Croydon Cartoon Club (4th/final night – Wednesday), 15th March 2006

Surprised no-one has posted a review yet! It was a pretty good show. Some great highlights like Sparta, What About Us and Blindness. Someone said the word 'cruising' and I guess that was fair comment. Sorry I don't have a setlist.

Just a quickie, then . . . Setliist ran:

Instrumental (title unknown to me, perhaps The Boss, but Ben looked like he was suffering so it could have been . . Abuse) - MES walked on towards the end, and gave a very cheery Good Evening We Are The Fall, which set the bonhomie for the night;
Touch Sensitive (hard, but excellent);
Bo Demmick (no complaints with this);
Clasp Hands (nice one);
What About Us (another long version, it almost seemed as if they didn't know when/didn't want to stop. I almost wished they hadn't it was that good);
Mountain Energei (one of the stars of the last tour, resurrected in very fine style once again);
Sparta F.C. (a performance to win the Champions League/European Cup in any era); and
Blindness (Ouch. A full fat performance of this too).

And that was it. Timed perfectly I thought. Group had all left the stage by 11.25 pm. I left the Club at 11.27 and had to be at East Croydon station by 11.32 to avoid any transport problems. I did it with 30 seconds to spare. Brilliant. If in 2012 there's an Olympic event for this - the late night post-gig Cartoon Club to East Croydon dash - I ought to be in the team. Although it was as if MES knew that my time was up, and how (ahem) fit I was. Bless him, and them all.

They seemed to have ironed out all of their problems on stage, and all seemed quite content. Ben was a little concerned when he knocked the second mike stand over near the end, but picked it up without causing any distress to MES. MES did a bit of knob-twiddling, but not to much effect, and had a quick friendly chat with each group member towards the end. Although that was probably to say "that's it for tonight . . . ".

My only remaining question is were MES's trousers new and/or stolen, because they still had the security tag on the back pocket?

More later I think. . . but au revoir to everyone I met tonight and on Sunday. And particular thanks to those who helped me in my ticket quest tonight.

are you now off to the Commonwealth games? Man thats moving!

sounds like a good 'un again. glad you could make it

Not sure which gig this actual paper set list came from!! Sparta and Blindness not even on it. I spotted MES talking to the band during the gig. My guess is that he was making up the set as he went along. Good powerful stuff again last night, but just tooooooooooooooooooooo short a set!! I've got more photos for later. I'm bloody tired now though!

Nice venue - good sound - solid performance - and then they left the stage. It's just not long enough.

On the positive side, it finished early enough so it was easy to get back without transport problem - shot off fairly quickly to avoid transport difficulty. However, I was enjoying it so much I didn't care about the transport problems. I didn't time it but I saw some pissed off looking people leaving the venue.

Thanks for the beer Steve - I'll buy you one next time I see you.

Also, nice to see everyone still in the pub at an indecently late hour - I would have thought you all would have made more effort to see the guy with the slides.

What was the joke?

Cerebral Caustic

Cerebral Caustic

Can we have a caption competition?

are you now off to the Commonwealth games? Man thats moving!

sounds like a good 'un again. glad you could make it

Thanks. I wish I was going. But the selectors didn't like my musical tastes.

It was another good one. Fairly short but very sweet.

Cheers

Cerebral Caustic

Can we have a caption competition?

MES to Ben: "What d'ya reckon Frank Skinner would say if we asked him to stand in for John Cooper Clarke?"

Four nights. Each different. Tues was definitely the best - Sunday was the lowest-key gig . (I won't say worst because there's no such thing with The Fall).
Saw that bird from Shameless at the gig last night. Top dollar. She's just like her character (Veronica?) - never without a pint - She got stuck in at the front too.
She seemed to be with Kevin Cummins (world famous photographer )- had a had a quick chat with him. Said he was just there for fun, not working... Didn't see Skinner though (thankfully).
Altogether a great residency and one I'd happily endorse every March. Maybe make it a week next time Mark.

Surprised they didn't do 'The Man Whose Head Expanded'. Very topical in London right now...

Final night in Croydon! Thanks again for the reviews. Top-photos, Hanley PAFD.



Glad for everybody who made it there. Soon they'll play over here...

What was the joke?

That is a crackin picture

That is a fuckin' excelent photo

What was the joke?

BEN:"Boss, what are we gonna play next?"
MES:"Smile, you dussel!!!"

I went on sunday and that was mind expanding...last night was a top professinal(!) show..if that is the right word for the fall..it could have been louder, but marks on stage mixing helped a great deal.nice to see bed diminshed mike.....

on reflection it gives the impression they were slacking, so maybe another word would be better, but I can't think of it at the moment.
Good to see you Steve

Just to let you all know that the reason for the short sets was that Ben left the band on Saturday night, and was replaced by Ben lookalike Wayne Mardle, probably better known for Hawaiian shirts and occasional darts



Hope someone taped all these gigs and will be upping them on Dime soon!

for the caption it could be weve got the money lets piss off early

Cerebral Caustic

Can we have a caption competition?

MES to Ben: "What d'ya reckon Frank Skinner would say if we asked him to stand in for John Cooper Clarke?"

Or MES to Ben: "You're a good lad. We ought to have a look at extending your contract. . . "

"You're fired!"

This was the best Fall gig I have seen. They were so together and focussed, Sunday night seems a long time ago. I enjoyed that but this totally eclipsed it. (Cruising is the wrong word - consumate, in a groove perhaps. Everything was played fairly straight and with amost no mucking about but at a real intensity).
I saw the whole of the support act Nought who were excellent. A bit tricky to engage with initially, but once in, all the constant discordance, mad guitar and bastard time signatures started to gel. Last song was epic. The video artists piece seemed tame by comparison and I found myself actually enjoying it. Great audience welcome to the Fall and response thereafter - something which the band seemed to pick up on - grinning to each other as they knew they were nailing it.
Mountain Energie was majestic. Finishing with the best Blindness performance I've
heard, an absolute beast: Bass was turned up to 11 by MES, Eleni's sawmill keyboards, built up to a huge drone. The best.
Oh, and Mr. Skinner was there again.

Thought it was one of the best myself.
The first instrumental was not the same as Sunday's so that's two new numbers at least. Then Touch Sensitive all the way to Blindness via What About Us et al. Each number seemed to go on a fair bit and all the better for it. I thought the whole set was around 50 minutes. Short but in no way too short. A much enjoyed evening.