The Point, Cardiff, Sunday, 9th March 2008 + download

They played just under an hour.
Mark seemed in fine fettle and was on stage and into it for most of the main set.
Ding joined in on bass from Reformation onward.
Mark didn't seem to want him to leave the stage.
And it rocked.

Inevitable mic in the bass drum and cymbal dismantling.
Some minor fiddling with the bass and keyboard amps.
Guitarist was left untreated.
Keyboard solo from Mark on 'What About Us'.
How does he find the time to practice???

Spoken Intro
Exploding Chimney (On edit this would appear to be 'Is This New')
Wings
Wolf Kidult Man
Fall Sound
50 Year Old Man
Over Over
Reformation
Mountain
I've Been Duped
What About Us
Encore: Tommy Shooter without Mark on vocals.

Great gig. Ding was an ace addition to the group....even though he didnt know all the songs...

Shame they didnt play Blindness as it was on the setlist from what I could see.

interestin support tonite

gindrinker

look em up

That's a great sight! Can't wait to hear the recordings....

Attached Image

Short(ish) and heavy on "rock action", this was a great gig. Heads down from the go and the pace never really let up until Mountain Energi. MES front of stage for 90% of the gig, seemed really engaged with it tonight hurling the words out into the audience. I'm fairly sure that during Reformation he sang "This reminds me... of when I saw Kurious Orange... in Derby."

And speaking of Reformation.... the addition of Ding's bass at this point just lifted the whole gig up to another level. I looked round at the audience during the number and there were big grins of pure joy on every face. Ding made to leave the stage at least twice during the rest of the set but it was quite clear that MES wanted him on till the end, great stuff. Other highlights; A very beefy Fall Sound, Wolve Kidult Man which just sounds better & better each time it gets an airing... I'm also really starting to dig I've Been Duped - it's this years' Wright Stuff insofar as it started out weak but improves every time I hear it.

Three cheers for The Point as well -an attractive venue with good sound, decent views offered all the way round and cheerful staff who didn't treat you like a Nazi war criminal if you wanted to go out for a fag... reccomended.

Roll on the Astoria!

Venue:
One of those deconsecrated Victorian churches now turned into gig venue/private function/get married/WI flower show affair. The stage probably at the altar end. Audience get four bays with aisles, and at the other end opposite the stage where the tower is a first floor viewing balcony. Plain Early English 3 pointed arches with wooden barrel vaulting, bizarre what looked like cast iron columns more classical in their ornament. Ideal venue for Siouxsie & the Joy Division.

Tone:
Very nice thank you for asking. Everyone in good humour. We were outside in the smoking area (ie. the gutter, thank you Tony Blair) when the Fall turned up around 9.40pm, fulfilled a childhood ambition to say "y'right Mark" to the great man and got a reply, as did the missus who he then asked how she was. Eleni also smiled and said hello. Ding said later Mark was in fine spirits throughout the gig.

Support:
Gin Drinker: youthful two piece probably college educated and exposed to Fall Product. Mit drum machine. Talky-singing and Smith keyboard style trumpet playing. Guitarist's strap length and fringe worryingly long showing signs of stooped stance behind a coiffured veil of indie detachment. A couple of Welsh references, so possibly of the Principality.

Bobby Peru: three piece, Ding on bass mit mohawk, drummer with beard and unruly hair, singer Elvis stunt double in Devo style boiler suit. Quirky guitar underscored by desirable overdriven bass. Tight, approachable music. Did a Devo cover (Whip it).

Fall: Fabulously irritating intro music inc. clicks, high pitched tones and crescendos of noise. Fall take to the stage shortly after 10pm, so the clock is ticking as curfew is at 11pm. Mark performs Wings without notes (second song). Ding comes on to perform two songs only (Reformation and Mountain Energei) but is cajoled to remain on for most the gig. Stripped bare version of What About Us as guitarist is turned down and so all that could be heard on our side was Elenei’s near mono note quarter note pulses with bass guitar with a lot of extra bass suitably knob twiddled onto it. Fall Sound came across less frenetic, but difficult to tell as Mark’s live sound mixing leaves the overall mix difficult to hear. Mark performs his usual effortless back turned to the keyboard solo creating a freeform keyboard progression that breaks the boundaries of tonality and key, or he may just be making it up as he goes along. I notice Mark doing a throat cut signal to the drummer to indicate the end of each song. Guitarist has a worried look about him, possibly not concerned but has the appearance of not looking comfortable.
Alan Wise sings the last song after Mark has exited stage right, not in a huff but apparently laughing and generally enjoying himself. A planned return to the stage to perform Blindness is denied as the curfew is upon us.

Thanks all, this sounds excellent!

I'm pretty sure the guy claiming to be Alan Wise wasn't - unless he's got 20 years younger and been hitting the gym an awful lot recently....

Sounded a little bit Safi didn't it? The 'dental drill' portion was particularly unpleasant to endure!

Interesting how it's the curfew to blame for the short set, and nothing to do with when they go on stage

RE: Alan Wise.
I thought he looked a bit young, but that's how he announced himself at the top of the gig introducing The Fall.

RE: Curfew
It's a calculated risk watching The Fall on a Sunday as we are aware that Mark works on Fall-Time that fails to take into account earlier curfews. Still we got about 55mins, and Wings, but of course no encores as we'd hit 11pm. Of course it is conceivable that they could of come on at 9.30pm as the support were done and dusted a little after 9pm. but a good taste was left in mouths all around as the vibes were harmonious and my mssus rated it as the best Fall gig she'd been to.

And to be fair it beats on-time walk-off gigs that last around the 30min mark.

PS. Mark's fringe was most luxuriant.
Mark dropped a mike during What About Us and some chap in the crowd picked it up and MES signalled for him to sing (as did Eleni) but he just looked a bit embarassed and failed to pick up the gauntlet.
The missus said down at stage front she could feel the floor shaking.

Thanks for the reports. Sounds like a good one indeed

excellent gig, i'd e-mailed alan wise beforehand to see if i could shoot some promo photos for the band and he said it should be fine and to bring me gear but on arrival was told mark wouldnt be there till it was time for them to go on so that didnt happen (probably for the best actually)

gindrinker were pretty terrible, clearly VERY influenced by all things albini and the fall...

bobbie peru kicked ass, easily the best support i've seen in amny many moons!

the fall were great, as expected! mes did a fair old bit of twiddling, i was chuffed with wings cause the setlists so far had showed they were doing it every other night and going by that weren't due to play it in cardiff. the new guitarist is seemingly devoid of personality and isnt going to last long, the bassist makes sex faces all the way through, and whenever mes played with his amp he nodded his head even harder and looked like he was coming in his pants, weird. thought the drummer was pretty good, elena was great and looked like she was loving it...

i shot a shit load of photos, see them here:
gindrinker
bobbie peru
the fall

i recorded the gig (bobbie peru and the fall) and the soundcheck which i'll be uploading to my blog later today (is it rude to upload the soundcheck? whats the bands policy on bootlegs?)

went back and met mes after the gig, i asked him to write "i'm better than them and i think i'm the best" on my lyric book but i dont think he even knew it was one of his lyrics and was having none of it so just put "from alans friends, mark e smith"

all in all this was much better than the first time i saw them in newcastle a few years ago, go the fall!

roon

Class shots deadjoe, great work, love the black and white!
RE the band's policy on bootlegs, dunno if they have one but there are others on here who could certainly advise you better than I.
And most welcome to the forum!

deadjoe

I liked 'em! They reminded me of the olden days when the likes of Bogshed were about. Mind you, the gig did take place on a rift in the space-time continuum (Torchwood HQ being just up the road)

Welcome - and brilliant photos! You obviously know your way around a camera...

ok to upload

if there's any problems, just say it's max's fault

Dead Joe

Some great pictures there.

Really great pictures there Dead Joe.

What camera are you using?

Thought that Is this New was not as enegetic an opener compared to exploding chimney though it was nice to have a bit of variety.

Please update us on this upload.

Exo. In America Trapped.

If I recall, the policy if you have something by The Fall that nobody else has, is to horde it to yourself and then repeatedly drop hints about how you have something that nobody else has but that you won't share it with anybody until you are (rightly) hounded off the forum.

You're welcome.

(PS - real answer : Stick it on dime!)

If I recall, the policy if you have something by The Fall that nobody else has, is to horde it to yourself and then repeatedly drop hints about how you have something that nobody else has but that you won't share it with anybody until you are (rightly) hounded off the forum.

You're welcome.

(PS - real answer : Stick it on dime!)

This gig was recorded by 4 sources that I know of.

Superb venue and great sound. Should be some excellent results doing the rounds.

The most authentic sounding Wings since it was played in the 80's. Just like the single. Greenaway has done his homework.

Reformation excellent with 2 bassists, and 50 Year Old Man has been turned on it's head.

Excellent gig which probably needed Blindness to make it a true cracker.

Elderford

Yeah I didn't know who he was either he may be Smith's apprentice. FYI The Point has been forced into 11pm chuckings-out after noise complaints from local residents it has 0 to do with it being a Sunday. It's better all round for us who are reliant on public transport.

I got a recording which is fine and reveals quite a bit of detail that I didn't catch at the time. Unfortunately there's some glitches at the start of Wings so I've held off from uploading it anywhere.

Here's an MP3 of reformation though! Reformation Cardiff 2008 MP3

I got a recording which is fine and reveals quite a bit of detail that I didn't catch at the time. Unfortunately there's some glitches at the start of Wings so I've held off from uploading it anywhere.

Here's an MP3 of reformation though! Reformation Cardiff 2008 MP3

Hi Ocelot. How did we miss each other???

How did you miss my hat I've added a bra strap to it.

This was the best gig I've seen from the UK boys.