Commentary

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Songs like ‘Industrial Estate’ – that was the second or third song that I wrote the music for, but the lyrics came first – it’s a sort of poem; a hard poem. You can tell it was written at work. It’s about working on the docks, on a container base. So of course I presented it to the group and they want to know what it’s all about. They would prefer me to write about velvet shiny leather, the moon and all that kind of thing, like Television or The Velvets. As a compromise I wrote the chorus – ‘Yeah, yeah, industrial estate’ – to make it a bit more American rocky. And I wrote this sub-Stooges music to go with it, Stooges without the third chord. At the time, people thought it was terrible because it wasn’t the way it should be, it wasn’t ‘in tune’. But I never wanted The Fall to be like one of those groups. I didn’t care what people thought.

Smith, 2008b, pp.63-64.

Smith’s comment on “Industrial Estate” in Renegade, quoted above, creates the impression that he was solely responsible for both the lyrics and the music. However, the Live at the Witch Trials sleevenotes credit the song to Smith, Martin Bramah and Tony Friel.

A faded draft of the lyrics to this this song can be found in the Blue Book (Smith, 2008a, no page numbering).

The earliest documented performance of “Industrial Estate” was at North West Arts, Manchester, on 13 June 1977. It remained in the set list until the end of December 1978 – its last documented performance was at the Marquee, London, on 17 December; we don’t have any information about what was played at the last two gigs of 1978, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to presume “Industrial Estate” wasn’t dropped until the end of the year. That was also when Karl Burns left the group, which may or may not be relevant.

Twenty years later, to the surprise of Fall fans, “Industrial Estate” was briefly revived as Mark E. Smith began to piece The Fall back together following the on-stage implosion of the Burns-Crooks-Hanley-Nagle line-up at Brownies on 7 April 1998. Barely recognisable versions of the song were played at Dingwalls on 27 and 28 April and at the Reading Alleycat on 30 April (with Stuart Estell playing guitar from the audience, see Simpson, 2009, pp.232-233). It was never played again.