#thefall summarised, not entirely accurately, by Jackie magazine, 7 June 1986, p4. From a page on "indie bands" titled "Never 'Eard of 'Em?" Also covered: Chakk, Half Man Half Biscuit, Hipsway, Laurie Anderson, The Shop Assistants, The Cramps, New Order and... Balaam And The Angel.

Interview with Brix Smith from Jackie magazine, 29 July 1989, p.46

"How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'" reviewed in Zigzag magazine, #105, September 1980. p.40 #thefall.

In 1980, with IPC titles NME & Melody Maker on strike, publisher Felix Dennis launched the short-lived New Music News. #2, dated 17 May, has a review of #thefall's live album "Totale's Turns" by friend-of-the-group Claude Bessy @steve69.bsky.social @fallnews.bsky.social @thefallthings.bsky.social

#thefall "2 x 4": "Used table leg to club son-in-law" lyric. Another example of MES use of newspaper headlines. I found this in Manchester Evening News, 20 Aug 1983 p29. Song's live debut was Nottingham 27 Sept 1983. Source: www.newspapers.com/article/manc...

I tracked down the Tong interview back in August 2019:

"Religion costs much - but irreligion costs more". Comment on "Fit and Working Again", #TheFall, Slates, Apr 1981. Not MES' phrase: earliest instances I found are from US as far back as 22 Jan 1925 (clip from Cassopolis Vigilant p4). But MES likely saw Martin Amis's Observer article, 21 Sept 1980:

"Oh! Brother" by #thefall: "He scrutinised a little monster / And disappeared through red door" (followed in early live versions & Blue lyrics book with "I adopt this child") inspired by Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Hapgood trans. book 4, ch. 1)

MES on Scritti from Record Mirror interview by Chris Westwood, 22 March 1980, p.34: "Like Scritti Politti - strip away the politics, strip away this and that - they've got the best rhythm section in the country...."