Monday 27 January 2014

Week 3: 10/11/78 - 01/08/79

And closing in on the eighties. So we start with the 2nd Peel session: Put Away, Mess of My, No Xmas for John Quays and Like To Blow. This time produced by Bob Sargeant, who would go on to produce the debut LP. The sound is urgent but still all high end. They're still punks - especially on Like To Blow, but that annoying organ sound ruins it all for me. I love the line: "I live on snacks, potatoes in packs". Because crisps y'know.

And then a weirdly untracable one: ESP Disco on Oxymoron - an early psykick dancehall. It sounds a little live but it's too well recorded for that - it's a great track.

Then the debut album. I think I found this one in Bath Replay when that still existed - the InLine CD issue. I never really like the record - they apparently focused on recording it quickly rather than the sound. Produced by Bob of above, it's super super tinny. And it's weird - there are two tracks (Crap Rap 2 or Live at The Witch Trials) which would have made great opening tracks, but they're not - they open with Frightened. It's a weird listen - a lot of the tracks they were playing live. A fantastic opening to Mother-Sister: "What's this song about?","Errr, nothing". The Live At The Witch Trials/Futures and Pasts pairing is brilliant - something odd into something frentic: "I was in a drunken dream, the pubs were closed it was three o'clock". And then they end with "Music Scene", an 8 minute meander - which announces the time at around 6 minutes and then someone (Bob?) chips in a bit later "Okay Steve-o, that's plenty" and they keep going for a couple of minutes. This was center to my teenage theory that the best Fall songs were always the longest one on the album. Soon to be quashed by And This Day.

And then by the magic of Dragnet the last entry in this time period is the Rowche Rumble. I bought my copy at that Northern Soul shop that used to be off Division Street in Sheffield. Tattered cover but one of my favourite Fall Songs. "The Doctors need prescriptions, The Wives need the pills: Rowche Rumble!". And on the flip: In My Area, which is typical of the stretched out songs they were doing at the time, very considered. But that bloody organ again. The Dragnet CD finishes everything off with 4 outtakes of Rowche Rumble and 2 of In My Area. Outtakes are a very 90s affair - i.e. we've put the album on the CD, we've remastered it, what else can we do? Let's put on the stuff which should have been left on the cutting room floor. Interesting when you hear real progression to an eventual sound. But not interesting when it's 3 slightly different versions - 2 of which stop before they get going, because the band aren't together enough. Bloody puritans....

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Week 02: 02/19/1977 - 10/11/1978




And so straight into week 2. And of course, it's the Fall so they haven't even released an album yet but the two singles are out at least to make up for it. And my first omission - there's a live recording from Oldham that I failed to get in time, so I'll revisit that when it arrives and add it to this post.

And also a true first: The first Fall Peel Session: 15th June 1978, Rebellious Jukebox, Mother-Sister, Industrial Estate and Futures and Pasts - all of which would end up on the debut LP. What's surprising is how much the band is polished and how much the sound aligns with the Witch Trials sound - all high end and that annoying organ.  I love Futures and Pasts from this time - full on high intensity punk with some daft lyrics.

Then it's the "Live At Deeply Vale" recording which doesn't get a mention in the Bible but it's from The People's Free Festival 22nd July 1978. The sound quality is pretty bad and Mark sounds like he's on Helium. There's no real surprises in the track listing, and the on-stage banter is borderline embarrasing. And then a weirdo bonus track of Psycho Mafia/Dresden Dolls/Industrial Estate as a studio medley. I'm convinced I've heard these before and think they're from the Tony Wilson show. Maybe.

And then another badly recorded concert - Liverpool, Mr Pickwicks, 1978. Not much to say about it, it's hard to pick things out, but again there's more humerous banter and less requests for the audience to stop spitting on this one. They do Music Scene with a cheery intro which I always liked on the LP but live it doesn't seem to work so well but it's interesting to hear these tracks before they got over produced.

And then the two singles: Bingo Master's Breakout and It's the New Thing. Out of the two the latter works better for me. BMB was always a little too novelty, and the drums had been lost from Psycho Mafia which squashed it a little. Repetition is cited in Wikipedia as being "The manifesto for the band" for years to come which I suppose is fair but as a song it's pretty boring. New Thing, though, chugs along with some beautiful insights "Houdini believed his tricks: that is why he died". Various Times is the first song that for me really captures the menace of the band in these early recordings. They're a pretty frightening lot on this song. Though they are still just a punk band with some interesting lyrics at the moment.

Week 2 was a 2 hour 4 minute playlist, just about fitting my commute - the songs are a little too plain (or maybe I know them too well) for them to open up over the course of the week so maybe the band are still a little too immature to start producing some interesting stuff with complexities. Onwards!
A bonus catch up: Live in Oldham, 1978. Marks goes on about the Witch Trials before going into Repetition, which is an odd way to open the set but there we go. Standard Fall setlist, some between members banter, a pretty standard Witch Trials stuff  it's solid but not really outstanding.

Monday 13 January 2014

Week 01: 1st June 1977 - 19th February 1978

So here we go. This year I plan to listen to every song released by the Mighty Fall. First some rules: 1. No Bootlegs - unless they have an official release (as on the Discogs discography) I'm not going to try and get them. 2. No chasing hard to find records. So no need for the original Marquis Cha Cha, nor that 2nd CD of the Behind the Counter single because it has the Mixmaster Mike remix. 3. Listen to everything in chronological order.

So with those in mind I have constructed the Fall Spreadsheet of Doom. I worked through the Discogs Albums and Singles listings, noting the date of release for single and album tracks and the date of recording for live tracks. All told the spreadsheet has a bit of repetition (ha!) but it also has 1608 rows. Ordering by date gives us a start point of the 1st June 1977. The project ends on the 31st December 2014 so that computes down to about 13727 days of the Fall, or about 9 months every week. Heeding my failure at the rap blog, I am buying things I need a month in advance.

So for this week, in typical Fall fashion, the first week of existence and they haven't even released a record. We start with the extremely dodgy "Rehearsal Early 1977" which the Dave Thompson book places in "Summer 1977" so hence the 1st June. Volume 1 indeed!

The sound quality is pretty good and we find the group in full on punk snarl. Dresden Dolls was a live staple but I don't think it ever made it onto wax. Psycho Mafia is full on 77 punk, and Industrial Estate is the most Fall like of homages. The drumming throughout is way up in the mix and suitably furious. The Bible (henceforth the Dave Thompson book will be referred to as the bible) indicates that this was the mysterious "Dave" who was in the drum chair before Karl Burns took over.

Then there's the two tracks on the Short Circuit 10". More known now for the early Joy Division tracks, this is a surprisingly well recorded couple of songs, both again not making onto a record proper. I remember having Last Orders on my Fall tape way back when I used to listen to John Peel and record any Fall tracks he played.

And finally the Live 1977 recording which the Bible says is from 23rd December 1977. The quality here is beyond ropey and the band are surprisingly together though and race through the first few songs before getting a bit bored and jaded on the remainder. It's 1977 so they have to ask the audience to stop spitting and throwing beer at least three times. The track listing is fascinating - all the staples from above, plus a few more that would make it onto Live At The Witch Trials. And Bingo Master's Breakout, which I always thought was just too strange to play live but I'm clearly wrong. Mark is on good form, not quite at the peak of his powers but on his way there. The band are really good, quite tight and urgent. The two tracks which are really interesting though: Oh Brother and Copped It which wouldn't make it onto record for another 7 years or so are surprisingly not that different from their Brix'd up versions. Add to this Hey Student (recorded finally in 1994) as Hey Fascist, and a shout out for John Tyndall and it's a pretty pinked up gig - consistent with the live footage from the time.

They end the show with an atrocious cover of Louie Louie (The Bible claims John The Postman is on this one) which is 6 minutes long and all over the place, with the sound quality equally wavering. Could this be the blueprint for the equally trying "And This Day". Mark is like your drunken uncle, having a turn at a wedding.

So that was the first 9 months of The Fall. There's little hints of what was to come but the general thread in this bunch of records is that they were a surprisingly accomplished punk band with some weirdo lyrics. What can go wrong.