Bolton Albert Halls, Friday, 2nd November 2007

Well, I had to leave early to catch the train home, I'm doing this from my phone & there's a woman puking in a bag. Might as well start the review. Good, not great, scrappy in places. Odd venue, badly set up for amped sound. But they did Wings!

That's devotion for ya!

Wings - the New Mr Pharmacist perhaps?

God i'm sick of Wings, every bloody gig - tsk.

Tonight the grandure of the Albert Halls shook to a shocking sound (the accoustics that is), Bolton's carpeted Town Hall, with its glittering chandeliers and tuck shop where the attendants are more concerned that you take a plastic glass into the concert hall than collect your ticket (!) welcomed an unchanged line up. I saw this Fall Gruppe come in to their own tonight.

Started with Reformation, there was a Sparta, a Wings, an Over! Over! and a Blindness as the encore. But the bulk of the 1 hour 10min set was new stuff - 7 tracks perhaps. Some of it is in a TLC vein, others not. Eleni's keyboards fart away and the bass and drum sound is as solid as it has been this century. But its good Fall fans.

Nice to see forumites old and new, I now know what Pomfob's T shirt is about, and what Villagers avatar is.

good gig overall, had peaks and troughs. as mentioned above this group have come into their own, pete especially seems to get better with every gig and I've noticed elena is playing some very interesting stuff on keys these days.

they played at least one never before heard one, according to pete's setlist its called 'can can', it was only an instrumental, though mes had walked off so it wasnt clear if this was meant to be the case or what. it was a slow one, sounding like can (can), in the vein of insult song and alton towers.

50 year old man made a return and sounded ace! it now starts off very fast paced and riffy ala wolve kidult man but then slows down in the middle to the version they did in wolverhampton, then goes fast again for the end. some very cool keyboard sounds in the middle section, I hope they don't end up buried on the studio version like happened on a few songs on rptlc.

wings went into wolve kidult man, he actually sings 'wolve kidult man' now instead of 'wolf adult kid', i think i prefer the latter.

i am me mark returned also, this is sounding excellent now, i think they may have changed the drum beat? either way it felt like it had a lot more energy.

lots of lyrics sheet consulting.

as mentioned the set was largely new stuff, only one song played off fhr! (blindness). sparta was played, off rptlc they did reformation (Which they opened with and was a storming version), over over, fall sound and systematic abuse. also on the set were mr pharmacist, white lightning and strange town but these were dropped.

the new songs were:

can can
wolve kidult man (segued into from wings)
alton towers
i am me mark

there must have been others but i'm drawing a blank right now.

no senior twilight stock replacer, sadly.

i have to say I'm very much enjoying the new style of songs, the slow pace with odd drums and skeletal guitar, as opposed to 'lets play power chords over fast drums', which the fall should be so much more than. the fall may be regaining the abstract avant garde element which made me a fan in the first place.

as mentioned above the acoustics were shit, stood at the back for gabrielle's wish and it sounded like it was under water. got down the front for the fall and it was a little better and didn't detract from my enjoyment too much, although I couldn't hear the cymbals very well (which mes played again at the end of systematic abuse).

the only real dips in the gig for me were over over and fall sound which seemed to sit awkwardly amongst the set of wierder songs, but the bulk of the audience seemed to enjoy those the most so thats cool. as ever with fall gigs it was a (pleasantly) odd mix of people present.

thats all i can think of right now.

oh, and mark came back after one of the walk offs and said between songs 'hello, i like orange juice.' and then something I didn't catch. bit baffling but made me smirk. and towards the end of the set some oddball got onstage and started hugging mark who mostly ignored him til some security bloke came and shoved the guy back into the crowd

"I'm on orange juice. And the rest! And the rest!" Mark Smith's between song banter. Before launching into GENUINELY FANTASTIC new song.

Tracklist from memory. Not sure of song titles.

REFORMATION
50 YEAR OLD MAN
SPARTA FC
WINGS / WOLVE KIDULT MAN
FALL SOUND
ALTON TOWERS
NEW INSTRUMENTAL (CAN CAN?)
NEW VERY HEAVY AND SLIGHTLY MEDIEVAL SOUNDING SONG
NEW SLOW SONG WHERE MARK STOOD OVER TO THE RIGHT (OR DID I IMAGINE IT?)
OVER OVER
SYSTEMATIC ABUSE
BLINDNESS

Hmm... I'm really not sure I've got this right.

This post has been edited by chrisgoodhead on Nov 3 2007, 01:52 PM

I thought they sounded a lot heavier and tighter than I'd heard em in the past. The drums seemed to stand out more than they have done before with this line-up. I don't know if I altogether like this line-up and I guess , based on the nature of last night's performance that we might be looking at an album with a lot of tight stop-starts. It seemed to be the direction The Fall is going in. Which is pretty much the opposite of the album done when the dudes were in the gruppe.

Nice to meet people again. Especially good to hear the support for The Blimp, which was everywhere - they really deserve better recognition.

Very odd last night, most subdued, mind you fucking Gabriel's Wish is enough to do that, I swear they are getting worse. The croud did not show up, the atmosphere flat.
Shame, I hope they get a better reception in London and Birmingham. Yes they were at times a little rough around the edges with the new stuff but it was all good, new cd should be ace and more gigs in the spring to look forward to.
Who's idea was it to play that venue, very odd, I kept expecting someone in a dickie bow was going to ask me to leave.

Aye agree about the wierd atmosphere. It wasn't too bad down the front though, people seemed to really love the rptlc stuff, but were perhaps bemused by the slow oddities.

Just out of interest, did anyone have their ticket checked? I had to pick mine up from the box office on the ground floor, it just said 'admit 1 standing the fall' on a BMBC compliment slip! Then I made my way to the second floor but at no point did anyone check my ticket, and no-one checked when I returned if I'd been to the loo or to get a drink. If I'd have known I could have seen the gig for free no problem.

They didn't ask anybody for their ticket. They just assumed if you were there then you must have a ticket. I'm sure a lot got in for free by turning up with the intention of paying on the door only to find that you could just walk right in. What a trusting place.

Went with my son - his first Fall gig. Not the easiest introduction to them (but he has heard me play them more days then not over the fourteen years of his life, so he had a good idea what to expect). He certainly won't forget the night in a hurry as we returned to the car to fing a young couple shagging a couple of yards from where we'd parked in a nearby cul-de-sac. They carried on regardless as I three-point-turned next to them.

I didn't enjoy the gig as much as usual. A combination of lack of beer, dreadful sound and perhaps wanting too much for it to be a stormer for the lad.

First Leeds match aged 5, first Fall gig at 14. That's my paternal duties completed.

Sad sack that I am, I tried noting them down on my phone. I agree with you up to 'Fall Sound' (or Fall snud as I put down), then one I don't know, so probably 'Alton Towers', followed by 'Over Over', and then a couple I didn't recognise. At which point, I had slightly over 5 minutes to run to the train station...only just made the last train. Well, not the last train, but the if I'd gone for the next one, that'd be over an hour and a half freezing my nads off at Piccadilly. And, well, they just weren't that good last night. I definitely didn't hear 'Systematic' or 'Blindness'. damn shame

Good, but not a classic gig by any means. In the 50 minutes I was there, MES wandered off 3 times I think and they're clearly under-rehearsed when it comes to some of the newer material. 'Sparta' was mighty as ever, I'm growing to love 'Fall snud' and '50yr Old Man' intrigues me - it seems to be a 3-parter semi prog thing, similar in structure (but not sound) to 'Chiselers', a secret favourite of mine. Secret no more, obviously.

To be fair, the venue had made no attempt to compensate for the fact it's a (very plush) cavern - it needed a bigger audience or a lot of canvas to damp the sound down.

Of course, any criticisms count for nothing. I've sent off to Alan Wise for a ticket to the Galtymore show, because let's be honest, the Fall are an addiction we all share. Now, what was the name of the B&B in Cricklewood?

Well, the instrumental one. That was a sort of "cheeky" number. There was a repetitive quite light guitar riff. Mark walked off immediately, I don't think he sang anything. I can't recall the tune at the moment but it had these bits that stopped suddenly and then there was a brief little SQUELCH on the keyboard before carrying on. I suppose the nearest thing it sounded like was a quieter Pacifying Joint. It lasted about 3 minutes.

The Heavy One was great. A really memorable up and down riff. A bit like WAR but more catchy. Sounding quite like Cerebral Caustic era Fall, but maybe that was just the boomy bass-heavy sound. There was a definite whiff of prog rock. A rather medieval flavour to the music. I couldn't make out any of the words Mark was singing.

The Quiet one was the only subdued moment in the set. The majority of people seemed to take a breather and... well.. have a bit of a chat. I can't recall the tune but it had a lot of rambling words from Smith, none of which I could make out. Quite introspective. It rather meandered along. Elena may have sung a couple of lines right at the beginning. Reminded me in feeling but not in sound of Ride Away live. Not the reggae jobby on the album but the quieter live version before FHR came out.

This is all from memory by the way. So when it goes up on DIME and I'm totally off the mark, please be gentle with me.

I thought it was fantastic despite the shit sound and terrible atmosphere ( I was amazed they came back out for an encore to be honest - sounded like no one was interested) because it was interesting again for me for the first time in years.T he segues, time signatures and general flying-by-the-sea-of-the-pants nature made up of a set of largely unknown songs (and that's just the band members!!) gave it a really exciting air that took it far away from the conventional workman-like Fall-by-numbers that a lot of recent line-ups have cosily slipped into. I like my Fall raw and roughshod, not regimented, sloppy and lazy, and that's exactly what I got.

My first thought after that blistering first 40 minutes or so was , "Once uopn a time there was Craig Scanlon. Now there is Pete Greenway" I still stand by that today

Yeh I was amazed they did an encore too, crowd certainly did n't deserve one and if white lightening and Mr p were on the list and not played.... well make your own minds up

I dont think the atmosphere was helped by the appalling acoustics .(Personally, I couldnt make out Wings until "a small alteration of the past" was sung.) A pity really, as the set wasnt nearly as repetitive as of late. Some of the newer songs seem pretty encouraging, especially Wolve Kidult man.

Eleni's impressive keyboard squelches were pretty loud in the mix, which was good, but I dont think MES helped the overall sound by turning the lead guitar amp right down to practically zero so early on.

A good, not great gig at a frankly, shite venue.

Had a good night last night, mainly because quite a few people turned up and we had a cheery beer or two in the pub beforehand.

The set started off strongly with a powerful Reformation. The next few tracks were a bit of a mess, but this may be explained by the kacky acoustics. Over Over came across as a bit of a lament, a bit of a swansong.

Thereafter it picked up. The track that followed the orange juice statement exploded into life in a very exciting way. One of the best Fall track openings I have ever heard. The new stuff sounded very promising. A few people have mentioned the bad acoustics, but no-one has commented on the light show. Between 3 and 5 green spotlamps lit the stage from above for all but the last two tracks. Then someone turned about another 15 lights on of varying colours. All at once mind, so they just made the stage look a bit brighter.

With every Fall gig, there are always some memorable aspects. MES looked good. The new songs sounded good. I met MES's sister, Caroline, in the lift and she is a very lovely person who really hoped that I'd enjoyed myself.

My impression of the music was that it was good but not great. Dave Spurr is excellent, and with the guy on drums, knocks out hugely powerful rythms. However, both Elena and Pete Greenaway weren't used very well. I couldn't hear much guitar. In Blindness it was mostly absent, so that when he did start playing it, everybody cheered. When I saw Elena at the New Centuary Hall, the first UK gig with the Americans, she was a tour de force, the best thing about the whole event. Last night her playing was too simplistic and incongruous.

Everyone else I spoke to said that they thought the gig was good. A lot is hinging on the new album as far as I am concerned.

HughMcS, I was hoping to meet you last night. I tried to give you a call at the end of the set, but the phone just rang out. Either it was too noisy and you couldn't hear your phone, or you didn't have it with you, or you've changed your number. Or you didn't want to answer me .

While I saw a lot of people last night, I was hoping to meet a few more. I went to the Spinning Mule beforehand, as suggested on this thread. Met up with Mr P.Immigrant on the way there which was nice as I wasn't sure that I would find anybody I knew when I went in.

However, the regular clientele of the pub are quite different from Fall fans, so it was easy to spot Pomfob and Kiespijn as soon as we entered. Other Fallies who came in then spotted us immediately. Most were people that I had met before though. I had been looking forward to seeing a few more people from here who I haven't met.

Was anybody else there last night who didn't introduce themselves?

I thought it was a great gig although I agree with the comments about the somewhat subdued crowd.

Blindness was as good as I've ever heard it live, absolutely stunning.

Nice to meet the people I met before the gig.


Roll on Cricklewood, due to the excellence of last nights gig I've decided an Edinburgh to London trip is now essential for this one.

I agree entirely
I thought that Pete shone when I saw him at Islington.

What did your son think of it PHILH? The gig that is, not the (sheep)shaggers from Bolton.
Took my 15 year old to his first Fall gig in Blackburn earlier this year, I too wanted it to be a stormer for him but it only came alive with the last track played. Took him to his first Doncaster Rovers game aged 7, good Dads I'd say.

Sorry about that Vvillager.
I got to the Spinning Mule about 8.30 and saw a number of you there. ( I had 3/4 black jacket & "Lie Dream" t shirt.)
I was with Mrs Mc, whose dad is very ill in Southport hospital, and I would normally have said hi. Under the circumstances I chose to keep her occupied as she's been worried sick .
Hopefully I'll be able to introduce myself at a future north west Fall gig and put a face to some of the weird & wonderful personalities on this forum.

I didn't carry my phone last night, but I've saved your number for the future ..

Middle sized fish.

MES couldn't give a fuck about the crowds reaction, or lack of it. If you bottled The Fall off the stage, he'd come back and do 10 encores.

My impression anyway.