The Fall

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:43 pm

Hands up who likes The Fall! I know BWAP does (and I LOVE your Fall Mix, am playing it now). Others?

I loved them when I was 16-20 or so. I bought Dragnet the day after seeing Elvis in Guernsey, so April '80. Then got my hands on all those magnificent singles: Rowche Rumble, Totally Wired, How I Wrote Elastic Man, Lie Dream of Casino Soul. And Grotesque After The Gramme and Slates, then I kind of lost touch, though I did see them live in '85, which was fun.

A colleague who adores them has got me back into them, that and BWAP. I get immense pleasure from rediscovering 25 year old gems from my teenage years, and extending it with new things by the same people. They've done 76 LPs or something mad. I want to hear Hex Induction Hour. Unless you are/were John Peel, you couldn't listen to all of those without needing a bit of quality control, but i'm sure there are some 80s classics I should check out.

Another colleague's friend went out with Mark E Smith after he split up from Brix. the mind boggles. He is a totally unique figure in the world of music.

DrJ · Post by **DrJ** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:09 pm

I think The Fall are my new favoutire band(NFB). Did you see the BBC 4 documentary a few weeks ago? Really made me see the band in a new angle and got some stuff off the net. I was in a brilliant place in Berlin last week, scuzzy rock bar/burger joint which was playing obscure 60's psychedelic garage rock and by 2am I was going on about my NFB when they started playing some ultra obscure Fall song, which I don't remember the title of. Good night that.

And I knew their version of Victoria before the Kinks', the video was always on the nascent MTV Europe.

DrJ

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:25 pm

I have that Rough Trade compilation, "Totally Wired". Good fun if I'm in the mood. I listened to it with my sister when she was here over the X-mas holiday, and she immediately asked me to burn a copy for her.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:28 pm

I'm in. "Wonderful & Frightening World of..." and "This Nation's Saving Grace" are two of the few LP's I brought to Japan.
Cruiser's Creek, Mr Pharmacist, Slang King... when anybody says that music in the 80's was bad I just think that, well, they weren't really there, man.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:28 am

Otis wrote -

I want to hear Hex Induction Hour

That one's my favorite and they've just rereleased it with a bonus disc of extra material. A couple of my favorites not mentioned - The Frenz Experiment, Perverted By Language and Bend Sinister.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:56 am

Storm's back! Hi Storm. I've missed you. The Real Leeds need some help, though.

Good recommendations. The Fall-mad colleague has ordered that Hex release, so I'll be checking it out soon! Frenz Experiment is one I've heard less about. I have the Marshall Suite on loan from my chum, yet to check it out.

I missed the BBC4 docu! They normally repeat these things about 7 times at 2am on assorted mornings, but I haven't checked ths out. Will have to. I'd forgotten it was on, to be honest, was in London that night.

Amazing thing about The Fall is that for a band with a largely atonal vocalist and a genuiney leftfield indie aesthetic, a lot of their songs have real hooks that make you come back to them. That Berlin bar moment sounds great, wish I could have been you at that point, Dr J.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 1:27 pm

The Fall Next Month - and with a Cambridge date Otis!

Mar 7 Civic Centre, Middleton. box office 0161 643 2389; advance tickets. A "special celebration evening," apparently - JCC's 56th birthday?
Mar 8 The Junction, Cambridge (w/John Cooper Clarke). advance tickets
Mar 9 Irish Centre, Leeds (w/John Cooper Clarke). advance tickets
Mar 10 Rescue Rooms, Nottingham (w/John Cooper Clarke). advance tickets, box office: 0115 958 8484. Doors 7:30pm
Mar 11 Concorde 2, Brighton (w/John Cooper Clarke). advance tickets, doors 7pm.
Mar 12 The Empire, Leisure Plaza, Milton Keynes (w/John Cooper Clarke).
Mar 13 Waterfront, Norwich (w/John Cooper Clarke). advance tickets
May 20 The Forum, Kentish Town, London; advance tickets.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Sat Feb 05, 2005 8:20 pm

Hand up!

The Birmingham School...of Business School. What a great name for a song...

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:32 am

Wow, The Fall in Cambridge. And JCC! 56! Wish it asn't a Tuesday, but there you go. Will have to get to this. Smallish venue.

Helios · Post by **Helios** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:02 am

Steve Hanley is one of my (if not the most), fave bass players. I wish they would come to Chicago this summer. I assume he would tour w/them - or who else would it be?

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 5:30 pm

"New Face In Hell" - the best post-punk dance song to feature a kazoo... EVER

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:21 pm

Another well familiar title. It's all coming back, little by little. Which LP was that on? No idea if Steve Hanley is in the line-up. Was he part of the original thing? A lot of the bass on early stuff (especially T-t-t-totally Wired) is dead good. I saw some photos of a reptilian looking Smith at a recent Reykjavik gig, and that was definitely Craig Scanlon on guitar. They've had some 36 changes of personnel.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 4:21 am

Otis, it's from "Grotesque"

NEW FACE IN HELL

Wireless enthusiast intercepts government secret radio band and
uncovers secrets and scandals of deceitful type proportions.

(kazoo solo)

Aghast goes next door to his neighbor, secretly excited, as
aforementioned was a hunter whom radio enthusiast wanted
friendship and favor of.

(kazoo solo)

A new face in hell
Nearly a new face in hell!

A muscular, thick-skinned, slit-eyed neighbor is at the table
poisoned just thirty seconds before by parties who knew of
wireless operator's forthcoming revelation.

(kazoo solo)

A new face in hell!

A prickly line of sweat covers enthusiast's forehead as the
realization hits him that the same government him and his now
dead neighbor voted for and backed and talked of on cream porches
have tricked him into their war against the people who enthusiast
and dead hunter would have wished torture on. A servant of
government walks in and arrests wireless fan in
kitchen for murder of his neighbor

(kazoo solo)

A new face in hell!

The dead cannot contradict
Sometimes the living cannot

A new face in hell!

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 5:15 am

"How dare you assume I want to parlez-vous with you?
You Gretchen Franklin nosey matron type

Does the Home Secretary have the barest faintest inkling of what's going down?

I hear you Telephone Thing listening in....."

The only album I have Extricate - has this great song and also Popcorn Double Feature - but to me their finest is the first Fall song I ever heard - the miraculous and classic Totally Wired.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:55 am

John Cooper Clarke

Alas I am on holiday

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 10:56 am

Mark E. Smith's lyrics have the highest purported brilliance to complete unintelligibility ratio of anyone who ever walked the face of the Earth. Ever.

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 5:27 pm

stormwarning wrote

Otis, it's from "Grotesque"

I picked up Grotesque on the cheap last weekend - mmm bonus tracks...and was groovin to New Face In Hell just this past Sunday.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:54 pm

My copy resides in a supposed friend's flat in Finsbury Park, along with Dragnet. I don't think I ever lent them to him, he just nicked him over 20 years ago. I confronted him with the issue in 1995 and he claied they were his. I even slept in the same room as them the other week, and took a look at them, but wasn't quite ready for a renewed confrontation. They will come home to roost some day. I used to love them both, especially Grotesque. I will know every track on it, but have sadly been reduced to forgetting all about New Face In Hell (though 'radio enthusiast' is very familiar!).

MBA: yeah, there's a lot of the surreal, the cut-up and the plain drunk/bonkers in there, but there's also loads of brilliant comedy, and some very direct social comment. Totally Wired (which I agree is totally superb, just been playing it again) is about something straightforward, as is Rowche Rumble. But the great thing is that a lot of the lines and concepts are so memorable and entertaining that you can thrill to them without worrying overmuch about 'intelligibility'. I could listen to him saying 'kurious oranj' for hours at a stretch without what the hell he's on about bothering me for a moment.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:20 pm

Another thing about The Fall: great cover versions. Well, Victoria and A Day in The Life, at least, can't remember if I've heard others. Anyone know? Kind of wouldn't expect this to be the cae, but it definitely is (which is probably unfair, and they are so unique that their covers are bound to sound totally like them rather than a copy of someone else). Both of the above are fabulous.

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:28 pm

Otis: what I mean is that he mumbles. I listen as hard as I can, and I still hear lkfjsaei;awheigoaz;bnds;poiw!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 8:49 pm

Oh, I see. I recommend 6 months in Manchester, with the additional by-product of developing a burning passion for the World's Greatest Football Team (tm).

Boy With A Problem · Post by **Boy With A Problem** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:24 am

A couple other Fall covers =

Mr. Pharmacist
Pinball Machine
White Lightning
I Can Hear The Grass Grow

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:25 am

There's A Ghost In My House

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:20 pm

Boy With A Problem wrote:A couple other Fall covers =

Mr. Pharmacist
Pinball Machine
White Lightning
I Can Hear The Grass Grow

Whose are those, though?

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:36 pm

What a great thread. What a great band. My introduction to the Fall was as a teenager & Totally Wired & Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul sounded like they should have been hit singles. What an introduction!

I then used all my available cash (ok, pocket money) & bought Grotesque (after the gramme). Highlight of an album full of highlights - C'N'C' -S Mithering.
Soon after added Hex Enduction Hour. Hip Priest could only be sung by Mark E Smith.

I loved both these albums, but for some reason lost them & any thought of what the Fall were doing. A friend dragged me to a concert in the mid-90s. Great show, but the only song I recognized was the above mentioned cover White Lightning & I only knew that from the George Jones original. Anyway to make a long story not even longer, on a whim I bought the 2CD compilation 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong last year & I have barely stopped playing it. Album of the year last year! Now I am most surely going to rebuy Grotesque & Hex Enduction if not more.

How The Fall still remain a minor footnote if mentioned at all in late 20th century music should sadden any music fan. That the 80s can still be pidgon-holed as the era of style over substance needs to realize that just because VH1 gets to write the cultural history of a decade doesn't make them right.