Yesterday a seller on eBay informed me that the recordings on the 5 discs are done by the audience. I get visions of annoying audience chattering and yelling in between songs, a tinny sound and high end flutter and more clumsy crap, which is everso often the case with this sort of recordings. Is there anyone out there who has taken it so far as to buy this box? I must say that the review in drownedinsound.com doesn't make any sense to me. Is there any added value to the fact that you get the same song played for the 4rth or 5th time? What I (and surely other folks) need is a decent in-depth rating/survey of this expensive boy.

I've only listened to disc one, and that was in the background of doing something else I'm afraid. The recording seemed soundboardy to me.

Five concerts from the same tour, presented perfectly well. If you like that sort of thing, buy it.

Why not just listen to your ordinary Fall albums, but with a large sock over the speakers and invite round some tramps to chatter drunkenly next to you - that way you can enjoy the Fall live album experience for a fraction of the cost!

I'd like to say I won't purchase it, but I know I will once I see the cover
in Tower or HMV or wherever. Can't seem to stop myself. I'll even be excited!! I don't know either. I just hope MES never starts a cult. It can only be that a Fall live compilation (comprising of *gasp* 5 CDs) seems to be a far more interesting purchase than a lot of the dross about at the moment. I got given a copy of Kings of Leon new CD - it's rubbish!

Yeah, but being less bad than the Kings Of Leon is hardly a compelling reason to buy something, is it? If you want bad Fall, why not buy some Pavement albums? Arf arf!

Yeah, I know what you mean - I really gave Pavement a go (i think I persisted with Slanted & Enchanted solely because it sold loads in America and is always getting good reviews). I still can't see what people see in this band. I can't find anything positive to say about them. I can see why MES gets irritated whenever Pavement are mentioned. I just don't get it!

Ooh dear, well, I must admit to being a bit partial to Slanted & Enchanted when it came out, but all their subsequent efforts I thought were appalling - smug, Ivy League crap, like being forced to endure a 24-hour screening of episodes of Frasier and the later series of MASH. Who makes the nazis? Bands like Pavement.

I received the Touch Senstive Bootleg Box Set yesterday in the mail from Action Records.

I had a chance to listen to one CD and sample the four others.

On first impression I think it's better than I expected.

I think MES wants to keep us Fall fans busy while we wait for Country on the Click.

The first two CDs are from the 2001 American tour. It's very heavy guitar oriented music similar to the 2G +2 CD. In fact some of the material on 2G + 2 might be taken from these two performances (ask Conway).

The three other performances are more punkish with Julia Nagle's keyboard and guitar giving an intrusion of colour and industrial noise.

I listened to the Brighton Concert CD5, which I enjoyed. Most of the songs are from the Marshall Suite and the Unutterable.

I prefer the live versions to the studio versions because they sound much rougher and with the addition of Julia's noise to the mix, experimental.

Packaging: wrap it up
Sleeve notes: very good
Sound: soundboard recording on the lines of Live Varoius Years, Zagreb, Nottingham etc.

Good bargain if you are a fan.

Hmm... I've seen it for the not-bad-all-things-considered price of 20 quid locally. I'm quite tempted for some reason, although I'm not sure what reason that might be. Because I'm usually against buying live Fall albums on principle.

Some of the gigs are audience recordings, a couple are soundboard. But there's no obtrusive audience noise & they've come up quite well in the mastering - sound miles better and cleaner than the original pre-production CDRs I was sent.

There are 3 tracks from the box set that appeared on 2G+2:
CD1 - Knitting Factory, NYC 23 Nov. 2001 - Bourgeois Town & Mr Pharmacist
CD2 - Crocodile Cafe, Seattle 20 Nov. 2001 - The Joke

Iv got 2 of em but havent had the courage to listen to any of them.
I like the fact I am featured in the artwork and play on practically every track and I wasnt consulted once.
And it gives me a warm feeling inside that a 5cd boxset selling at 20+ and I get nothing for it. And as far as i am aware neither do any of the other musicians featured. Bar the miniscule royalties it will pay.

Just go on soulseek and download a few gigs then print out some pictures off Fallnet and you will have practically the same thing. Dont feel bad because your taking no money from me.

I can't understand the sense of these releases, it's not as if a Fall concert is a rare event and should be documented for posterity. Also in this era of www, p2p, cdr etc anyone can make albums as they please, I'm sure we all have C90 tapes of old recordings.

And as has been stated, the band involved recieve no payments for these offical releases

there are of course many seminal live moments that have appeared over the years but Roskilde?, Nottingham?? and various other places, where's the significance that justifies a CD release?. These recordings do have value, but not monetary.

I didn't realise that "27 Points" was only the beginning....

but at least 27p was a legitimate release (although probaly contractual) and seems to have all the hallmarks of MES/The Fall to suggest that it does have a rightful place alongside their "proper" albums

Gonna have to do a one or two disc best of thang on the box set, there's too much to get through! :wacko:

I’ve gotten through three out of the five discs in this set.


Disc 2 - Seattle Nov. 2001.
Smoking. Nice to hear a full Fall concert on CD again instead of a cobbling of snippets.

In the absence of keyboards, the band has to work hard to make up for lost sound - which they more than did!

Ben is a very capable guitarist. Mark is in a jovial mood - top verbal form.


Disc 4 - Amsterdam April 2001.
Muffled audience recording.

Enthusiastic audience - the Amsterdam audience sounds like they are really enjoying themselves (must be something in the air). The enthusiasm rubs off on the Fall’s performance. The band is much appreciated.

Some songs, like Antidotes, seem to benefit from this muffled recording.


Disc 5 - Brighton April 17.
Prime exhibit in the Julia Nagle wing of the Fall Museum.

yes, oh yes.

they got this boardwalk reverby sound on disc 5....dont know how to describe it ...but i am not so keen on it...[what i mean is they did it to us when we played the boardwalk in mcr...it is supposed to sound smooth but it is just boring and dead, not live at all]...i think disc 2 is the best....i am not too ripped off at £4 a disc..it is still some fall i aint heard....just cant get too excited about it either

I just bought the box against my better judgement, expecting more disappointment and found myself playing all 5 discs in one spellbound sitting. I reckon it's their best release since 1985 and no-one's more surprised about that than me!
Having bought everything The Fall have released (except a few of the receiver rip-offs) and being just about impressed enough to carry on buying, but not being completely blown away, I suddenly realise that the way to hear The Fall is:
1) Live
2) In large quantites
It really works and I suddenly remember why I spent the formative years of my life (1977-85) regarding them as the pinnacle of human artistic achievement. It would be great to have more of this - maybe releasing every gig (a la Pearl Jam/Throbbing Gristle?) without any editing (although at a reasonable price of course). I'm shocked and stunned at just how good 21st century Fall can be (well the albums didn't give away any clues, did they?)

B)

Another satisfied fan!

Well - me and my danish mates are responsible for the Melkweg and Haarlem recordings and yes it was done with a mic hidden in a jacket - but not just any jacket. The fantastic and very realistic live sound quality was achieved using a speciel danish brand called KANSAS. But hey - I get to shout the danish word for pussy ("FISSE") :rolleyes: on an official Fall release and actually I think the tour was one of the Falls finest - the power and the line of songs - brilliant !!!

Sounds good in the car. Best on long commutes.

Hey Conway! Was this boxset originally planned to be released as Live in America by Voiceprint?

NO! IT IS THE INFOTAINMENT SCEN

HE! HE! HE! Using the tone zones to my advantage. Mr. Dave Fall must sleep!

DKTR, How can one sleep after seeing these disturbing images you keep posting?

Maf - which is yer favourite 'IF' or 'Clockwork Orange(ah)'?

if..

Whereas 'Clockwork Orange' is gloriously over the top, 'If' is sublime and would still be an extraordinary film even without it's sensationalist finale.

you've been framed....with lisa riley [marc's sis.....OH YES SHE IS :angry: ]

they will ban it one day

I like Clockwork Orange more, but actually saw IF... first, on tv really late one night and it left and impression on me. I actually credit that movie as one of the most important movies I've ever seen, I was about 12 and didn't know what to make of it. I've only seen it once since, that's a title that should get released on DVD soon.

What no mention of Caligula or Tank Girl?

I quite like clockwork orange.....but i am not too into weirdo films...dont like the classical music on it.....but all u arty lot will say that only a genius would of thought of it...dunno if i have seen 'if' .....is it a s. king one....is it the one with the clown....or am i on the wrong one? i thought that iron man [somebody mentioned it .....12 million threads ago] i thought that was disturbing.....but then again i wouldnt really wanna watch it again.....a good bit of acting is what i like 'hobson's choice' is a good film.....well acted , no arty pissin about -_-

I'm not saying it's a film you have to see, I just happen to like it myself. I haven't even seen the follow-up 'Oh Lucky Man' yet but I thought 'Brittania Hospital' was a big disappointment. I don't like to talk about what's good and what isn't though, 'cos I enjoyed Caligula too.

I didn't like Clockwork Orange due to watching it very late (about 2001) and having already read the book which is far better. This is so often the case though: if you see a film of something which you have already read, it tends to not live up to your expectations.
The only exception to this for me is those Lord Of The Rings films. I read the books as a kid but lost plot about halfay through the Fellowship one so I think I just looked at all the words to the rest of it. It is only after seeing the films that i started to understand what on earth it was all about.

Anyway, to go back on topic, I like the box set. Nice version of Paintwork on disc 3. Paintwork, Slates, and Kurious Oranj are probably my favourate Fall songs and I never thought I would hear Paintwork live so was over the moon when they did it in an encore some years ago. Will Slates ever get revived?

No. Voiceprint thought they could reissue A Part Of America Therein (as Live In America), but they didn't own the rights to it.

i thought the book was better too
:unsure: not that i read books all the time

I only watched it a year ago but i thought it was a bit shit. Its ok upto the point where he revisits all the people he wronged blah blah. Maybe its the awed way people spoke about it led me to believe it would be better. I vaguely remember reading the book in one sitting. Cant stand all that moral posturing. Too much like that american fantasy land where there is some karmic paradise. Like yeah life is really like that. Also Crime and Punishment annoys me for the same reasons. Although i love the Idiot.

Still not listened to one second of the boxset. Glad some people liked it. But again for the pittance of royalties i will get from it i couldnt care less wether people just download it. From what i can gather the only people profiting on it are Sanctuary.

Also i think the only reason we tried paintwork was from promptings from Lars who recorded those 2 dutch gigs. A dedicated fan and a great guy. Also his damo t-shirt spurred me and spencer into bringing that one back into the set.

This sdOK is quite an amicable chap. Thanks for the info.

I FELT much the same way but much worse about death race 2000....as a kid it was all the talk .....violence violence violence.....but really i found it suitable as a U .....

oh n said same folk.... when i was a kid left much more disturbing childhood images with me..... like when i saw one of me 'mates' kick this other lad's head in with steelers.....that poor lad was like vegetable after... :(