The Fall: Wall of Pain - Updated Edition

(Omnibus Press). Having known Fall leader Mark E. Smith since 1977, Manchester based music writer Mick Middles is ideally placed to pen the first ever authorized biography of this most inscrutable of bands led by one of the few genuine characters in rock today. Middles' biography, written with the full co-operation of Smith, will detail some 26 years on the fringe of the Manchester punk scene, three dozen albums, endless touring, two successful staged plays and numerous spoken-word events. Enigmatic, highly quotable, and adored by the music press, Smith's distinctive brand of working class intellectualism and unpretentious broadsides make for a biography that is highly entertaining and wholly illuminating.

Mick Middles has been writing about the Manchester music scene for over 30 years, initially for Sounds magazine and later for the Manchester Evening News. He has written books on Joy Division, New Order, the Stone Roses and Factory Records and in conjunction with Lindsay Reade, an acclaimed biography of Ian Curtis, also published by Omnibus Press. He has known Mark E Smith since the Fall's inception and brings to his work a deel local knowledge.