O2 Academy, Oxford, Sunday, 15 November 2009

Yet another stunning performance by the gruppe!

Chino is the new Blindness. Fantastic rendition. Thereof. Nice meeting forum members Cupid's Bullet, Martin, pocketsofresistance, and TVF Sports Reporter!

Blaney played WWWY (off the Smith & Blaney album) and a Joy Division cover (Atmosphere), well received by the audience. Venue only about 2/3 full, far from being sold out!

Bought Slippy Floor CD single (7" will take a little longer to come out), have listened to it three (3) times and I like it - uh!

Played WKM, IBD, INFB among others.

Eleni was wearing a black skirt with a stripey (B/W) t-shirt on top (of the too-tough-to-die variety), v. charming!

Wonderful evening.

tell us more!

Girl Peculiar (backed by E. Blaney) is indeed rather wonderful. May she go on to fame and fortune.

Eleni was carrying two (2) handbags and one (1) carrier bag. Had put on her good winter coat for the encore.

They played PD & WL (first or second encore, can't remember) again!

Venue looks rather "streamlined" now, syndicated. Liked the old Zodiac better.

But hey, I'm not complaining.

Amp fiddling / live mixing of unseen proportions. Liked it when Mark crashed the mic into the cymbal. Damn, I'm knackered.

Hey Hollerbusch, wie geht's? Alles klar soweit?

In dem Sinne,

I'm the unseen.

vielen Dank.

First of all, what a fantastic meet-up in the Hobgoblin. It was wonderful to meet Gerardo and his brother from Mexico plus Osvaldo and his Brazilian contingent. Also John from Luton and his new found friend in the Frank Zappa shirt whose name (apologies) escapes me. There were old faces too in the shape of Martin (on a flying visit from Valencia), Cupid’s Bullet and Gappy Tooth (happy 34th mate).

We later met The Unseen and his brother at the gig, who told us Ed Blaney had done a cover version of Atmosphere by Joy Division which seemed to vindicate our decision to stay with the league of nations in the pub.

The gig, even by Fall standards, was brief (only around 45 minutes including encores), loud and eclectic. I’m not great at remembering set lists but they definitely played Over Over, Sparta, Bury, Wolf Kidult Man, Chino, Duped and (I’m told) Cowboy George.

The hitherto instrumental number which opened the set appears to be the title track of the new album although, other than “our future, your clutter”, didn’t appear to have many words. One of the other new songs was a bizarre Kraut rock influenced, keyboard wig-out by Eleni with Mark mumbling sotto voice into his mike (a bit like a slowed down version of Taurig). I’m sure there was another new song but I’m not too familiar with the current ouevre so I may be wrong.

The main set finished with Psykick Dancehall which was a treat for me as I’d not heard it live before and then the house lights went up. It had been a little over half an hour and I felt for those who had come from south and central America for such a short show. Ed Blaney emerged from the dressing room shaking his head as if to suggest that was it, but then quickly reappeared urging the audience to make some noise.

Finally the group returned to the stage for White Lightning and Reformation. It was clear they’d been persuaded to plough on since Eleni performed the entire encore with a thick black coat on. I’d have to say Mark looked a little worse for wear and it was a gig where Dave, Kieron and Pete perfomed manfully to hold things together at times. But at least we’re back to Fall gigs where most of the set comprises unreleased and/or unfamiliar material. Amp twiddling was thankfully kept to a minimum but there was some impressive mike stand trashing.

In a nutshell, it was a fascinating gig but not one which ever really hit the heights. Afterwards we bumped into Gerardo again:

“Bit short wasn’t it.” I ventured.

“Hey…but it was The Fall.” came the answer.

Koko should be interesting. For anyone who fancies a few beers beforehand tomorrow night, there will be a whole load of us in this pub from around 6.30pm:

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/10/...Victoria/Camden

See you there.

Gerrado/Osvaldo must have been one of the chaps I briefly spoke with at the end. Had to give them my set list on the basis that having come all the way from the Americas to see the Fall on tour they probably deserved it more than me. Quite incredible if true !.

Hey now!

Set list:

Your Future our Clutter
Over! Over!
Wolf Kidult Man
Sloppy Floor (or "Slippy" Floor?)
Chino Splashback
I've been Duped
Cowboy George
I'm not from Bury
Sparta F.C.
Psykick Dancehall
.................................
White Lightning
Reformation

Total duration: about 55 mins I should think. Fall on at 22:03...for the record-uh...for the record-uh.

I don't regret going in early to see Ed Blaney & Girl Peculiar. Loved it.

BYE!

BTW As opposed to what it says on the news page, YFOC is no longer an instrumental, with the words, well, "your future our clutter" featuring rather prominently.

Hey LOL!

Morning. much fun in the pub beforehand, chatting with some old faces, some S American visitors, & the venue's engineer ("I've put dummy mics on the drum kit, so he can pull em about as much as he likes").

Sadly I didn't enjoy it as much as The Unseen, but thought it was intriguing. Essentially, I think that last night The Fall were a crap rock band, but a good leftfield group. "Kidult" I thought felt floppy, & all the rockers were slightly lacking, but the slow tunes and the abstract sections (MES murmuring over synth tones at the end of "George") were wonderful, if perhaps less crowd pleasing. I would have liked them to do 5 minutes of improv instead of "LIghtning", it seemed .

I'd say "Dancehall" summed it up for me: the verses were sullen and heavy and doom laden, really good stuff, but the chorus, whihc like all good pop songs increases the tempo and pitch, didn't do it for me. The sound was interesting - absolutley clear and balanced, but incredibly clinical, which really showed up the lack of drive.

Wierdly, after saying al that, I thought "Duped" was corking

So, I'll give it a B-. More interesting than great, and I think the band were just slightly tired (It's a trek fro Glasgow to Oxford, innit?), but I'm not disappointed...I just wish that, seeing as the simple stuff wasn't sparking, they should have chucked the setlist and indulged in some improv. A nice 20 min version of "Alton" would have done thr trick.

I'd be interested to hear a recording, to see what it sounds like on sober reflection.

They've dropped the main guitar riff from it, and it doesn't sound as good.

Another thing I noticed at The Ferry was Eleni has got quite a collection of effects now. Maybe they were always there and I just never noticed. She had three on top of her synth in Glasgow - one looked like a guitar distortion pedal, one looked like an ipod and I can't remember what the other one was. Sounded great, but does anyone know what they are?

They've dropped the main guitar riff from it, and it doesn't sound as good.

Another thing I noticed at The Ferry was Eleni has got quite a collection of effects now. Maybe they were always there and I just never noticed. She had three on top of her synth in Glasgow - one looked like a guitar distortion pedal, one looked like an ipod and I can't remember what the other one was. Sounded great, but does anyone know what they are?

One is a guit phase pedal, I think. Couldn't make out the others, but she was getting some great sounds last night, she was the most inventive perosn onstage, I'd say.

I think Eleni has a new Korg Kaossilator among the effects and processors nestling on top of her synth.

http://www.korg.co.uk/products/dance_dj/ka...kaossilator.asp

It's true slangking. The name's Gerardo and I'm from Mexico, came to England because of the Fall, I know it sounds incredible and maybe a little stupid, but it's 100 % true... thanks for the setlist by the way.

It looks a lot like the thing that fell off her Keyboards in Windsor. That was battery operated, cos they all fell out!

Just for the record,

would anyone house a brazilian 19yrold if he went all the way to England for a fall gig?

It's true slangking. The name's Gerardo and I'm from Mexico, came to England because of the Fall, I know it sounds incredible and maybe a little stupid, but it's 100 % true... thanks for the setlist by the way.

No problem. I'm obviously an armchair Fall fan, 22 years of seeing them, the furthest i've ever travelled for a gig was Oxford-London (~55 miles) or Manchester-Leeds (~42m) :-)

Yup

It's true slangking. The name's Gerardo and I'm from Mexico, came to England because of the Fall, I know it sounds incredible and maybe a little stupid, but it's 100 % true... thanks for the setlist by the way.

I doff my cap/fedora (depends on the day) to you sir, as an example to us all. Bit of a madcap, foolhardy example possibly, but an example all the same.

It's true slangking. The name's Gerardo and I'm from Mexico, came to England because of the Fall, I know it sounds incredible and maybe a little stupid, but it's 100 % true... thanks for the setlist by the way.

I doff my cap/fedora (depends on the day) to you sir, as an example to us all. Bit of a madcap, foolhardy example possibly, but an example all the same.

Well I went all the way to Mexico once, and I didn't even see the Fall.

You would be welcome to come and stay here in Edinburgh.
My partner speaks Portuguese and plays Capoeira, and I am pretty good at drinking Caipirinha!

haha, thanks a lot for the support, folks (except Zoot, of course)

I'll probably have to sell my car someday and go see a Fall gig or else I'll probably go mad.

It's a bit difficult for me to have a critical opinion about the gig. It was the first time I saw them and I'll definitely never forget it.

And it was great to meet some of you at the pub. I talked to the Very Famous Reporter, the incredible guy from Mexico and his brother, and Gappy Tooth. It was also nice to met a guy who lives near Milton Keynes, but I think he didn't tell me his name. Should have met you before, but I couldn't identify you when I entered in the pub !

Some pictures from the Oxford gig here including set list ( thanks to those guys for letting me get a snap of their set list , I was too slow to grab one ):

www.flickr.com/photos/longspan/sets/72157622689511967/

It's true slangking. The name's Gerardo and I'm from Mexico, came to England because of the Fall, I know it sounds incredible and maybe a little stupid, but it's 100 % true... thanks for the setlist by the way.

I doff my cap/fedora (depends on the day) to you sir, as an example to us all. Bit of a madcap, foolhardy example possibly, but an example all the same.

Well I went all the way to Mexico once, and I didn't even see the Fall.

I looked at Mexico over the Rio Grande.
Couldn't see much.

(we'll done for coming over )