Excavate!

THE LOUDER THAN WAR #1 BOOK OF THE YEAR A ROUGH TRADE, THE TIMES, MOJO, UNCUT, THE HERALD BOOK OF THE YEAR This is not a book about a rock band. This is not even a book about Mark E Smith. This is a book about The Fall group - or more precisely, their world. 'To 50,000 Fall Fans: please buy this inspired & inspiring, profound & provocative, beautiful & bonkers Book of Revelations.' DAVID PEACE 'Mind blowing . . . there is so much to enjoy in this brilliant book.' TIM BURGESS 'A container sized treasure trove . . . I strongly advise you to buy it.' MAXINE PEAKE 'The most wonderful, unashamedly intellectual, pretentious, ridiculous, exciting hymn to this incredible group.' ANDY MILLER, BACKLISTED Over a prolific forty-year career, the Fall created a world that was influential, idiosyncratic and fiercely original - and defied simple categorisation. Their frontman and lyricist Mark E. Smith spun opaque tales that resisted conventional understanding; the Fall's worldview was an education in its own right. Who wouldn't want to be armed with a working knowledge of M. R. James, shipping-dock procedures, contemporary dance, Manchester City and Can? The group inspired and shaped the lives of those who listened to and tried to make sense of their work. Bringing together previously unseen artwork, rare ephemera and handwritten material, alongside essays by a slate of fans, EXCAVATE! is a vivid, definitive record - an illumination of the dark corners of the Fall's wonderful and frightening world. this whole book is the most wonderful, unashamedly intellectual, pretentious, ridiculous, exciting hymn to this incredible group.' ANDY MILLER, BACKLISTED 'A bit like a eulogy and a lot like pornography for Fall fans. This is not in the pejorative . . . True to the Fall, EXCAVATE! hurtles downward into the psychogeography of Smith's gospel, flinging hot and strange shrapnel in its wake . . . gorgeous.' THE WASHINGTON POST ***'***Excavate! is testament to the power such an effort sets out to rationalise, domesticate and destroy, placing The Fall in the hidden heart of the last 40 years of contemporary art.' THE WIRE 'A satisfying reminder of Smith's scabrous wit, unique visual style and rich literary hinterland.' CLASSIC ROCK 'A thoroughly engrossing, insightful and immersive trawl through the wonderfully strange Fall-world' RECORD COLLECTOR