Telling Stories: Photographs of The Fall

by Kevin Cummins, Simon Armitage (Foreword)

The ultimate visual history of The Fall from renowned photographer Kevin Cummins, including interviews, essays and contributions from the band members themselves

Contains never-before-seen images.

From chaotic early gigs to their final years, NME photographer Kevin Cummins provides a definitive, unique perspective on cult favorites The Fall. In this stunning visual history spanning four decades, discover how and why they emerged as one of the most innovative, boundary-breaking bands in modern music.

With interviews and essays from the band's members and devotees, as well as never-before-seen images from Cummins' archives, this is the ultimate visual companion to The Fall.

Genres: Music, Photography, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 11, 2022

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls]

Vintage Fall snappery, from the cuddly-cardiganed fresh-faced Fall of 1977 to one last shot of the battle-hardened MES kermitting into the microphone cupped in his hands to a devoted crowd in 2014. The bulk of the images are from the early period, capturing the sneer and venom of the unwashed oik at his frothing peak, then taking in peeps at the I Am Kurious Oranj period, the brooding pout of misery-soaked 90s MES, to the clownish and victorious later years, as The Fall flourished under the stewardship of Eleni Poulou. This volume includes a brief interview with Eleni from 2022 (nothing too revealing) and an introduction from former poet laureate Simon Armitage. Catnip-ah for Fall fans-ah!

[John Spiller]

A chronological photo album of The Fall, well, primarily Mark E. Smith from inception until a few years before MES's death in 2018. The photography is stellar. For each group of pictures, there are a few contact sheets containing images, most of which cannot be seen except with a jewelers' loup. Racing through these images, it is remarkable to see how significantly MES declined in appearance from the late 90's to the early 2000's. It is almost as if his face melted and was pushed back into place.