Superb gig.

One hour and a couple of minutes.

Possible setlist (order probably wrong):

Hot Cake
My Door
Wolf Kidult Man
Fall Sound
Fifty-Year-Old Man
Chino Splashback
Funnel Of Love
Latch Key Kid
I've Been Duped
Carry Bag Man
Reformation (MES sings from off-stage)

Encore:
White Lightning (MES sings from off-stage)
Blindness (MES sings from off-stage)

**

Very crisp, clear vocals. Singing from the wheelchair seems to allow Mark to concentrate more on how he sings.

Some amp twiddling: the excellent sound for the first few songs became muddier as Mark messed with the equipment.

Elena's new effects added to the sound, as did the vocal tape(?) running in the background in the gaps between some songs.

Most surreal moment: The Fall start the show with Safi's Barbra Streisand film still playing on the screen.

The moshiest moshpit I have ever had the moshfortune to be moshed by.

***

01. Wolf Kidult Man [excerpt]/Fall Sound [excerpt]

02. Fifty-Year-Old Man [excerpt] (with very odd high vocals)

03. Blindness [excerpt], with MES vocals from offstage

:applaud: Couldn't make it, surprised no new new numbers, but sounds like I missed a good one. Did it get taped? Of course it did :applaud:

Fuck Fuck Fuck

ing brilliant.

Possible ad lib: "Mr Spock and Bastard Two Wheels"?

Telephone Thing chorus excerpt superbly sung, well-on-the-beat by front row guy via Eleni-donated mike at the end of Blindness/

Fantastic sound.

Mark trilling-rolling his Rs on Wolf Kidult man - beautiful.

Get a record of this one...I love you Mark and The Fall :ohdear:

It was pro-filmed too.

As was Hammersmith :(

what a nice venue, full of good taste.

not only the optics had been polished, the sound was clear crystaline.
the mix was fine maybe the guitar was a bit underrepresented. That was corrected in the very end...

London seems to force the stagetime, good so. the performance with the singing from behind makes the best of this unhealthy situation. very well done!

:applaud:


it looks like the band is a bit polite still.


In totale I had really enjoyed it, prefered this night by miles compared to the junction yesterday.
nice to have met Stephen, Shane and Daren (yes, he from The Gales).

Awful mushy sound from back of the auditorium. Couldn't get much closer.

Tonight's surprise hit: I've Been Duped... first time the shouty chorus made sense to me.

As usual, massive improvement in band towards the end of the gig.

A few more things:

1. Surprising number of glamorous young women in the crowd.
2. Mark seemed to be hiding behind the amp for much of the show. I was as near to the front as I could get without being knocked out by the moshers, but I think anyone further back would have had trouble seeing him.
3. No one seemed sorry when Safi's set was cut short.
4. Very packed yet extremely cold in the front/middle due to the air-conditioning.
5. I filmed three segments on my camera and will try to upload these to YouTube. They are quite shaky due to the continuous barrage of elbows in my face and kidneys.
6. Elena was very smiley: seemed to be enjoying the enthusiastic reaction. As noted above, she handed the mic out at the very end of Blindness. Someone sang Telephone Thing exactly in time with the rhythm.
7. One of the best Fall shows of recent years.
8. Jazzy influence on new tracks.
9. Impressive 'country' interlude on Fifty Year Old Man, with very odd singing from Mark.
10. Mark managed to stand up a couple of times, to great cheers.
11. Guitar too low in mix, until during Blindness it absolutely exploded in a sudden burst of noise just before the end of the show.

Easily the best sound I've ever heard from a Fall gig, even if it all did seem a bit quiet and sedate compared to the times I've seen them in Glasgow.

Had a great laugh at MES' lackeys being sent from backstage to amp-twiddle.

Eleni looked really concerned for Mark when he went off stage - she had her jacket on immediately and kept looking round to check on him. I thought it was sweet. :)


I'm really heartened by Mark's approach to his latest predicament - think it bodes well for him carrying this off well beyond the recommendations of the medical world.

Anyone else got the feeling that this, coupled with the general state of the world, ought to provide great inspiration for the next record? :D

Brilliant and baffling as always, cracking gig.

'Telephone Thing chorus excerpt superbly sung', was a highlight, as was 'Chino'

Look forward to the recording...

Perhaps it was just me but what was up with the majority of the crowd looking sinister.

One of those young women (well, about half my age anyway) had her nose smashed in the mosh, dear o dear. But she was flayling about in a too-random, paraletic way, asking for nose-trouble I suppose, I hope she's OK.

...and a person on the way out dressed in a Nine Inch Nails vest was saying to colleagues how bad it was, so that confirms it was a good one, for humans, as if needed :lol: nighty night..

To say it was one of finest Fall gigs of recent years is pretty hyperbolic.

Not to say it was a bad gig, just pretty underwhelming from a band clearly just going through the motions.

Nothing to do with the wheelchair, which our man dealt with admirably, just felt it was a bit half arsed.

A solid performance with a good sound, the latter seems to be a saving grace for the Koko.

MES knows how to turn a necessity into virtue - the rock 'n roll 'Ironside' was a very effective bit of stagecraft.

They were on time, and I applaud this, although I will be considered a lightweight for mentioning it. An added bonus was not having to see/suffer Safi Sniper.

I must say I'm not hugely impressed by the new material, and I would be interested to know what other people think about it. Does it they grow on you?

Nice to see Billybigbananas, Acton High Street, Man Whose Bed Diminished, Cupid's Bullet, Max, Hanley, Mr Pharmacist, Kelsa Deaf Wife & his friend.


:applaud:

The fact they didn't erupt into an uncontrollable expression of euphoric joy says a great deal about the politeness of Fall fans.

i thought support act bobby peru were most turgid .

I thought the gig was excellent and nice to meet a few of you at the Victoria.

Just one observation. I thought that when MES went off stage (after sandwiching himself between the drums and the bass amp thus requiring assistance) then that would be the end of the twiddling.

No. When off stage, MES sends on a flunky to twiddle the amp controls for him. Imressive attention to detail.

I'd like to stand corrected, but I disagree entirely

:lol:

only dime will tell...

Absolute stonker. I applied the Hanley/Scanlon test - i.e was it at least as good as any gig I've seen played by the Shanley/Craigness line-up, and it certainly was. Tight mesmeric krautrock fronted by Davros, and the sound as ever at Koko was amazing. Lovely JBL monitors pounding out the tight, crisp mix. I was actually dancing out by the toilets at the back due to a short female friend being reluctant to enter the morass. Still had a fab time, enhanced by glimpses of MES chairing around the amps for a fiddle, like a Fall gig in a dream. Saw a friend I hadn't seen for 6 years just as Fall Sound kicked off.

The new stuff sounded the best. Huge fun White Lightning and an earth-shattering Blindness. Still the best live band on earth then. :D

That was quite a giggle, wasn't it?

Didn't think much of the sound, but then we were in 'the Gods' sandwiched between some of the aforementioned glamorous women, one of whom was dancing rather too enthusiastically for my liking. That is to say, her head kept getting in my way.

Country interlude in 50 Year Old Man was sensational, as was the Telephone Thing singer.

In all, I thought it was one of those gigs you come out of thinking you'd paid your dues rather than it being one of the better ones, but maybe I'd have thought differently if the sound had been better.

Also, a bit of "Secession Man" (early morning...warning...etc). Innit?

I fully agree with what Stephen said above BTW...Mark's being in his easy chair and having to sit down certainly contributed to his excellent performance last night. Growls, rolled 'R's and whatnot. Eleni was wearing a plain white blouse with puffy short sleeves (and she put on her black jacket just before the encore).

:D

And is it me, or does Eleni seem to be a bit more, well, pneumatic these days?

Some more observations on my first Fall gig for nearly 25 years:

1. The band sounded full and competent - very tight. Yet, I do detect that there's a spark missing there.

2. This has no doubt been commented before. In the "old days" they would not still have been trotting out material from the last album, it would be trialling material for the next one. Seems to relate to #1 above.

3. The drummer is a hard worker - but does he need all those cymbals?

4. Why does Eleni need 2 handbags?

Overall, though, I came away with respect enhanced. How many others would carry on in such physical condition AND deliver a cracking good performance too - well done MES.

A very pleasant day out in London, good turnout for the pub beforehand as well - nice to see many of you thirsty, thirsty Fall fans there!

The gig itself I thought was middle of the road, solid with good sound but (for me at least) it didn't really spark. Chino seems to be shaping up nicely and it certainly picked up after Duped, I thought CBM was awful though far inferior to the version I heard at Hackney. I got a bit paranoid about misssing my train so bolted after Reformation & missed the encore.

There seems to be a huge difference of opinion about the sound at this gig. I didn't finish work until 9.30 and so I apologise for my non attendance at the pub beforehand. My emissary Thanks To Tony enjoyed himself though. As a result I arrived just as The Fall were going on. I was forced to stand right at the back and from there the bass sounded very sludgy and frankly pretty awful on songs such as Blindness.

Having said that it was another really enjoyable night, very different from Cambridge in terms of audience and atmosphere if not material.

I like the new Mark Ironside Smith, it seems to concentrate his singing a lot more and cut down on the irritating "live mixing". Maybe the knob twiddling fans should have a whip round an buy him a mobility scooter. Although he seems to have overcome the problem by arranging for a sub to be brought on when the urge becomes too strong.

As for the songs, Reformation seems to be taking on a life of its own and has replaced Blindness as the highlight of the set for me, I've Been Duped is also in better shape than ever, if a little elongated last night (I did like Eleni's new line "I've been duped/You're all asleep"). Hot Cakes and Chino are both promising especially the latter but I can do wihtout Funnel of Love.

Finally, respect to the guy who brilliantly incorporated Telephone Thing into Blindness; that was sheer genius.

Sounds like a great night.

Alexandrian medical school, or sect, based on the theory that life is associated with a subtle vapour.

Great gig! NAME CHECK: HTL :)

This from the NME:

http://www.nme.com/news/nme/43841

What, No peel, always different always the same?:o
Good review.

Terrifically pithy headline in that review.

Don't they teach sub-editing at The NME School of Journalism School these days?

Bobby Peru were pretty good I thought but had sound problems with Ding's bass verging wildly between sludgey and godlike clarity.
The gruppe suffered from an MES shaped hole centre front - keiron had been set quite away back to make room and seemed a bit lost. Stage aside, Pete was just terrific his sound giving dynamics and variety - as was Elenis stuff.
The best ever version of Fallsound I have heard live.
My only real beef was the uniform samely time signatures - Carry bag man should have stood out more - with the exception of slower funky new one (great).
MES singing just the best I can remember - focussed.
Good but not the full-on assault I remember at the Astoria. Bodes well.

Had a thoroughly good time last night despite the enormous shaven-headed neanderthal wankers next to me up front that insisted on "getting the crowd going" by turning around and waving their arms about, elbowing everyone around them in the head, and pushing shorter and younger members of both sexes aside to make sure they were seen by the band and people in the back.

The sound was OK except for the bass, but the guy plays a Warwick so it wasn't Koko's fault. There's just no balls in it. Even the Blindness riff sounded quite lame to me. If only Twiddledy Mark would have stepped in like in Cambridge. Also, the guitars were not loud enough where I was standing.

Mark sang really well but didn't seem to be as into it as in Cambridge IMHO. But the audience certainly was.

The drummer was brilliant again, as was most of the tunes, especially Fall Sound, Reformation, and White Lightning (first time live for newbie me). Chino is pretty much the only song in this set that the band doesn't casually "rock out" in. I love the groove and faux-spooky twang guitar, and hope they're going for that direction a little bit more on the next record.

They are a bit too safe now, it has to be said. A new member to add atmospherics and/or stir things up would be welcome, and of course more new material. And a Fender P.

Funny, reading this back it sounds like I was disppointed, but I really couldn't stop grinning sillily (except when Funnel Of Love plodded on and on and on...)

Met a lot of nice people before the gigs too. Thanks especially to the unseen and the unseen twin for their generosity. You are appreciated.

[yawn]

-_-

what did you think of the performance itself?

Bury, Hot Cake, Chino Splashback, Funnel of Love.

Just for information, these aren’t actually ‘new songs’. They've been played live since October.

As for crap sound up in the opera glass comfy seats, tough shit.

It's The Fall, not Madame fucking Butterfly.

Hahahahaha.

Comfy seats, you say? You didn't go up there, did you?

Judging by the expression on her face up-close, Eleni thought so too...as he started singing it after doing three MES-type "Blind man" wails, she went into a little groove with him for the few bars of Telephone Thing, looking right at him with a wider smile, nodding to the music, then after its almost skeleton-dub beginnings, the guitars on this version of Blindness screamed like never before and it was over - an excellent end to the gig.

I've seen these songs many times like the yawner above, but for a fan of the Fall post 2000 this was no going through the motions gig, for whatever reason(s).

:applaud: