The Fall were notorious thanks to their legendary, one of a kind leader, the late Mark E. Smith who sacked more members over the years then he had cigarettes. He explained the band’s sliding doors policy succinctly when he said: “It’s a bit like a football team. Every so often you have to get rid of the centre-forward.”

Smith took part in NME’s regular feature “Portrait of the Artist as a Consumer” in 1981 where he proved that there were some things he did enjoy in life and curated a list of his favourite writers, comedians, books, films, and musicians.

Books

Gulcher – Richard Meltzer

A Small Town in Germany – John Le Carré

A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick

The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Deer Park – Norman Mailer

The Black Room – Colin Wilson

Ritual in the Dark – Colin Wilson

Cogan’s Trade – George V. Higgins

At the Mountains of Madness – H.P. Lovecraft

Beyond Good and Evil – Frederich Nietzsche

U.S. Civil War Handbook – William H. Price

How I Created Modern Music – D. McCulloch (a weekly serial)

True Crime Monthly

Private Eye

Fibs About M.E. Smith by J. Cope (a pamphlet)

WRITERS

Claude Bessy

Burroughs

ART

Wyndham Lewis

Malcolm Allison

Virgin Prunes

The Worst live, Marchester Dec. ’77

COMEDIANS

Lenny Bruce

Alan Pellay

Bernard Manning

All Ian Curtis derivatives

FILMS

Polanski’s Macbeth

Mel Brook’s (sic) High Anxiety

Fellini’s Rome

The Man with X-Ray Eyes and The Lost Weekend starring Ray Milland

Visconti’s The Damned

Days of Wine and Roses with Jack Lemmon

Charlie Bubbles with Albert Finney

TV

Bluey

John Cleese adverts

MUSIC

Take No Prisoners – Lou Reed

Peter Hammill

Johnny Cash

The Panther Burns

God Save the Queen – The Sex Pistols

Raw and Alive – The Seeds

Pebbles Vol. 3 – Various

16 Greatest Truck Driver Hits cassette

Radio City – Philip Johnson (cassette)

Der Plan

Alternative TV

Land of the Homo Jews and Hank Williams Was Queer, live – Fear (L.A. Group)

We’re Only In It for the Money – Mothers of Invention