Nottingham, 10th March 2005

Where are the reviews? Calling reviews!

They were superb. I'm now convinced that this is the tightest live formation the band have had in years. Coming on a good half hour late of course, they whizzed through a set that included two encores (White Lightning for the first, F-Oldin' Money & something else I've forgotten for the second), playing for almost an hour & a half.
Great versions of Touch Sensitive (which seemed to be about 12 minutes long), the best live version I've heard of Sparta FC, Wrong Place.., Mountain Energy, Grass Grow & some new tracks which rocked out a lot. I also saw Mark smile, which is probably the first time he's done this since about 1983!

John Cooper Clark was very funny & from my vantage point at the front of the gallery, I can confirm that the average age of the audience was about 45 judging by the balding pates that glistened up from the packed hall below.

Nice to meet some forum members in the pub beforehand too.

Uhm, no, he also smiled last year at the Vienna gig when there was frenetic applause for "Clasp Hands".

Darn it my veiled attempt at sarsacm falls at the first hurdle.

How could you forget the second song of the second encore!?A rip-roaring, fast as fuck 'Mere Pseud Mag Ed'.
What a great gig. Best Fall performance for 20 years.
Who was the chap who joined them for Touch Sensitive? It worked really well and it was great to watch Mark enjoying himself so much.
Highlights for me: Grass Grow, Janet & Johnny, Mountain Energei, Blindness, Mere Pseud...Oh bollocks, there was nothing but highlights.

JCC was very funny too.

they played these - but the order of the main set is muddled in my head.... these are definitely in the wrong order!

bo doodak
boxoctosis
clasp hands
what about us
sparta
janet & johnny
wrong place/grass grow
mountain energei
ride away
assume (bit of the set list i could see suggests this is the title of one of the new songs)
pacifying joint
blindness
touch sensitive


encores
white lightning

f'oldin money
mere pseud mag ed

the rescue rooms were rammed. there was a real sense of anticipation. it was quite moshing - i actually got my specs knocked off, but managed to catch them!

the guy who joined mark for touch was the same fella at liverpool & sheffield. i keep on forgetting his name - tho it has been mentioned on here several times.

great night. good to meet up with quite a few of you & share a beer or two

The word jealous doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.

aw martin..... we talked about you, so you were there in spirit

My first boutof homesickness.. or maybe, if Rex is watching, Nostalgia.
Even though I *know* none of you, it would have been nice to be there.
Thanks for sharing!! ho ho.

Fantastic night...................

aw martin..... we talked about you, so you were there in spirit

Eh? What? You talked about me?!!! Now I'm paranoid...pm me if it's too risque for the board...

bet yr ears were burning.....

Are those of us who shared a couple of beers in The Bell beforehand allowed to mention the forum member whose last gig (before last night) was Spandau Ballet the week previous?

Thought not.

Excellent gig…

By the time I arrived at the Rescue Rooms about half way through JCC’s set, the place was just ridiculously, uncomfortably, packed, so I had no chance of getting anywhere near the front…no matter…it was fantastic anyway.

Set list was as Generalist’s post, although I think ‘Pacifying Joint’ came earlier in the set.

Opened with ‘Bo-doodak’, which from what I’d read in previous accounts, I’d half expected to be a brief warm-up exercise – it’s not, it’s a great rocking monster of a song…wonderful.

‘What About Us’ was really heavy and intense, Steve Trafford playing just amazingly good bass…

I think ‘Pacifying Joint’ was my favourite of the new songs, great chopping guitar riff, excellent stuff.

One of the highlights to me, perhaps surprisingly, was ‘Mountain Energei’ – even though this has become quite an established tune in Fall gigs, somehow, this time it seemed different. Ben has subtly changed some of the guitar parts and Elini has added some sparkly synth lines, it sounded just beautiful…

‘Touch Sensitive’ got the moshers at the front going…with MES grinning like an idiot as he swapped ‘Hey Hey Hey!!!s’ with his mate (who’s name I can’t remember either – sorry)…

To end the main set was an awesome ‘Blindness’, it started off great but about half way through it just seemed to kick up into a higher gear and developed a sort of massive pulsating, throbbing vibe that you don’t get on recorded versions – maybe it was just the volume playing tricks on my ears…but it whatever it was, it was incredible.

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the reaction of the crowd as the band left the stage after this…considering what they’d seen and heard the applause was polite rather than enthusiastic and I was beginning to doubt whether they’d return for an encore…but eventually they came back to perform a brief ‘White Lightening’. There was a little more applause before the PA started playing a record and the house lights came up…people started moving toward the exit…and then, in typically shambolic Fall style…they returned for a great ‘F oldin Money’ and a super-manic ‘Mere Pseud Mag Ed’ (and I don’t care what anyone else says – this is definitely the fastest Fall song ever!!)…

A couple of points:

Steve Trafford is the best Fall bassist since Hanley by a country mile. No disrespect to Dingo but there ain’t no way he’s getting his old job back!!!

Star of the show though for me was Elini, this was the first gig I’ve been to where her synth has been audible all the way through. In the past her contributions may have been just to provide a sort of background texture to the music, but she seems to be growing in confidence and her synth growls, drones, screeches and particularly the bass parts she trades with Steve, are beginning to actually define the sound of the Fall…she was great.

The band as a unit were really tight and, as I’m sure Chase would put it, they fuckin’ rocked…if they’ve managed to capture this form in the studio, the new LP is going to be a killer…

i had to leave after Touch Sensitive cos of transport, thought i'd miss more than three songs actually. but twas a wicked gig. JCC was really funny as well, been telling the dyslexia joke today at college.
Highlight for me was definately Sparta FC, tho i couldn't really pick a fault with the entire gig, even with me being 29 years below the apparent average age.
Jordan*

Good to hear you enjoyed your first gig....

" One of us ....One of us .....One of us........"

Let me introduce you the services of generalist, she is able to wriggle her way to where ever she wants to be

Nor me why has Mark turned his back on Liverpool,whatever we've done please please RETURN

What a great night, fantastic to meet so many nice bods on this forum too - generalist, athletenotcured, monkeypuzzle, Nick the real ale man and his mates, Jim, DJ Ash (a distinctive jumper as promised !), me mate Matt - and also to meet up with Ben, Steve, Spen and Ding who were all perfect gents and truly great company in the bar afterwards (FACT : I am not a celebrity name dropper... ).

The gig was rammed, and Matt and I missed all of Public Fringe and virtually all of JCC's set as we fancied a chilled out pint or three in the bar next door but somehow at the end of the poet's set we had managed to wriggle down to the front (glad I had pre-sharpened my elbows) to meet up with generalist and athlete, and by the end of the gig I was right at the front, being electrocuted by Mark's mic during Mere Pseud Mag Ed...

The set is exactly as described (thanks to Ben for the list) - the encores noted below make interesting reading - man I'd have loved to hear Damo - but only F'oldin' got performed out of the four listed :



The whole set was stonking - fast, very loud, MES was in great form (not too much "live mixing" going on) and the encores were a very pleasant surprise - F'oldin' Money, which I absolutely adore, and Mere Pseud Mag Ed banged out so very fast. Mountain Energei and Blindness were just stonkingly loud - Ben's amp was cranked up to 11, man..

Mark then started singing the words to Mere Pseud Mag Ed which was clearly unplanned and almost caught the band on the hop. Mark handed out the mic during the song and the bloke next to me got it and then dropped it back on the stage like a hot brick - I then picked it up and realised why he'd dropped it - it was fucking live with huge blue sparks coming out of it My new guest vocalist friend and I then proceeded to bark "Mere Pseud" into the microphone lying on the stage floor...

A truly great night out, topped off by meeting so many nice people from here and from the band - a night I shall not forget in a long time.

He did Damo AND Janet & Johnny? Shit, sounds like a missed a good 'en.

Hope all you guys had fun.... Lucky bleeders.

No, Damo wasn't played, but Janet, Johnny and James was

Yeah, but i was stood, like, THIS FAR away from his loafers on Monday

Btw, how come only men beyond 30 decide loafers are a good idea?

The third one is definitely called "Assume" then... I am a bit mystified by the titles of the new songs... they don't sound like Fall titles to me.

I suspect they'll be working titles, but yeah I know what you mean.

We desperately need, nay demand, some pointless punctuation, mis-spellings and made up words this instant

Ass-Hulme