Mark E. Smith

renegade

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Renegade

Penguin Shop: 3 Clothbound Classics for £33

Ranting, raging, burning...relentlessly splenetic, a long and sustained rant...may also be the funniest music book ever written

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

Engrossing, exhausting, dense with fascinating detail. As both memoir and cultural history, Renegade is a remarkable achievement

A wide-ranging, eccentric set of fugitive opinions, a smart marshalling of numerous rambling pub conversations

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

The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

Still going after thirty years, The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, 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 - 47 members have come and gone over the years yet he remains its charismatic leader, a professional outsider and all-round enemy of compromise, a true enigma. There have been a number of biographies of the legendary Smith, but this is the first time he has opened up in a full autobiography. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that has endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.

The 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 compromise, a true enigma. There have been a number of biographies of the legendary Smith, but this is the first time he opened up in a full autobiography. For the first time we hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst. 
 
'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

Mark E. Smith founded Manchester band The Fall in 1977, one of a great trio of bands (with Joy Division and the Buzzcocks) to come out of the city at that time. They released a remarkable 111 albums, and went through 66 different members over their 41 year existence. There was just one constant: Mark E. Smith, who continued releasing and touring right up until his untimely death in January 2018.

Renegade

The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

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Ranting, raging, burning...relentlessly splenetic, a long and sustained rant...may also be the funniest music book ever written

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

Engrossing, exhausting, dense with fascinating detail. As both memoir and cultural history, Renegade is a remarkable achievement

A hoot

Stuffed with crazy wisdom

Hilarious

A wide-ranging, eccentric set of fugitive opinions, a smart marshalling of numerous rambling pub conversations

Vicious, funny, always contrarian

About Mark E. Smith

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