Slags, Slates and Apes

The Fall : Fit And Working Again

On April 27, 1981 The Fall released the six track EP Slates, which became my introduction to the band thanks to the song "Fit And Working Again". Neither long enough to be an album  nor short enough to be a single, Slates was marketed by Mark E Smith at least as a release for people who don't buy records.

 There's a song here called "Prole Art Threat". That's what Smith and his band were to the upper class art college kids trying to create a clean new new wave sound for the 80's.

As Smith told a reporter for Smash Hits:

"I have a theory about production. I believe that good production is one of the things that's sort of killed off music. I'm not saying that all good production is bad, but I think there's a lot of thing that could be covered up by good production--personality I suppose.

"Personality in music is not coming through any more and our ears are becoming dulled because we're looking at everything through rose-tinted glasses.

Photo by Martin McClenaghan

"Every studio The Fall go in we have a huge battle every time, trying to convince guys who're, like, ten years out of synch that there are other ways of doing things. But they try to dazzle new band with all of their flash equipment. And it is a bit awesome, so young kids get frightened and hand over the reins to these blokes who used to be musicians ten years ago and want to lay their sound on everyone else.

"That's the mockery of the whole new underground music scene in Britain, I think, that its all run by acid-damaged hippies really. It's not a youth movement at all. Basically I'm fed up with the whole thing."

The EP peaked at #3 on the UK Indie Singles chart and ranked #13 on NME's album of the year chart.