Morecambe, The Dome, Wednesday, 26th March 2008

just got back....up for work in less than 5 hours so will leave the reviews to others, just to say i enjoyed the show

Another fairly solid show, set list something like...

Is It New
Wings
Pacifying Joint
Fall Sound
Alton Towers
Wilf Kiddult Man
50-year old man
Reformation
Tommy Shooter
White Lightning
Blindness

Exploding Chimney may have been in there too

No encore 65-70 minutes straight through

Mark's Mum and Caroline in audience. Swampy (of Birmingham and Cricklewood fame) was on the soundboard.
Mark doing a duet with Niki(?) on Tommy Shooter.
Blindness long and outstanding - much keyboard improvising by MES

Audience about 300, probably half full.

love the glow of the photos, gold & magenta!

Support band: they said they were form Machester, but to me they looked (and indeed sounded) like a Midlands 'C' list sporting celebrity collective - guitar, Paul Jewell; bass, Nigel Clough; drums, Ashley Giles; vocals, a reserve on loan from Stoke; turntables, a young Swedish left back recruited by mistake. All I can say is that as soon as I saw how the lead singer dressed and held his mic, I knew exactly how they were going to sound.

Safi: I must admit that when I saw him set up to play, I instinctively exclaimed "oh no!" ... however, I think he did a great set. It had a lot of subtlety in places and was interesting musically, I thought. Projecting the images onto pleated curtains also helped to add an extra element of 'warp' to the visuals. I also took some kind of perverse pleasure from the fact that he was evidently pissing some people off. Give the people what they want? Nah, keep doing your thing, Safi ... !

"Good evening, we are The Fall ... I have just emerged from the lake ... ". A terrific performance this. I've seen The Fall over 40 times since 89 and for me tonight 'Wings', 'Fall Sound', 'Reformation' and 'Blindness' were as good as anything I've seen them do. They are clearly really coming together as a band, and there was a real sense of shared intent and understanding of whatever unspoken/unsayable 'something' that underpins the songs. 'Blindness' was particularly marvellous in this respect, and there was one moment towards the end where it seemed to sound like everyone was playing everybody else's instruments - that's the only way I can explain it.

Seemingly a fair amount of camaraderie on stage - MES sharing a laugh with Pete at one point, and beckoning the roadie to the front of the stage to duet on a storming 'Tommy Shooter'; Eleni also seemed to be finding a lot to smile/laugh about.

I read somewhere on here recently that Dave is perceived to "make sex faces" whilst playing bass. Bloody hell - is that what I look like when I'm having sex?!! I'm afraid to ask.

Drums sounded great - Kieron playing with a fine balance of restraint and aggression, and giving the group a lot of subtle peaks and troughs to build on.

As for Pete, well I thought that was possibly the best performance I've seen from a Fall guitarist. A lot of intriguing and different touches, but everything served the song. Also not afraid to let the feedback squeal persist as contrast over the murk of 'Reformation' - sounded fantastic I thought.

Everything very loud. When I came out, I put my finger in my ear and found the sound of the keyboard still there.

I think it was:
Is This New / Wings / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / 50 Yr Old Man ("this is a long story, which you will all enjoy") / Wolf Kidult / Duped (I particularly liked "Have you got Freeview?") / Alton Towers / Reformation / W Lightning / Tommy Shooter / Blindness

300's a good turnout for Morecambe. Good to see Alton Towers back in the set.

That's a great sentence.

The only thing noteworthy about the venue other than it's dominess is the strange smell it seemed to permutate.

Support bands, as always, terrible. Some blokes who have too many Verve albums and a bunch of prats that sounded like Kasabian covering Linkin Park. Yes, that bad.

Me and my girlfriend very relieved to note no sign of a screen on stage, when who walks onto stage but good old Safi, bless him. Turns out he hid his video behind some curtains, which oddly remained closed. My girlfriend pointed out that it would be much more interesting if he used porn footage instead!

And onto the Fall, who have just emerged from the lake of piranhas (ooh topical!). Thought they were bloody good last night for the duration of the set, better than Newcastle, which though enjoyable was patchy and dipped towards the end. The group definitely seem to have got into the stride, with the guitarist certainly seeming to have gotten over his early tour nerves (I think I even saw him tapping his foot at one point).

New songs starting to sound better than the old ones, rather relieved that Sparta had been dropped tonight. Getting really into Alton Towers and I've been Duped. Can't decide if I like Is this New yet though.

MES up to the usual tricks, but generally on fine form, appearing semi-sober and remmbering his words (though I'm fairly sure it's meant to be Cheese Steaks and not Fall Steaks!)

Got to dance next to Mark's ma, which was highly amusing. Plenty of smiles coming from the stage too.

Only minor criticism would be that they either need two bassists or the Eagle needs to use a plectrum on some of the songs to leet the bass cut through a bit (most of blindness was really lacking the drive it needs).

That's a great sentence.

Reminds me of something I read in Q magazine around 1986. They were talking about the CD of Led Zep's Houses of the Holy album having a sound like a ringing phone on one song.
A bloke wrote in a letter saying 'You should hear it on my new hi-fi system. The sound quality's so good, when I pick up the ringing phone, it's Jimmy Page on the other end.'

Thanks to Steve for taking us to this very enjoyable gig, Reformation and Blindness

Blimey, you've done well ...

Swampy

Did he sing?

I thought The Fall were excellent. That and the Dome last time was the best I have seen them. The sound is miles better than some of the dives they have played. You also have a lovely clear view of the stage from anywhere in the venue. Bloody loud though, especially Reformation.

That Manc hip hop act Feral House (?) were pretty bloody annoying. Partly because their music was dire (poor man's Dust Junkys) but mainly due to their rudeness about the city of Hull while I am sat there in my Hull FC fleece. Oh well don't suppose we'll hear much of them again in the near future.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=190502

Bollocks to your ratios.

A cracker Mr Stanley Gibbons. A cracker.

You know what I'm going to say ... but can anyone help someone who doesn't have a Dime account? (Albeit I will try my best to get one and have a note from my Mum).

I reaaly enjoyed this gig,and i filmed some of it too,i have put one song on youtube,and i have some more clips,shall i put it on here,or on youtube?

Been following The Fall since early 80's, seen them loads. Last time was at Century Hall, Manchester with the 'american line-up' and they were great!
However this gig has got to be one of the worst I've been too....(and not just Fall ones)
crap sound, couldn't make a word out of the vocals, new line-up although can keep a rock solid beat - were just dull, the 'meddling/mixing' isn't entertaining anymore either. When you look at their great back catalogue and then get presented with this.. well....

You're all being duped!

What most people seem to do is post it on youtube, then, in an appropriate thread, (like this one) post a link.
(the ht--p, button at the top of a posting page)

here is a link for my clip,the song is 'blindness'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDokENomId8
I have another clip but unfortunately its longer than 10 minutes,and youtube doesnt accept clips that long and i don;t know how to trim a clip down.