Got this through the post this morning.

Tracklisting:

27 July 1983:

Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot
Ludd Gang
Neighbourhood of Infinity
I Feel Voxish

29 June 1984:

God-Box
Kicker Conspiracy
C.R.E.E.P.
Lay of the Land
Elves
Garden

18 October 1984:

2x4
Slang King
Mere Pseud Mag. Ed

9 October 1985:

What You Need
Barmy
L.A.
Dktr Faustus
I am Damo Suzuki
Gut of the Quantifier
Spoilt Victorian Child

This is playing as I write, and, you know, I'm really enjoying it. Look at that tracklisting ! Only £11.99 delivered from Play.com.
But for fucksake this is 2004. Why do all Cherry Red DVDs still look like absolute crap ?
DVD is no longer some strange new fangled invention.
As far as I know the bulk of this material has never seen the light of day before,even in bootleg form.
This suggests that they had access to the original master tapes (or at least vhs copies) So why does it look exactly like a dodgy VCD copy ?
Blurry, low resolution picture ;none of the fluid motion of live video- looks like Real Player or something. Pricks.

Ok, rant over. The content ?

Yeah, brilliant mostly.On first viewing at least.
Highlights include:

Fantastic,claustrophobic Neighbourhood of Infinity;
Tandem drumming on Garden;
Watching how quickly Brix went from frightened rabbit to rock-vixen on stage;
The sheer concentration and discipline of the band.

So,yes, it's bootleg quality,but at the right price it's a must-have.
That is what is so frustrating.
A lot of the footage looks good here despite looking like its been shot from behind several net curtains . If it actually looked like proper video footage it would be absolutely compelling.
For all my moaning, if Cherry Red were to release Live at the Hacienda Volume 2 tomorrow, I know I would buy it.

NB :
For all the people that like to slag off The Fall for quality control,this one is down to Cherry Red . All their DVDs look worse than VHS. And they have the rights to all Factory/Ikon videos. Our tough luck.

so fairly comparable to the access a;ll areas volumes then?

thanks for the rev-sounds indispensible anyway

Bought it this morning. HMV. £14.99.

The quality is fine. Don't panic folks. It's not super sharp or anything but it's perfectly watchable. It'll only negate your enjoyment of this fantastic DVD if you are an absolute perfectionist arse (in which case, what the hell are you doing buying a Fall DVD?).

The opening 4 tracks are absolutely indespensible. Showing the early 80's Fall at their most crucial and vital. This, coming from a man who never liked Perverted By Language. It's kind of a revelation to hear just how inventive the band were at this time. Every track is essential and brilliant here. Truly, truly astonishing. It's great to see how Smith is just a part of the band. The musicians are on inspired form. It's brilliant! You'll just have to watch it. It's hypnotic.

Then Brix comes in for God-Box (it's 1984 now folks) and first you'll notice that the sound has gone all tinny. Where's the bass? Don't panic (again) all you sound-engineer listening types. You'll be grinning when the whole shebang comes crashing in after a minute or so. It must have been mixed that way. Or maybe Hanley's amp suddenly goes atomic? There's a jaw-dropping Kicker Conspiracy. The bit with Karl smashing the cymbal after the cow-bell solo is quite brilliant.

What a band! What a fucking band! Even in pop territory (C.R.E.E.P.) they sound confident and assured. Brix is either stamping on a member of the audience or a guitar pedal at one point. It could be either.

This is amazing. Buy it. Now.

Mine is on it's way from Play so hopefully I'll have it tomorrow B)

The interview is the same as the one on the PBL video/DVD.

The lyrics to "Neighbourhood Of Infinity" are quite sketchy and hardly amount to more than the "Link Wray" line said several times. I think we can infer that the song was a work in progress at that point and hadn't reached its final PBL album version.

In contrast, many other PBL tracks existed during the 1982 Australia tour.

Could someone please cross-check the writing credits on this DVD with those on the PBL CD, as I was suprised to see Riley get a credit there, and my recollection is that he only gets 1 credit on PBL, for a different track. But I didn't get round to looking it up last night.

One vital point of interest is to see how the hairstyles of Mark and Brix change:

1983 : MES - mullet. Brix - absent
1984 (I): MES - long, but not mullety. Brix - short and neat
1984 (II): MES - the same. Brix - hairspray disaster, like she's auditioning for some 80s metal band
1985: MES - very short, like in the pictures inside the Bend Sinister sleeve. Brix - nice bob like in late 80s photos.

In several of the films, Steve Hanley can be seem shaking his body in a rhythmic fashion, almost suggesting some enjoyment of the proceedings. I hope his wages were docked for that.

The audience are well-behaved and inert on the 1983 one, except for 1 lone body-shaker in the front row. There is more moshing in the later gigs. Just after "God-Box" a heckler can be heard apparently trying to shout the "Are you still doing... 2 years ago?" line from Totales Turns, but his words are semi-obscured and I can't confirm if that is the exact words used.

And what about Craig Scanlon?
He reminds me of those Pinky and Perky puppets with his little rhythmic jerks.
Hope he got bonus pay for that!

I just bought it tonight, and WOW. I didn't expect to enjoy it so much.
Unlike Chris, I think it starts out slow (and familiar - how much live material do they HAVE from 1983??) but by the end, it's like video crack. I need another fix. I'm going to watch it again right away.

The sound is loud, and kind of harsh... and the video is out of focus most of the time... but these things don't ultimately matter, and I'm *never* one to dismiss them.

Mark is easier to see early on, when he's particularly ugly to look at (god, I hate that stringy mullet) but the footage later gets both more lively/colorful and shadowy/dark. Perhaps it's the way the ambience of the Hacienda developed over those crucial middle New Order years.

Thanks to all who recommended this. Add me to the list.

What does that mean, actually? Like, how much can you see the band playing? I mean, I'm not asking for pornographic fare like actually seeing exactly how Craig Scanlon is weaving his magic, but like is it just totally blurry shadows or what?

I remember this band didn't really look up from their instruments much, so they're probably not much to look at other than for how they're physically producing the music they play, but is the image clear?

Actually, it doesn't matter does it?

Never mind!

The later half of the DVD is filmed almost entirely from the far right side of the stage, so you see Brix up close throughout. Every now and then the camera zooms in to focus on Mark, but he's engulfed in darkness most of the time. There are some great shots of Karl (I swear he tells the cameraman to fuck off with a *really* mean look on his face at some point). Steve is also fairly close, though it rarely focuses on him. Craig is way on the other side - you see much of he and Mark for the early performances, but at the end you barely see him.

As I hoped, I picked this up today. Thoughts later...

I was at the June 84 gig. day after I finished my O levels. very much looking forward to getting that

It's absolute rubbish, folks....don't bother. Boring. The sound quality IS appalling and the visuals are blurred and hardly gripping. I'm sick of tenth-rate product like this being peddled - I know all the old arguments - 'nobody forced you to buy it', 'what do you expect from The Fall?' etc. etc. but these are often fired by people ALSO feeling 'done', desperately trying to justify their purchases. I mean, HOW MUCH for this? I'd pay a fiver, to be frank, and wouldn't feel ripped-off but doubt I'd watch it through more than once.

Sir, think relative -- this is an immaculate and pristine quality film, simply superb, when compared to the usual tenth-rate Fall product. That means this is elevated at least to third-rate. Anyone itching to own a live Fall video needs to know that this is *better*. I don't recall any of us saying it is perfect.

Just how I remember the shows! :P

Yeah they F*cked up "The Birthday Party" video & the "Joy Division" video as well,well done Cherry Red :rant:

I think the key thing to remember is, despite all the hype, there was never really much to look at in the Hacienda at this time.....apart from a few post new-romantic/pre-goth muso poseurs

The stage was awfully low, and video was in its infancy, so the opportunity to get dynamic shots, of a band that is not renowned for its dynamism was somewhat limited.

Its unfortunate (as I have posted elsewhere) that the December '83 gig was not included - bigger crowd, less grumpy set, newer material etc

A wonderful release, I think. The A/V quality is good enough.

Anyway, it's worth it only for a mindblowing rendition of "Garden." The throaty roar of Steve Hanley's bass (on all the segments here, really) is a thing of beauty and the dual drumming is a total knockout!

One of these days, I'll have to look at the gigography and compare which dates I saw to these shows and to the recording dates (if available) of the songs here to track the slight differences in the arrangements. Fascinating stuff.

I really enjoyed Simon Rogers's contributions on the final segment.

So where's the rest of the footage?

Picked this up yesterday, only managed to have a quick skip through it but really pleased with it, great to see some footage from the Brix era. Having a quiet one tonight so will have a proper watch of it.

Whats he doing with the microphones at the start of spoilt victorian child? hahaha

I'm pleased with it. good question on the other footage, seems likely teh entirety of all the gigs were filmed.


Anyhow, one thing of note: This is shot MUCH better than Live at Leeds. The quality is the same, but live at leeds was shot soo shittily, with unecessary zooms into blurry nothingness. This often has more than one camera angle and not much distracting zooming

No. The 1983 section is a MUST for anyone remotely interested in popular music.

Just got mine this morning so will give my unbiased opinion (expect lavish words) in due course :)

Still waiting for mine. I suppose those lazy civil servant blokes at the customs have probably gone on strike again, good for nothing government workers... :D

Trainspotter Review of Live at the Hacienda 1983 -1985

Kit used:
Sanyo 28WN4 28 inch widescreen TV
DK Digital DVD-339 DVD player
Sony STR-DB790 AV amplifier (using Dolby Pro Logic 2)
Wharfedale Diamond 8.3/Wharfedale Diamond Centre/Mission M7ds/TDL Nucleus speakers


27 July 1983

Personnel :
Mark E Smith (vocals/keys)
Craig Scanlon (gtr/vocals)
Steve Hanley (bass/vocals)
Karl Burns (drums/bass)
Paul Hanley (drums/keys)

Video quality :

Not too bad, but a lot of those white speckly bits you often find on old VHS cassettes, especially ones where you regularly record Coronation St over and over again. Good angles all around except Karl Burns who lurks in the shadows behind Scanlon.

Audio quality :

Truly dreadful for Hexen but then superb for the rest – very loud drums

Tracks and personnel

Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot MES (vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums & bass), PH (drums)
Ludd Gang MES (vocals), CS (gtr/vocals), SH (bass/vocals), KB (bass), PH (drums)
Neighbourhood of Infinity MES (vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (bass), PH (keys/drums)
I Feel Voxish MES (vocals/keys), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (bass), PH (drums)

Observations :
Dead straight performances, no funny business going on. A clip of Hexen from this performance appeared on the Perverted by Language Bis video. This was also the same gig where Tempo House was recorded for both video and the PBL album. Eccles also correctly points out (see next page of this thread) that The Man Whose Head Expanded from the same gig featured Craig Scanlon on keyboards - also on the PBL video.

29 June 1984

Personnel :
Mark E Smith (vocals/tapes)
Brix Smith (gtr/vocals)
Craig Scanlon (gtr)
Steve Hanley (bass)
Karl Burns (drums/bass/percussion)
Paul Hanley (drums/keys)

Video quality :

Good angles all around – particularly brilliant views of Burns and P Hanley drumming in tandem, esp. during Garden

Audio quality :

A bit tinny, to be honest, but soon beefs up when the bouncy two drum kit line up gets going during Kicker Conspiracy.

Tracks and personnel

Godbox MES (vocals/tape), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums)
Kicker Conspiracy MES (vocals), BS (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums)
C.R.E.E.P. MES (vocals), BS (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (keys)
Lay of the Land MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (bass/tambourine), PH (drums)
Elves MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (keys)
Garden MES (vocals/tape), BS (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums)

Observations :

Brix’s jaunty little cap – she looks like a little bit of a cheeky monkey !
Great overall shots of the band (presumably some was shot from the Hacienda’s balcony), although Craig disappears off stage left on the screen occasionally.
Brix kicks out at a fan at the start of Elves – probably the idiot jumping around on other people’s shoulders (hope it wasn’t anyone here….)
Great harmony twixt MES and BS on C.R.E.E.P.
Great Jimmy Saville impersonation by Brix during Kicker Conspiracy
Mark’s strange hand gesture during C.R.E.E.P. – was he pretending to be Harry H Corbett (of Sooty fame) ?
New line in Garden – “keep those flashing lights at the back still before I break your frigging neck”
Weird echo on Brix’s mic when she sings “Jew on a motorbike”


18 October 1984

Personnel :
Mark E Smith (vocals/keys)
Brix Smith (gtr/vocals)
Craig Scanlon (gtr)
Steve Hanley (bass)
Karl Burns (drums)
Paul Hanley (drums/keys)

Video quality :

Not too bad, but from side of the stage. Scratchy video with white lines appearing again.

Audio quality :

Not that good, but listenable – seemingly from a mono sound source as the balance on an AV amplifier came out favouring front left…

Tracks and personnel

2 x 4 MES (vocals), BS (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums)
Slang King MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums/keys)
Mere Pseud Mag Ed. MES (vocals/keys), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums), PH (drums)

Observations :

Brix had obviously just hot-footed it from a Sigue Sigue Sputnik gig – truly terrible hair experience going on there…
Slang King is bizarrely in two parts, with a dual drummer start, then PH legs it round to the keyboard, then back on his drumstool for the second part (and a huge gap where the keyboard part comes in !)
A weird echo on MES’ vocals during Slang King


9 October 1985

Personnel :
Mark E Smith (vocals)
Brix Smith (gtr/vocals/keys)
Craig Scanlon (gtr)
Steve Hanley (bass)
Simon Rogers (gtr/keys/vocals)
Karl Burns (drums)

Video quality :

The worst of the four gigs, with just one camera, side on stage right – Craig and Simon are virtually invisible in most of the shots. The picture during What You Need and LA is like it’s been taken from inside a gauze – dreadful. It does improve, but not by much…

Audio quality :

Aside from the far too quiet What You Need the audio is excellent.

Tracks and personnel

What You Need MES (vocals), BS (keys), SR (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), KB (drums)
Barmy MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (keys), KB (drums)
LA MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (keys), KB (drums)
Dktr Faustus MES (vocals), BS (vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (keys), KB (drums)
I Am Damo Suzuki MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (keys), KB (drums)
Gut of the Quantifier MES (vocals), BS (gtr/vocals), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (gtr), KB (drums)
Spoilt Victorian Child MES (vocals), BS (gtr), CS (gtr), SH (bass), SR (gtr), KB (drums)

Observations :

A very rare sight indeed of Brix playing keyboards (well – you can just about see the back of her head) on What You Need, with Simon Rogers taking her place up front with guitar and backing vocals.
Truly rollicking versions of LA and Damo – no vox from Brix during the former
Nice bit of improv gtr by Brix at the end of Barmy – the sort of thing normally frowned upon by the boss
Brix hangs up her gtr for Faustus to contribute most of the vox, some through a megaphone (including random shoutings of “banana !” – MES reads the lyrics off a scratty piece of paper, naturally
Lots of very strange keyboard noises during Damo – Simon had replaced the infamous Snoopy keyboard by this time with his own kit – sadly no panpipes from his Incantantion days, tho…
Karl Burns stares out the cameraman during Gut… eventually mouthing a “fuck you” and looking generally disagreeable during these proceedings
Mark’s mic screws up at the start of Spoilt… so he barges Brix out of the way and steals hers…
Nice “son of a bitch” interjections during Gut… from Brix


Final Summary

From a Fall historian’s point of view this is an essential purchase, not least to see the band at one of their critical turning points in the mid 1980s.

From a fan of DVD and home cinema fan’s point of view this is technically a farce – shoddy audio and video which does little to enhance the material.

From a realist’s point of view, this material is 20 years old, so what did you expect : crystal clear picture and 5.1 surround sound ? Get a grip….Let’s face it, The Fall have never been about exploding drummers on stage, after all. No, this video captures them exactly as it should – workmanlike performances from 1983, more glamorous 1984 appearances and by 1985 a well-drilled unit banging out new and old songs with plenty of gusto and enthusiasm. Rock on…

Buy it….

I've got a vague recollection of Scanlon playing the mini Casio keyboard on some of the tracks but not necessarily on the ones on the DVD..... :confused:

You may be thinking of The Man Whose Head Expanded from the same gig :)

:D Yes......!!

Thanks for the reminder - I've added it into the text. That performance was on Perverted by Language bis :)

Karl plays bass on this track, actually...

Also note MES's vocal improvisation in the bit after this - he mentions "epilectic fits" and "strong personality".

Had a proper watch of this over the weekend, its my favourite of out the The Fall dvds I reckon (aftert my dissapointment with the touch sensitive dvd). Was really surprised, as there are a few opening riffs that i had always assumed Brix had played for some reason, Spoilt victorian child for one, Scanlons gone up an extra ten notches in my book now like.

How intense is the version of Garden? Got a few shivers, and my cheeks started to get boiling hot, im sure I was blushing hahahaha :D

Jim

Well spotted - it was getting dark in my sitting room when I was keeping notes and I stuck Karl's name in the wrong column (no, really....)

Thanks for pointing out - have corrected to read bass/drums (bearing in mind Paul Hanley plays the opening bit on keyboards !) :)

Having just re-watched this, Hanley actually plays keyboards then drums, Burns is on bass throughout : I stand corrected by Erkton :unsure:

I feel for the man who cannot glean any enjoyment from this video selection, you may as well pack all your belongings and head for Tibet to ponder for 5 years and five nights about just where your destiny in life really is.

It's a shame though that the Hacienda is no longer extant, I have no feeling for it as a venue, having only been there once, but it was an elegant building, sacrificed in the pursuit of the luxury apartment no less.

Hardly elegant stuck at the Arse end of town..... :D

Bought this in Tower yesterday... couldn't wait to get home to watch it... watched the first set and loved it - first time I've ever heard Ludd Gang after 15 years of Fall fandom... then I had to go out unexpectedly :angry: Got back and resumed watching the dvd... then the fucking telly blew up :o well, I mean the tube went on this elderly set (which I was forced to watch it on for mundane domestic reasons). So I had to just listen to it like a cd through my stereo... :( had had a few and was tired but what I heard sounded good (not necessarily in an audiophile sense ;) ) Will have to copy it onto a vid tonight as I'll only get to watch it in a dvd-less house at the weekend :banghead:

And how about MES' dead-on Lou Reed Rock N Roll Animal impersonation? Speed thin, crewcut, in make-up and skin-tight clothes!

tremendous stuff-got a DVD player yesterday and hooked it up thru the stereo-gorgeosness and gorgeosity

i thought the cover was the swirly design though, mine isn't its got some dr faustus/joker type rendition of smith on the cover

looked at PBL/leeds too-dont know why theres complaints about this relative to the VHS-picture's fine. Lots of trainspotter bedsit types in the audience-kid in spectacles mouthing the words-anyone from here?

watched in its entirety last night-some sound glitches on a couple of tracks but what the hey.

Great fuckin monsters of songs with the band in the groove-looks like bloody hard work, esp ther bass-very enjoyable, god to see Paul Hanley and Brix having a smile and enjoying emselves, smith too actually, theyre on form and they know it.

Brixs hair and fashion sense-the 80s what were they thinkin?

though the rest of the band and audience look like they could be of our time

proto crowd surfer in the audience though he wants to do it vertically :wacko: