Mark E Smith’s fiancée and final manager has hit out at The Fall’s forthcoming “final” album ‘Post Script’, describing it as a “cash grab” and “ethically wrong”.
The nine-track record is due for release through Cog Sinister on October 2 and features unused studio vocals recorded by Smith between 2001 and 2014, with former Fall members and longtime associates Ed Blaney and Simon “Ding” Archer adding new music to them after his death.
When ‘Post Script’ was first announced in June, it was initially reported that the recordings had been part of an album The Fall were working on before Smith’s death in January 2018.
However, Pamela Vander has now told The Guardian that none of Smith’s vocals on the record were made after The Fall released their 2017 album ‘New Facts Emerge’, which she says Smith had decided would be the band’s final record.
“They’re selling it as ‘the final album’ so people will think Mark made it on his deathbed, but none of it [vocally] was made after ‘New Facts Emerge’,” she said.
“I have Mark’s actual last recordings – he was working on a cover of Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’ – but by the time of his death he had made the decision that ‘New Facts Emerge’ was the final album, made by the longest-lasting line-up of The Fall, who were with Mark for 10 years.
“So I don’t think anyone else should override a decision he made when he was alive.”
Vander, who was in a relationship with Smith for the final three years of his life and became his carer as his health deteriorated, also questioned the decision to release the recordings under The Fall’s name.
“Mark’s life was complicated and Mark was very disorganised when it came to any sort of protection for his legacy,” she said. “I was the manager and I’m not even sure who owns the name ‘The Fall’.
“It’s a cash grab, just a collection of some shit from the cutting room floor. I wouldn’t have minded if it was being released as ‘the Mark E Smith archive’ or something, but there’s something ethically wrong with releasing it as The Fall.”
Blaney has rejected Vander’s description of the album, insisting that it was made out of “love and respect” for Smith.
“Making this record was intended as a fitting tribute to Mark/The Fall because the vocals were there waiting to be put to good use,” he told The Guardian. “Mark also trusted Ding whenever he worked with him, so the foundation was there.”
He added that while making the record, “we felt Mark’s presence”, and continued: “Words like ‘cashing in’ make me laugh. It was about love and respect for Mark: he was The Fall, and Mark’s vocals were recorded as The Fall, hence it’s being released as The Fall.
“Mark sounds great and it’s a great, positive record.”
Blaney played with The Fall during the early 2000s before becoming the group’s tour manager and later manager. He also collaborated with Smith on the 2008 album ‘Smith And Blaney’.
Archer played bass in the band during 2003 and 2004 and subsequently produced or engineered eight of The Fall’s final nine studio albums.
The first preview of ‘Post Script’, ’30 Degrees’, was released in June. The track pairs Smith’s archived vocals with fuzzy synths and a heavy bass groove.
In 2022, five former members of The Fall formed a new band called House Of All, describing it as “A Fall Family Continuum project”. Smith’s family and estate subsequently rejected any association with the group, calling the project “extremely offensive” and saying it caused them “much sorrow, distress and discomfort”.
The Fall released 31 studio albums during Smith’s lifetime, beginning with 1979’s ‘Live At The Witch Trials’ and ending with ‘New Facts Emerge’ in 2017.
Following Smith’s death, NME described him in an obituary as having crafted “a complex literary voice for himself which became as unmistakable as his own abrasive vocals”, while recalling John Peel’s famous description of The Fall as his favourite band because “they’re always different, but always the same”.