Coal Exchange, Cardiff, 27th October 2005

First band shite, JCC great, Fall great for 1st 50 minutes or so when Smith tries a few mics, finds them lacking, and buggers off. Band carries on without him.
Chap gets up onstage and says stuff into mic in vaguely MES manner, I think he want to sing "Mr Pharmacist" but am none too sure.
Band bugger off. Crowd stomps more etc.
My mate who promotes stuff in CE sometimes goes backstage so as to find out what the fuck is going on. Smith in dressing room, everyone is scared to go in. My mate goes in says "are you going to fuck about or are you going back on...". Smith goes back on. Encores end with "Blindness", which goes on for ages with some guy in the front row doing some kind of toast into the mic.

Enjoyed that. Hadn't seen 'em before. I didn't even realise they were on until about 8.30 or 9 and got there with minutes to spare. Looking at some of the other reviews, I might not have bothered if I'd had more time to research the tour so far ! I wish he'd kept hold of the mic though !!!! That said, I was chuffed to be able to stroll down to the front, lean against the speakers and watch from such close quarters. watching him jostle the (pissed-off looking) guitarist about was a personal highlight !!

Great stuff!

couldn't hear MES at all tonight. still really enjoyed it though. 4 or 500 people there? ears hurt. yup, JCC was very good - as he should be after all this time. did he have the merchandise stall in that bag? tempus fugit - what a venue











need to buy a decent camera before the next gig...

Just got back meself. Was a pretty good night - the Blindness encore was extremely intense and got the audience jumping around like crazy!

Ben looked super pissed off at Mark for switching him off 2 or 3 times.... do I detect the beginnings of a rift there?

Band were tight. Marks vocals were too quiet but he did a good job.

JCC was in good form. Resist were shite as has been previously discussed!

Bed now. MMmm.... sleep......

ok here is my review.

the venue is really nice. huge room with interesting clock/ dragon/ red lights type thing and lots of dark wood. lot of ppl there.. quite frightening at 1st. !! the bar was a bitpacked but staff were friendly with good service. !! ok ... well i didnt see resist. jcc ... im not saying anything.. its not to my taste i dont think.

er.. the music they played b4 they came on was alright (exept for passenger which sucked a bit)... er.. well they came on pretty quickly which was good.

the 1st couple of songs they played were really blinding. eleni did some really good vocals.. she was wearing lovely white tights, and a pink shift dress i think, sort of pink lace, very nice, with a black thin belt. what about us was just amazing, really, really, really good.

after these 1st blinding tracks they slowed down a bit and did grass grow which was kind of boring.. another slow track also, which i dunno, anyway..

after that they picked up again. they did an incredible blistering version of pacifying joint, which was extended.. wow. what a track. his voice was really good thru out the whole set, v good indeed. i liked his solo on the organs and whatnot.

er.. well at the end they did an encore, played 2 songs. blindness was pretty good. i just wish the whole thing was like 1/2 hr longer.. its always over too fast !! more extended versions, and more variety of songs and improvisation is what id like but ANYWAY it was a totally blinding gig.



i forgot to put the bit about the guy who got on stage when mes was offstage. he was really bloody good. it was bloody awesome that he just got up there and started singing.. then he jumped into the crowd !!! IT WAS SO COOL !!!

Setlist anyone ?

loop 41 - intro
youwanna
foldin money
what about us
sparta fc
midnight in aspen
wrong place right time
i can see the grass grow
mountain energei
assume
touch sensitive

clasp hands
blindness

Thank you

whoops

pacifying joint twixt sparta and aspen.

Resist were,as advertised,very poor.However,as is not generally known in the wider world,Cardiff people are extremely polite so they were actually applauded off rather than receiving the canning off they deserved.I have to say that The Coal Exchange is my favourite venue in Cardiff so to see The Fall there is pretty much the peak.Had my doubts when I turned up at 7.30 to find out what time JCC was on and was met by the door chaps with the chilling news,'We don't know....the promoter's not here and nobody's seen him for two days'.
Went for a pint, to spread doom and gloom amongst random Fall fans in The Packet and dole out tickets to my mates,got back too early so saw Resist.JCC was good though,but I wish he'd done more actual poems rather than jokes.Surprised no-one saw fit to shout 'Sugar Puffs!' at him while he was doing his riff about not doing adverts.Hadn't seen him since just after Euro 96,when he gave Germany in general a frightful caning.Some good news;I went for a pre-emptive piss just before MES and The Fall came on and bumped into JCC and had a chat,and he reckons he's working on a new album.Mind,he said that in 96 as well.
The Fall were good,which was a bit of a relief as I was worried the gig would be a Gateshead-style debacle and all my mates would beat the crap out of me.The chap who got on stage deserves a metaphorical pat on the back,as stated.
Shame no merchandise stall though.My summary to anyone going to the remaining gigs is;avoid Resist,if you know you like JCC don't miss him,and enjoy The Fall 'cos they seem to be on very good form at the moment.My mate Dave who used to drum in a local band was moved to remark afterwards,'The drummer was very very good',which counts as a glowing encomium coming from him.

What a fucking brilliant gig.

Took 3 Fall virgins with me - they were gobsmacked by how good they were.

Resist - dear oh fucking dear. www.resistmusic.com. how fucking apt.

John Cooper Clarke was a fucking legend and I talked to him for a couple of minutes afterwards - well, more "youre fucking great you are mate" in a pissed way than anything else.

But I thought The Fall were fucking brilliant, I havent seen them in a few years so i was pleasantly surprised. Tight as fuck and agree with Mimi on MES keyboard flourishes....!

Resist were superb at Leicester.

Well that was awesome. Still half-pithed!

How long was it before he come back on stage? I told my mates that that was THAT and then, like an X-factor contestant pleading with Cowell, he reappeared!

I did think there were a lot of people there who may have watched the documentary the night before tho'

And I laughed at the queue to the male bogs! HA HA

We're not Galatasary............

Or the end of a riff....

At the length of it or at some of the specimens contained in said queue?

no, no - great photos

I did at the Glasgow gig.

At the length of it or at some of the specimens contained in said queue?

A bit of both and neither.

I'd also like to apologise for spilling some of my beer on someone too.

Which I did at the time. But m8 ITS A FRIGGIN' GIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

great photos, Like the evidence of amp twiddling alot.
Great name Tempus Fugit.

the last song was fantastic, and the guy who jumped into the audience after singing for a few minutes was great.
the keyboardist nearly ran off the stage at the end of the gig which was a bit weird.
I personally didnt think resist were too bad and jcc was fabulous

someone (Jim?) pointed out that the amp Ben was using no longer has any knobs to twiddle...

i was a bit disappointed with the photos - took loads and only got a handful worth showing - I'll have to have a word with santa about something a bit sharper

i was a little freaked out by how many people were there last night - there was no promotion in Cardiff at all as far as I know. there was a poster in a chippy in Pontypridd, allegedly placed there by Rob Jones' Mam?? can we have confirmation (and match report) please Mr Jones?

my kids weren't very happy this morning at the lack of tshirts either

When we were en route from The Packet to the Coal Exchange I was amazed to see busloads of stude types turning up.....'Blimey' I thought,'Perhaps The Fall are now appealing to the younger generation after all'... said chaps all marched off to The Point (used to be a church,is now a music venue half a stone's throw from CE),where Four Tet was playing....
Pontypoolie's kids' disappointment is felt no less by me...I got money from the people I'd bought tickets for and was all set to bolster my Fall T-shirt collection....had to spend it on cider instead