Hanley’s memories of the 19 years he spent in the band mercifully never veer into either idolising Mark E Smith or badmouthing him. Smith described Hanley as 'The Fall sound' but, after reading The Big Midweek, the group’s history and the vision of its single-minded leader thankfully remains intact and mysterious. Throughout, there’s hitherto-unimagined foreign travel, hero-meeting, studio fall-outs and shrewd, down-to-earth comments from Hanley’s father. Anyone who’s been in a band will identify with 90 per cent of this book.
