The Fall @ The Cartoon, Croydon - 4 nights!!

[John Quays]

I've always been rather out on a limb with those (along with a small group of afficionados who also believe them to be somewhat underrated). What I feel about 'Code: Selfish' is that it strikes a perfect balance and succinctly represents where the Fall were in the years between 'Shiftwork' and 'Middle Class Revolt', while IMO being the equal of any of them. As for 'Levitate', I think it's a gem of an off-kilter oddity - it doesn't sound like anything else they ever did; rather the sound of a band flying by the seat of its pants and chucking every last screwy idea into the pot just for the hell of it before everything imploded. Glorious shit.

As a result of this (and the fact that Smith heroically picked himself up again in the intervening 18 months) I felt that, when it was released, 'The Marshall Suite' was a touch clinical and level headed and as such a tad disappointing. However, time has proven this also to be a blinder, I feel. I mean, there really isn't a bad Fall album, is there? Even those I consider to be the weakest - 'Bend Sinister', 'Middle Class Revolt', 'Cerebral Caustic' and 'Are You Are (sic) Missing Winner' are still classics by most others' standards.

You write well, you begin to convince me with your many words...

But I'm not quite able to put Levitate up in the pantheon. The disappointment it caused me has passed with time to be supplanted by a lack of interest in it. There just aren't any good songs as such, and even after about 200 listens I get all the titles and that mixed up. Aside from 'I'm A Mummy', obviously. I'll agree it's a curiosity and totally different from the rest, but it didn't give me what I want from the Fall Grüppe. Code Selfish puts me infallibly in mind of Extricate, but I prefer the second. CS has some ace touches (lighter... kleptomaniacs) and a couple of top songs (FreeRange, SC Dangerous) but nearly all the rest strike me as somehow underwritten, too lightweight. Incomplete.

I think my out-on-a-limb album is Middle Class Revolt, which was one of the more recent I've actually bought. I just love it, but I'm well aware this isn't generally the case.

 

[cherrybaby]

They and Ed Tudor Pole are playing the more distinguished 100 club on 6th April.. £8.. 97 tickets left.



ETA:

Can't believe Eddy's just the support act.

The Cartoon may be a dive but the 100 club is the pits.

 

[Hollis]

The Cartoon may be a dive but the 100 club is the pits.

Oh its not that bad..

 

[Dan U]

Good stuff, I have not seen the fall in croydon for 20 years!!

The cartoon is a dump though and often has like 3 punters in....

i'm still mentally scarred from a trip to sinatras next door as a 17 year old.

14 years ago and it still makes me shiver!

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Fuck me, I can go and see the fall and walk home. Rock on, not to mention ten pole tudor.

 

[Callie]

i'm still mentally scarred from a trip to sinatras next door as a 17 year old.

14 years ago and it still makes me shiver!

Sinatras! *points and laughs* you donkey! I used to know some people who lived opposite sinatras and they had some full on evening entertainment watching from the safety of their homes at kicking out time.

My Mum used to go to Sinatras when she was in her early 20s. She said it was a dive back then too

Oh and Im up for going to the Cartoon too

 

[Charlie Drake]

Been a fan since 1986 - I love most of their stuff, but I have to agree with the chap above - 'Slates' still blows me away.

 

[Dan U]

Sinatras! *points and laughs* you donkey! I used to know some people who lived opposite sinatras and they had some full on evening entertainment watching from the safety of their homes at kicking out time.

My Mum used to go to Sinatras when she was in her early 20s. She said it was a dive back then too

Oh and Im up for going to the Cartoon too

i was 17, it was pay on the door and drink what you want.

full of *ahem* older ladies. it was funny as!

am quite tempted by the cartoon again, for old times sake!

 

[ouchmonkey]

I mean, there really isn't a bad Fall album, is there? Even those I consider to be the weakest - 'Bend Sinister', 'Middle Class Revolt', 'Cerebral Caustic' and 'Are You Are (sic) Missing Winner' are still classics by most others' standards.

You what?
Bend Sinister is the absolute business!
Levitate indeed!

 

[Dhimmi]

Has MES mellowed enough to play a four night residency? If so we must all arrange to start a fight on the third night.

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

You what?
Bend Sinister is the absolute business!
Levitate indeed!

Nah. 'Bend Sinister' is autopilot Beggars Fall - a stop-gap between the superior '...Nation's...' and the more succinctly realised '...Frenz...'. 6/10.

'Levitate' is gonzoid garage Fall with slabs of musique concrete and wonky, half-cut d'n'b chucked at it - a beautiful, riotous mess. Steven Wells put it best when he described it as 'pop music made by a misanthropic Mancunian with a face like a tobyjug half-melted by a three-bar fire'. 9/10.

And 'BS' doesn't have 'I'm A Mummy'. Or, for that matter, 'Ol' Gang'.

 

[Dolly Dimple]

So, what night are folk thinking of going?

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

So, what night are folk thinking of going?

Tis a difficult one...depending on whether Smithy'll last four nights.

What do folk reckon to Monday or Tuesday?

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Right...isvicthere? tells me that Tuesday or Wednesday are best for him, so shall we make it Tuesday?

Remember, MES might no longer be with us by Wednesday...

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Tuesday tuesday.

 

[jbob]

How quickly we forget 'The Unutterable'....

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

How quickly we forget 'The Unutterable'....

I remembered it in this post, actually.

 

[jbob]

Still, not enough mentions...

 

[Dubversion]

Nah. 'Bend Sinister' is autopilot Beggars Fall <snip> 6/10. l:

nutter.

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

nutter.

Still, guess it beats 'Hung Up' by Madonna.

 

[phildwyer]

Actually, if it counts as an album, the best is surely "Room to Live." The tracks are: Joker Hysterical Face, Marquis Cha Cha, Hard Life in Country, Room to Live, Detetctive Instinct and Solicitor in Studio. Every one a winner.

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Actually, if it counts as an album, the best is surely "Room to Live." The tracks are: Joker Hysterical Face, Marquis Cha Cha, Hard Life in Country, Room to Live, Detetctive Instinct and Solicitor in Studio. Every one a winner.

And 'Papal Visit'! That's an awesome five minutes!

 

[phildwyer]

And 'Papal Visit'! That's an awesome five minutes!

Heh, I left that one off deliberately, never realy liked the more out-there stuff. Smith was writing his best lyrics in 82 for sure:

http://www.freedonia.com/~jeff/fall/rtl.html

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Heh, I left that one off deliberately, never realy liked the more out-there stuff. Smith was writing his best lyrics in 82 for sure:

http://www.freedonia.com/~jeff/fall/rtl.html

I think I'd have to agree there. This is legendary:

"D. Bowie look-alikes
Permeate car parks".



The degree of pathos, wit and evocation in those (barely) seven short words cannot be underestimated. And that he came up with the almost biblical volume of literature contained in 'Hex...' inside the same year is unthinkable.

 

[phildwyer]

I think I'd have to agree there. This is legendary:

"D. Bowie look-alikes
Permeate car parks".



The degree of pathos, wit and evocation in those (barely) seven short words cannot be underestimated. And that he came up with the almost biblical volume of literature contained in 'Hex...' inside the same year is unthinkable.

I think "Marquis Cha Cha" is the best lyrically. The whole idea of an English Lord Haw Haw in Argentina during the Falklands war is brilliant, and he tells a whole story in amazingly brief terms. Its the economy of his writing that's the key.

"Marquis Cha Cha
He can never go home
Now here is his show

Hey you people over there
And those in sea and air
It has been theirs for years
It is a good life here
Football and beer much superior
Gringo gets cheap servant staff
Low tax and a dusky wife"

Still makes me laff.

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

BUMP again.

Booked for Tuesday the 14th!

 

[Sedgley Warrior]

Went to see the Fall last night - they were good but it was a short set with no encore - left everybody a bit bemused

Maybe the following nights'll be different

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Went to see the Fall last night - they were good but it was a short set with no encore - left everybody a bit bemused

Maybe the following nights'll be different

Hmmm...maybe they were getting a feel for the venue. Four nights in a rough southern town must be a challenge for old snaggletooth!

TBH I did kind of suspect that the first night might be a touch on the stiff side...I'm seeing them tomorrow night, although knowing my luck Smithy'll sack the band onstage, destroy half the equipment and collapse in a whiskey and speed torpor before the set's started - like the last time I saw them in Portsmouth in '97.

Great entertainment though...

 

[D'wards]

Apparently Smithy has been a nightmare - turning up at 10:30, walking straight on stage, constantly pulling all the leads out of the equipment whilst the band are playing, then fucking off after half an hour.

Going tonight so have to see for messen

 

[BadlyDrawnGirl]

Apparently Smithy has been a nightmare - turning up at 10:30, walking straight on stage, constantly pulling all the leads out of the equipment whilst the band are playing, then fucking off after half an hour.

Going tonight so have to see for messen

I was there with isvicthere and alien nation last night - yeah, the band were on at about 10:30 after a lengthy art installation featuring cut-up/slo-mo footage of Freddie Mercury, Elvis and Kylie. Then, after further waiting (admittedly to Public Enemy, MC5 and Aphex Twin, which made it quality waiting) Smith was led to the stage by his entourage a la James Brown, which I found rather amusing...

They only played for about 45 minutes to an hour...apart from 'Dr Buck's Letter' and 'Touch Sensitive' it was a completely eyes down, everything-off-the-last-couple-of-albums, anti-greatest hits show. Which is the only way to keep it real TBH - and it kicked some fucking ass.

There was one point where Smith wrested control of the Korg from Eleni Poulou, but she seemed totally willing to surrender. Apart from that he seemed surprisingly co-operative with the band - even concerned - which contrasts with when I saw them at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth on the legendary 'Levitate' tour, Smith fiddling with the amp levels, trying to trip Tommy Crooks up with his own guitar lead and kicking Karl Burns' drumkit.

Kind of wish I'd booked for the final show now - I now can't bear the thought that they're playing another night only three miles down the road and I won't be there....

Memories of last night:

Set list

Smith and Poulou