I don't think Smith could have got away with calling it a Fall album. There ain't no tunes on it. It would have alienated even more punters than usual.

Whistle along to that one! :)

I don't like the fact it [ppp] is all one continuous track...they could have made it sound like a continuous track , but that you could still select the tracks u wish to skip to , and insert them tracks in compilalations with other fall stuff, cos there r pauses on this album to do this...cos i tried to do this myself breakin it into shorter mp3s.....and there r segments that correspond apparently to some of the titles on the cover...but not sure where all of them start/end, exist/not exist.

maybe they will reveal the separate tracks on a reissue....or am i just killing 'the concept'?

DIE CONCEPT DIE!!!!

THE NEAREST I'D HEARD TO IT WAS DEREK N CLIVE....but i sadly mark was not funnier ....but it was a soul on the line... i salute him for that

aint got post nearly....never bothered with it....only got ppp cos it was cheap...call meself a fall fan....anyway...u've put me off it now so i aint gerrin it....unless it's very cheap

I think u really like this album patrick....but for me it was best when it was funny cos...it wasnt music....hence i compared it to derek n clive...n the bernard manning standard about i 'm a fuckin duck is as funny as it gets

i dont really have any relaxing albums...i've just checked

anyway i just go n have sex...cant really understand y mark would rather run round the block..... classical music sometimes makes me relax....cos it sends me to sleep...too blendy!!![no i never made this word up!] not enough rhythm in it

post nearly man £8 !!!...i'm havin it...ordered it at once....i could have drove down to preston tomorrow but it might have gone...so it's mine mine mine HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA......

hmm...i hope it's good

Speaking of the fall tunes.....i was arguing with a friend of mine....she reckons that the fall have no catchy tunes.....i cant understand this cos i find a large percentage of them catchy...i wonder if anyone in here can back me up in this unbiased room....do the fall write catchy tunes?

HEY HEY!!!!! THE POPES A PERV!!! sing 4x to tune of INDUSTRIAL ESTATE .....kinda catchy :)

This morning i got post nearly man ..... i have only played 1st 5 tracks....then got bored cos i wanted to listen to some music....it seemed like ppp , but clearer, and many of the tracks on pnm r on ppp, but so far it is more studio like.....ppp almost seems like a live badly recorded version of pnm, but ppp seems to be more amusing, so far.....but i did think 'i'm bobby pt 1' was reasonably interesting...although i have made more interesting noises with me mates and various household appliances :wacko: ...for me pnm is ok but not sth i would want to play a lot ...i would rather have the fall

PRICELESS !
I adore listening to Mark talk. Prior to the spoken word albums, I would listen repeatedly to the interview portion of my PBL vid, and snipets of interviews off the net that I'd burn to CD.
It never gets old. The parts that are absolute classics are:

--"I built myself up like Sting and don't carry any money around. From shopkeeper I look and made you UM class and got 100 grand per year. Do not contradict.......My spouse solicitor: do more tunes."

--"Being psychic has never done me any good whatsoever, as I always knew it would not." :wacko:

--"Sodomised and subsidised non-comedians in our wretched environment."

--"It's Saturday, Let's go out and flaunt our money around in front of low-paid student bar staff."

--"Although you've worked in the same team since leaving college, you have not progressed very far. This is not a problem."

& the hands down best line on the album is..............
--"So there's two cows in a field and one says to the other "What do ya think about that mad cow disease - foot 'n mouth?", and the other one says "It doesn't affect me, I'm a fucking duck." :blink:

course they do. :/

You've touched a nerve, Patrick - here I am, an unabashed advocate that anything-MES-does-is-genius-doesn't-matter-who's-in-the-band, and I've ignored Post-Nearly and PPP altogether after dismissing them as sideline, marginal projects.

Action Records, take note - when COC finally emerges, set aside these two (or have they ben deleted?! shock!horror!) plus Levitate and I'll make up for lost time....

And Adam, don't give away the punchlines mate!

Leave his holiness out of it, Dave.... and the Pope, too!

I like the note "plus 5 previously unrealeased sentences" This is worthy of the hex sleeve.
Loads better than Post nearly on the grounds of listenability. Post nearly is obviously more complex and writerly but so sloppily executed in a mates back from the pub kind of way. Some of that stuff could have made a great Murder Mystery (VU) style , HP lovecraft fall epic. Oh well.

I mentioned that this record had a great sleeve, but I think it deserves a bit more credit than that. What does everyone (or the three of four people who bought PPP) think of this one?

I've never heard Post Nearly Man properly (only one or two tracks and the odd frightening snippet on headphones in Borders in Oxford), so I suppose this is my introduction to solo Smith. I reckon it's really rather good - sure, the bits from Fall songs drag the album down a bit, but the new material is brilliant. It's got that dark side to it (PPP seems especially bleak near the end for some reason) but it's funny as well (the anti-Harry Hill rant must rate among MES's best, surely?). I wouldn't say MES comes across as sensitive in some parts, but he certainly seems sorta reflective - I'd almost suggest it seems like he's mellowed out a bit if the last Peel session didn't completely wipe that notion off the face of the earth. Yeah, good album.

There was a review on Teletext in December, while we're at it - might be a good idea to put it in the archive because due to my alarmingly complete memory I can recite the review almost word-for-word:

"The ultimate in control freakery as the Fall frontman releases a spoken word album edited together as one 42-minute track.

"It's very strange and very British, but it's hard to imagine when you might want to listen to it.

"While readouts from Fall songs like Lucifer Over Lancashire and Idiot Joy Showland may be striking, there's enough here to suggest that Smith's next foray into the spoken word may well be spectacular. 7 out of 10"

I'd give PPP a 7 or an 8 out of 10 - while the new stuff is great, the readings of Fall lyrics and bits of Nearly Man are padding. And more could have been done with the musical side of things. Does anyone know who played on this album, BTW?

I am quite fond of PPP, though - I find it ideal for relaxing to in the same way that some strange people find The Orb relaxing. Probably the weirdest CD I own apart from PIL's Flowers Of Romance just for the various eccentricities.

I think somebody (I forget who) said on Fallnet last year that if Nearly Man had been released as a Fall album proper, then it would have been much better recieved. I don't know. Still not heard about 80% of the thing.

I did not know [what to] expect when I bought this. But it blew me away the first time I heard it. I don't think anything like this has ever been done before.
I love that 'Brief for Charles Stuart" bit.
The artwork app"ar"ently was done by Elanor, as I assume that's what it means by 'Elanor Smith / Lazy Lady E.P.' And it's really good.

Hurrah i can finally post.
This is really a test but seeing as i have landed here, i'll throw my hat in the PPP ring.

Although i like PPP i much prefer PNM.

It has more ideas, more "original" material and it's just flat out "weird" in a way i like Mr Smith to be.
I was impressed mostly by the density of the text if that doesn't sound stupid.
I was getting bored of Fall tracks featuring "minimal" lyrics and it was a treat and then some to listen to MES blabbering on like it's 1982/83.
Horror in Clay/dissolute singer/i'm bobby/visit of an american poet: alone say more about why i like THE FALL than a hundred Cerebral Caustics/Marshall Suites/Are you are... etc.

It really seemed like a lot of effort was put into it which is ironic given the sound quality in some sections but as you all know that is part of The Fall "sound"

The story about Mark being held hostage in his own home is classic- especially the bloke in the background saying "she was quite a serious threat because she was an American Poet"

PPP starts off great but i don't really care for the "lyric readings" and the joke is copped DIRECTLY from a BERNARD MANNING LP- including the delivery!!!
Why i know this i don't know!
Anyway it still features plenty of great sections.

I'd give PNM -8/10 and PPP -6/10

Anyway i'm just off to cash my giro then going to Kwik Save for some booze! ;)

Fear not.
Post Nearly Man is a GREAT record.
In fact i'll stick my neck out and say i prefer it to most of THE FALL's output throughout the 90's.
It's odd, creepy funny and unnerving. EXACTLY the qualities that got me "into" THE FALL in the first place.

Like i said...

Fear not.
Post Nearly Man is a GREAT record.
In fact i'll stick my neck out and say i prefer it to most of THE FALL's output throughout the 90's.
It's odd, creepy funny and unnerving. EXACTLY the qualities that got me "into" THE FALL in the first place.

The other thread's lost amongst polls, so here's a fresh one.
This record's become my favourite for slipping under, and what better to do at the beginning of Bank Holiday weekend than a PPPanzer session ..
`
Nothing negative - there's plenty of that elsewhere - I'd just like to hear from anyone else who gets off on this lp :ohdear:

r u gonna form a support group then :P

Friends Of Pander!Panda!Panzer!

try listening to post nearly man on headphones-sweet -_-

I do actually like both mes spoken albums. Very rare i play em but when i do i enjoy em. I have to be in a certain err frame of mind for them though...usually drunk :blink: PPP is worth getting just to hear mes crack his "foot n mouth" joke! And his comments about "Harry hill". Not gonna mention the mastering on PPP as we all know about that dont we!

i think yer right......................speakin of drunk...........i'll put it on

so what do u think the title is.......?

panda [ie what it is......an animal bein cute]

pander [ the wanting to be nice to it]

panzer [ the wanting to destroy n threaten it]

Interesting theory Dave. Not sure the rspca would be keen though! :lol: :lol:

:lol: not real pandas though ...the spirit of it

AHHH! i see! :D Ive always wondered who came up with all the keyboard sounds and sound effects for PPP. Theres some interesting sounds on there if you listen close enough.

Honest though is PPP worth getting?
I've got all of the studio Fall stuff but no spoken word albums -
It aint like Ivor Cutler or any of that crap is it?

Typical Ivor Cutler:
Harmonia noise
Ivor: "Mummy can I have a sweetie?"
"No, your brother ate it."
Harmonia noise.

Or is it like William Burroughs?
Or just the Fall with no guitars or what
Never seen a proper description of these albums

Yeah! id recommend getting it. But dont blame me if when you get it you think its crap....please!!! :(

I probably won't - gorra lotta strange stuff kicking about here - A spoken word album by Willem De Ridder - A strange record called RECORD that came out on ASH international a few years back - Will give them a go if I see them cheap

If you mean random, then it certainly isn't - what I found surprising about the record is the way it leads you through .. so well.
The beginning is kind of what I'd expected to be the whole thing - text delivered over ominous keyboard, and even when a [dutch?] girl comes in speaking the same words as mes, it's something you can follow, and fear doing so over 45 minutes - potential headache material.
But then it starts to fragment with live sound - the hilarious distraction of punter whistling aimlessly; clears up suddenly, then plunges into a straightforward live recording. This soon descends into oblivion though as mark's voice stretches +falls away . . and then you're off :down in some subterranean region - the ambient sounds come into their own. Got an arabic flavour, as I hear it. Some classical +choral bits for what I take to be Cambridge recordings.
From then on it's a fluctuation between that world and reality - not always snapping back as harsh as you'd expect. Barks vs. chuckles.
The one that really gets me is after 'cheerio Charlie', when you dive deep into 'Lucifer Over Lancashire'.
In a double cycle, the beginning comes around midway through, and that's also where you end up at the end.