Mark E. Smith

At 60 years old, Mark E. Smith physical status not available right now. We will update Mark E. Smith's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer and songwriter, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall.

Smith led the band from 1976 until his death, having formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

During their 42-year existence, the Fall's line-up included some 60 musicians with whom Smith released 32 studio albums and numerous singles and EPs.Smith had a difficult and complex personality and was a long-term alcoholic.

He was known for his biting and targeted wit, evident in interviews, for which he was much in demand by music journalists throughout his career.

He was suspicious of the trappings of fame and largely avoided socialising with people associated with the music scene, including other Fall members.

The dark and sardonic aspect of his personality often appears in his lyrics; he especially derided music industry people.

Smith's approach to music was unconventional and he did not have a high regard for musicianship, stating that "rock & roll isn’t even music really.

It's a mistreating of instruments to get feelings over".His best-known recordings include "Totally Wired" and "Hit the North", and the Fall are regarded as one of the most important and influential post-punk bands.

Although Smith was difficult to work with, he was revered by fans and critics, and on his death was described as a "strange kind of antimatter national treasure".

Source

Life and career

Smith was born in Broughton, Salford, to Irene Brownhill (née Brownhill) and Jack Smith, the eldest of four siblings. Suzanne (who later painted the front sleeve of the 1980 Fall album Grotesque (After the Gramme)), Caroline, and Barbara were among his three siblings. During the Second World War, his grandfather, James Brownhill, was involved in the Dunkirk evacuation and war in France. Jack was too young to fight in the war, but he joined the army as soon as he was old enough. After their marriage in 1955, Smith's parents had migrated to nearby Sedgley Park, Prestwich. Smith's father died as a result of a heart attack in 1989.

Smith didn't become interested in music until he was about 14, when his father "allowed a record player into the house," according to Simon Ford. Black Sabbath's first single was Paranoid, and the Groundhogs at Manchester's Free Trade Hall was his first gig. He attended Sedgley Park Primary School and later Stand Grammar School for Boys before quitting at the age of 16. Una Baines, the future fall keyboardist, and the future Black Orchids' Una Baines, moved to the city that year. He then took an evening class in A-level Literature. Before becoming a shipping clerk on Salford docks, his first job was in a meat factory.

The Fall was named after Albert Camus' book and initially featured Smith and his associates, Martin Bramah, Una Baines, and Tony Friel. Smith was unemployed by this time, having dropped out of college at the age of 19. He resigned from his duties as a shipping clerk at Salford docks in order to devote his complete attention to the band. They were first formed as early followers of the punk rock movement. However, their music underwent numerous stylistic changes, often in tandem with changes in the company's line-up. Depending on the band's membership, the Fall's 40-year career can be divided into five main seasons. These include their early 1970s, their early 1980s nostalgia, Hanley and dual drummers, the Brix years of 1984-89, their early 1990s revival, and much more after the on-stage confrontation in New York, where Hanley and Smith were detained (see below).

Brix Smith, an American guitarist and fall fan, married him on July 19, 1983 in Chicago during a Fall American tour in April 1983. She contributed to the group's sound on guitar and vocals for the album Persecuted by Language and co-wrote some of the finest-regarded Fall songs from the time, and has been credited with adding a more mature, pop-oriented element to the group's sound. She remained with the Fall until the couple divorced in 1989.

Smith remarried twice after this. In 1995, Saffron Prior, a member of The Fall's fan club, ended in divorce. In 2001, Eleni Poulou, also known as Elenor or Elena, married him. Poulou joined the band in September 2002 and left in July 2016. Smith and Poulou divorced in 2016, and Smith's niece at the time of his death was Pamela Vander, his boss.

Smith said he had "only" fired about half the number of people he is said to have fired, and that some people were left homeless, according to the Fall's 60-odd former members. He would fire musicians for apparently insignificant reasons; he once mocked a sound engineer for eating a salad, but later said that "the salad was the last straw." Marc Riley was banned from performing to a Clash song on their Australian tour, despite the fact that the two had a long fight together. Smith said he often changed musicians so that they did not become lazy or complacent.

When legendary British DJ and Fall supporter John Peel died in 2004, he made a legendary appearance on BBC's Newsnight in which he seemed stunned and incoherent, a rare occurrence of stage fright.

Although the Fall never achieved fame beyond minor hit singles in the mid- to late 1980s, they maintained a faithful fan base throughout their careers. Steve Hanley is regarded by some as one of the most versatile bassists of his time, equal to Peter Hook, Andy Rourke, or Gary Mounfield.

Smith also released two spoken-word solo albums, The Post-Near Man (1998) and Pander, alongside his Fall project.

Panda!

Panzer!

(2002). Both feature readings of Fall lyrics were compared to electronic sound collages and samples of Fall songs, as well as contributions from members of The Fall. Smith appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwin Collins, Elastica, Gorillaz, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut, and Ghostigital. His contribution to Inspiral Carpets' 1994 album "I Want You" received raves in the United Kingdom's top 20 and culminated in Smith's first appearance on the Top of the Pops. On Mars, he collaborated with Mouse on the project Von Südenfed, his first album, Tromatic Reflexxions, was released in May 2007. Smith appeared on the album "Glitter Freeze" from the 2010 Gorillaz album " Plastic Beach," and he joined the band Shuttleworth to record the World Cup song "England's Heartbeat."

He wrote Hey, Luciani, based on Pope John Paul I. Smith's brief reign as a patron, while his younger self was represented by Sam Riley in a section that did not make the final cut of the film but appears as a deleted scene on the DVD. In May 2007, Smith appeared in the BBC Three sitcom Ideal as a foulmouthed, chain-smoking Jesus. In the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs, a fuzzy, muted version of Fall song "Hip Priest" (1982) appeared.

Source