BBC Accidentally Reports Death of the Fall’s Mark E Smith

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of Mark E Smith's death have been greatly exaggerated. Last night, it was accidentally reported that the lead singer of the Fall had, indeed, fallen.

As NME reports, BBC Music had intended to wish Smith a happy 60th birthday, but, somehow, between the intent and the keyboard, they went in the opposite direction. They tweeted out "RIP Mark E Smith" along with a photo of him and an emoji of a sad face. At some point, they realized their mistake, deleted the tweet and replaced it with one that said, "Happy 60th Mark E Smith," with an emoji of a noisemaker and a link to a video where he read soccer scores over the radio. However, someone made a screen capture of the original, thus preserving the mistake.

“This was a genuine human error and the message was posted by mistake and swiftly deleted, a spokesperson for the BBC said in a statement reprinted by NME. "We apologize for the error.”

Founded in Manchester, England, in 1976, the Fall have been one of the most prolific bands around, putting out a studio album nearly every year since their 1979 debut. But they've slowed down as of late, with their last record being 2015's Sub-Lingual Tablet. Smith has been the only constant member of the band, although the current lineup have all been on board since 2006. Smith's wife, Elena Poulou, left the band last year after having served as their keyboardist since 2002.

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