Iron Works, Inverness, Thursday, 27th March 2008

Another great performance from The Fall!

Saw the last 3 or 4 songs from Bobbie Peru, pretty lively I thought and worth seeing but there weren’t that many people there. It didn’t really fill up til later. Maybe 300 in attendance for The Fall?

Then it’s Safi. I’ve never seen him do the same set twice. Respect! This time we got Gladys Knight & The Pips, Roy Orbison doing Candy-Coloured Clown They Call The Sandman, and Eurythmics, as well as old favourites like Queen, Elvis and Barbara Streisand’s mutating face. Sweet dreams are made of this, indeed!

He was on for maybe 20 minutes, the crowd was fairly quiet but some people’s patience was maybe wearing a bit thin towards the end. You could hear a bit of isolated heckling.

The Fall came on just as he was finishing and launched into a very short Is This New with the guy that might be the roadie but nobody seems to know. But – gasp! – where’s Eleni? The keyboard’s set up but there’s no sign of her!

You could tell straight away it was going to be a top gig, the sound was clear and strong. A very togther performance - and a long way from some of the gigs last year like Ashton Court and the Jackalope festie which were OK but nothing special.

MES came on stage almost straight away as well. Good thing too I think – makes it seem more like a group instead of ‘Mark E Smith With Backing Band’.

“Good evening we are The Fall, from the valleys of Cheshire cheese”. Or something.

Mark seemed very focused and didn’t mess around with the amps too much. He turned Pete up a couple of times – near the beginning, and at the end with Blindness.

There was a big screen behind the group with the new LP cover on.

The set went something like this:

1. Wings – pretty faithful to the original version, excellent.
2. Pacifying Joint – it wouldn’t bother me if I never heard this song again but the audience seems to like it.
3. Fall Sound – Eleni appears at last, with her luggage. Looking a bit pissed off as well it has to be said.
4. 50 Year Old Man – didn’t recognise it at first, the opening part was different. I thought it was a whole new song for a moment. Then we got the banjo bit (on guitar) and after that it was more recognisable but the end bit was different as well.
5. Wolf Kidult Man – you could tell it was coming when The Eagle starts howling into his microphone. Currently my fave on the album but the live version doesn’t quite match up to it.
6. Latch Key Kid – a lot more powerful than it sounds on the record, really good.
7. Mountain Energei – Ding makes an appearance for two songs. His bass is the same colour as Pete’s guitar – black with a red scratchplate. Pete has a thin guitar strap which is very cool.
8. Reformation – MES adds some stuff from Mother Sky again, and a bit of a Damo impression as well, but all I can hear is Mother’s Guy after what Daggerfall (I think?) said which makes me laugh.
9. Tommy Shooter – the mystery man comes back on to do the vocals and gives it a bit of attitude. Good stuff. But you’d think he would have learned the lyrics by now – he’s still twatting around with that sheet of paper! MES joins in and makes it a bit of a duet.
10. I’ve Been Duped – Pete joins in with the backing vocals which I don’t think he usually does. Sign of growing confidence or is that reading too much into it?
11. Blindness. No encore tonight they just go straight through. Some top quality gurgling from MES in this one, can’t remember what he was saying now but it was good.

Might have missed something there but I think that was broadly it. Probably just over the hour in total.

The lights came on pretty quick, after a bit of half-hearted cheering then everyone left. Decent enough venue though – they let you go outside for a smoke, which a lot of places don’t do.

Must have been quite loud, my ears were ringing when I got back to my folks’ place in Pitlochry (which they weren’t at the Cardiff or Oxford gigs). And there was a bit of shepherd’s pie in the microwave as well. Nice one mum!

There’s a recording of this show so it will probably turn up on the internet. I took a couple of photos which I don’t usually do but I don’t know how to get them off my mobile and onto here.

Strangely there appeared to be no setlists. I was going to blag one for the Hanley P museum, but didn’t see any. I didn’t see anyone else grab one either, and there was definitely none on stage at the end. How did they know what songs to play?!

Roll on the weekend.

Just got back home from Inverness to dear old Edinburgh and it was 300 odd miles through snow and ice very well spent.

As quite dozy set list maybe wrong but here is a stab

Is This New / Wings / Pacifying Joint / Fall Sound / 50 Year Old Man / Wolf Kidult Man / Alton Towers / Mountain Energei / Reformation / Tommy Shooter / I've Been Duped / Blindness

Straight through for an hour or so and it just flew. No encore but poxy bouncers wouldn't have allowed it.

My first listen to the new stuff and, as the consensus has it, 50 Year Old Man is a bit brilliant and I've Been Duped is tons of fun.

The venue was very large with an enormously high ceiling and when Bobbie Peru were on it looked a more fit place to construct ships then put on a show as the place filled up it did seem a lot less echo-ey and was clear as bell made from crystal cup.

The crowd were wonderful and brilliantly varied. Before the band started I saw a white haired woman in her sixties sitting with a boy of at most 12 who I've assumed was her grandson but could easily have been a nephew, ward or kidnapee suffering from Stockholm Syndrome on an evening out to where the law wouldn't think to look but I will stick with the first option thinking it more likely.

The band are wonderfully twangy at the moment and when Ding comes on to double up on the bass even more so. I have a lot of faith in the new guitarist with tremello styling as up close and watching him I saw he had the look of a recently awoken badger, beligerent and aggressive but scanning for the right moment to explode. I want to hear much more of that thing he does where he waits and waits before plectrum picks out the high notes and then then he grabs the bar and as if he had became very old it judders very fast over a very small range so the decay on notes makes them sound like cherry blossom or the unscottishly gentle snowflakes we had on Monday looked. It is very late so that may not make sense.

I should give thanks the the really nice fellow who handed me the mic at the end of Blindness so I got to shout 'blind man' before the threshing machine faced leatherbum of a bouncer took it off us and had hard word with threat of violence veiled in the thinnest of gossamers for the young hero. They were, i think, expecting riots as when a girl in a vivid shamrock green dog grooming T-shirt tried to touch the seam of Mark's trouser leg she was bundled off to the side and given the mood they appeared to be in Baghram airforce base. It was such a good show that night though nothing could detract.

Saturday and Sunday in Glasgow cannot happen soon enough.

Use Steve's - He has the set list right and is generally much more betterer

no, no - quite fantastic observations

Could our very own Cheshire Cheese be a band member?

Fantastic gig. MES clear as a bell and a nice bit of chaos at the end.

BUT WHY OH WHY DON'T THEY PLAY STSR??????????

Fantastic intro song, and best track on the new album by a country mile.




(so I'm told).


Any chance you could add this to the set at Bexhill Mark?

Could our very own Cheshire Cheese be a band member?

It's the Cheshire valleys, Cheshire for the most part is flat as a pan cake, unless like me your from the little bit in the peak distict at Macclesfield

Bollocks to that poor MP3 download of the new album, get the real shit here.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=191175

Dear all at The Consortium

Damn it, this is bloody fantastisch!

Dankeschön!

Listening to this now…its absolutely bleeding fantastic….

Thanks Consortium.

Ooooh yes, this is nice... Great recording! Thanks a lot

This gig for me was the best that I saw on the tour. I've rarely if ever heard a better live version of Blindness

Great to hear an 'epic' Mountain Energei again!

And Blindness... fuck me...

Zip file for those without Dime access. Too good not to spread...

Encoded to decent quality, 256 kbps.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/lbcyuh

Mycket varderat, Kapitan.
It doesnt sound like Hex,

[FWeWeONT=Impact][SIZE=7][COLOR=blue]
Well worth the trip up to Inversnecky, makes a change from the Liquid Rooms.
Band on top form Mountain Energei a particular highlight with Ding doubling up
on bass. Despite the relatively small turn-out I'd definately make the trip back
to Snecky, a few great boozers in the vacinity to boot.