JBC -vs- THE FALL

> Mon, 21 Jun 1993
> Rick.G.Karr[at]-remove-gagme.chi.il.us (Rick G. Karr)
> JBC-Fall coincidences never fail to impress. Start with
> their mutual use of Mr Legras' artwork. Then go back to,
> uhn, 1985, is it? "McGinty thought he could fool the Fall
> with his imitation speeds but he could not know the psychic
> nose...." (--Pat-Trip Dispenser M.E. Smith, et al)
> Pat? Trip dispenser? Surely he couldn't mean... ? I asked
> Pat last time he was in town: "Is Pat-Trip Dispenser about
> you?" The cryptic response: "Well, Smith does shout 'McGinty!'
> at the end. And Southern Mark Smith was released the week
> before." (Or was it the week after? I can't remember.)
> So: What's this "McGinty" stuff? Was this two bands slaggign
> each other off on vinyl? Was Pat bonking Brixie? (After all,
> we all know how much he likes American women.) Were he and
> Smith just havin' fun? There's something here. I know it.

We put out the single Southern Mark Smith in the autumn of 1983. The Fall's C.R.E.E.P., with Pat, Trip Dispenser on the b-side, came out about the same time. Therefore, I feel that it must have been recorded some time BEFORE the Fall could have heard our single. Our bassist at the time (and on the single) was none other than Rolo McGinty (Woodentops). Accordingly, the combination of the Fall title and Smith's strangled cries of "McGinty!" on the record did make for rather spooky listening, but I believe it's just a co-incidence. A little later we received a letter from The Fall, from which we gathered that they dug our record, and later we did quite a few dates supporting them. No one ever had sex with Brix (honest!), but she did punch Mr Jones in the head once. Coming off stage at a show in Hammersmith Town Hall in March '85, Owen Jones was a touch peeved about the fact that he'd just had to play for forty five minutes with no monitor mix worthy of the name, and, in disgust, KICKED open the door to what he thought was OUR dressing room. Of course, it wasn't, and THAT is how Owen got a smack in the mush from an astonished and alarmed Brixie. After she realised what had happened, though, she chilled right out and gave him a BIG KISS.

Pascal has always been a Fall fan (well, you DO, don't you?) and was very happy to start working with them a couple of years ago, but I don't actually know how this came to pass. We're not really in touch with The Fall right now.