Oh! Brother: MARCIA SCHOFIELD — Anecdotes and Antidotes in B#

Marcia’s story is pretty amazing, and there are Ipswich/Suffolk (and Hackney) links too.

This was probably the best episode yet. If you’re not aware, Oh! Brother is a podcast about The Fall – you know? – by two former band members, Steve and Paul Hanley. They interview former band members, passers-by, journalists etc. It’s generally very good indeed.

Marcia was keyboardist in The Fall when I really got into them – and because I was 17/18 I saw them live a lot, at places like UEA, Essex Uni and the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Wonderful nights. She’s right when she says how great the band were at this point in time, just after Brix left: tight, insanely creative and a maelstrom live.

Marcia’s first gig was in Ipswich, apparently. Mark sacks her (natch) in 1990(ish). Amazingly enough, she decides to become a doctor, despite having no medical or science qualifications at all. She enrols at Hackney Community College, gets her A levels and applies to Cambridge – and gets in (because she helps improve the university’s diversity stats, she claims). By 1997 she’s a qualified doctor – and she now works at West Suffolk Hospital.