Former members of The Fall announce ‘Slates Live’ EP
Former members The Fall have announced the re-release of ‘Slates’, containing live renditions of the original tracks.
The return sees the surviving members of the ‘80s post-punk group deliver a live version of their fan-favourite 1981 project, ‘Slates’ – nearly 50 years after they first formed.
To create the new release, four ex-members of the line-up – Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon, Paul Hanley and Steve Hanley – have come together once again to revisit the archive recordings. It is set to arrive on April 26 via Bella Union’s subsidiary label POPSTOCK.
With the new EP, The Fall present live versions of the six songs that made up the original mini-LP, variously recorded in Holland, Hamburg, Glasgow and London. These singular versions were chosen to present the songs at every stage of their live performance, both pre and post-recording.
“To have the opportunity for all four of us to work together on this release has been a real privilege,” the members said of the upcoming release. “‘Slates’ was always one of our favourite records and these versions not only prove what a great bunch of songs it contains but also how much we were able to enhance them live on stage.”
According to a recent update on Bella Union’s Instagram page, the EP was “lovingly curated with input from band members at every stage, including sourcing, mastering and design”. It also confirms that it comes with “sleeve notes by Fall Uber-fan Stewart Lee” – making it “the type of release that Fall fans have been craving for years”.
Visit here to pre-order the EP, and check out both the artwork and tracklist below.
The ‘Slates Live’ tracklist is:
1. ‘Middle Mass’
2. ‘An Older Lover etc.’
3. ‘Prole Art Threat’
4. ‘Fit And Working Again’
5. ‘Slags, Slates Etc.’
6. ‘Leave The Capitol’
In other Fall news, back in 2022, five musicians who played as part of the band throughout the various line-up changes assembled to create a new group called House Of All. The members of the new band included drummers Simon Wolstencroft and Paul Hanley, who joined The Fall between 1980 to 1997, as well as former bassist Steve Hanley and guitarists Pete Greenway and Martin Bramah.
The quintet described House Of All as “a Fall Family Continuum project” and in 2023 announced their first-ever tour throughout England, with an eponymous debut album due for release in April. However, the family of frontman Mark E. Smith – who was The Fall’s only constant member until its disbandment after his death in 2018 – later rejected House Of All, describing the project as “extremely offensive”.
Around the same time, Brix Smith shared three singles from her recent solo album ‘Valley Of The Dolls’, and told NME that she regarded the project as being “the best thing I’ve done since The Fall”.
The post Former members of The Fall announce ‘Slates Live’ EP appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
