Carling Academy, Islington, London – 2nd night, 27th September 2004

After reading the first review of the previous nights show I was getting rather worried
Opening conversation on the way in didn't help calm my nerves.
When are they on?
When hes finished his bottle of wine.

They came on (late as ever) and started slowly but steadily improved and by the end my ears were ringing and my legs were tired from dancing.

Mark was on top form. He started a mock acceptance speech for the Mercury Music prize. He moaned about the curfew, "we're a club band not a youth club band" He went through everyone's microphone slinging them to the floor on a regular basis (and having to pick them up himself because they didn't appear to have a roadie.) At one point I thought he was going to dismantle the mics on the drum kit. By the end no memeber of the band could do the "appreciated" backing on Big New Prinz.

The high points?
Blindness was a stunning groove, Sparta magnificent

Another great night with the Fall. Reports of their demise are unfounded

I put this in the other thread by mistake....


INTRO: Loop 41/Ho(e)uston [played twice]
The Joke
Boxoctosis
Dr Buck's Letter
Mountain Energei
Sparta FC
What About Us?
Clasp Hands
Green-Eyed Loco Man
Mr. Pharmacist
Touch Sensitive
We Are Mod Mock Goth
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Blindness
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I Can Hear The Grass Grow
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Mere Pseud Mag Ed.
Wrong Place Right Time
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Big New Prinz




Awesome stuff - possibly the loudest Fall gig I've ever seen (MES having to shout into the mic a few times to be heard). "Blindness" and "What About Us?" were just stunning.

Some bloke out of the audience managed to get onstage to make "Boxoctosis" into a duet.

Blindness and TS both had 5 minute instrumental starts, whilst MES had a piss or whatever, off stage.

I hope "Interim" has this band doing "Mere Pseud Mag Ed", as they do what for me is THE definitive version, way better than either the Hex or any live tape from the Hanley years (sorry if any old guard were offended by that, but it's how I feel).

Lots of improv in the Bucks lyrics - something about a copy of "Catcher In The Rye" in the pocket. At one point I thought he was doing the lyrics to "What You Need".

I wish Pharmacist would be retired and replaced with Dead Beat Descendant as the token BB single. I remember being excited when they did it back in 2001, when it was the first time it had been done in years, but I didn't know then it would become as tediously routine as it has since.

great song indeed.

The "bloke from the audience" who "jumped onstage" was infact a member of The Disco Students and had rehearsed with the band during the afternoon.

Interesting to see that Wrong Place, Right Time and I Can See The Grass Grow have now been split up. Unless this list isn't in the right order.

Last night was much improved after Sunday's water-treading gig. MES in fine splenetic form throughout - walk offs, mic chucking, band member wind-ups. Very funny watching Ben's multitude of "what the fuck is he doing NOW?" expressions when MES tampered with his guitar amp. No cheap black glove tonight, but he did wear a horrible black tee shirt with playing cards down the front. Who the fuck was the guy with the afro-mullet who sang "backing vocals" on "Boxctosis"? Looked and sounded like someone MES met in the pub. They should retire "Mr Pharmacist". It lost its novelty in 1986. Otherwise great.

Excellent gig last night. Took a mate who had never seen them before...she was blown away

Havent seen them in quite a while...can someone tell me who the complete line up is these days....I gave up ages ago trying to work out who in, and who's out.

Did anyone get interviewed for the BBC4 documentary they're making due to go out Jan 2005?

Interesting to see that Wrong Place, Right Time and I Can See The Grass Grow have now been split up. Unless this list isn't in the right order.

No, that list is absolutely correct, and I jotted it down as things went on. I missed the appearnace of the Disco Students man because I dropped my pen.

I should mention some great comedy moments between MES and Ben, as the old one went to fiddle with the amps, causing Ben to curse as he saw what had been changed, and then fix it back again.

Mark walked off at the start of Touch Sensitive after arranging a mike stand for Jim to apparently do the vocals instead. The band chugged along, and after several minutes Jim volunteered some "Hey hey heys!" until Mark returned and they actually started the song.

"Blindness" had at least 5 minutes instrumental workout before MES came on stage.

what about when he sang the lyric "mod mock goth" as though he were questioning it.......

Last night was very good indeed. It was also, as a friend pointed out, a gig of contradictions. The atmosphere felt perkier the moment you got in. Dub reggae before going into Houston, twice again. Started with The Joke and didn't look back. Marvellous guest singer on Boxoctosis - looked like the bastard son/father of Lionel Richie. Clasp Hands was again without any of the slow Peel session sections, but again great.


The early part of the gig was very hard, fast, helter-skelter stuff. Sort of good-standard Fall gig. Then things began to unravel very successfully. One of the highlights was a sloppy, murky Mod Mock Goth. Left after this with some comments about festival bands, club bands, and policy.

Mr Pharmacist is always welcome, especially because, like The Joke, it irritates professional Fall watchers. It was the only part of the gig that wasn't as good as the night before, tho'.

Mark became increasingly frustrated with his mikes (or was it for the cameras), which meant that a brilliant, soupy Blindness was rather curtailed. Came back when it didn't look like they might to do a supremely pissed off and devil-may-care I Can Hear the Grass Grow. The gig had taken on that fractured, pleasing irregularity of the Levitate tours.

Surely it can't just have been the cameras, but also the cheering, yelling crowd, that got them back for two more excellent encores.

Someone with a very loud voice in the crowd singing Big New Prinz - mayhem while it lasted, but eventually Smith had enough.

Ben doing his irritating man of the people stuff, eye-rolling stuff again - especially weird because Smith was turning him up more often than not.

Felix Paleface

Oh, and What About Us? was absolutely magnificent. One of the best things I have ever heard them do.

Felix Addendum

Agreed.

How come he can remember a brand new, lengthy lyric like that, but he still can't get the "Mountain Energei" lyrics in the right order?

There was one of them he did with his back to the crowd, over by the drums, and I guessed he was reading the lyrics off paper. But seeing him do WAU made me think "you lying bastard, you've remembered all your lyrics perfectly well over all these years, stop winding us up by pretending you can't".

Dr Buck was largely improv, and all the better for it. There was also some of "Enigrammatic Dream" dropped into a different number, whichever it was that Stephen said he did it on the previous night.

I must admit I prefered last nights performance to Sunday's for many reasons as already mentioned MES's tinkering, Eleni's vocals audible, the band seemingly going off early (though looking at set listing perhaps I have this wrong) with a rant about not being a festival band or something along those lines and then returning for 4 encores

The other highlight for me was spending 15-20 minutes talking to Irene Smith and briefly to Carol Ann

Also a mention to the group of three I met who had come from Swansea for the gig

Anyone witness Heist?
Blimey - what a shower!
A Michael Stipe wannabe and a few dodgy boilers.
Charasmatic??!!
Twas like watching paint dry

Highlights for me were:

1) Suprisingly great version of Touch Sensitive, which usually seems a bit of a live plodder to me - all the parts were mixed up, probably unintentionally as Ben spent much of the song shaking his head in dismay. But the new arrangement was much more exciting and unpredictable.

2) Mod Mock Goth with the band sliding in and out of sync with each other, creating a unnerving slurring effect. This song is so damn intense!

Harley R

They supported at the 98 Xmas pantomime. Dreadful.

i am glad they are doing the joke again, i definitely want a copy of this gig as well.

They'd hardly stopped doing it for long, as it was the set-opener at Islington Academy last December as well.

if you know someone who taped this gig, please let me know.

As a lad of 20 i saw the fall on the Sunday and vlown away by the intensity of the set. I returned last night (27th) again to another thrilling prospect. Yes they took longer to take to the stage, but it was worth it!

The new songs are fantastice including the intense stomp of 'Blindness' and 'White lightning' Other highlights included 'Dr Bucks Letter', 'Green Eyed Loco Man and the brilliant 'Sparcta F.C'

I just wish more of the younger generation would appreciated how important the Fall are to British Music!

Heres to another 25 years Mark!

P.S. Thanks to the guy i met last night who told me about the forum, if ur on here and see this i will be getting Shacks album Water pistol!

alright another 20 year old, hello friend, good choice of album. glad you enjoyed your first fall gig as well. mine kicked a lot of ass. mes is god.

Its actually my 4th fall gig abd the best!

well you are two ahead of me. glad to see you enjoyed it though.

I saw them when RURthe missing winner came out and they were playing live stuff from it (naturally amazing stuff) it was The Unuterable that got me into them, that album is their best!

also don't supose you or anyone for that matter know what album if it is on an album 'The Joke' is on, i like that song very much and want it