the man

Mark E. Smith (born 5 March 1957) is the lead singer, lyricist, co-composer and frontman of The Fall, a renowned and idiosyncratic offshoot from the UK post-punk / new wave music scenes. Mark Edward Smith was born to a working-class family in Broughton, Salford, in Lancashire, England, moving to nearby Prestwich, near Bury early in his life. He formed The Fall (named after the novel by Camus) with friends after dropping out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job at Salford docks shortly after to devote his full energies to The Fall, and has continued to do so ever since.

Read more about Mark E. Smith on Last.fm.

Hailing from Endicott, NY, Gary Wilson is an archetypal figure in the "outsider music" movement with other artists like The Shaggs and Jandek as its most notable members. Gary Wilson first came onto the scene in 1977 with "You Think You Really Know Me," which he recorded alone in his parents' basement. Using synthesizers and spinning disturbing tales of obsession with different women, Wilson's record had no effect on the mainstream but its cold detachment and electro-funk aesthetic was a hit with the college radio stations.

Read more about Gary Wilson on Last.fm.

Maurice Fulton's name is one of those unexpected recurrences in dance music, I mean still knowing almost nothing about him he never seemed to merit mention along with Frankie Knuckles/Bones/Whoever nor in the Detroit pack of May, Carter, Atkins, and of course the master Craig or early euro-stirrers like Kirk Degiorgio and others. But none of that really matters, much like early hip-hop or the days of disco, house music wasn't created with the intention of lasting, crates of 12"s siphoned off the press with none of rock's bravado of "making it" either financially or into history.

Geoffrey Paul Barrow (born 9 December 1971, Walton in Gordano, Somerset, England) is the producer/instrumentalist for Bristol-based Portishead since it's inception in 1991. At the dawn of the '90s, Barrow was making a name for himself as a remixer, working with such artists as Primal Scream, Paul Weller, Gabrielle and Depeche Mode. In addition, Barrow had produced a track for Tricky and written songs for Neneh Cherry.