My encounter with "The Most Feared Man In Rock"!

[Susanne E Trowbridge <umcp-cs!jhunix!ins_aset@seismo.CSS.GOV>]

The Fall are my favorite band currently in existence (that neatly
sidesteps Roxy Music and Joy Division).  Maybe that's why I was
so nervous yesterday as I sat in Washington's 9:30 Club, waiting
for them to emerge...I've interviewed so many musicians, both
famous and obscure, and I thought that jittery feeling had gone
away forever!  

But then again, lead singer Mark E. Smith is "The Most Feared
Man In Rock," according to the British music weeklies (forgot who
it was exactly who gave him this tag).  He sing-speaks his acerbic
lyrics, often unintelligible, and has been known to show hostility
to many an interviewer.  I was hoping and praying that I would 
get to speak to his wife, Brix, one of The Fall's three guitarists
and a Californian.  Of course, things never go as planned...the
tour manager handed Brix over to everyone's fave rockcrit guy,
J.D. Considine, as I silently fumed and tore up the two pages of
questions I had been wanting to ask Brix...

Then I saw MARK E.  He looks exactly like he does on the record
covers.  He wasn't snarling or anything, but I was still worried.
Karen, the aforementioned tour manager, broke the news that I'd
be speaking with Mark and guitarist/bassist Craig Scanlon.  We
were told to go to a bar and grill about two blocks from the club.
We weren't told exactly where it was.  Fortunately, my fellow
interviewer/boyfriend had spotted it on the way and we managed to
get there without too much difficulty.

Well, believe it or not, Mark E. Smith is a nice guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He'
He has a great sense of humor, and although he said he'd done ten
interviews the day before and wanted to leave most of the talking to
Craig, he ended up joining in the conversation and even staying
around to talk to us after Craig had gone back to the soundcheck.
We talked about politics, Japan, all kinds of weird things.  Craig
told me that he had spent his free day in DC touring the NRA...
Best line from Mark: an obnoxious DJ from a Rochester, NY station
came to the bar to fetch him back to the soundcheck, and on the way
walking back, asked what guarantee the Fall had gotten (i.e. $$$).
Mark said, "We don't talk about things like that in England.  It's
like asking me what kind of sex I have with my wife!"

The Feared Side of Mark E. emerged at the show itself, when the
monitors weren't working.  Mark kicked over the synthesizer (it
still worked!), the mike stand, and threw beer on the audience.
The audience soon joined in the violence, and a few started slam-
dancing madly.  I had a great place near the front and found myself
so jostled around that I attempted to move to the left...however,
the slamming grew wilder and I spent the entire show in much closer
contact with my fellow audience members than I cared to be.  As
for the show, it was OK, not great...the band wasn't in a good
mood, perhaps because of the equipment...Mark E. was commenting
earlier about how badly the 9:30 Club was run.  The versions of
"Cruisers Creek" and "L.A." were rather lame.  They did lots of
new material and obscure single b-sides...

All in all, the interview was by far the best part of the show.
Sorry to have prattled on for so long, but if you aren't interested
in the Fall, you probably haven't read this far anyway.

sue