Union Society, Newcastle University, Wednesday, 5th March 2008

As promised the first review of tonight's effort.

In a truncated sentance "utterly superb".

rabbit well and truely extracted from hat, I'll leave the analysis for those more well suited. Even my attendant lass who hates The Fall was impressed, and I even managed to get tickets from a record shop for 16.50 - half reasonable, and ordered a Membranes CD for a tenner!

Really enjoyable and entertaining evening, faith restoring - I Ludicrous were crap mind forcing me to voice my disapproval, sorry.

Thank Christ. I was beginning to worry. (Not). What are the pre Astoria arrangements?

personally i thought it was just bland and a bit dull. It was an improvement on Sage Gateshead, but dont think it was £17 material to be honest. Also was the set short or did time just fly by too quick.

PS. geordie, were you the guy shouting at I Ludicrous?

Much better than the Sage. Proper gig, though it did seem a little short. Can't remember setlist, but What About Us, Wolf Kidult Man and Pacifying Joint certainly there. Sparta and Blindness near the end. Good moshpit...

Yes I was, and It takes a lot to move me to such utterances to anyone with the guts to take stage, but once moved they got off lightly, utter, putrid, garbage that shouldn't be earning money for what they do.

WaS like Karaoke at The Vic in Whitley Bay, and if I did it as bad as them I would get bottlted off stage by my own mother.

Excellent turnoutand MES on the ball especially for the new ones. Not impressed with the guitarist unfortunately. Pretty good gig though.
unknown person reading lyrics/crap Instrumental / Fall Sound/What About Us/ Wolf Man/ 50 Year Old Man/ Alton Towers/ Tommy Shooter/ Pacifying Joint// Latch Key Kid/ Sparta// Blindness/ White Lightning
Wasn't impressed with I Ludicrous apart from the hilarious Ruby Wax song. Better than Safi though,let's hope he's gone forever.

I was kind of hoping they'd debut a new song called "I'm a 51 Year Old Man"

it was middling to be honest.

i enjoyed the sage more despite the walk off.

it gets a bit dull watching the fall in a permanent state of bedding down a new band.

the cluny show in 2001 was similar in that respect.

some new material shows promise, some sounded a bit weak. they definitely picked up following the first walk off, but by then you now the clock is ticking...

got myself one of those nippy little fall lighters. it'll take your eyebrows off.

They certainly improved after the walk off - must be something in those half time oranges. I like this Fall though.
I Ludicras saved themselves with a slight-smile-inducing Roxy Music cover, otherwise: awful.
Quite a solid performance I thought overall; Blindness was brutal although at times things seemed to be going too well - a bit comfortable? That said, very enjoyable and a great venue (better than the Opera House, say...).
Did MES set fire to his bass player? I thought I saw a puff of smoke just before White Lightning.

The gig started off a bit flat - humdrum at best - but something happened half way through What About Us to make that song (never a fave of mine) and the rest of the gig get quite good.

Seen 'em better, seen 'em worse. Agree with comments about the guitarist looking terrified but I thought he had good style, if not strident enough. Rythmn section seems solid enough though I do like a louder bass sound - happily MES made that possible several times. Eleni has come on in leaps and bounds on keyboards, and now reminds me of Yvonne Pawlett.

I'm not familiar with the unreleased material but it sounded good to me. Alton Towers is a strange one isn't it? Club Tropicana or something. Never heard the Fall do something like that before and has the potential to be either quirky genius or a hideous embarrasment.

Pacifying Joint benefits from being less chunky and new take on White Lightning was a pleasant surprise - had a kind of dirty feel to it. Blindness was magnificent and seemed to contain some good Smith rants and ad-libs.

A good turn out, with a good few people a lot younger than me. The venue is better than I remember it though it's still not the best in Newcastle.

I gather from folk who were at both Bilston and Newcastle that the Newcastle gig was lot better.

I've been a bit jaded with the Fall - I just didn't like FHR and felt Reformation wasn't much better - but I left the gig in high spirits and look forward to the new LP.

Good to see some old aquaintances there, and also make some new ones.

I am happy to report the Fall are not dead.

Apart from Latch Key Kid, I was impressed with the new stuff too, particularly Tommy Shooter. Blindness did indeed contain many ad libs; 'I'm not a member of The Stone Roses, I'm only behaving like this because it's my birthday' being the only one I can remember at the moment.
The drummer's improved since the Manchester Ritz gig. I could do without What About Us and Pacifying Joint, shame they didn't play Wings.

my first fall gig, and an enjoyable set, at one point mark sprayed perfume on the bassist, weird audience I thought, alot of the kids seemed to fall under the catergory of "i am so cool i will just pose here and look unimpressed" alot of pathetic trendy clothes/russell brand lookalikes aswell, most seemed to enjoy themselves though. being my first fall gig I was surprised at how INCREDIBLY old mark looks (not that that makes a difference to the quality of the performance) "what about us" was excellent, I really dont care much for it but they did a great job, "alton towers" was also a favourite, I love that bassline (even though it sounds like its from a hanna barbera cartoon.) I was right next to the setlist, and I noticed Mark having to check it for virtually every song so that he knew what was coming next, does he always do this? i dunno, he didnt know the words to any of the new songs, constantly checking lyrics sheets, but still, some nice ad libs, something about newcastles pavements towards the end of blindness?

Cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
And good to hear there are some young kids going to see the Fall.
Even if they're too cool for words.

I used to be to cool for words... thats given way to being to drunk for words nowadays!

Hmm i dont know i just didn't connect with except during "blindness". Was heally hoping on "Wings", but shame it didnt happen.

I do admit though some interesting moments, which i got to see standing on the side area(i was the asian kid in black fake JAMC t shirt), above where the guy in the wheelchair sitting.

The ad libbing was interesting, didnt pick up on the "Stone roses" comment, but did pick up on the leg operation talk bit. I also did kind of find MES fiddling more interesting this time round then at Sage, he tossed the microphone into the bass/kick? drum area, which added a bit of pounding thud to the sound, and also when he messed with the bassist's amp, sometimes he made the song sound more interesting.

Also i smiled a bit when he did the perfume thing, because i was did i just imagine that?

But when he walked off first time round, i must say Sage Gateshead memories were coming back to me sort of

But i have to say i was dissappointed overall, but thats my personal opinion.

PS. anyone got any more quotes from the ad lib bit? i didnt catch most of it the sound was all mumbled/ruffled.

or 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' with fewer notes, Manic Miner fans.

I thought this was pretty good, rhythm section much better than I expected. MES on good form & certainly not pissed. Hope to catch them again later in the month. Sage debacle nearly forgiven

NOT pissed?! My word, I hope he keeps this novel concept alive until Friday at least.

Consortium (South Wales, free hospital parking) version of this gig on Dime.

With free pork scratchings.

Hello Exiled Manc, hope to see you at one of the shows, thanks for the dvd you sent us exellent, are you going tonight?

Not bad... yes - a pretty short set but kinda what we've come to expect. A little disappointed, tho not entirely surprised, that (White Lightning aside) the oldest song was Sparta ... Then again I thought it was all over after about half an hour in following the first walk off ... but merely a change of shirt for MES. The guitarist did indeed look a little disconcerted esp. when MES was hovering behind him/ messing with his volume levels. Be interesting to hear the new songs when the new LP comes out - last nights evidence suggest it should be an improvement on Reformation Post TLC (which on the whole, I wasn't overly impressed with).

I was surprised at Merakets comments on the audience. I thought it was a very mixed crowd but didn't think there was THAT many young uns at all. Put it this way - I'm 37 and it was the first gig Ive been to in a LONG LONG time where I felt I was one of the youngest there! No doubt I was one the cool kids in the "pathetic trendy clothes" that Meraket referrs to... ;o)

As for I, Ludicrous... yes, they were truly, cringeworthingly abysmal! The only song I knew by them was 'Preposterous Tales' from a long lost Festive 50 (which they didn't even play).

I thought last night was good. Yes, we've all been at Fall Gigs that were better, but that doesn't stop last night being a good performance.
I was fearing the worst a little, after the Sage and the comments from Bilston, but once yesterday's set started, I stopped worrying.
Good start, wobbled a little in the middle, but good finish and encores.
MES looked interested and seemed to be enjoying himself, responded pretty well to the crowd - 'thank you' at the end! Good turn out, I thought.
I liked the bass player too.
Looking forward to next time!