sweden I got really fed up of living in London and Mark E Smith notoriously hates London. I like what The Fall represented; a group of working class people who were actually quite avant-garde and outside of the mainstream.
