Hammersmith Palais, London, Sunday, 1st April 2007

Und wie war's?
Sorry, i am a bit early...i really wanted to come...no money, no time, kids ill...this is all in all not of interest here...
Happy birthday to the invisible twins: they are very lucky people tonite in London!!!



Setlist???

Very good. Phenomenal Blindness.



Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
Pacifying Joint
Fall Sound
Over! Over!
Theme from Sparta FC
Hungry Freaks, Daddy
Wrong Place, Right Time
My Door
The Wright Stuff
White Lightning
Blindness

Reformation

Band start at 10.15 pm. All over by 11.10pm

Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
Pacifying Joint
Fall Sound
Over! Over!
Theme From Sparta FC
Hungry Freaks, Daddy!
Wrong Place Right Time
My Door Is Never
The Wright Stuff
White Lightning
Blindness
----------
Reformation


Support bands: some young female-fronted band we never bothered to look at, then some Beefheart copyists, then Ted Chippington, then Safi Sniper for a bit.

In "Hungry Freaks" MES got the lyrics right but the band were playing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction", which gradually mutated toward "Slags Slates Etc".

"Senior Twilight" sounds like the work of a Tubeway Army tribute band.

A chap with long flowing hair and beard got on the stage during "Blindness" and was bundled away by security but ignored by MES. After the main set some white-haired article said some stuff about it being the last night of the Palais, before jumping off stage. As MES came on for the last number there was a truly bizarre and comical sight as he appeared to be holding separate the security man and some punter who'd climbed on stage, hugging the security man first of all to win his trust. Thus proving The Fall are the band to soundtrack the forthcoming David Cameron government.

"Thankyou for allowing us into your security area... we're off to civilisation" he uttered as he left the stage which had a fair few security chaps on it scowling at the crowds.

What he said.

The long-haired bloke who got on stage is called Joe and is the former frontman of a Macclesfield institution The Hot Bananas.

Not seen him for years but there he was. MES barely noticed.

impressing gig.
as powerful as it has to be.

extended line up. What kind of thrilling guitar by Pete. Amazing!

sad to see this building going to be demolished. this was a true r n r night, over now there.
The Fall couldn’t have make it better.


Not like crowd pleasers they stopped just when they could do starting the theme:
Reformation down edited no extras here.

It is always good to make it not too brilliant. Maybe, or?

Hungry Freaks was superb tonight; never liked it much before. The rest was a bit take it or leave it despite some excellent guitar work. Fantastic to see TedC back in his element with people screaming for his head; he looked positively gleaming. Safi was mercifully short; Nought (?) were shite - Don Caballero meets dull.

kiespijn on mjungblu's log-in:

fantastic night

Fantastic 'Blindness'.

Ted Chippington
WHO
I am sure i am not trendy enough to have heard of this man.
Was he a comedian?

The Fall
Great sound
Great Blindness
Eleni great vocals on The Wright Stuff.

The crowd
Some people seem to think they can reserve places in a standing area.
Odd.

Just got back. A bit pissed.

Great perfomance.

A number of us turned up around 10pm with tickets to be told they were over capacity. Thanks to Mr Alan Wise for coming down and making sure we got in.

A big hello to everyone who was in the Willam Morris - it was great meeting up with you all. Mrs HTL and I thought it was a great evening. I hope you all did.

Brilliant

my recent experience at a pixies gig, very odd.

I thought it was the best song of the night. I thought the whole show worked really well with two guitarists as well especially on tunes like My Door which sounded a lot different to the record, and I hope they keep going with that. I thought it took them a couple of songs to get going, Pacifying Joint was a bit routine and even Fall Sound lacked a bit of punch. It got better as it went on.

Wrong Place got a big cheer, at least from the people stood near me but it’s not one of my faves. MES must like something about it though, it keeps popping up in the set again.

Eleni seems a lot more confident doing The Wright Stuff, and was very good. MES was mostly wandering round the stage mumbling to himself instead of butting in, though he did join in a bit later.

Someone in the pub who had been to a previous gig said White Lightening was like a Sex Pistols version, and they were right.

They seemed to whizz through it all pretty quick. I lit up a spliff when they came on and admittedly it went out a couple of times but I was still toking it when they got to White Lightening! That’s when I thought – is that it then? Blindness was totally awesome though, and when they finally came back on again so was Reformation.

I heard that bit JonN mentioned MES saying at the end of the show, but I didn’t see what it was about.

The venue seemed like it was packed. Maybe 1,500 – 2,000 (including maybe up to 50 who post on here, there were loads of people in the pub) it’s hard to tell. I also heard they aren’t actually going to be bulldozing the site right away, they’re still going to have DJ nights there for a while just no live bands. And the only beer they had was Fosters – what the fuck was that about?

It’s all been filmed for posterity though. And not just by Safi (I'm still mystified why he gets such a negative reaction from a lot of people) with his camcorder. There were a couple of guys wandering around the stage with some proper kit - furry microphones, the lot.

Anyway, great show, worth sixteen quid of anyone’s money.

totally different from last night

As usual, JonN says it all, really. And setlist-wise, this is what I wrote down, too.

Senior Twilight Stock Replacer was a great opener: like some kind of military march and chant. Extremely rousing – seemed to suggest they meant business from the very start.

Hungry Freaks, Daddy! featured a wide and long-lasting grin from Mark E. Smith.

My Door Is Never was revealed to contain greatness, despite this not being evident on the album. Here it was transformed.

The Wright Stuff was quite a contrast to the version at the Galtymore last year. Then, Elena seemed shy and embarrassed. This time, she was bursting with confidence, in full control of the show, with hand on hips and declaiming brilliantly like she'd been fronting a band all her life. The song has a new hook and focal point in the repeated 'That boy!' line. It was superb.

Blindness was the true highlight: an absolute inferno. It's always turned up to eleven. This time they turned it up to twelve. The sheer molten-lava power of the beast is amazing. Great keyboard additions by Mark. And near the end he wedged his microphone next to the speaker to add a feedback layer to the mix – making it heavier still and achieving the impossible feat of turning it up to thirteen.

Re: the security incident already mentioned, the way it looked to me was that Mark was giving a 'sarcastic' hug to the over-heavy yellow-vested steward, who had failed to keep people off the stage and was getting upset about it. But I'm sure JonN is right.

After all this, the brief version of Reformation was a slight anti-climax, things having peaked with Blindness. But it was a great show. The crowd were very much up for it, and the band seemed to respond, with much good feeling (such as when Mark made his 'April Fool' quip) and smiles all round.

Interesting setlist: only five of the twelve songs were from the new LP.

It's a tragedy that the Palais is being bulldozed. The sound and atmosphere were excellent and the venue was perfect for the band.

and it's up on dime already!!
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=140980

Thanks!!

Thank you, dj hollerbusch. A fantastic way to spend our birthday it was...Indian restaurant (Star of India, Leyton, highly recommended), went on to eat our Dalek cake, I then had a lie-down and off to The Fall it was.
Classic gig, and I don't use those words lightly, punters. MES wearing his cleanest shirt and a dapper black dinner jacket. In chatty mode, on his best behaviour. 'Blindness' as good as it used to be...'Blind Man' again it is! High points, clearly: "When my face bulged out and my eyes turned blue (sic)." And, of course, since no-one's cared to mention it so far: MES's dance moves (think Bez). All in all, much better than the Brighton one on Saturday. Tobes said he thought he had spotted Marcia Schofield in the audience.

Security situation over the top. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think MES' parting words were: '(something about security and)...we're off to civilization'. And he said 'thank you' (various times). Spotted at least three (semi-)professional cameras (two on the balcony, one on stage).

Hollerbusch, do Jeck, do haess jet verpaas. Quasi normal.

Logging out. I repeat. Logging out.

I'm the unseen.

What a night! Blindness and Hungry Freaks Daddy were elemental. Less trippy than Cricklewood, more the buzzing garage rock electronic beast. Eleni was doing some seriously good stuff on Blindness. Characteristically ambiguous end to the gig with the bouncer incident and walk-off..

As Altfish said, the meet-up before was almost as good as the gig. I know I'll forget someone as I was very drunk, but excellent to meet Freeranger and the gorgeous Mrs Freeranger, BillyBigBananas, High Tension Line and the lovely and entertaining Mrs HTL, SteveHamilton, Kelsa Deaf Wife, Cupid's Bullet, Pomfob (who genuinely does look like a younger John Peel), the legendary Martin ((flown in specially from Valencia!), the legendary FallFanDave, TobyDynamik, and of course Mr Acton High Street..

Thanks all for an unforgettable night..

johnnymills, Ted Chippington is somewhat of a strange beast. He was on telly about 3 weeks ago, apparantly he is making something of a comeback.

The point of his 'act' was basically that he was such a bad comedian he actually became funny (full circle if you like). As a spotty 21 year old Ents Officer I booked him for my Students' Union. I nearly got frikin lynched. I wanted The Fall but this was 1991 and they were commanding £7-8,000 per gig, way out of our league.

To be fair either would have bombed, Edge Hill teacher training College was hardly the centre of taste and sophistication. I was ousted from office after I booked Shack and they were discovered shooting up in the first aid room..........

J

Good report by JonN, but I take issue with his comments about Hungry Freaks Daddy, they gave an excellent, accurate account of the main riff, but just stuck to that rather than playing the more complex parts of the song. It's comparable to the way they've simplified Coming Down into Over Over..

I felt MES subtly recognised the import of the occasion with extra apocalyptic impact on the "Good evening, we are the Fall.. " moment.

Great gig.


Me and the current Mrs. Duck walked down from Kew Bridge and seemed to stop in every pub on the way, so a bit pissed when we finally got there.

'Fall Sound' and 'Blindness' were the standout.


I enjoyed Safi's little spot as always.

Yeah, in spite of what some say, this is the perfect warm-up to the Fall. About the only support of theirs I've ever really enjoyed..

Yah Beauty! What a gig! I set off in time to try and meet up with some of you guys in a pub but the London Underground had other plans.
Better than Brighton Thursday not least because MES was more focussed but the sound was spot on. After a minute or two into FALLSOUND MES adjusted a few things and the mix was perfect with both guitars coming through loud and clear. Pete did make a difference. There was a real sense of occasion and the venue itself was wonderful. To think they are knocking venues like the the Palais down and replacing them elsewhere with Carling Islington scheisse is most depressing. People after the show were recording the "The Fall - Tonight" sign outside for posterity on their mobiles. The stage was as wide as the dance floor and that was twice as wide as it was deep. It meant a panoramic view of the band who just filled the room. Immediately behind me was a raised mixing area with three serious looking film cameras set up. Hope this footage doesn't take too long to surface.
The Fall were absolutely great. Thanks chaps for a night that I will remember.

It was the first time I'd seen the current line up and they were terrific. I went with a group of friends one of whom had never seen them live and another who last saw them in the mid eighties. Both were blown away. One of them even liked Ted Chippington.

Blindess was an absolute tour de force and worth the admission fee alone. If I'm honest, I was concerned that The Wright Stuff might be a bit crap live but Ms Smith did a fantastic job of it and I agree Hungry Freaks Daddy certainly did sound like Satisfaction. All in all it was a fitting (if a little surreal) farewell to the Hammersmith Palais.

I was in the William Morris before the gig and must apologise for not introducing myself to as many of you as I should have done. But I did meet Martin, Altfish and Steve Hamilton, all of whom prove that I'm a mere novice in the Fall fandom stakes.

Next time the group are in London I'll try and be more sociable.

in the pantheon of Great Fall gigs, it wasn't up ther with the best. I got the impresion many folks where there for the occassion(i.e. last ever Hammy Pally night) rather than the Fall.
Still it was a pleasant surprise to see Ted Chippington
couldn't believe people through lit cigs at him !