Huddersfield University, 2nd October 2005

Okay back from the gig. Need to make a cup of tea and a spliff. Soz for marking the ground but who else has the luck of living 10 minutes from a Fall gig???

Will re-edit soon (err not like anyones looking at 11.42 on a Sunday night...)

I bloody am!

Me too - come on, get that tea made and spill the beans

..and me.

Come on spill the beans. Was it any good?

Lot of bean-spilling going on here. Hope Jed has a pelican bib on

Ha ha, you vultures! Okay give me 10 minutes you sods.
(And i was only going to edit the initial post!!)

Please excuse this bit of a pre-amble.
Huddersfield is my alma matter. I was a student between 1993-1996 and have stayed in Hudds ever since, (come on, it's either here or Sunderland!!) The Fall playing tonight was important because no band of any merit has played here for such a long time. Tonight was my first time in the brand new Students' Union so it was a some-what monumental event.

Got in at nine sharp and JCC was on, (missed the first act), and he charmed the crowd of approx 250. First time seeing JCC and he was superb, it's a classy move having a poet/comic on... Shamefully during this act I made an arse of myself at the merch stand. See we were looking at the juicy product and I thought the woman in charge was an old friend, (total spit), so I was said, "Caroline!! How are you doing???" I knew I screwed up by the befuddled expression AND when I saw my mate 4 weeks ago she was 7 months pregnant. Hey I'm an idiot. I made my excusess and left for the bar.

10 p.m. and loop 51 kicks off. 10.05 the loop keeps going, getting louder, (my mate and I were laughing at the thought of them doing this for an hour), but the band came on. No set list from me. There was a lad taking notes so I guess he'll post (if not, then what the hell was he doing???) Throughout the show the band palyed well. Mark stuck to only 2 mics!!! Amp fiddling kept to a minimum too. (One ponit he removed Spen's ride mic completely... who knows why?) They finished around 11. No encore. (This would be down to licensing NOT band problems.)

Whilst the band were rough on the last 2 songs I'd say they were decent. Nothing outstanding, but this is due to the room. Basically it was too muddy, no one instrument (i.e. the bass) punched through and it was clear by the end Mark had had enough. Now the sound on stage may have been great but when the floor is muddy, people can't get right into it, (which must look crap from stage.) I talked to the mixer afterwards and raised the point about the room, fair play to him he did the best he could, (again, it wasn't bad but not the sound that transends things.) There are more moments from tonight, but I hope someone else posts, (maybe with more brevity??)

Funny climax. As they leave Mark, over the mike, walks Spen off with arms around shoulders and says sme thing like, 'Ay, it were alright, I'll give you 8/10.'

Last thing. If the drunk lad from Birstall, Leeds reads this... I'm one of the guys you talked too outside and please don't think I'm offended by being called a Geordie. Not in the slightest. Hope to see you at the Leeds gig in a few weeks.

Enough.

Yeah, he did that last night too - forgotten all about that, til you mentioned it.

Thanks for the write-up, Jed, good stuff. Now where's the man with the set list ?

Good read that Jed, nice one

After the sold out gig in Manchester I was a bit wary of travelling to Huddersfield without a ticket to find that sold out as well. Thought for a minute the Fall might be getting popular again.

But I needn't have worried arrived to find plenty of tickets available and a venue proballyy 1/2 the size of Manchester only 2/3 full.

Set list.from memory.
Pacifying Joint / White lightning / ?/ Mountain energi / What about us / Clasp hands / Wrong place right time / I can hear the grass grow / Blindness / Sparta FC/ Ride away/ ? / Touch Sensitive / Boxoctosis/Mr Pharmacist

Not necessarily in that order, but White Lightning was definitley second which is unusual Two songs I didn't know are probally from Heads Roll which I heven't all of yet.

Couple of quotes from MES
'Good evening we'd like to play a cover of a New Order song' introducing Mountain Energi and at the end ' Thank you eight out of ten for effort'.

No encore really although MES left the stage for about 2 minutes leaving the band to play 'Touch Sensitive' as an instrumental.

Thought the band were every bit as good as Manchester but the audience reaction was a bit lacklustre also the PA wasn't very loud I used to being deaf for a day after a Fall gig . Overall I 'd agree with MES eight out of ten

sunday in uddersfield
==============

some things new:
the hudds polyversity su has had a facelift since my last visit, with arty ceiling efforts.
the new album (which was acquired from the action records stall) - i listened to it in its entirety on the way home and enjoyed it. which made up for the performance tonight.
my first J Cooper Clarke gig - 10/10. very amusing. espec. the hanging gardens of basildon. an off cuff mes impression too.

good crowd (in the main), good venue. a decent pint.


some things borrowed:
*Another* Monks cover 'Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy'

and and some things blue:
the fall's performance was marred by smith's harrassment of co workers and chronic restlessness. the mixer was having to work hard as mics were moved, bass amp nobs twiddled, keyboards battered, cymbol mic re-directed and later dismantled, bassists barged, you know the story... circa the turn of the century. a couple of the usual 'other side of the pennines' jibes, 'yorkshire grease' etc. 'Mr Birtwhiste has to be commended on his sence of humour as it is a necessary commodity for band morale' as he walked off or summats similar. i say there was no encore, but i think technically there was except only smith left and came back on to to a rushed and ham fisted touch sensitive. 'aspen' was good, smith was the image of a Magritte study for the bulk of it, 'ensconced' in the stage left curtain. i much prefer the jangle guitar sound then the fucking mainstream indie-rock one riff bollocks they are emulating of late. the sound of the festival airwaves this year. come back song breaks, middle eights; live, the material that had them have been removed into a caveman thump thump verse chorus affair - grass grow just escaped it's clutches. its not condusive to smith's narrative either. look at the walk like a man track (2nd to last off the new lp) it has a good catchy song structure and the words spill out to complement it.

smith gave the tepid audience an ironic 8/10, i give the fall a 6.5/10. seen worse and seen much better.

i enjoyed this more than the manc gig - fewer people and i wasn't totally pissed.
during 'what about us' caught MES referring to 'in a local newspaper...the Huddersfield Examiner.' ben p was working hard to keep all together. spence missed a drop out on one of the later numbers..by the end he looked totally fucked/knackered to me but great drummer. mes delivered most of aspen lyrics from behind the black curtain stage right...during which i became convinced he was either going to emerge dressed as some garish clown OR a puppet show would commence. thankfully neither transpired. lovely bit at end between mes and elena - held the mic to her mouth for her bit on 'ride away' and gave her a lovely 'love you darling ' look. jammy bastard! some silly totally pissed bloke down the front kept trying to shake mes's hand...mes body language was 'fuck off'..this guy later almost started a fight but was escorted into the night by BIG security guys..all added to the experience! all in all a great way to spend a sunday night in october. looking forward to burnley and leeds..that will make 4 in all for me this tour...anymore i think could be seen as obsessive.
re: the new album...on Blindness does he mention Hebden Bridge? is Aspen about Hunter S Thompson? what are the identities of the people on the artwork...is one of them that lad from Corrie??
KM

yep. Fizz's better half- Kirk.

Not sure who the other's are though, one of them looks a bit like Feargal Sharkey? (poor sod)

Even less at wrexham.... very quiet town innit? spooky

I have to confirm that Kevin Mottram was very pissed at the Manc gig.

I will take taking him to Burnley hope he will be better behaved!

Can confirm Hebeden Bridge reference on FHR Blindness, perhaps it was your present of the Blake tape

'CD Sid' - the cool bloke who runs Muse Music record shop in Hebden Bridge - swears The Fall played the town once. He's fuzzy on the date - 'early on' - but adamant they did a gig at the Carlton Hotel ( now yuppie flats..predictably )
never seen this on any gigography tho...urban myth??
any takers for this potential local history research project?

first time ive seen em. appalling i know for someone 42 but they seemed v good. why was resists bass player in a frock

Is there a prize for this...?

I'm going for Option c) Because he's a twat.

No disrespect to cross-dressers or anything, but his colour coordination was simply atrocious...

BUT "RESIST" have 2 female keyboardists - GET THE HINT MARK?
















TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Double the fun?