Anyone else got this yet? Bloody great so far. Picked it up yesterday, 50 pages in and he's already given surnames to the early, fly-by-night members of the band. Nice work. I was surprised by how short and small it was when I saw it on the shelf in Helter Skelter, but beggars can't be choosers. The research is first rate.

what? i thought it wasnt out yet :wacko: i thought it was august when it came out....


what was dave the early drummer called? apart from dave...n fuck off wanker yer outta 't band

Well, there are a few copies in Helter Skelter which you can contact for mail order. I picked up a slightly cheaper copy in Soho.

Dave - can't find the page right now, but that might be the one who isn't identified come to think of it. I'm not convinced that even the band knew his surname! "Eric" is Eric McGann tho.

does it tell u the credits for each song ever done......i like knowing stuff like this.....come to think of it....does the official site do this.....i dont think it does....

i wanna know who is credited as writing '10 houses of eve' and also 'just step s'ways' please.....

I was expecting endless indexes from Ford, a la Wreckers Of Civilisation, but there's nothing - just biographical text. He indicates that Fallnet covers everything as well as you could reasonably hope, so directs people there. A lot of publishers seem to be discouraging list-heavy appendices these days. I wonder whose decision this was with Hip Priest.

You'll not be disappointed, Dave. This is very readable, with a confident compilation of research and published interviews that borders on the cocky.

Bloody Helter Skelter - I emailed them about shipping the User's Guide out to me in New Zealand, and they never even replied. :angry: I won't be bothering with them again.

Lucky for me, a top chap from this parish sent me his copy. :) It seems to steal a fair bit of stuff from the website (including some mistakes) without a word of thanks or more than a passing reference to the site tucked away on page 215.

I'm working on a song by song addition to the discography section which will include songwriting credits and details of all the different versions and on which release they appear. But it's a mammoth job and I'm only half way through the B's so far. Should be finished about this time next year!

10 Houses was written by Julia, lyrics MES. S'ways by MES alone, apparently.

User's Guide this is, not the Ford book.

I'll pick one up for you on Monday, Conway, seeing as though Helter Skelter gives you a sore head!

Love Ford's description of The Fall's confrontational lack of fashion, which "acted as the sartorial equivalent of his [MES's] splenetic lyrics - they were clothes that swore."

I am *so* looking forward to reading this book. Ordered it the other day, and didn't know it was out a bit earlier than expected, so... cool!

I too was pleasantly surprised to find Hip Priest already in Denmark St yesterday as I went on a gamble shirking fatherly resposibilities. Its a very good read but I feel Im getting through it too quickly. Just thought I'd chip my 10 pence in, if only to infuriate the impatient that live too far from the centre of the universe.
So fall shelf has 2 books on it (in print), is it two more to come -or just one? No chance of rivaling the dylanology aisles just yet.

There were a few copies of this in Foyles, London last time I was in there about a week ago....


Looks better than that User Guide thing

My copy arrived today. Will have to read it at work and come back with some thoughts. My only worry is that the 90s onwards are going to be a bit glossed over, and I don't quite think enough has been written about that time. Looks to be a good read, mind.

I've just reached 1994, with about 50 pages to go, which doesn't bode well, as you say Patrick. However, I wouldn't like to assume that Simon Ford's deliberately glossing over stuff. He seems to have the same enthusiasm for any period of the band's history that you care to name.

1977-82 benefits from a lot of fresh interviews with Friel, Baines, Riley et al, so that earns a lot of page space because it's clearly the really strong area of his research and it's a particularly fertile period to cover. Brix is good for the Beggars patch, as is Michael Clark (some great stuff on his collaborations), but each section rises and falls on what support he has from band members of the period, which inevitably limits it. He's managed to get a good spread, but the Dave Bush period is quite dependent on what he himself has to say. 1992 is not particularly well served, and I get the impression that Hanley and Scanlon do not have photographic recall.

On the other hand, I'm told that 1997/98 is very well served, so I'm looking forward to that bit.

Just picked up Hip Priest in Books Etc and read some on the Tube home. Bloody great so far.

sounds good to me - wrap it up

Right then...

It's very well written, as said before. Rather a lot of new interviews and things. My big problem however is that the 90s become more of a simple list of what happened and when - which is a great shame as I for one really wanted to know more about that era. I think everything that can possibly be written about the years 1977-89 has been written, and a bit more detail on what happened after that would have been much appreciated.

Still, a fantastic read if you're one of those early/Brix-era Fall fans, and I can't fault the research for the most part. Maybe it's because Dave Bush is the only major 90s source, or because of the declining sales resulting in less interviews at the time. The best Fall book so far by a country mile, though.

Oh, and I don't see what's wrong with The Light User Syndrome - a few duff tracks towards the end, but it's not a poor album by any means.

well i am glad to have found hip priest in manchester today...the bigger of the 2 waterstones had loads of copies...the smaller waterstones had only the fall user guide....at least i will have sth good to read on the plane tomorrow.... :) i still hate books of course... :angry:

Any juicy bits? ;)

hang on i will look in the index
....blah blah blah....

'joyce,mike' 173
'jung nev's antidotes' 269

'juicy bits' r not mentioned...sorry :(

as per usual u can't get it in Dublin...yet! :angry:
Amazon are not posting it out until the 7th Aug. at the earliest
(so no telling what happens in the end! - HAR! HAR!)

I was going to try HF or Water this morning
Still got the Users Guide in HF and saw a copy of it in HMV Grafton yesterday
Words of Expectation finally came into a Dublin shop last week - City Discs
We are poorly served in this city

ha ha ha ... Isn't there a lyric "he who throw's the last book on the fire..." somewhere, thought it was Mifddlemass but couldn't find it on the lyrics parade.

Bit silly, but I couldn't help sneaking a copy of Hip Priest onto the 'Recommended Reading' rack at Waterstones, hehe....

that's a great idea!

Finished reading Hip Priest last night and have to say I really enjoyed it!
I was glad to read that Brix is writing a book as she always gives (in my humble opinion) great insight into MES/The Fall. I enjoyed Dave Bush's account of how they got a £120,000 payoff in the early 90's.

I'm only on page 50 odd after picking it up today but it seems pretty addictive so far.

it's quite depressing that i have the same gas fire in the first photo of mes and una's flat. Yes, that was taken in 1977. i should get a new one eh?

sell it on bargain hunt as an antique..... :rolleyes:

I thought Simon Ford's bio ov Throbbing Gristle was unbelievably dry. Does his book on Smiffy and co suffer from thee same approach - ie endless lists and factoids at thee expense ov any actual descriptions of the people involved?

I really couldn't believe how dull thee TG book was, given thee subjekt matter. Anyone interested in that 'industrial' mind set (and music) would be much better off reading David Keenan's brilliant England's Hidden Reverse, if you ask me (which you didn't, I know), even though it doesn't much about TG in it.

Apologies for thee Temple Ov Psychic Youth-style spelling on this post

a curly c is as good as kickin k in my book

fair point

Just won this on ebay for $15 and thought I got a deal, then checked amazon.com/uk and see that they it is now easily had for about $10 US plus shipping (I'm in the US). A year or so ago you couldn't get it for under $30. I guess they printed up another run?

Well so much for that! I gave that one away as a gift thinking it would still be available cheaply a while back and it has shot up again everywhere! Must be out of print, again. :grrr: