Croydon Cartoon Club (3rd night – Tuesday), 14th March 2006 (merged)

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. about an hour of bliss,3 new tracks.unsure of set list ,still euphoric,but had The Boss,touch sensitive,youwanner,open the box,pacifying joint plus others,finished with blindness,best I,ve heard it out of 6 or 7 listenings just amazing.can,t go tomorrow I,ve got to go home but I,ve finished on a high.Hanley,s got the set list.name check of people I,ve the pleasure of being with this week to follow.goodnight.

Stories about the demise of the Fall were laid to rest tonight. A storming set. Mark stayed on stage for the entire time. The band were as tight as I've ever seen them. Apart from a strange number in the middle which Mark's appeared to lose his ability to sing in tune the whole event was excellent.
Roll on the next tour and the next album.

inst (Protein P?) / Touch Sensitive / Systematic Abuse / Assume / Bo Doodak / Boxoctosis / White Line Fever / Pacifying Joint / Youwanner / Blindness.

White Line Fever ropey. Everything else excellent. Systematic Abuse sounds like Neu! playing Won't Get Fooled Again.

Gloved MES being led to the stage James Brown-like was hilarious and great.

Believe it people - this was one of the all-time great Fall shows.

Actual set list was (confirmed officially)

Dr Buck's Letter/Touch Sensitive/Systematic/Assume/ Clasp Hands/ Bo Doodak/Boxoctosis/White Line Fever/ Pacifying Joint/Youwanner/ Midnight in Aspen (aborted)/ Blindness

Brilliant perfomance from beginning to end. You could tell MES was enjoying it, some of the songs he was right in there before the music even started. I think Ben broke a string but still sounded great. The new stuff was awesome, no idea how long the set lasted but it was great. Frank Skinner was there again!

Good meet up in the pub beforehand as well. All the usual suspects. Plus some folks I'd not met before like Karl, Dafosex, a few others I can't remember.

John if you're reading this thanks for coming up to say hi. Sorry about the SY fuck-up way back then. Simon, see you in Berlin.

I'm listening to a recording of it now!

I concur. Superb gig. Best I've seen them since Code Selfish tour. A focused, playful, very humorous MES (paying mocking tribute to Wire at one point) and a tight band.

Support was Kenneth Williams doing Jethro Tull, and that freeze frame rock icon crap that everyone hates.

Except me, I find it pretty compelling & eerie poysonally.

I just knew they would turn it all round , thanks for set list, hopefully a stormin last night to finsh off.

this sounds great - a faith-restoring show. Picked the wrong nights (Sunday & Monday), but thats luck of the draw I guess

Superb! More photos to follow. Some of us have to work!!

With me going along tonight it'll be back to a short and sweet 40 minutes I'm sure. Sounds like a good one last night.

FHR Real New Fall playing Dr Buck's Letter?

Please explain the sonic re-shuffling, I'm drooling at the thought of it.

I was unaware he had this ability in the first place

Oh yeah, Doc Buck and Clasp Hands. Well, I did quite well from memory. 'Aborted' Aspen is pushing it a bit - IIRC it was about two secs of the intro!

Me too. Hope they haven't burned out early. Am there tonight. Are people still meeting in the Ship of Fools and at what timeish?

nine am,still buzzing.just gotta keep going and you get one of those.sunday and monday good but last night has ensured that mad grin is still firmly fixed.Hotel staff think I,m off my head.(I well maybe)see some of you at bristol and exeter.

Me too. Hope they haven't burned out early. Am there tonight. Are people still meeting in the Ship of Fools and at what timeish?

yeah
ship of fools meet up
I'll be in about 6.30
most show up around 7.30 - 8.00
I'm the daft bugger in a pair of shorts

if tonights anything like last night then it will be magic. Last night was one of the best gigs I've seen in 22 years.
it's been good to meet everyone this week

Karl - have a good flight home mate

Is Elena back to her old keyboard again? What's happened to the orange one?

If anyone wants to listen to samples of Nought the support act try this:

Nought samples

Seems harmless enough

I'm badly hung over, lugs ringing after third night, but can't stop smiling to myself. I feel like a pig in shit. The Fall were excellent last night - perfomances like this are why we keep coming back...

Erst mal: Mahlzeit!
Last night. Tears. Welling in my eyes. At the thought of it. It was a revelation, no less than that. Twenty-two years after my first Fall gig (Luxor, Cologne, 1984) I witnessed something just as fascinating. Fall on stage at 22:31, opening with Dr Buck's Letter: a fantastic song, no doubt about that. I think Mark's singing out of tune for one of the new songs was deliberate (there's a line in that song that goes "Why am I singing out of tune?" or something to that effect). Eleni behind her Korg was wearing a black dress with what I think was a floral pattern (well, you can see it in the pictures anyway). Stunning. TRES PETITE, TRES TRES TRES BELLE. Knob-twiddling at an all-time low (only once, swiftly reset, of course). Mark contributed some excellent keyboard playing during Blindnes (uses only his digits, the way some people type). Before the show that HTN remix from Antwerp again, can't wait for that to come out. Who's it by? Just before the Fall came on we were treated to some Aphex twin (and The MC5 before that), after the show it was Abba's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man after Midnight)". Well.
Does it get any better than this?
Fantastic life.

Tach Holger. Jetz komms du.

MES's favourite Abba song I believe.

Sounds like a great gig.

That reads fantastic. Can see it right before my eyes. And hear it, too.

Well it was obvious they were gonna do more than 40 minutes, the absolute second I left Croydon Tuesday morning..

Hope you weren't pissed on stella, smoking a roll up, and sitting hunched, Eagle like over the lap-top mate... Bernstein-esque!!!

This sounds more like it!