Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester[1][2] and was its leader until his death.

During their 42-year existence, the Fall's line-up included some sixty musicians, with whom Smith released 32 studio albums and numerous singles and EPs.

That year, he left home and moved in with his girlfriend and future Fall keyboardist, Una Baines, later of the Blue Orchids.

[16] The Fall were named after the 1956 novel by Albert Camus, and initially consisted of Smith and his friends Martin Bramah, Una Baines and Tony Friel.

[27] After the influential British DJ and Fall supporter John Peel died in 2004, Smith made a notorious appearance on the BBC's Newsnight show in which he seemed stunned and incoherent, which he afterwards put down to a rare incidence of stage fright.

Steve Hanley is regarded by many as one of the most talented bassists of his generation, equal to Peter Hook, Andy Rourke or Gary Mounfield.

[30] Smith appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwyn Collins, Elastica, Gorillaz,[31] Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut and Ghostigital.

[40] Tributes to Smith came from Brix Smith, Tim Burgess, Liam Gallagher, Andy Bell, Mat Osman, Billy Bragg, Win Butler, Cat Power, Edgar Wright, the Pixies, Garbage, Stuart Murdoch, Terry Christian, Graham Coxon, Irvine Welsh and Gorillaz.

[43] His abstruse song titles, often derived from cutting out words and phrases from books and newspapers, reflect the same tendency, with a notable example being "To Nkroachment: Yarbles" (1985).

[44] A number of Smith's vocal tracks were recorded spontaneously at his home, when he sang into a dictaphone or cassette recorder, most notably sections of "Paintwork" from the Fall's 1985 album This Nation's Saving Grace, which also includes the voice of Alan Cooper discussing main sequence stars, from a documentary Smith happened to be watching at the time.

[47] Smith's ability as a prose writer is evident in songs that abandon the verse/chorus format in favour of a long continuous narrative.

Fall songs written in this style are often not concerned with character or story development, establishing a sense of place and atmosphere instead.

Examples include Roman Totale XVII, "the bastard offspring of Charles I and the Great God Pan", who appears in "The N.W.R.A" (1980), the live album Totale's Turns, "2nd Dark Age" (one of the b-sides to the "Fiery Jack" single), and the sleeve credits for Dragnet, as well as the characters in "Fiery Jack" (1980), "Hip Priest" (1982), "The Man Whose Head Expanded" (1983), and "Riddler" (1986).

When asked by a journalist as to how much of his self could be found in the song's characters, he replied "dunno, you're the one sitting there in your round glasses and leather jacket.

"[48] Fragments of Smith's lyrics often appeared as handwritten scribbles on early Fall album and single covers, coupled with collages he had put together.

He mentioned how he was drawn to cheap and misspelled posters, amateur layouts of local papers and printed cash and carry signs with "inverted commas where you don't need them.

"[49] His technique was often imitated, for example on Pavement's early releases, which heavily resemble the artwork for Hex Enduction Hour (1982),[49][50] and whom Smith described as "mere Fall copyists.

"[51] Smith's lyrics were described by critic Simon Reynolds as "a kind of Northern English magic realism that mixed industrial grime with the unearthly and uncanny, voiced through a unique, one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn.

"[53] Thematically, his frequently densely layered words often centre around descriptions of urban grotesques, gloomy landscapes, "crackpot history", and are infused with regional slang.

As the journalist Andrew Harrison observed, although he wished that a majority of his audience were miners and postmen, a great many were students or Guardian readers.

He became a mainstay of the English music press throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and his sharp tongue often turned on the journalists themselves; many reported being nervous before meeting him, and published "war stories" afterwards.

This behavior culminated during a 1998 gig at Brownies in New York, at a low point in his life when he was drinking heavily and band morale was at its lowest.

During the performance he got into an onstage fight with the other musicians,[20] leading to long-term bassist Steve Hanley and drummer Karl Burns quitting the band.

[68] Asked during a mid-1980s interview with Smash Hits as to what policies he would adopt if he became Prime Minister, he said: "I'd halve the price of cigarettes, double the tax on health food, then I'd declare war on France.

"[48] Despite this, he was widely influential and critically acclaimed throughout his career, in part because he did not seek to capitalise on current trends which might have dated the band.

[citation needed] He was particularly dismissive of the Madchester scene, as well as the post-punk revival bands of the 2000s who cited him and the Fall as an influence, whom he personally felt owed more to Talking Heads.

[72] German rock band Tocotronic mentioned him in their song "Ich habe geträumt, ich wäre Pizza essen mit Mark E. Smith" ("I dreamt I went to eat pizza with Mark E. Smith") on their 1996 album Wir kommen um uns zu beschweren (We come to complain).

[74] Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer for the American groups At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, described Smith as "one of the pillars of influence for me as lyricist and trouble maker.