Carling Academy, Islington, London — 2nd night, Wednesday, 18th July 2007

Fantastic gig!

from the man whose head expanded.

Set list:

The Man Whose Head Expanded
Pacifying Joint
My Door
Theme From Sparta FC
Fall Sound
I've Been Duped
Hungry Freaks Daddy
What About Us
Mountain Energei
--------------------------------------
Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
Strange Town
Reformation

never thought i'd hear that again

An evil joke.

Amazing first post, pockets, mate!

Eleni wearing a red dotted dress. Failed to recognise TMWHE at first...but what a nice treat it turned out to be!
'Strange Town' getting better and better.
Fantastic rendition of 'Reformation'.
See y'all tomorrow.

I'm the unseen.

Their rota was mediocre but the group eventually pulled it off.

hi pockets! , welcome here!
New to The Fall-Gruppe? Your 1st gig?

Fantastic 65min gig,
Safi's set ended with the original electronic "Trio"-Casio Sound from the version of 1982, lasted for 2 min and then the band joined! 8 and a half minute version!!! Ended with MES saying "in rehearsal it was good, thank u...", throwin mic on the floor!
Other great quotes:
"I love you, love you all" (at the end of SENIOR to Keiran and Dave)
"One more night only..." (to audience)
"Your husband is a missus" (forgot the song)

later more
see you "all" tomorrow, you lightweights!

i am the deej

for all beer admirers!
tuesday band on stage at 10.05
wednesday band on stage at 9.43

next MAN WHOSE HEAD EXPANDED in 30 years, approx.


OVER OVER!!!

HANLEY!!!! TOO LATE!!!!!!!!

They didn't play Wings.

The expanse of the Sussex countryside
shifted the tide from Tuesday to Wednesday.
The bus shook
and Rock'n'Roll was once again created.

Any torrent please

I can’t comment on last nights performance.

My hearing is now totally fucked. Was it was another ‘shit’ gig like Tuesday?

Welcome to the Reformation! Post- Reformation!

The Fall is Dead!
Long Live The Fall!

Loved the gig, soooo much better than Tuesday night. Sounded like a different band. The new Fall have arrived.

I always like it when MES comes on stage and says “We are The Fall!”

All Hail The New Puritan!
Righteous Maelstrom!

The Man Whose Head Expanded – I never thought I’d hear this one played live! (I was 4 when this track was released, sorry did I say 4? I meant 600 – slipped out of character for a minute there…) I have never liked anything that Safi Sniper has done but oh boy am I glad that he turned that bloody blimey space invader on…
Pacifying Joint – Not as bad as Tuesday night but still pretty shambolic, why doesn’t Pete (the guitarist, is that his name?) just look over at Dave if he doesn’t know the changes?
My Door Is Never – Much better, Pete seemed to be having more fun with it
What About Us? – Not Bad
Fall Sound – Good Stuff
I’ve been Duped – Quite a poppy number this one, not bad
Mountain Energei – Still a bizarrely long intro but then MES seemed on form, a couple of extra verses was that? Something like “I went to the [inaudible] / They said to me / If you want a [inaudible] / You need a twirly thing with knobs on….”

Encore:
Senior Twilight Stock Replacer – seemed to be more words to this than just the words in the title, did I hear “and then all their fucking hair fell out!”??. Will there be some sort of story emerging in this song about some stock replacer who poisons people, we can only hope…
Strange Town – Not familiar with this one but it seemed a lot better than Tuesday night, much more of a song
Reformation! – Best version I’ve ever heard of this song! When Pete came in I though “he’s playing that in the wrong key…” Then I though “Key? Key??? This is The Fall! There is no Key!! It’s perfect!!”

Came out the gig on a big high...

I'll be there tonight.

Let's all meet at THE NAG'S HEAD pub again!
See ya!

Forgot to comment on some of the more 'unusual' mic antics of MES... he started hitting the neck of pete's guitar (LOVED the look on pete's face when he did that!) and tried to play Elena's synth using the mic (Elena looked v. confused), he then shoved the mic in Elena's face...

Also loved watching pete as MES got involved in some serious amp fiddling volume up - down - up down

used to like watching Ben Pritchard's face when MES did that to him, not sure it adds to sound though!....

Can't think why Mark'd wanner do a 4 night stint in that shopping centre, really is a shite venue, but 'tis da Falle and we love 'em whatever. I wasn't even supposed to be there, but I'd lost my passport {honest, I've looked evrywhere}, so whilst Mrs plackiman and kidz were en Espana, I had to go an'get a new pissporte, and during the interim awaiting re-issue decided to trudge along from Victoria to Islington to acquire a ticket. Coulda got the tube but needed the excercise, met Claire Short in St. James Park and picked up a copy of PBL short stories {or was it the other way round....?}. Met a bunch of thoroughlly decent Fall lovers in The Red Lion, went to venue, left the gig halfway through cos the sound was rubbish, and my toothache was most irksome, loved the mic antics tho, missed the last train to Bognor, ended up in fookin Worthing {aahhhh, Worthing} at half one and hadta pay 40 squids to cab it up home. Seriously considering doing it again tonight tho'......Fall Fans Hardest Away Days.......

Walking up the street to the gig I was passed by Boris Johnson, in a suit and tie, on his bike. He looks like an albino Flump. I'm voting for Ken. Anyway...
Venue was busy but not rammed, bar service was good as was the air conditioning. Yes it's in a shopping centre and yes it's a dull venue but so what? I'm here to see the band not check out the interior design. Missed the support but saw some scrambled Black Sabbath video with someone doing a cut up noise soundtrack, pretty good actually.
As noted above the gig started with TMWHE which was excellent. I haven't heard the new album yet but the tracks I didn't know all sounded pretty good. The last encore went into some sort of hard as nails Kraut jam with MES doing Damo Suzuki's "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" vocal from Can's Father Cannot Yell! My ears are still ringing...
Reading this forum my expectations were pretty low so it was great to see the band still on top form. I've been seeing them on and off since 1984 and on last night's showing they're still at the top of their game. That's not to say they never play any duff gigs but like any half decent band The Fall don't "do" consistancy. Leave that to flinty eyed "pros" featured in the music monthlies and championed by clowns like this http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/...e_smiths_m.html
Ovah! Ovah!

There's quite a lively comments board after the 'fall must die' blog

Personally, I can't wait 'til Friday!

Any pics, film or recordings??? HPAF we are banking on you!

nice sig again Hanley.
I'm at home earning enough to avoid having to share a travelodge room with a snoring bootlegger during the autumn tour.by the way where's my copies. .

I'm going on Friday night - which pub is the agreed meeting place?

Ooh lordy, what treats will be in store for us on Friday?

Slighhtly better than the previous night for obvious reasons.

Mark seemed more relaxed, and the sound flowed better.

Still think 'I've been Duped' sounds like a Shonen Knife B-Side.

Otalgia.

Ooh lordy, what treats will be in store for us on Friday?

...Mr Pharmacist?

Much as I the Fall shows I've seen over the last year (ie the Fall's own material), I for one am delighted to see Them Hungry Freaks is still in the set.