Excavate!

by Bob Stanley, Tessa Norton

Overview

A definitive insight into the ever-influential world of Mark E. Smith and The Fall, featuring never-before published essays and ephemera from fans, collectors and the artist and band themselves.



'They are always different; they are always the same.' John Peel




Over the course of their prolific forty-year career The Fall were consistently one of the most influential and unique groups Britain has ever produced, with frontman Mark E. Smith hailed as one of the country’s sharpest lyricists. Following Mark E. Smith's death in January 2018, there was an outpouring of tributes from a surprising spectrum of admirers.



With contributions from Adelle Stripe, Dan Fox, Elain Harwood, Mark Fisher, Ian Penman and others, alongside never-before seen artwork, photographs, and hand-written material from Smith and the band, Bob Stanley and Tessa Norton unpack and make sense of the strangely fascinating landscape of The Fall. Illuminating their reference points, lyrical concerns and influences, from shipping dock procedures to Manchester City and contemporary dance to German experimental rock, this book cements their worldview as a vital contribution to British culture.



Excavate!: The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall is the definitive atlas to help you navigate The Fall's idiosyncratic world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780571358335
Publisher:	Faber and Faber
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	1,115,053
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Bob Stanley is the author of Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop (Faber, 2013), and Too Darn Hot (Faber, forthcoming), and has written for the Guardian, The Times, NME and The Face. He is also a filmmaker, and founding member of the group Saint Etienne. He was Writer in Residence at the British Library in 2017.

Tessa Norton writes regularly about art, books and music for various publications including The Wire, and for exhibitions and events including Liverpool Biennial and The Tetley. Throughout 2018 she was an artist in residence at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, where she was commissioned to write The Fields are Full of Ghosts.

Table of Contents

Editors' Note ix

Preface Grant Showbiz x

Foreword Michael Clark xi

Introduction Tessa Norton Bob Stanley 13

Jerusalem to Prestwich Elain Harwood 17

'Fugue' Is Not a Word I Would Normally Use, But …: The Fall and Repetition Ian Penman 35

Albums 1979-1983 45

The Law of Optics: The Fall, the Northern Working Men's Club and the Refining Powers of Rational Recreation Paul Wilson 59

Call Yourselves Bloody Professionals? The Fall and Amateurism Bob Stanley 77

Call Yourself a Football Fan? When Saturday Comes 157, March 2000 101

Paperback Shamanism Tessa Norton 115

Albums 1984-1988 123

Let Me Tell You About Scientific Management: The Fall, the Factory and the Disciplined Worker Owen Hatherley 133

Memorex for the Kraken: The Fall's Pulp Modernism Mark Fisher 151

Albums 1989-1997 171

Cardinal R. Totale's Scrapbook: Torn Fragments of James, Machen and Lovecraft, Unpulped Among a Jumbled Trove of Songs by the Fall, Early and Also Late Mark Sinker 187

Mark E.Smith Michael Bracewell Jon Wilde 217

Wyndham Lewis Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey 233

Albums 1998-2007 241

'I Want to Sell a Million': Use Value, Exchange Value and Woolworths - Twickenham, 1983-5 Siân Pattenden 253

'America Therein' Dan Fox 279

Luxury Complex: New Faces in Hell Adelle Stripe 299

The Goole Times / Rabbit Hunters Scott King 317

Albums 2008-2018 323

The Outsider The Wire 183, May 1999 335

An Episode in a Lodging House: Mark E. Smith Has Been Assigned Richard McKenna 355

Author Biographies 359

Acknowledgements 360

Editorial Reviews

"To 50,000 Fall Fans: pls. buy this inspired & inspiring, profound & provocative, beautiful & bonkers Book of Revelations, choc-stock-full of loving Acts by true Apostles, simultaneously both the scrapbook you wished you'd kept and a portal to futures & pasts, known & unknown, & a Fantastic Celebration of this Nation's Saving Grace." — David Peace



"Mind blowing ... There is so much to be enjoyed in this brilliant book." — Tim Burgess



"This collection of ephemera and essays strives to pin down the mightiest post-punk phenomenon of them all, taking a psychogeographical creepy crawl around Smith's hometown and investigating - among other topics - his "new puritan" work ethic and love/hate relationship with "professionalism"." — Uncut



"For more than four decades, The Fall have been all things to all people." — GQ



"Excavate!...gives readers a look inside the brilliant and briar-y mind of frontman Mark E. Smith." — Rolling Stone



"There's much fun to be had . . . punctuated by fabulous ephemera, vintage interviews and carbon-copied originally lyric sheets." — Mojo



"This wide-ranging anthology of scholarly essays, sleeve artwork, lyric sheets and other ephemera is a satisfying reminder of Smith's scabrous wit, unique visual style and rich literary hinterland." — Classic Rock



"An insane hardback fanzine of found items from one of Mark E. Smith's carrier bags and essays by a really fascinating variety of people . . . this whole book is the most wonderful, unashamedly intellectual, pretentious, ridiculous, exciting hymn to this incredible group." — Andy Miller, Backlisted Podcast



"Excavate! is testament to the power such an effort sets out to rationalise, domesticate and destroy, placing The Fall in the hidden heart of the last 40 years of contemporary art." — The Wire



"For fans of this incomparable band, I’ll say Tessa Norton and Bob Stanley’s curatorial achievement is indispensable." — The Vinyl District

PRAISE FOR MARK E. SMITH



"[A] cultural icon." — Billy Bragg



"Such a creative force." — Grayson Perry



"He was absolutely unique at what he did . . . he believed completely in what he did. He was a true punk." — Peter Hook

From the Publisher