Zodiac, Oxford – 2nd night, Wednesday, 4th April 2007

The 1st night was good - tonight was unbelievable. Finale of Reformation then Big Prinz, then coming back after the lights had already gone up for another great Blindness. Mark seemed to be on top form, joking about with the sound guy, dancing, handing the mic to the crowd during Big Prinz, throwing the DJs laptop at him!. A great night. I managed to record the lot, plus get some Reformation/Big Prinz on video. I'll try and upload them somewhere tomorrow. Ears still ringing too much at the moment.

Awesome!

More laters

I couldn't agree more. That was a great show.
I can't believe they came back on and did Blindness. It was already 11.25.

fucking hell! im really am regreating not coming to oxford for these shows now! why did they play big new prinz in oxford but not in hammersmith?!

Putting it up on yousendit would do many of us a thrilling favour. Please?

Yet another life-changing historic event. Loved those funky dance moves (during HFD), hope to see more of them in the future. Looking forward to gig at Jilly's on Monday night.

pocketsofresistance via the unseen's login.

MES in blue jeans (the trendy variety, even). Many people already heading for the door when they came back for Blindness. Mark did that pinky thing again - to great effect. Eleni put on a jacket AND a coat for the last few numbers. My shoe got stuck to the floor but I could pull my foot out of it no prob. Hungry Freaks is a stunner. Mark did some hugging of stage person - almost refused to let him go. What next? Tender loving care - it's a motto.
Thank you, Fall - it's been a wonderful tour (so far). Bye.
Logging off.

shit! they came back on and did Blindness? I'd gone by then.

still, good to hear/see Big New Prinz in the encore, great stuff.

This belongs in the "acts of cretinous stupidity" thread.

Putting it up on yousendit would do many of us a thrilling favour. Please?

It would be brilliant to have a memento of one of the best Fall gigs I've ever seen.

I think I can just about accept having left before Blindness because everything that came before was so amazing.
Even Safi Sniper was less annoying than the night before.
MES was on great form: smiling, dancing, speaking, everything. I thought he seemed more 'with it' than usual. Lurching around a bit the night before. The look on his face when the soundman was playing about with the amps and mics etc... MES seemed to be turning to Rob for sympathy or support, which is pretty ironic, considering MES must've turned Rob's amp off at least half a dozen times, only for Rob to turn it back on again a minute later.
Eleni was looking particularly Kylie-ish. Nice coat. A couple of nice-looking mates and they could be The Poulettes.
Someone will undoubtedly provide the set list, but it was something along these lines (but not in this order, I'm sure):
Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
Sparta
Pacifying Joint
Fall Sound
My Door
Reformation
Hungry Freaks, Daddy
Wright Stuff
White Lightning
I Can Hear The Grass Grow
Big New Prinz (various members of the audience shared vocals on this one)
(Blindness, allegedly)

Why oh why did I not get a two-night ticket?

To quote Divvey: 'This belongs in the "acts of cretinous stupidity" thread'.

Leaving before Blindness doesn't seem so daft in comparison.

N0ught much better than 1st night, more dynamics, keys audible & better bass sound.

Faro also had an improved sound, lead vocals clearer: still doesn't set me aflame, but god luck to em & all.

Safi not as good this time: very entertaining, & quite funny, but felt more like someone pissing about with a laptop, rather than the petrifying audio-visual intrusion we got the previous night. But still a great entry for the band.

The Fall started a little unexcitingly - solid, but not spectacular. Built to very satisfying groove during the main set. Wandered off for a minute. Came back as a fiery inferno of a band for the encore, including a pummeling Prinz.

Wandered off, lights came up, people started leaving. Suddenly there's the engineer on the stage gesticulating wildly - yep, here they are again. Then a frankly awe inspiring Blindness, with MES reaching the apotheosis of his live mixing. He'd wave for the string players to tacet fior half a verse, so it was just drums keys & vox. He'd have a fiddle with Rob's amp during this time, so that every time the bass came back in Rob was more distorted & evil than before. OK, that's hardly original, but the effect was incredible, the League of Bald Heads dancing all around me like dervishes. Even me mate Alastair had a little groove to what he'd earlier dubbed Steptoe & Band, & I've NEVER see him do anything of the sort. Band left the stage one at a time, just Rob & drums at the end (the stadium cabaret ending ).

Notable points:

Mark & Spike the monitor engineer having a sweet little dance
Elini's lovely coat.
My Door live pissing all over the lacklustre studio version.
MES's little dance, that looked like a mime of a gorilla carrying two heavy bags of groceries.
MES's keyboard playing not as good as the 1st night, sadly, but his twiddling far superior.
Alastair turning to me as Blindness atarted up & saying incredulously "Are they going to cover Superstition?!"
Callsign & K's tales of the previous night
The extent to which Safi pisses people off, it's good to see an artist create a real impression on the room (I'm not being ironic, I really mean it!).
The words "Menu: ESC" emblazoned on Rob's shirt & Mark's leathery face, at the bottom of the LP cover projection.
The mic passees managuing to keep a plausible verison of Prinz going for about 2 minutes, rather than just screaming into the mic, Eleni beaming at them as she collected her things.
The eerie sound of the industrial air conditioner whirring away beside me just after Blindness when nobody in the room was certain that they weren't coming on again & the Dj's laptop had been ruined by Mark: sort of felt full circle from Safi's drone treatments.
Getting a bus about 45 seconds after leaving The Zodiac, & rumbling home reading Frieze with a recording of the gig playing on my minidisc player


I've seen The Fall in The Zodiac about 8 times, & they've all been good. Next time they come the venue will be bigger, shinier & Academified. Will it be as good? Hopefully it won't be too long until we find out...

So, this recording of the gig... Is there any likelihood of it being shared? Please.

Both nights for me was pure top class tackle,good to see Mark delivering the goods in style.
As for the new group?
I think they are class,all dedicated and all behind Mark 100%.
I had a top time seeing my x boss and meeting the troops and of course seeing Elena and Mark happy and it looked like everyone else who was in the gig loved it too.

A big thanks to all the Fall fans who recieved FARO with open arms and were loving it , seeing a "black/white" act supporting The Fall.
For the record Mark thinks Faro are cool,he heard 1 track a few months ago and offered them the shows.

Check the record tune sent me mental, it was all cranked up,the whole sets and both shows for me was the dogs bollocks.

Oh yeah thanks to all the fans who said hello and shared drinks.
Also if anyone recorded Faro get in touch.

Ed B

Putting it up on yousendit would do many of us a thrilling favour. Please?

Making that gig available on Yousendit, Rapidshare, Megaupload, or, etc., would be the favour of the century. Please, etc. etc. etc.

Putting it up on yousendit would do many of us a thrilling favour. Please?

Making that gig available on Yousendit, Rapidshare, Megaupload, or, etc., would be the favour of the century. Please, etc. etc. etc.

It'll be up tomorrow. Dime for sure, Yousendit if I can work out how. If some one gives me a clue it'll get there quicker.

While you're waiting, here's Reformation:

here

and Big Prinz:

here

These were from front row, pretty much dead centre. Camera rested on barrier, pointing by chance. You'll need to jump and and down in time to the music to be able to watch them, but you'll get the general idea.

I should have a couple of clips, including one of the drummer in Sparta Orange ..those glam beats were the thing that did it for me

As for The Fall ..still gathering loose thoughts. Start after the end, and the appendix, 'Blindness': I've never heard a version like it. Even days before it still sounded as ever, but Wednesday night the Book was ripped - here was the sound of a Lancaster Bomber, with this shrill screech each time Rob re-joined the chaos.

A little lively through the set itself, but nothing much (even for white lightning, Reformation) the returned mass of bodies bounced to Blindness like monkeys on a trampoline.

Beautifully put, Sir!

As for recordings, I'm not nearly clever enough to get my minidisc recording online, so hopefully someone else will: I missed Blindness anyway (too dark to see my LCD properly ).

And, Mr Blaney: I would have come & said hello, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what you look like Anyway, good luck with Faro, they're a good band, even if they didn't quite get me going

A final hooray for Safi too: was that crazy FX on Sex Machine, or was it a version with Eleni doing the vocals?? Nothing Compares To You on the 1st night was truly wonderful: my mate Ash thougth it was the best intro to a band he'd ever seen (he was VERY stoned, but I think it still counts )

Cheers to the band, what a pleasurable couple of nights!

Hopefully MES will get them all in the studio in the couple of days they have 'off' before the Jilly's gig and harness the current creativity.

Think it was the Flying Lizards' version (1984)', slowed down even more. They also did versions of 'Money', 'Dizzy Miss Lizzie', and a fantastic 'Summertime Blues'.
A box in a box in a box. La vache qui rit.

BTW Another excellent, disciplined performance by Tim Presley. One of the best Fall guitarists ever. Here's to a long long long stay at the Fall Motel!

I went to see 'Days of Glory' yesterday, and amongst all the Algerian Arabic was "safi!", shouted several times.
The subtitles told me it meant "It's Over!"

Here's my recording for Dime users:

Here

Now to see if I can work how to use Yousendit

cheers!

brilliant, thanks

best to start a chain/vine for non-dime users as usendit quality is terrible