The official Fall website: FAQ
Question: Have any of the Fall albums ever gone platinum? - asked by Killian.
Answer: At the present time, no Fall albums have reached the requisite number of sales to attain Platinum status in either the US or UK.
I hope and assume that Killian was taking the piss.
For the record, the day a Fall album goes platinum in any officially-recognised country on this planet is the day I bare my famously peach-like arse in Kendal's front window. Probably.
The Fall is not—and, I also hope and assume, never will be—a platinum-album-type band. That's why you should buy their stuff. They are extremely good. Here is what they sound like:
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!
Here's some more:
…Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
Go for it, chaps!
See also: He talks a lot of wind.
No, you hold your head there & go waaaaaahhhhhh!
(Monty Python "being hit on the head lessons" 1972)
Did any Monty Python albums go platinum?
I suppose the question has to be:- why would anybody care if an album went platinum....is it some sort of snobby status thing? Does it make it sound better knowing that it has sold a lot?
When I were a lad, if a band got too popular (Roxy Music, Sparks, Alice Cooper etc.) we would drop them like a ton of hot bricks. This kept us loyal to the true underground scene (man).
Had The Edgar Broughton Band, Soft Machineor Gong ever appeared on T.O.T.P. I think our local second hand record shop sould have been inundated with copies of Out Demons Out within hours!
But for me, that all changed after seeing Robert Wyatt doing I'm a Believer! Somehow, from there on, it didn't matter any more.
Gosh! That reminds me of my youth, (he must be a big boy by now!)
The Fall's head honcho actually did appear on Top of the Pops some years back in a duet with Inspiral Carpets. I can still remember the look of pure delight on Simon Mayo's face as he introduced them with words to the effect of, I never thought I'd get to say this on Top of the Pops, but here is Mark E Smith, live in the studio.
Smith took a very average song by Inspiral Carpets and raised it to a level of genius with the couplet:
When I become king, Mark E Smith will be Poet Laureate.