London Astoria, Wednesday, 12th March 2008

Just got in - ears ringing, soaked in the pissing rain coming back on my bike, polishing off the 7 hour old pizza left on the hob, but elated. What a show in such a great venue!. The Fall are alive and really kicking. MES in commanding form.
More soon. Off to listen to 'Slates' CD that I picked up for £8 from the lovely Action Merchandise lady.

Bobbie Peru on at 8.30. No show by I,Ludicrous. Fall started at 10ish, off at 11.15ish. MES word perfect without cribsheets.

<new one>
Wings
Wolve Kidult Man
Pacifying Joint
Strange Town
<new one>
Fall Sound
Systematic Abuse
I've Been Duped
Reformation
Mountain Energei
Tommy Shooter
Latch Key Kid*
Blindness
------
Exploding Chimney*


* = vocals performed by mystery Danny Dyer lookalike, not MES.

Blindness only 6 minutes long.

Yeah it was alright. I took a lady who hadn't seen them before. I told her she would see Stewart Lee and sure enough he was the first person she saw.

Anyway, some good new ones. My only complaint was that the drums were far too loud which meant that the vocals were often drowned out. Apart from that it was a good evening.

Wow we all thought Elena looked hot tonight and she even smiled for a bit even though we couldn't hear her sing! Especially liked that someone threw a blister pack strip of tablets towards Mark that he picked up and discarded.

Mark the Pharmacist

I'm writing this just after getting back to Brighton - haven't read previous reviews of this tour, so...
What it looked like when the 2nd bassist walked on and started playing was that it was all MES trying to start a feud ("I'm his bass bitch now..." etc)
Looked hilarious.
Like they were giving each other evils, rather than "jamming".
And the whole gig just lifted skyward from therein.
Also liked - for similarly probably wrongfooted comedy reasons - the group starting and ending the gig sans Mark.
Start: "Ooh, he's not quite able to stand up quite yet, let's just make summit up..."
"Encore": "Oh, bugger, he's fallen asleep..."
I know some hate The Astoria, but it's a knock out sound system and lighting, such a change after last seeing them at Cricklewood IWMC.
Even went upstairs rather than fighting downstairs to appreciate it more, at one point.
Knock out night.
HAPPY!

it was great in parts indifferent in others
the first time i have come away from a fall gig and not have a strong opinion either way

good to meet generalist

set list and photos to follow

OK, not great. Sound a bit of a mess, it was all a bit of a sludgy racket and not in a particularly good way. Fall Sound and Wings maybe the standouts.

No, for me this was the Fall right back on form. Hated the Galtymore but loved this. The sound was murky but gutsy, and the band completely on fire.

In the cold light of day I'm slightly regretting shouting "there was Eddie The Eagle" in an MES-voice after Dave the Eagle up the stairs of the St Giles Hotel, especially as our first sight of him had prompted me to shout "Fall Hotel!!" at the top of my voice.

Apologies to the citizens of Gt Russell Street.

Big up to all Forum crew I saw. Ducky, Acton, Chris Southon, Cupid's Bullet, Michael Bed Expanded, Max, Billy Bigbananas, Chris From Copenhagen, and (incredibly) Odradek flown in from Massachusetts just for the gig! I know I've missed someone out, but I was drunk with the big crashing beat.. Great night!

Stunning! Must say I like that 'impresario' thing. Something of a nineteenth-century circus about it. Or freak show (he said the show would be terrifying). The sound wasn't too good IMHO. All a bit blurred. Think they played a track off the new album after the show. Eleni was wearing a black dress with a pigeon-neck thing. And high heels, if memory serves me right. Dashing. Think they've done up the Astoria a bit since last time I was there. Still a bit dodgy. That was Ding, eh, the giant. Another two-bass line up, combined they mustered about 80 on the Hanley Scale, get a third one is what I says. Amp fiddling at an all time high. Three microphone stands for the lead singer alone.

I'm the unseen.

Fantastic gig last night!

thought the mosh pit was great, especially during Reformation.....a few sound problems at times but over all i came away feeling fully satisfied

oh and sorry to the girl who i abandoned to go into the mosh pit, had to be done

i have got some great pictures of the band and some video clips which i'll you tube soon as

live on the fall

My ears were ringing all the way back to Brighton and still are this morning. The sound was crap for those of us standing on the right hand side. Lots of feedback, drums mixed too high and was Eleni's mic on or not? Couldn't hear a thing from her though she was obviously belting it out. Another bassist With a mohican Top stuff Mr MES sir Wings was cracking. Not the best Fall gig but certainly not the worst either.

You lucky lucky bastards.

Once the bass feedback, which threatened to blow the sound system, was sorted there were a good number of highlights including Wolf Kidult, Fall Sound, Systematic Abuse, Reformation and the new to me, Latch Key Kid.
Don't remember Strange Town being played though.
Thought the sound was awful in parts.
I'm looking forward to IWS and Bexhill. The Astoria was yesterday.

I thought they played Strange Town simply because I thought I heard him say those words in that song. I also thought it was 2 songs in succession, whereas it appears it was all 50 Year Old Man.

While I'm delighted that so many of you had a great night, I must confess I didn't enjoy this one much. I agree that the sound didn't help with the drums and bass guitar being disproportionately loud. I know some people positively relish this sort of thing, but to me, it was the sonic equivalent of being immersed in lard.

I was a bit disappointed with the set list too. I'd much rather hear Alton Towers or Can Can Summer than Pacifying Bloody Joint and Reformation. Having said that I thought Wings and Mountain Energie were great with Latch Key Kid the pick of the new songs.

Finally, I really don't want to see the Fall performing songs without Mark E Smith. I don't know who the fella was at the beginning and the end but it seemed a wholly pointless exercise. I'm not sure what happened with the encore but it looked as if the band had had enough of it as well.

Onwards and upwards though; I'll be at Oxford on Monday hoping to be proved wrong again. On a far more positive note, it was great to have a beer with Cobweb Eyes, Acton, Ducky, Man Whose Bed, Max, Cupid's Bullet etc..

Great gig, loved it, restored my faith after Cricklewood. Good to see everybody at the Ship, sorry I had to rush off early.

100% agree with this, it spoilt an otherwise great gig, was it Ed Blaney ?

You could be right, but I was at the back and I thought it was a Karl Pilkington lookalike doing the guest vocals.

As is ever the case these days, a gig to divide opinion. Good, I say.

As far as the performance itself was concerned, musically they couldn't be faulted. They played as tight as anyone could have wished. Admittedly Ding occasionally lost his place, but in the circumstances, as a returning guest, there's no shame in that. And otherwise his addition should be encouraged.

Personality-wise, as expected (and yawn for saying it, but . . . ) there was the usual fair amount of "live mixing" from MES. My only qualm would be the lack of onstage charisma from the others in the gruppe. I'm afraid that onstage they just appear to stand and/or sit there. At least with previous few line-ups there has at least been the appearance of a little more interaction with the audience. Still, that is probably me just looking for a gripe.

As for the set-list, it covered all bases, ie the last three albums, plus the new one and Wings, but disappointingly revealed little else that was new. However, again with the quality of the playing on show, any criticism in that respect is almost entirely pointless.

The audience was fairly good, once they got going, ie fairly lifeless for Is This New and Wings (except for the sterling efforts of one fine fellow ), but bizarrely things picked up from Wolve Kidult Man onwards. I found the lack of reaction for Wings, and the comparative over-reaction for WKM a little strange. Where are the look back bores when you need them? Mind you, the recent Morrissey gigs have been similarly strange in that respect, ie only polite applause for the set opener How Soon Is Now?, and delerium for the following First Of The Gang To Die.

Otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable night. Perhaps a little something for the nay sayers, but a lot more, in my opinion, for the optimists.

Finally, it would be indecent not to say hello to all the fine individuals I met and drank with last night. Some for the umpteenth time, and some for the first time. In no particular order, and apologies for any omissions, cheers to: Acton High Street, Dr Sprtsch, Toby Dynamik, Chris Southon, R. Totale, the very famous sports reporter, Cupid's Bullet and all the other "usual" suspects.

Nice to chat to a number of folk from this board in the Pillar of Hercules - I hope you all had a good night.

I managed to get in just as the Fall were about to come on - trust me to get the timing right the first time in ages S*** S***** is not around.

I was not massively impressed with the sound - not as good as previous gigs I had seen at the Astoria. What happened to Elana's vocals during I've Been Duped?

It was a good performance from all concerned but I did come away thinking it was not anything special in the sense of what I felt overall about the gig itself.

It was Mark F. Smith, he's got a whole raft of them lined up to come on as sub for particularly demanding songs!

It was Mark F. Smith, he's got a whole raft of them lined up to come on as sub for particularly demanding songs!

Is there any possibility that it was his (maybe transexual) granny with or without her bongos?

There's a decent quality clip of Wolve Kidult Man on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTu1HYGexEE

Systematic Abuse.

Thank you.

Fantastic song.