Rome didn’t matter or come off
But Heaven and Hell did
And look up
The fire, the fire is falling
And look up, look up
(W.B. The Unutterable, 2000)
Ya’see, I would never dare dream put myself in the same bracket as a true one-off artist anti-showman showman like Mark E. Smith, but, his untimely passing only serves to remind me of our own callings in life, how we identify our talent, nurture our passions and realise them to positive effect.
Some people have likened my bluff, no-nonsense, blunt and frank approach to life to MES, his refusal to be co-opted and exploited, his direct attacks on the bland, the insipid and norms demanded on us by mainstream society. It’s not for me to say, but, I can’t deny that the minute I first heard his seminal group The Fall (back in 2014, history fans) I sensed a kinship I had only previously experienced with auteurs such as Truffaut, Warhol, Da Vinci and Murs. I jest, I mean, Olly Murs*, come on, I am as far removed from that talentless, ‘one pie away from obesity chipmunk-fizzogged galoot’ as is perceptible! But, you get my point?
Modern society only truly remembers the FALLen when its too late, but, the work, the mystery, the poetry and the magic prevail through the art we produce, in my case my films, books and articles that address the human condition and how it is imperative that all inequality and discrimination are impeded and curtailed before they can spread their malevolent tentacles.
MES was a visionary, a seer, a believer in the power of art to communicate meaning whomever you are, wherever you’re from, whatever identity you choose for yourself at any time of the day. ‘Be yourself’ he always seemed to hector. A 24 carat, 24/7, 365er, a working class deity for ever.
Here’s my particular favourite of the irrepressible genius that was … IS Mark E. Smith (1957 – 2018)
‘Last orders (x4)
Everyone’s in prison or in the army
All sincere, all phoney
Reading all the books, taking in the news’
You might have got this far and asked yourself ‘Where’ve you been all this time?’ Allow me. I’ve been travelling around the war-torn climes of Central Africa documenting the despair among joy (in monochrome on a Nikon D850), charting the everyday struggles of the oppressed and suppressed as part of a new series I will be pitching to SKY TV in the coming months. Called War, what is it good for? it will be a 12 part opus in the vein of Ken Burns’s seminal works on jazz, the American Civil War and Vietnam. Gotta aim high, it’s what MES would advise.
Stay tuned for more news on this.
Peace
x
*I assure you, this is the first and only time me and Murs will be muttered in the same sentence
Working Class Worrier 