First appearance of Bourgeoise Town?

I was reviewing the Klub Krackers gig from October '85 for the Fall Live site tonight (http://thefalllive.googlepages.com/templatereviewpage422225) when I was somewhat taken aback to hear Mark singing a couple of lines from "Bourgeoise Town", more or less as per the AYAMW version, at the start of "Gut of the Quantifier" - not having reviewed the rest of the dates from this tour yet I don't know whether this was the first (or indeed only) outing. This gig is also notable for an exceptional version of "Damo" and the last performance of "Wings" for a long while.

Latest Review

Have been trying to get into a rhythm of writing up reviews for at least one gig a day. I have unreviewed gigs piled up in a sort of order on the shelves and I tend to pick one at random for reviewing purposes.

Interesting that the last three grabbed from the pile are pretty poor audience recordings making a fulsome review pretty difficult. They all appear to be well played gigs but the taping is such as to make the listening experience pleasurable but not essential.

Anyway (very) brief notes, tracklisting etc on

San Francisco, July '81 http://thefalllive.googlepages.com/templatereviewpage422224
Sheffield, October '84 http://thefalllive.googlepages.com/templatereviewpage422223
and
Innsbruck February '02 http://thefalllive.googlepages.com/templatereviewpage422222

are available.

Also Dr Peters has been working his way through "The Unutterable" for the "Track Record" and has been engaged in some deep research on "Ketamine Sun".

World Record - Van Der Graaf Generator

I was listening to Van Der Graaf Generators "World Record" today..... a lumbering beast of a thing it is with some immense prog noise leaping out of the speakers as I trundled through the back streets of Salford...it was released in October 1976 at the heart of the punk explosion....interesting to note then that the liner notes mentioned Messrs Lydon and Smith (ME) as "fans" of the band....some 32 years later it feels as fresh now as it did then. Like The Fall, VDGG are unique, built around a gnomic front man with an idiosyncratic vocal style and a fondness for language. Like The Fall then band relies on riffs and repetition.

However I'm not sure your average Fall fan would take to the bands prog leanings.

The centrepiece is the sprawling 20 minute Meurglys III a riff dominated tirade about songwriting which morphs into a slow melodic section and then into a jamaican style guitar jam. Hammill's admitted that his guitar playing is very basic and the beauty of this piece is that he does not try to do a Steve Vai but in true Miles Davis style "less is more".

North East London Polytechnic October 1981

I have been listening to this gig in preparing to write the review for "The Fall Live"...... a very good show indeed with the material reflecting the forthcoming "Hex" album....

Pearl City

Spotted a previously unforseen Fall CD on Amazon today and of course I had to buy it. I've probably got the tracks already but what the hell....some interesting track names here.....

Tracks are

1. Intro
2. Pearl City
3. 15 Ways (To Leave Your Man)
4. Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain
5. Spinetrack Side
6. Mixer
7. Cheetham Hill
8. Powder Keg
9. Hey Pep
10. Chilinism
11. L.A.
12. Hidden

It's an import on the Dynamic lable and I cannot find an mention of it on the Fall On-Line....

The Fallen by Dave Simpson

This excellent book arrived from the publishers yesterday and I am enjoying it immensely. A fulsome review will be provided in the September edition of "Reformation! Post TPM" the Fall On-line fanzine.....http://fallgruppes.googlepages.com/reformation-homepage