Wickerman Festival, East Kirkcarswell, Friday, 25th July 2008

Did andyone go? If so what happened?

I went. Luckily my better half wanted to go to a quietish festival and it coincided happily with The Fall being there. Not much on the bill excited me much bar The Fall and I probably wouldn't have paid 75 quid for a fairly competent if not inspiring performance. Everyone present and correct. Mark very clear and in a light hearted general mood, the crowd of 95% seemingly non-Fall fans receptive. Von Sudenfeds "Fledermaus cant get it" blasted out before the Welsh compere introduced the band, then read out lyrics given to him by MES. Something about "Instead of Meat and Tobacco, you are eating turnips in houses you can't afford" which was good.

Right songs but probably not in the right order:

Is This New?, Wings, My Door Is Never, 50 Year Old Man (all of it), I've Been Duped, Mountain Energei (fairly long version), Latch Key Kid, Can Can Summer, White Lightning, Mr. Pharmacist and about four notes of Pacifying Joint. Mark said "We're on a curfew!", Elena stopped and they all exited the stage.

Apart from Wings and Mountain Energei they left out most of my favourites from the recent tours and the atmosphere was pleasant with the band sounding tight but perhaps slightly bored of a familiar set list. Later on Alabama 3 closed their set by saying "Mark E Smith is the only blues singer this country's got"

The sunny location and Mark's jovial inter song banter ("You're not supposed to enjoy it!" after a big cheer) made it a much less darkly intense gig than I saw at the Renfrew Ferry earlier this year. Although the sound and band were good, the song choices and the idea of The Fall in the sun in a field made it feel a little below par for me.

someone else's photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangerinedream

MES has moved beyond "thinning" to "balding", no question now.

Bright warm sunshine and laid back festival atmosphere hardly your usual Fall gig scenario. As I stood watching Max Romeo playing chilled out reggae to an appreciative audience I just couldn’t imagine the Fall coming straight on after this.

There was a long break and stage changeover before the band came on. During which the sunshine disappeared, it all clouded over. The compere read out some Fall lyrics not sure where from and introduced the band as led by the ‘most opinionated man in rock’

By the time MES hit the stage the atmosphere had completely changed. There was only a few hundred people around the stage area watching the band, while thousands walked around the outskirts. Haven’t seen the Fall outside for years and it was quite an unreal experience.

Despite MES’s usual knob twiddling and microphone antics the sound seemed clearer in the outdoors and you could hear every instrument. The set was as Thermosonic says. The crowd watching were not your usual Fall audience and seemed bemused at first, but by the end most got into it, and a small ‘mosh pit’ formed at the front especially during ‘White Lightning’ and ‘Mr Pharmacist’ The set was short but the band played as long as they were allowed according to the running order (45 mins)

The rain started to fall when they finished and as I walked away from the stage I overheard someone say ‘Bloody Fall, miserable bastards, they’ve ruined the whole festival vibe’ The light rain became a heavy shower, and the sun hardly came out for the rest of the weekend.

We all know how good The Fall are and that they have the power to make grown men (and women) act like they were fifteen again. But! Are we now saying MES is actually able to control the climate? Me, i've suspected it for years...

Gary Numan writes on his website that the rain stopped just as he was coming out to play.

So perhaps he is the antidote to the rain-inducing Fall?