Carling Academy, Islington (1st night), 2nd November 2005

I'm starting the thread now as I definitely will see the show this time, even if the fuckers only walk on at 5 to midnight and play for 3 minites befiore a walk-off. And I will post the exact and correct setlist, no quibbling about it. If I say they played Grass Grow separately from Wrong Place, like they did last time they'd played Islington, that's actually what happened, don't none of you start saying I don't know my job, alright?

*grits teeth*

I'm a bit wound up as I have low expectations after reading the other gig reviews, and my patience for MES-antics is pretty low after being abused over the years.

Will you be writing the setlist on special notepaper?

I am suprised you say this. The vast majority of reviews of the tour on this site have been glowing in their praise, even a fair few for Gateshead. So I don't know where you low opinion is coming from. Try to be more positive and you may enjoy it more.

It may well come to that. I have green ink in stock as well.

Call yerself a Fall fan? You're a disgrace.

Call yourself a thread starter - your topic title was a disgrace, and failed to conform with the standards followed thus far.

Edited

Call yerself a Fall fan? You're a disgrace.

We're all Fall fans here, people - even the ones who appear not to like 'em.

Or do people post on a regular basis with some 'You took away 25 minutes of the gig I expected and I want them back', type grudge?

I hope you will join us all in the Nags Head tonight, Jon. Please identify yourself in the usual way, you know; bald, early 40's, single, peculiar goatish smell, etc. Some of the men are like that, too. If you ain't bald, join me and Clayts in The Hirsute Lounge, as the rest are easy to spot and we can meet them there.

Think the weather might dictate my garb tonight. Whatever way, I'll be wearing a battered 'Dragnet' badge and a tiny Millwall one with it, so I'll be easy to spot/abuse/throw things/punches at.

Oh, and one other thing may identify me - I'll be with A Lady, so on yer best behaviours, boys!

Look forward to seeing y'all tonight

I'm not there tonight....bingo night.

Only tomorrow. Sorry to disappoint

I was going to write down the set too, so we can compare notes. I'm very glad I did at last year's 26/09/04 show because no tape of the gig has ever shown up.

I'm a new bloke-I'll be in the Nag's to say hello if I overcome my chronic shyness(Swindon fan-not used to crowds).Thursday,that is.If they do Gut of the Quantifier or Athlete Cured,I'll be happy with 45 mins.

You only start a thread for a gig, with the set list from that night. I feel that should be the standard.

Bad form.

I will be sleeping on Victoria station tomorrow night when the banter starts. I see I was the only punter who thinks Big New Prinz will be the ending?

Clayts; You grab the mike, and I'll have a crack at the backdrop! I could be the Islington runner!

They won't, and you won't be.

Just back from the gig. The band were great, really tight. MES wasn't. He looked pretty pissed and took a while to warm up. When he did it was great - Mountain Energei was superb. Trouble is he decided to walk off after that, leaving the band to noodle through half of "Janet". He then sang "Bo" offstage, probably sat on the dressing room bog picking his feet. Then it was instrumentals of Assume and Blindness.


Setlist - in the wrong order

Youwanner
Clasp Hands
Sparta
Midnight (MES slagged the venue and its curfew off here)
Pacifying Joint
What About us
Mountain Energei
Janet
Bo Demmick
Assume
Blindness

Had the band not been as good as they were it would have been crap. It was actually pretty good.

I hope Jon managed to get it down...

No covers...?!

ludicrous, majestic.......nah crap. If I want to see a bunch of instrumentalists I can listen to buskers at oxford circus for nothing. Either MES was totally off his face tonight or completely taking the piss out of us poor punters.

Nope.

Resist was battling to the end of their set when I turned up at about 8ish. Then I was appalled to see John Cooper Cunting Clarke being escorted backstage. So I had to spend most of that outside at the merchandise stall, looking at CDs and DVDs I've already got. Though I did pop in at one point to hear JCC rip-off an actual Bob Monkhouse gag, instead of just sounding vaguely like he was doing that.

Then we had a long interlude involving clips of various rock and pop gods being shown on a screen whilst what sounded like Nurse With Wound or something piddled about with their sound. This ended at about 5 to 10 and the Loop 41 intro kicked off. Then we get the main attraction on at about 10.05:

Youwanner
Clasp Hands
Pacifying Joint
Sparta FC
Midnight Aspen
Mountain Energei
What About Us
Janet, Johnny & James [instr.]
Bo Demmick
Assume [instr.]
-------
Blindness [instr.]

All finished at 11pm.

They actually played incredibly tight. Clasp -> PJ was practically a segue, and there was a fast turnaround elsewhere. MES actually seemed happy and enjoying himself at the start, even attempting to mock the dancing of the front rows, like I saw him do during Touch Sensitive at the RFH Live Peel Sessions 5 years back. Some twats chucked water over him and he wasn't phased. There were some other plastic glasses chucked on but he carried on regardless. In Sparta he happily held the mike out for Ben to sing a chorus, and then set it up on a stand for Steve to finish off the vocals entirely. Midnight Aspen was apparently given a full vocal treatment, though I did pop to the loos during that one.

The vocals start getting a bit loose from the original on Mountain Energei, but still nothing untoward. Then it all goes mysteriously wrong in What About Us. Spencer appeared to have some trouble with his drumkit, which didn't seem to be caused by MES, as far as I could see (I was well back). He tried getting a roadie on to fiddle with the kit, but eventually walks off, and MES followed shortly after. The others do an instrumental Janet and then leave themselves.

Then a minute later all the band come back on, and Spencer has some contraption with him that he attaches to his kit. But we never see MES again, although he adds a vocal to Bo Demmick from offstage.

All very odd. While they were playing, they were very good, and MES was in high spirits and making an effort, until half time. It wasn't at all obvious that they actually fell out, rather than there just being a genuine problem with the drumkit (I've seen Sleater-Kinney's drummer mithering throughout a gig once that her kit wasn't set up right, constantly fidgeting between songs to have it shifted about).

On my way home I was wondering about whether or not to bother going to tomorrow night's gig, since the whole gig-going thing doesn't really excite me anymore. And then I got home and found one of the shelves containing my Fall albums had fallen down. Symbolicism, there. I'll probably not bother, not if they're going to spring John Cooper Clarke on me again.

In conclusion: bemusing.

Sounds a bit like the Brighton show (apart from the drum thing you mention), there was no apparent reason for cutting it short. But what there was, was very good.

Verifying the above, the exact setlist (I wrote it down as it happened), and notes:

Intro tape: Loop 41 (looped for quite a while)
1. Youwanner
2. All Clasp Hands
3. Pacifying Joint
4. Theme From Sparta FC
5. Midnight In Aspen
6. Mountain Energei
7. What About Us? (something went wrong at the point the song ended – apparently a problem with the drum pedal. Spencer walked off, closely followed by Mark.)
8. Janet, Johnny + James (instrumental, minus Mark and Spencer)
9. Bo Demmick (full band, but Mark sang crouched on stage floor[*], invisible to all but the front row. He then walked off again.)
10. Assume (instrumental)
(band leave stage, return for...)
11. Blindness (instrumental)
(Elena walks off before the end; then band leave; house lights on).

•••

[*] not offstage as stated above.

Overheard on way out: "I won't be seeing them again!"

©May 2005 JonN

Other thoughts:

1. John Cooper Clarke was OK – went down very well with the crowd (and a big, up-for-it crowd it was too). After him was a very weird screaming noise-blast thing accompanied by looped video visuals of Queen, Elvis and Barbra Streisand in concert plus Michael Jackson's Thriller promo video. Like torture, but worse.

2. The Fall were onstage 10:05–11 p.m. as Jon says. And virtually no gaps between songs.

3. A glass of something was indeed chucked over Mark in the first minute of the first song (Youwanner). He didn't even flinch.

4. Did I imagine it or did Mark mention Julia Roberts at one point?

5. Assume was heavier than any metal.

6. Mark's crouched-on-the-stage-floor vocal of Bo Demmick was probably the best and most focused bit of singing of the night (though Midnight In Aspen was very nice with a few lyrical ad libs: "not a very good shot" etc).

7. His little dance was hilarious.

8. Chatted with four nice fans on the Northern Line tube home (hi, if you're reading this). They were very disappointed and said they felt ripped off.

9. On the plus side: no oldies!

It was a good gig by the Fall, but Mark went off too soon. He was being petulant, I think.

Mountain Energei was the best I've ever heard it, What About Us superb.

And how! It went on for hours.

No. And nothing from pre-Real New Fall LP either!