Just finished reading Dave Simpson’s remarkable The Fallen: Searching for Missing Members of the Fall.

If you’ve even heard of The Fall, you’re probably at least marginally aware that A) they’ve been around forever and have some 30+ album (50+ counting the live ones), and B) the sole remaining member from the original group is mercurial leader Mark E. Smith, a truly unique figure in rock music.

Fall fans, myself included, tend to be…um…obsessive about the group, but Simpson takes it to a higher level than most:  he took it upon himself to track down all of the former members of the Fall, and there are dozens of them.  Their stories, both about their time in the band and what’s happened to them since leaving it, are by turns hilarious, infuriating, illuminating and puzzling.  It’s a great read, especially if you dig The Fall.

It makes me wonder about where all the former members of the Long Afternoon are today.  I know where some of them are, and what some of them are doing.  Others I know where they are, but have no idea what they’re up to…and others are just, well, gone.

In the days to come I’ll post my own list of the fallen from the Long Afternoon, and what they’re doing now where I’m privy to that information.  It’s very gratifying to me to have been able to play with such a diverse group of people who, for the most part, have gone on to do very distinguished and exciting things.

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