Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith

The definitive autobiography of one of the most talented, enigmatic and irascible frontmen in music's history.

Lads with no guts, I can't stand them...

More than thirty years since they came together, The Fall are one of the most distinctive British bands, their music - odd,spare, cranky and repetitious - an acknowledged influence on The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, Nirvana and Franz Ferdinand.

And throughout that time Mark E. Smith remained the centre of The Fall - 47 members came and went over the years yet he remained its charismatic leader, a professional outsider and all-round enemy of compromise, a true enigma.

There have been a number of biographies of the legendary Smith, but this represents the first time he opened up in a full autobiography. For the first time we get to hear his full, candid take on the ups and downs of a band as notorious for its in-house fighting as for its great music; and on a life that endured prison in America, drugs, bankruptcy, divorce, and the often bleak results of a legendary thirst.