Written by:
Mark E.Smith, Craig Scanlon, Steve Hanley
Initial release:
Middle Class Revolt, Cog Sinister/Permanent; PERMLP16 LP; PERMMC16 Cassette; PERMCD16 CD
Date:
3 May 1994
Subsequent releases:
Middle Class Revolt, Artful, ARTFULCD23; 5 July 1999
Middle Class Revolt, Castle/Sanctuary, CMQDD1226 CD; 13 March 2006
Group on initial recording:
Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar, vocals; Steve Hanley – bass, Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums, keyboards; Karl Burns – drums
Commentary:
Semi-throwaway track from the Middle Class Revolt album, this features snippets of a radio conversation, guitar twanging and radio noises.
This is the full extract of the chat between John Peel and Craig Scanlon, which took place on Saturday, 12 February 1994, following a 0-0 stalemate between Manchester City and West Ham United, which The Fall guitarist had attended:
Peel: Craig, you’ve been to see Manchester City. How was it?
Scanlon: Er, grim.
Peel: Grim? Really? Well once again, you see, because people always assume that I’ve got loads of technology available to me here and lots of people rushing about giving me bits of paper like they do on television. In fact I’m Just watching the television so erm…
Scanlon: (?)
Peel: The city score passed me by I’m afraid
Scanlon: It was nil-nil
Peel: Who were you playing?
Scanlon: It was West Ham
Peel: All right, tell us all about it
Scanlon:Well I mean the first half we were all over them. It’s a typical City game, y’know. We were like totally outplayed, and they’re rubbish anyway, West Ham, it’s got to be said.
Peel: There’s going to be a lot of people driving south who are going to turn their cars around and go back towards Manchester
Scanlon:Oh yeah good I hope (? Sherwood’s ? listening…but erm no we were all over them in the first half and I don’t know what he puts in the tea Brian Horton in the second half but erm we were like kinda zombies when we came back on. There weren’t any good players apart from er Rocastle which I thought was
he was dazzling on that match on television well there was just that little thing where he
he just sort of rolled the ball under his feet
and got away from three defenders. yeah brilliant
Peel: A good buy then?
Scanlon: He was well we swopped him for David White – they got the real rough end of the stick there which is good…but as I say we just kind of…we’re playing really nice football at the moment because Niall Quinn’s not there …we used to like kind of like boot the ball to Quinn and he’d just head it to the opposing side’s defender
Peel: Now you have to do something else with it
Scanlon: Yes we do we play lots of football loads of passing we’re playing too much football…they’re just like everyone’s looking for a passing opportunity instead of like a scoring opportunity
Peel: Not going to go down though
Scanlon: Er, I don’t know…everyone else in the band thinks they’re going to go down but they’ve just suddenly come out of the closets discovered that their grandfather was a United fan right from years back…it’s like the whole of Manchester at the moment anyway
Peel: They’re all United fans?
Scanlon: Yeah you suddenly see all the United shirts
Peel: I was told I was always told er the conventional wisdom was that United supporters who people who didn’t live in Manchester they all came from roundabout and the City everybody in Manchester actually supported City which isn’t the case any more
Scanlon: Well, the true Mancunian is the Man City fan I find…I mean they’re all Cockney reds really…the bass player and the drummer they’ve suddenly discovered they’re United fans
Peel: That’s shocking that…how can people do that? I can’t imagine changing your allegiance like that
Scanlon: Well, it’s a sign well following City you’ve got to be some kind of a masochist because they can be brilliant one week…I mean the Ipswich thing when Franny Lee came was really good he came last week
Peel: What did you think of Ipswich by the way because I see them fairly regularly
Scanlon; Er, fairly good er fairly good football you know nice passes and everything
Peel: You don’t score against them
Scanlon: They’re quite like City in that they can’t finish off
Peel: That’s right…you don’t score against them another goalless score they were involved in today
Scanlon: Yeah
Peel: you got any Fall stories for us Craig before we go
Scanlon: Not really. We’re just finishing an LP now and then er there’s a kind of tentative thing we might be going to Russia
peel; All right…
Scanlon: Doing a tour and that
Peel: Okay well listen thanks very much
Scanlon: All right then
Peel: And if you feel like doing this again please do you know always nice to hear from well, anybody from The Fall of course always gives a particular frisson on this programme
Scanlon: Try to get the BBC to get you a season ticket though
Peel: All right I’ll see what I can do
Scanlon: All right thanks John
Peel: All the best
Manchester City finished 16th in the Premier League at the end of the 1993-4 season and were consequently not relegated.