Some bands carry on great things after the death of a singer — AC/DC and Mayhem for starters, but when that singer is Mark E Smith, one of the true singular visionaries of the last 40 years, the band is buried for good.
Keiron Melling, Dave Spurr and Pete Greenway were the final and longest-serving of the 66 members of The Fall over the years, backing Smith over the band’s final six albums, starting with 2008’s Imperial Wax Solvent.
The trio somehow managed to escape Smith’s infamous P45 trigger finger, fostering an oddly stable and consistent sound over the decade, and going down as the tightest band he ever had, even if it suggested he’d gone soft in his later years.
After months of being numb with grief, they regrouped and recruited singer Sam Curran for a debut album Gastwerk Saboteurs, which sounds like a Mark E phrase, but it goes down a post-punk garage rock route, with infinitely more digestible on-the-nose lyrics.
- Imperial Wax play the Sound House in Dublin tonight (Wednesday) and Kasbah Social Club tomorrow
Moo Kid 