Concorde 2, Brighton, 3rd April 2005

Well I've seen The Fall three times in the last few months and this was the best one yet. MES is looking younger every time. The band were in great form. More to follow ...

Ooh, ooh - more, more : any new songs, etc ?

What are you doing up at this time mate - set list to follow.

Set list

Bo Doodack
Boxoctosis
All Clasp Hands
What About Us
Pacifying joint
Wrong Place/Grass Grow
Sparta FC
Janet Johnny
Can't remember it gets a bit sketchy at this point, will edit later
Assume
Ride Away
Mountain Energei
Touch Sensitive
Blindness

White Lightening
Prinz

The good news is, there is a video of the show. The even better news is, a lot of the songs sounded a lot different to the records. Like Mountain Energei, Touch Sensitive and White Lightening. What About Us was brilliant. The show was sold out, there was probably about 500 there. We reckon the average age was 30 something! John Cooper Clarke was quite good as well. There were two other support bands.

sounds good

apart from johnny ... i go to the johnny then ... but it is a useful song for this reason

dave - it was fuckin' great ..the best.
It's me! mark!
I'm round at Will's (who was wankered) <---it was his 1st Fall gig "fuck yeah!", he said.
with dave (zoothorn polo) +steve h (of course)
dave! it was ride away they played!

oh dave, steve says tell you I'm ecstatic (I never said that, I said we are listening to Eat Static) + yes, I sold ALL the fanzines ..to people who really wanted it

The other great thing about the gig was the DJ played loads of great tunes in between the bands. we had Zig Zag Wanderer, Nag Nag Nag, a bit of Wire and Pil, and Warm Leatherette. Also Can but we are having a bit of a row here about what song it actually was. It as You Do Right which I don't remeber and Mushroom which I do. Zoot says they played Neu and Faust as well.

We took a few photos as well.

hello

Brilliant gig, my mate thought so too.

I now am the proud owner of tinitius in my right ear. Hopefully on a temporary basis.

One gripe...the sound was very good, better than most shows, bar one thing...I *still* couldn't hear the vocals!

While this sometimes seems to be by design, on this occasion it seemed to annoy MES too.

During an otherwise unbeatable, nay world-beating, version of I Can Hear The Grass Grow, he tried three different mikes, and made a point of shouting his vocals into the air, as he travelled from one mike to one of the drum mikes, looking towards the direction of Mr Soundman, as if to say 'what's the difference'?

Thankfully after this he did say 'can we hear the vocals for this one' or words very much like that, immediately prior to Sparta FC.

Blindness was funky...made me think of Chic!

And What About Us...pounded out, lasted about eight minutes!

Roll on the London show...

No Hit the North then ?

No.

MES was impeccable throughout. No slovenliness, focussed, minimal amp twiddling, vocals all on cue (seemingly,,,I'm coming to that), and even just about on/in tune, seemingly...so the biggest disappointment for me (besides no HTN ) was why the f*** couldn't I hear the vocals then!!??

See Fall polls!

On the bright side, again, I should add that there has only been about one other gig where MES has been so professional, and that was sadly a little staid through lack of dramatics etc.

This was not the case here. MES attacked each line he sang, so when I could hear those lines it was even better, the band played very hard, very loud, and very tight.

It is also not the first time I've not heard vocals clearly, I admit, but everything was crystal clear, so why not, if not crystal clear, *audible* vocals? The fact that MES complained about it suggests the situation was not his choice...

It was johnny clarke who made you think of chic
"you can hear the traffic in here ..cue for a song isn't it.."
`
"chic ..le freak
..c'est chic"

I remember him saying cue for a song, but did he really quote that Chic one?

Even if he did, I believe I came to my conclusion about Chic / Blindness independently, sorry if that sounds pompous!

It was the bassline, and the guitar, erm 'trills'??? I have no idea for what thoss little funky, erm, things, Ben played are called in guitarspeak, but they are similar to what you hear on Chic-like records...

The music was good there, wasn't it?

I mean that techno rock stuff, among others, like those inspired punky cover versions, between the bands!?

There was a very good instrumental played after that version of 'Warm Leatherette' (and whose version was that).

And then Zig Zag Wanderer...couldn't help turning to my mate and rasping the rest of 'Zig zaaaag' when that started!

And VU's I Can't Stand It! and what sounded like a Link Wray tune?

I thought they were trying to coax MES out of his backstage cocoon with his favourite songs!

But then I found out JCC was on after all, even though there had been 2 support bands already!!??

That second one...professional, competent, but too clever clever! I just coudn't get into what they did after the first couple of songs, my mate too...

Yeah I forgot they played I Can't Stand It, that was great too. Also forgot to mention, the show was sold out. The band looked like they were enjoying it as well - especially Spencer pounding away on the drums. Ben and Steve were in the bar afterwards, quick handshake, well done lads excellent show and then we were on our way.

Thought the support bands were pretty good, but the second band were too posey. The keyboard player had sunglasses, a white shirt and a tie. He loked like an Ozzie barman, actually they all did. I thought he had just finished his shift at Weatherspoons or something.

Just got back fro this great gig.

Bo Doodak was excellent and different lyrics than in Milton Keynes... I suspect these were the 'proper' ones, as in MK it sounded more like the words to Clasp Hands.

MES turned the guitar amp off for a few seconds at the start of Sparta, and played the keyboards to great effect, in tune, at the beginning of Blindness (I think).

Touch Sensitive got faster and faster and faster until the HUGE mass of dancing people just, well, juddered.

Ride Away is a really nice, quite spare, wistful, emotional number.

They did something brilliant with Mountain Energi which made it sound almost like a different song...Ben's guitar was different, and the build-up and subsequent release of tension in the song was like a dam breaking.

MES said something about there being a curfew at the start of the encore, and also said something at the start of Sparta, like "Lets see if you can ... this next number"(?)

Eleni had a nice flowery black dress and shoes on and flashed a nice goodbye smile to the audience at the end. The keyboards were quite diverse, sounding like a sax in one song (one of the new ones, Ride Away perhaps) and being very whooshy elsewhere (Blindness particularly).

I thought the vocals were loud enough throughout, except for the odd time when he used the quieter mic, mostly at the beginning of Grass Grow I thought.

I liked the support bands too, especially Twelve Stone Baby and the Babysitters, who were introduced by someone dressed as a baby.

MES seemed to grimace at the discordant changeover from Wrong Place to Grass Grow, I think it was the awkward way the drummer changed tempo. He also adjusted a light at the front of the stage to stop the glare into Eleni's eyes.

Seemed like a great crowd and with lots of girls, more so than usual.

I don't think so.
Eleni has a new hairstyle, and very fetching it was too

I've no idea what it was, maybe a 'Traffic' reference?
Sadly steve +zoot don't remember it, and I don't remember Traffic

>They did something brilliant with Mountain Energi which made it sound almost like a different song...Ben's guitar was different, and the build-up and subsequent release of tension in the song was like a dam breaking.

Yes loved his guitar sound on that, and your description of the song's performance is apt.

>MES said something about there being a curfew at the start of the encore, and also said something at the start of Sparta, like "Lets see if you can ... this next number"(?)

"Make the vocals heard for" I think are the missing words.

>Eleni had a nice flowery black dress and shoes on and flashed a nice goodbye smile to the audience at the end.

Yes, agree nice dress too. I'm not so sure about her keyboards, yet, though. Some songs they work for me, but on some...I found the effect on Big New Prinz a little annoying.

>I thought the vocals were loud enough throughout, except for the odd time when he used the quieter mic, mostly at the beginning of Grass Grow I thought.

I guess they dipped *more* for that song, but it was not the only one where I noticed this. Besides he definitely used three mics in that song, with little improvement.

>I liked the support bands too, especially Twelve Stone Baby and the Babysitters, who were introduced by someone dressed as a baby.

Ah, that was the annoying one. Like i said capable and talented but couldn't get into them. One's man trash is another's treasure. We were in the bar for the first band, and in retrospect much preferred them to the second.

>MES seemed to grimace at the discordant changeover from Wrong Place to Grass Grow, I think it was the awkward way the drummer changed tempo.

Didn't notice MES's reaction, but I rather liked that changeover, particularly those lovely chords Ben played at the start of Grass Grow.

>Seemed like a great crowd and with lots of girls, more so than usual.

Yes, some very nice.

Yes, I also thought the keyboards on Big New Prinz a bit too jarring (but loved them everywhere else!)

That lucky lot watching it all on video afterwards!

Zoot writes: the 2nd support band (the muso one) were shit. They were like a comedy jazz-rock student wank band with all the good points taken out.

A professional one? An amateur one? Where can we get hold of a copy?

[QUOTE=SteveHamilton,Apr 4 2005, 01:48 PM]
[/QUOTE]
Zoot writes: the 2nd support band (the muso one) were shit. They were like a comedy jazz-rock student wank band with all the good points taken out.[/QUOTE]
Harsh.

But fair.

Very apt.

I thought at the time there was a little Pixies meet Sparks (what with those occasional camp vocals about them), but I don't care about how to describe them as I didn't like them.

excellent Fall gig worth the trip from london.
MES seemed to be having fun even speaking to audience at one point.
recognised most of the songs apart from the new reggae style song which was brilliant,
missed 'mod mock goth' though, and wish they'd drop 'big new prinz'.
Also a beautiful new studio fall track was played over the PA before they came on, what was it?

Yes, I noticed what sounded like a new studio track being played, although thought it was put on afterwards. It was quite techno-ish but gentle with spoken-style vocals.

...yeah and, strangely, White Mice by the Mo-dettes which sounded great.

Thought the not-crap support band were "12 Stone Toddler" - great name.

Was that a new Fall track played over PA before band came on?