Mark E. Smith

[Lukas]

I was reading exclaim the other day, and it had a section on Mark E. Smith. It looked over the career of the fall and the people involved. In one section they talk about when The Fall joined Matador, and the magazine mentioned a scandal involving Matadorians/Matadorites talking about M.E.S through email? If this is a touchy issue we'll just leave it at that, if not - could someone explain this further.

[Gerard]

Lukas,

it's pretty simple.

after the Fall had recorded two albums for Matador, we had a number of back-and-forth discussions with Mark E. about releasing a 3rd.

For a variety of reasons, things didn't work out.

While all of this was going on, we received a fair share of email from Fall fans asking questions about the status of the band's next album.

I answered a few of 'em as honestly as possible.

In any event, Mark took considerable offense. I will say that my recollection of how it all went down is very different from his, at least the way he explained it in the Wire cover story. While I sincerely apologized for doing anything to violate his confidence, I most certainly never claimed that Mr. Smith "didn't understand the internet". If these indiscretions were Mark's reason for no longer wanting to work with Matador, it stands to reason he might've told us before discussing it with a journalist a couple of years later.

for whatever it is worth, the Fall continue to make some amazing records. If Mark has a better working relationship with the good people at Narnack, that's good news for everyone.