A much-delayed collection of recent live Fall music will be posted this weekend. Also, should anyone have any uncirculated or previously unpublished recordings, writing or other material that may be suitable for inclusion here, feel free to contact us via the comments facility (any such comments received will not be made public).

The Fall - Astoria 2, London (12 August 1998)

An incredible show from one of the darkest periods of the group's history. Just five gigs removed from the NYC meltdown, this is nothing short of a resurrection. Scrappy, shambolic and laced with pure adrenaline, this is The Fall at their most Velvets-like, brimming with 1979-era post-punk energy. One of only four shows in total played by this lineup. There are so many fantastic moments here, from Leatham's supple bass lines on "Calendar," and the rarely-played "Scareball," to a truly unbelievable take on "Plug Myself In." One of my favorite Fall shows to listen to, if only because it sounds so different from all the others. Brilliant.

Setlist:

Ol' Gang

Calendar
Touch Sensitive (new song / prerelease)
Spencer Must Die
Scareball
The Joke
Ten Houses of Eve
Levitate
He Pep
F'oldin' Money (new song / prerelease)
Powderkeg
Plug Myself In
This Perfect Day


lineup: MES / Julia Nagle / Karen Leatham / Tom Head

(photo by Gez Wood)

The Fall - Queen Mary's College, London (5 February 1981)

For my first post, I chose this excellent soundboard recording from '81, once planned for release on Cog Sinister. In addition to material from the previous autumn's Grotesque LP, the gruppe also performs the forthcoming Slates mini-LP in its entirety. Notable as well for an early version of Jawbone & The Air Rifle, which would not be released on vinyl until over a year later. A sprawling, clattering, thrilling performance from a pre-Karl Burns lineup featuring Paul Hanley on drums. A far more worthy document than the officially released show from Glasgow later the same month.

Setlist:

Your Heart Out
Totally Wired
Leave the Capitol
An Older Lover
New Face in Hell
Middle Mass
C n C's Mithering > Crap Rap #19
Fiery Jack
Jawbone and the Air Rifle
Slates, Slags etc.
Fit and Working Again
Prole Art Threat
Impression of J. Temperance
The Container Drivers

lineup : Smith/Riley/Scanlon/S. Hanley/P. Hanley

Queen Mary's

Happy holidays and many thanks to all who have supported this blog over the past year. Fresh posts both from me and new contributor Hannah will be forthcoming in the new year.

THE FALL- ICE MOUNTAIN (CDR, unreleased, UK, 2005)

For those expecting The Fall's tour in support of "Fall Heads Roll" to adhere strictly to the buffed, chrome-plated peaks and valleys of the LP, the loose-limbed and altogether less insular approach of the group in a live setting was nothing short of eye-opening. Far more earthbound in their constructs than the psychotropic inclinations of their successors, Pritchard, Trafford and Birtwistle's familiarity with the material (some of which had been in the woodshed for nearly two years) allowed Smith to unfurl his distilled post-avant-garde lyrics against a stiff backdrop of confident indierock and surprisingly effective genre pieces.

While the sound quality of the recordings on this disc doesn't reach the crystalline heights of recent audience captures, the variegated aural palette mostly works to the material's advantage. The true gems here are the FHR tracks that benefit the most from this re-jiggering: a mono-bricked and Black Ark-infused "Ride Away," a snow-covered and crepuscular "Early Days of Channel Fuhrer," possibly the group's most purely beautiful piece; a pastoral and propulsive "Midnight in Aspen," with a midnight cowboy bass motif from Trafford; and Pritchard's limber and lubricious lead guitar lines on "Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy," which comes close to the careening chaos of that song's studio incarnation.

And while there are surely any number of performances that one might classify as "the best version of 'Blindness" ever," surely the version included here (from Southampton) should be included in the canon. Taken at more of a sprint than a marathon, the intensity never dissipates. Incandescent and thrilling, turn it up and prepare to be blown away.

Tracklisting:

01 Pacifying Joint

02 I Can Hear the Grass Grow

03 Bo Demmick

04 Breaking the Rules

05 Early Days of Channel Fuhrer

06 What About Us?

07 Midnight in Aspen

08 Blindness

09 Assume

10 Ride Away

11 Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy

12 Clasp Hands

(Source gigs in comments)(unofficial audience recording)

Due to the recent collapse of the Massmirror file sharing site, the links for the first three titles posted here (San Rococco, Mud On The Ground and Lotus/Cactus) were no longer functional. These links have been removed and, for now, will not be replaced.

Fresh posts will resume shortly, with a compilation of live material circa "Fall Heads Roll." Also under consideration is the addition of a new contributor who will focus on noteworthy single-gig recordings.

THE FALL-MYSTERY AIR (CDR, UNRELEASED, UK, 2008)

The Fall's March 2008 UK tour was something of a strange affair. Supporting an album that had yet to be released, the Greenway-Spurr-Melling lineup didn't really coalesce until the later gigs, finally acheiving a sui generis hybrid of metallic-pop and hard rock that was closer to the hi-octane approach of the Pritchard group than the heavy, acid-peak remit of their predecessors. Greenway's freeform tendencies on display during the early gigs were eventually reigned in and his skittery guitar constructs, along with Spurr's monstrously huge, percussive bass sound, provided the framework for disciplined readings of catalogue material from the two previous studio LPs. On the new "Imperial Wax Solvent" tunes, the recorded takes were the starting points for live versions that were both expansive and focused, with Elena Poulou's tart elektro-synth pop motifs the cherries in the custard. Aside from some head-scratching vocal interjections from a member of the road crew (such as the untitled spoken-word piece that typically opened each performance), on most nights Smith plumbed a loose but brilliant idiosyncratic lyrical trajectory. Among the many high points on this disc are a cavernous, atmospheric "Alton Towers;" a very loud and percolating "I've Been Duped;" "Totally Wired" reconfigured as glam stomp; and "Tommy Shooter" featuring lead vocals from both Poulou and Smith.

Tracklisting:

01 Latch Key Kid

02 Strangetown

03 Alton Towers

04 I've Been Duped

05 Totally Wired

06 Exploding Chimney

07 Pacifying Joint

08 Wolf Kidult Man

09 "The Empresario of The Fall"

10 50 Year-Old Man

11 Is This New?

12 Mountain Energie

13 Tommy Shooter

(Many thanks as always to The Consortium, and Pike1957 for the absolutely superb live recordings)

(Source gigs in comments)