- 1986, at school. Hearing U.S. 80’s – 90’s on the 6th Form ghetto blaster (it played LPs in an upright position!) and immediately feeling my life change forever.
- 1987, at Wolves Poly (Dudley site). Being harangued in the student union by a chap who’d seen The Fall supporting U2 about how terrible they were, he was really angry and upset, and seemed to think I personally had something to do with it. I laughed.
- Waiting in Wimpy in Dudley, February 1987, for the copies of The Frenz Experiment to arrive in the adjacent HMV with my fellow Fall-freak David. We kept going over all morning to check. Got so distracted I put sugar on my chips.
- Meeting Brix outside Birmingham Hummingbird, before their gig in March 1988. She was standing in the door of the Fall tour bus, I got her autograph.
- Kandi Klub, Bristol Bierkeller. The DJ stopped the music – stopped the music! – to harangue me about always requesting The Fall, who were according to him ‘a bunch of dinosaurs.’ In 1993…
- Meeting Mark E. Smith in the Seven Stars before their Bristol Fleece and Firkin gig in December 1999.
- My 2013 Fall Odyssey, 3 gigs on 3 consecutive nights in May: Cardiff, Bristol, then Fal(l)mouth. The latter was one of the best Fall gigs I have ever attended.
- Having to leave the February 2017 Cardiff Tramshed gig early to get the last train back to Bristol. Little did I know at the time I would never see them again.
- That Bristol Fiddlers gig, November 2017. The anticipation. The speculation. The devastation. The beginning of the end.
- Now, today. Realising that this is not the end, the music will be there forever, and although he is dead and gone, his vibrations will live on.
Nick Walters 