Commentary

I have adopted the “Pop Stickers” title for annotation purposes here, because that is the title given it on “The Red Box”: The Fall Box Set 1976-2007 (Castle Music, 2007: CMXBX1558). 5xCD. Disc 5 – Live rarities. [Discogs], but it was called “Let’s” at the time. That’s how M.E.S. referred to it on stage, and that’s how it was written on set lists. It is common to see it referred to as “Pop Stickers (AKA Let’s)” (see for example The Track Record and The Fall Online: Gigography).

This song’s sole official release so far is on The Red Box, where it is credited to Mark E. Smith and Martin Bramah. It’s a live recording from The Nashville Room, London, 1 March 1979; there is no known studio version. The lyrics above are primarily based on The Red Box/Nashville Room performance.

As a short-lived early song, available only in live versions and with only one official release, “Pop Stickers” has had little attention from fans. But Marc Riley named it as one of his favourite songs (Peters, 2005, p.6), and Tommy Mackay notes that “the out of tune guitar’s all over the place, but eventually settles on an enchanting little trebly riff” (p.26). Steve Pringle likes it less, describing it as “jerky”, “light-hearted (and almost tuneless)” and “verging on pop-punk parody.” (p.586, note 416).

The song’s debut was at Bowdon Social Club on 14 February 1979 (it was performed twice that evening, because there were two shows – one for under 18s, and one for over 18s). Its last securely documented performance was at Club Lafayette, Wolverhampton, on 2 March 1979. The known performances (all of them circulating as bootleg recordings) are:

• 14 February 1979, 6:35pm performance: Bowdon Social Club, Altrincham. M.E.S.: “This is a new one… it’s so bloody new we don’t even know it. It’s very good though, couldn’t have missed it out, not for you kids. Right, ‘Let’s’.”
• 14 February 1979, 9:55pm performance: Bowdon Social Club, Altrincham. M.E.S.: “Right. And this next song is a new song and, er, we haven’t quite got it together yet. But when we do get it together [ ]. Erm, it’s an objective song. Right, ‘Let’s’.” Kay Carroll: “Come on! Excuses! Excuses, Mark!” M.E.S.: “I don’t need excuses.”
• 17 February 1979: Cavendish House, Manchester Polytechnic Students’ Union, Manchester.
• 26 February 1979: Carlton Club, Warrington.
• 1 March 1979: The Nashville Room, London.
• 2 March 1979: Club Lafayette, Wolverhampton.

The booklet accompanying The Red Box says (p.47) that “Pop Stickers” was “around for about a month in early 1979”, and it is true that its appearances on gig recordings and set lists only date from February and early March, as detailed above. However, there are a lot of gaps in the documentary record and it’s not impossible that it had a longer shelf-life than has been established, however there is no evidence that it did. Even if it did, personnel changes in the group mean it wouldn’t be surprising if it was dropped by mid-April anyway.

Martin Bramah – the song’s co-composer – left The Fall mid-tour in April 1979, necessitating the cancellation of a number of gigs. Steve Hanley and Craig Scanlon were drafted in from Staff 9, the band they had formed after Marc Riley left The Sirens to join The Fall, and which had supported The Fall several times in the first half of 1979. Absorbing Hanley and Scanlon, The Fall also adopted and adapted one of Staff 9’s songs, “Pop Stock”, written by Craig Scanlon. Having dropped “Pop Stickers”, M.E.S. cannibalised its lyrics and, combining his text with Craig’s tune and “Pop-stock, mix my pop-stock” chorus, The Fall apparently debuted the resulting song, called “Choc-Stock“, at the Marquee, London, on 29 July 1979. I say “apparently” because there is some uncertainty and doubt given the lack of documentation of many of the 1979 gigs and the existence of bootleg tapes with obviously incorrect date/venue attribution. Also, The Fall Online Gigography lists a Marquee gig on 29 June, which The Track Record omits: an example of an unresolved and currently unresolvable question.

Since the lyrics to “Choc-Stock” are very similar to “Pop Stickers”, M.E.S.’s comments by way of explanation of the former would also apply to the latter:

“Chock Stock started as a propop song cos all the people into the Fall, the Pop Group, Gang of Four, Throbbing Gristle and who fuckin laugh at pop fans are patronizing, that’s all. At least the kids into pop are being honest.”

Mark E. Smith, interviewed by Slash (1980, p.28). “Chock Stock” is how it is spelled in Slash.

A sheet of paper with draft lyrics under the title “Let’s” were sold by Omega Auctions on 12 September 2023 (from Mark E. Smith’s possessions, consigned to auction by his family). See the image at the top of this Commentary. What can be heard on the various live recordings of the song are much simpler than the draft. Here is a transcription (spelling corrected and initial letters of each line capitalised, but lineation and punctuation from the original retained as far as possible):

We like pop-stickers. We like weak tea.
Let's get our blazers off. Let's eat a buttered crust
We like pop-stickers. We like weak TV
We like chocolate animals. We eat pork piggies

Let's hear a song for. Let's read a card for
The teenage groupies and mental runaways
We like pop stickers we like weak tea
Get it together and ignore the weather 

We like pop stickers we like weak tea
Let's get blazers off Let's rush or we're late 
Why are you smiling? Why are you laughing?
At or with this song. It's not like your scene

But all the bourgeoisie in the jazz scene
Think we're funny laugh with their fat bellies
Progressive new wavers. Tough guy rockers
In earrings. Black doc musicians

Think only of women. Money and acclaim
While selling anti-sexism / Their diffuse revolution
To play their tech-music / No matter how bad it is
To middle class inadequates / Who tolerate their bad manners

But they are products / Of same systems
Beyond their control / They stayed on at school
We like weak tea
Come on cats / Let's get this thing together
And make it bad.