Description
Book SynopsisThe only way to appreciate the legendary Mark E Smith is to encounter the man in his own words.
''Ranting, raging, burning...relentlessly splenetic, a long and sustained rant... may also be the funniest music book ever written'' - Observer
''Unutterably funny... a riot of aimings and blamings and score-settlings. Smith manages to have a right laff, and reveal himself as a figure of dazzling sociological import'' - Independent on Sunday
The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands ever, their music - odd, spare, cranky and repetitious - an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand. And Mark E. Smith IS The Fall - 66 members came and went over the years yet he remained its charismatic leader until his death in 2018.
''If it''s me and yer granny on bongos, it''s The Fall.'' - Mark E. Smith
Mark was a professional outsider and all-round enemy of
Trade Review
Ranting, raging, burning...relentlessly splenetic, a long and sustained rant...may also be the funniest music book ever written * Observer *
Unutterably funny...a riot of aimings and blamings and score-settlings. Smith manages to have a right laff, and reveal himself as a figure of dazzling sociological import * Independent on Sunday *
Remarkable, brilliant. A provocative joy. Smith's rant gushes like a furious fountain of razor-sharp invective over his childhood and the early days of The Fall, relationships/ marriage, the record industry/ musicians and his views on everything from football to mobile phones, from drinking and drugs to driving, from books to bankruptcy, from Paul Morley to pubs. Unbeatable' Time Out
Engrossing, exhausting, dense with fascinating detail. As both memoir and cultural history, Renegade is a remarkable achievement * Daily Telegraph *
A hoot * Hot Press *
Stuffed with crazy wisdom * London Lite *
Hilarious * Scotland on Sunday *
A wide-ranging, eccentric set of fugitive opinions, a smart marshalling of numerous rambling pub conversations * The Times Literary Supplement *
Vicious, funny, always contrarian * Daily Telegraph *
Smith's about as reliable a narrator as the members of Motley Crue were in their depraved memoir The Dirt. And just as entertaining. Delving into Renegade is like listening to Smith hold court down the pub...it contains far too many astute, poetic observations to be dismissed as colourful ramblings from a committed curmudgeon * Scotsman *
Unutterably funny...a riot of aimings and blamings and score-settlings. Smith manages to have a right laff, and reveal himself as a figure of dazzling sociological import * Independent on Sunday *
