There's a really good book called The Fallen where the author tries to track down all six thousand people who were in The Fall at one time or another to discuss their experiences. Plenty of horror stories but, bizarrely, so many would (or did) go back for another go 'round. To the outsider it's incomprehensible, yet there must be something there. Graham Duff's book Foreground Music also has a chapter on his friendship with MES that offers glimpses into the man's very strange charm.
(Whenever I now read these things involving MES, I think of Heston's beautiful line to some asshole poster here, "Are you this difficult in real life or is it an internet thing?" Just a perfect and concise textual pop in the nose.)