The Fall Live Various Years

Deadbeat Descendant. NYC Sept 93. Full-on assault here…whooshing keyboard from Dave Bush, great stuff!

Big New Prinz. NYC Sept 93. Very energetic sounding compared to other live versions on these CD’s. Pounding drum, scratchy guitar, this time around the keyboard effects take a back seat. Good version.

Why Are People Grudgeful. Munich Oct 93. Mono unfortunately, so as I test these with headphones doesn’t sound so good, but good through the speakers. Nice keyboard on this. Echo-ey vocal from Mark. Very good version indeed, despite the mix.

Free Range. Munich Oct 93. Stereo again. Another energetic performance.

Shiftwork. Munich Oct 93. Great trance-y keyboard on this. Great stuff!

Strychnine. Munich Oct 93. Very energetic – MES wants to start quickly, starts singing the first lines over the intro, then chides the band ‘come on, you fucking potheads!’. Good stuff.

Das Vulture. Bristol Jan 97. Like most of the tracks on this CD, full on, very energetic. Good keyboards.

Spinetrak. Bristol Jan 97. Mono again. Good performance, but mix hampers this.

Behind The Counter. Bristol Jan 97. Still mono. It’s not that The Fall have never performed this excellent song well live, I remember they did back in 93 for certain; however the performances on the live CD’s seem drawn out, and poorly mixed too – case in point here. Thumbs down for this.

Interference. Bristol Jan 97. Keyboard tinkering. Sets scene for….

Hip Priest. Bristol Jan 97. Like the last three tracks, mono, but great performance, with superb atmospheric keyboard.

Bonus disc. Probably missing from most recent pressings of this CD.

Carry Bag Man. Vienna 16.4.88. Great performance from one of my favourite Fall gigs.

Yes Oh Yes. Vienna 16.4.88. Absolutely stunning performance from one of my favourite Fall gigs. Better than the album version.

US 80’s 90’s. Mono – I know why – on the FM tape there is distortion in one of the channels, so this has been put in mono to minimise the effect. There was no need really. Despite the interference – a whistling sound, the sort of distortion which blends well or is even part and parcel of later live performances (ie Dave Bush’s keyboard effects!), it sounds great on the FM tape.

All in all a very good CD indeed - one of my favourites amongst all the live and odds and ends CDs, in fact.

Various Years is one of the better ones and I particularly like the versions of Big New Prinz and Hip Priest on here. It seems as though someone actually put some thought into which live tracks to use on this compilation.

I like the cymbals on Shift-werk.

Not many reviews of this one. Anyone played it more than twice?

I've listened to the Shiftwork performance several times, but the rest exactly twice, I think.

Also, here's wishing a very happy 2nd birthday to the Live Various Years thread.

Twice, proabaly right. Shall attend to that when I get home.

Is every version of this a 2 disc version? My copy has some live tracks from 1988 on the second disc...
It's good for a listen this one, but as usual I find myself reaching for more preferable Fall stuff (or more recently, the Peel Sessions)

There are some good versions (the extended Shiftwork is particularly) and at least a few quite different renditions of certain tracks (tho the keyboard driven Hip Priest doesn't work all that well), but the album doesn't hold together very well.

Bought it on the day of release, mainly for Interference, and felt somewhat ripped off to discover this is basically a repeated loop from Hurricane Edward.

But of course. Dead Beat Descendant, NBPand Spinetrak are fantastic. The 88 disc has only been aired here once though, becauese it's from 88, which is more than enough said.

Just listening this album and I reckon that stand in guitar player Adrian Flanagan wasn't so bad..under rehearsed a bit maybe...but if I had to chose someone to rejoine it would be him...I think the other pasts guitariists did top stuff but I think there are one pr two ex-members who could've done a bit more before exiting....this guitar doesn't dominate the sound but compliments it for the most part...the louder rhythm guitar in Behind The Counter is quite cool and unexpected.

Just checking Domino's website and he's also on the label...Kings Have Long Arms....bizarre

Good compilation, this.

Shiftwork and Grudgeful are way superior to the studio versions, and I love the Julia influenced Hip Priest.

Fine performances too on the bonus disc, especially that funky outro to US 80's, similar to the Live In Cambridge version.

i find myself playing it quite often esp when driving...a nice selection of performances, imo