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The Fall

Started by The Man With Brass Eyes, April 19, 2004, 08:10:29 PM

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Rats

Aye, here it is for those dipping their toes in
The Fall - Paint Work

elderford

Just bumping the thread back up.

A quick trawl through the official Fall website, and I am reminded that a boxset of all the John Peel sessions is coming out soon, something like 23 sessions hopefully. Which would be an exceptional if expensive introduction to the full gamut of the band.

...and writing of boxsets, there's another official bootleg boxset (vol 2) coming out as well (this in itself is a re-issue of those albums with MES flicking the Vs on the covers [Voiceprint])

Both for sometime this year, as well as the other Sanctuary re-issues (Legendary Chaos Tapes, Slates, A Part of America Therein, Hex Enduction Hour) for over the next 3-4 months.

It would appear from the Fall website that Beggars Banquet are dragging their heels with regards to allowing Sanctuary to re-issue the albums from that period (something which BB have no plans to do themselves).

...and even more good news for the terminally confused New Fall Fan, three of the dubious re-issue albums which are constantly re-issued in different guises are to be no more: Sinister Waltz, Fiend With A Violin & Oswald Defence Lawyer [Receiver Records].

There we go then, clear as mud, get that collection going.

Quote from: "Rats"Try this one, The Fall - Shake Off Sorry, it didn't mp3 very well cos all the nobs are pushed right up the top on that one.

Rats, have you heard the Peel Session version of that song? Far superior in my opinion, much more raucous, and it has police siren samples, which is always a good thing. Top tune though.

"If you denyyy the strumpeeeet!..."

23 Daves

Quote from: "Auntie Ovipositor"After several years of them not coming to the US, I finally saw them a few years back, and they blew. It looked like MES had snagged some lads from down at the pub and brought them out on the road with him. That or they were studio musicians.  Too much of the ponytails and shiny shirts, not enough genuine rock. And MES kept playing with his dentures, flipping the plate around in his mouth. I swore them off there and then - they'd had a good run of 20+ years, but now it was over.

Unfortunately, the real new fall album seems to have some real gems on it. I fear I'm gonna buy it, possibly like it, then probably go see them in a month or so when they're here. I'm convinced they're just toying with my fragile emotions and that it'll all end badly, but I have problems and probably deserve it.

This is the curse of The Fall.  Some of the best and worst gigs I've seen in my life have been Fall gigs, though I have to say that recently the last few have all been mediocre to rubbish, leaving me to suspect that something vital is missing about Smith's new boys.  

I saw them at ATP a couple of years ago and was totally disappointed.  He was bickering with the band on stage, doing pedestrian versions of old songs, and generally being cack.  Interestingly, though, most of my friends really enjoyed it, but then none of them had ever been to any other Fall gig.  When they're on form, they're amazing.

elderford

must...not...allow...thread..to...die.

NEW Fall single out on June 21, although I was tempted to place this in the worst covers thread:


Rats

and there's going to be a promo! :) Here http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.bending/index.html is where it's likely to turn up.
Yeah, I've got the peel version of shake off, it's really good.

Ramses VIII

I used to be a massive fall fan through the eighties and just lost interest after stuff like `Light User Syndrome.`Last LP I bought was Levitate.

I heard a few tracks off `The Unutterable` the other day and it was just class. Just brilliant-groundbreaking stuff as usual

Whats wrong with Light User Syndrome?

23 Daves

Quote from: "Funkentelechy"Whats wrong with Light User Syndrome?

It's the Fall album that divides all Fall fans - I've got friends who love it (I'm with them on this) and others who think it's an absolute travesty.  Why I know not.  I can't hear anything wrong with it at all, except it perhaps sounds a bit more bilous than normal in places.

Neville Chamberlain

I rank The Light User Syndrome as one of the best Fall albums ever. Like you, 23 Daves, I don't see what's not to like: Cheetham Hill, The Chiselers, Oleano, He Pep!, Spinetrak to name just a few...it's The Fall at their barmy best if you ask me!

Yep, for me its their best album of the 90s, and He Pep! is one of my all time favourite Fall tracks.

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: "Funkentelechy"Yep, for me its their best album of the 90s, and He Pep! is one of my all time favourite Fall tracks.

Hmmm, best Fall of the 90s? I'd have to go with Middle Class Revolt there...

Rats

Yes, those two and the marshall suite too. I couldn't put those three in order.

Yeah I like Middle Class Revolt too, always puzzles me why it gets slated so much. But then again I really like Cerebral Caustic as well...

My second favourite 90s LP is probably Levitate.

another Mr. Lizard

Well, I'm not posting here as much as I used to, but...a Fall thread without a contribution from Another Mr. Lizard? Unthinkable.

I've been a fan since virtually the start, and I'm one of those sad Fall obsessives who has gone out and bought all of the shitty compilations, live albums, hastily-thrown-together 'best ofs', and even the compilations of compilations. As well as purchasing all the recent slipcased reissues of albums I already own on vinyl. And the DVD. And the box set with a 43-minute MES DVD interview. And the reissued 'Perverted By Language Bis' DVD (despite owning a much-played video copy). Yes, I have got more money than sense.

The Fall are it, though. The best band ever. Classic line-up is the early 1980s Smith, Scanlon, Hanley Brothers & Riley combo, but The Fall in all their incarnations are always fascinating and often brilliant. 'The Wonderful And Frighten-ing World Of...' album has always been a personal favourite, but of course 'Hex Enduction Hour' is the one to purchase to hear the band in all their glory.

Rarely given their due by the music press - even the publication of three books on the band last summer was glossed over by most of the monthly mags - but I suppose that's exactly how MES would want it.

He's a huge fan of truck-driving music, reggae, Frankie Valli, and The Move, to the exclusion of almost everything else - indeed, on recent live dates The Fall have covered The Four Seasons' 'Walk Like A Man' and The Move's 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow', both of which I desperately hope get captured on CD sometime.

The Peel Sessions box set is a must as far as I'm concerned, even though it'll probably mean I have to eke out an existence on bread and water in the month when it comes out. Bootleg versions of all of the BBC sessions, Peel and non-Peel, have been spotted for sale here and there...

elderford



M.E.S. has just pulled the plug on the USA tour, if you can read his hand writing on the official statement, it is because everyone else is lazy. 50% refund for ticket holders.

Auntie Ovipositor

They were supposed to play here last night.

I'd be pissed off, but the crack about a 50% refund makes it all okay.

axel

Nice review of some of the reissues here:

http://www.planbmag.com/albums/archives/00000004.php

(although some may find the style a bit arsey, i think it describes The Fall very well)

Rats

Aye that was canny good, don't we have taylor parkes here? I read a really good, the best description of the fall ever a few days ago reading an old article, it went on for about two pages but it hit the nail on the head for me. The thing was though, it was wrote in a kind of half awake way, flitting around thoughts and seemed a bit pretentious and there was loads of guff. I'll post a link if I ever stumble across it again which is unlikely. It was one of these anyway http://www.visi.com/fall/gigography/bib.html

benthalo

Love em. I own every single release including, like Another Mr Lizard, all the Receiver repackagings and I've seen them many, many memorable times over the past decade... I was at the South Shields riot of 1996, that triumphant return to LA2 with the Wilding/Head/Nagle/Helal line-up in Xmas 98, the closing week of the Leeds Duchess the following year. Even when AYAMM came out - an album so distressingly short on good ideas and lyrics of any note - I still had faith in them to bounce back, and they have. Spectacularly so.

Just one shout out for the Touch Sensitive Live DVD, which does go on for bloody ages, but is far better than the Shift Work & Holidays abortion. I'll stick up for the interview, though, just as a textbook example of how not to interview MES. I had a white-knuckled experience chatting to him about five years ago, but had one great piece of advice: "Don't talk to him about The Fall." The mistake made by the guy on the recent DVD is that this is *all* he does and *nothing* happens. It's the funniest thing I've seen all year.

PBL - the very best 'video album', to stretch the description slightly - suffers from an appalling transfer on DVD, which Fallnetters seemed oddly unconcerned by when I slagged it at the time. It's saved by the long overdue legitimate release of the Leeds 80 show which accompanies it. It's certainly worth a punt for that, but even my old bootleg copy of Leeds is better than the released version.

As for album recommendations, rejoice. There might be a couple of iffy ones here and there, but very few indeed. The hit rate's remarkable and there's almost nothing I don't admire. Grotesque (After The Gramme) will always be my favourite, simply as the first record of theirs I bought and I genuinely think it's their funniest, which I think is the essential key to working yourself into their catalogue.

And can we please stick to full album titles? They're never celebrated enough! Middle Class Revolt (aka The Vapourisation Of Reality) is still a corking thing to spot in the charts.

Quote from: "benthalo"And can we please stick to full album titles? They're never celebrated enough! Middle Class Revolt (aka The Vapourisation Of Reality) is still a corking thing to spot in the charts.

This reminds me of Shift Work, Side A and B have their own titles: "Earth's Impossible Day" and "Notebooks Out, Plagiarists" which I really like.

Grotesque (After The Gramme) is easily one of their best albums and a great introduction to them.

benthalo

Quote from: "another Mr. Lizard"indeed, on recent live dates The Fall have covered The Four Seasons' 'Walk Like A Man' and The Move's 'I Can Hear The Grass Grow', both of which I desperately hope get captured on CD sometime

You can start here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.bending/index.html

Rats

You can see 30 seconds of the video for sparta there now. Ooh, it looks grand.

another Mr. Lizard

This month's 'Mojo' contains a handy 'How To Buy The Fall' feature which recommends some of their best stuff. They rate 'This Nation's Saving Grace' as the best album (it's always been very overrated in my view), with 'Hex Enduction Hour' second (no argument there), and for once, my personal favourite 'The Wonderful And Frighten-ing World Of...The Fall' gets a mention too.

They're too busy interviewing Morrissey and selecting 'the world's 100 most miserable songs' to bother running any 20-page retrospectives on MES and the lads, though.

benthalo

Isn't that the second time Mojo have done a "How To Buy The Fall"? I seem to remember the last one being a better piece of writing.

Quote from: "Rats"You can see 30 seconds of the video for sparta there now. Ooh, it looks grand.

That looks fucking great! Yay, the Fall do another proper video at last.

elderford

bump:

The Fall are now experiencing their second line up change in six months, such is the artistic vision of MES that he has sacked two of them (including yet another drummer).

Does anyone know why Smith sacks so many people? Surely it's counter-productive to rehearsals, live shows etc.

elderford

There is an idea that he does it to keep musicians on their toes and to stop them becoming complacent.

Ironically he only gave an interview in the Independent the other week where he announced that they would be working on a new album, and made a comment that this would give the (then) band some feelings of security.

As far as I know, he doesn't socialise with them: turns up seperately to gigs, enjoys giving them wrong directions to recording studios so that when they do arrive they are in the correct frame of mind to record Fall songs, etc.

There is a great quote that being in the Fall is like going over the top during WW1, and that behind the first wave there is always a reserve team waiting in the wings.

MES apparently always has a replacement in mind before the axe falls.

I think the guitarist who has just been given his marching orders was with the band for four years, so I expect MES has a new vision for the next album and requires new blood to achieve it.

The drawback is that sometimes it feels like what has been described as a Youth Opportunites Scheme pub band is backing MES.

but, as the great man once said: If it's me and your granny on bongos; it's The Fall.

Rats

http://www.resonancefm.com/

QuoteThe excellent Resonance FM will air a Fall special on the Sound Projecting show this Friday, June 11

apparently. 5:30pm till 7. Repeated early tommorow from 7am till 8:30