January 1997 gig reviews

• Bristol
• Swindon
• Gloucester

by Mel O'Reilly

>> 3-Semitransparent shirt in gig in BCN 92. Sorry Mel... In same concert,
>> playing drums using the (connected) microphone as a stick in BigNewPrinz
1. Someone tell him to fooking well wear it to Swindon!!!! Cogsin mole: TELL HIM. Then everyone can ask me about the setlist afterwards and be amused at my poor attempts to say that I did not recognise any of the songs as they were all from Cerebral Caustic which I have not got....or something....not of course because I was too busy with other things....

And he did!!!!!!!! Wow!!!!!!!! Just fer me. (well I hope so anyway) I feel very honoured and can now go away and live happily the rest of my life. Whoever it was that told him before (if anyone actually did) please say cheers to him for me.
:-) :-) :-)

by Konrad Adams

On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, David I. Williams wrote:

> 3) No Chiseller

No Das Vultur, Powder Keg.

Think Lie Dream was the only one not played at Brizzle. Didn't play for nearly as long but I thought the sound better last nacht. Was a bit more sober though and there weren't as many (any?) arses down the front like at Brizzle. Lie Dream was my highlight - went totally apeshit, then got knackered and spent the rest of the gig hiding behind Mel & Barrie to avoid being moshed to death.

And if OBG is Jeremy Beadle, then Mel is Georgia out of Next of Kin (Penelope Keith sitcom). Mentioned this to Neil & Gez last night, but general broadcast waited until being physically distanced from Mel as I value my bollocks (sorry Mel).

> 5) Fallnet T-shirts all over the place.

one stage I looked down from the balcony and all I could see was a sea of Fallnet shirts. Top darts.

> 15) Photos outside Level 3 and inside the Rolleston

Pissed off at missing this due to paranoia of not getting in and starting queuing at 8pm.

Support band very different (Strongarm?). Two drummers, guitar (absent on first song), bass, french horn (though this was barely audible at times). Thought it was enjoyable at first as it was quite unusual, but got bored in the middle. Picked up again towards the end. diw thought them a bit Pere Ubu-ish; Big Flame and the Ron Johnson lot sprang to my mind.

A Jim-Dandy evening on the whole.

by Chris B. Power

> > 15) Photos outside Level 3 and inside the Rolleston

Errm, we met them all in the Level 3 car park. Have got brill. photographs of me & Rich with Mark E. & the rest. There is quite a long and thrilling story behind this, talk of Redbox, Putta Block ITC, Berlin and alot of bottles of Holsten Pils being chucked in the back of The Fall limo. Photo's and full story later.

But here are the essentials.

Guitarist remains Adrian Flannigon.

Sound was brilliant

Lie Dream - GREAT!

Got me poster signed by Steve.

by Rich Kidd

Got to Swindon and found the Rolleston/Level 3 easily enough, having successfully negotiated the roundabout. Passed MES on the way to the cashpoint, smoking a fag in a highly affected manner (reminded me of Oscar Wilde for no apparent reason).

Rolleston was full of fuckfaces, and after a swift exchange of tapes/t-shirts had to leave half my pint to queue for tickets. It has to be the largest ff collection ever: nice to meet for the first time diw, mel, Chris, RJ, K, Ash and the old reprobates Neil, Gez, Konrad, Mike J, Barrie, Alan again.

Level 3 was a good place: small and black with a balcony, then the stage with 3' of horizontal bannisters across the front, lower down the enclosed dancefloor, and lower still the main area. Hilarious to see so many (excellent BTW) FallNet t-shirts glowing brightly under the UV, and seeing others thinking "Chipping Sodbury tour? What the fuck's that all about?".

Support band already discussed adequately: sometimes like Gang of 4, sometimes like Stump. With a french horn.

Fall came on, and the band kicked off with Spinetrak. MES appeared at the end, then made them go throught it all again with vocals. Hip Priest came next and very wonderful it was too, with apparently not so many keyboards as Bristol. It finished, then Smith made them carry on for a bit longer. After Pearl City MES led the band offstage for no apparent reason. As they had to walk through the crowd to the dressing rooms, all the disappearances of the gig involved going out of the fire exit at the back of the stage - this diminished the mystique a bit as you could see 'em just hanging round in the car park until they could be bothered to come back.

I lost track of the songs a bit after this: a great bass-driven M5, proving once again that it's a good song spoiled on MCR; Lie Dream as terrific a surprise as every one says (last heard played by me anyway in 84); I'm Going To Spain; a new one that sounded like 10 Houses with vocals. Encore of Cheetham and Behind The Counter. I lied when I said I forgot the whistles - I picked 'em up on the way out of the house, but then had the horrible vision of Fall gigs turning into some Rocky Horror type thing.
Also a great He Pep, beter if Smith hadn't looked so bored.

Bits & Pieces:
Smith's shirt - as mel says some semi-transparent thing with velvet collar and button strip.
Hanley smiling a lot at the beginning, and obviously telling everyone else what song they were playing next.
Good sound, a lot of guitar at the beginning which seemed to fade out towards the end. Smith seemed to start off quite happy, but looked increasingly bored and seemed to give up a bit.

I enjoyed it, but it did tail off at the end. Hope RJ and Chris B found somewhere to sleep.

Rich

by Konrad Adams

On Thu, 30 Jan 1997, Chris Kovin wrote:

> This is what I was going to ask--did people just go totally nuts when
> they heard the opening drums and keyboards on Lie Dream, or what? I
> know I would, but then again, at this point I'd probably start jumping up
> and down to Ballard of J. Dumber. Great to hear about the t-shirts!
> Much as I loved the concept of the CoC, the t's probably made a more
> potent impression on MES. Good work, men and woman!

I was a bit disppointed with the degree of apeshittedness - I think it was just a handful of us. MikeyJ seemed slightly more animated than usual. Didn't hear any keyboards all night mind. Nor any guitar. The Fall ought to do themselves a favour and bin Nagle and Mr Flanflinger and turn into a threepiece - it's all they are essentially anyway. No, they should bin Woolstencroft and Smith too. I'd happily pay L9 to watch 75 mins of Steve Hanley bass solos. And he isn't a stroppy git neither. My man of the match two days running.

Best conversation I've heard in a while (in the Gents):

Friend 1 (to friend 2): They played a lot of old stuff, a completely unrecognisable version of Lie Dream.
Barrie: Excuse me, but if it was unrecognisable, how did you know what it was?
Friend n (where 0 < n < 3): Because someone next to me told me

I can't agree with the sentiment meself - I think I was in the moshpit before the second drumbeat.

by Neil Saunders

Oh, what fantastic, joyous fun I had. Wow.

Typically arrived hours early, so spent the early evening exploring the joys of historic Swindon...hmm. Rich's phrase "armpit" does spring to mind.

Some things you should know about Swindon:

(1) It's always cold, grey and damp. Well, when I go there at least. OK, I always go in winter, but nevertheless.

(2) It has a large, paved shopping arcade, where you can find Rival records (where I got my hand-written ticket).

(3) Swindon college has a cigarette butt lake and a small hole for dossers by the front door (there was a dosser in the hole when I sat on the steps to eat my tea).

(4) Fast food is a dodgy business in Swindon; avoid the veggie kebab from the place up the hill from Commercial Rd (Kings BBQ or something). But the chips from the place near the chicken place are OK (Kings food centre or something...getting confused now).

(5) There's at least one Balti House.

(6) Up the road from the Rolleston is a place called Bar 150, where everything is 1.50 a pint; suggest this next time?

OK, onto the gig. I loitered at the bar in the Rolleston for a while, because you can hear the band soundchecking from next door, really loudly (also from the loo...no no, not soundchecking in the loo). Hanley arrived, asked if he could get through the bar and went through to join the soundcheck. He is my new Fall hero too. Was vaguely aware of a group behind me who later turned out to be FallNutters (hello to you). Amusing bar conversation:

Bloke: Who's The Fall then? What are they like?
Young bloke behind bar: I dunno, you'd have to ask the manager. I'm just doing the bar.
Bloke (to manager): Who're the Fall then?
Manager: Oh, sort of heavy...indie...guitar sort of thing. (thinks) Been going 20 years though...(thinks) NME calls 'im the grumpiest man in pop.
Bloke: Oh right.

Anyway, eventually Barrie and crowd, Gez, Konrad, other familiar faces appear and queue worriedly for tickets (a near sellout apparently, 250 odd sold). Support band vaguely interesting at times, but never quite got there for me. Good chat to Ash from Oxford...hello!

Level 3 is underground, oddly enough (BTW if you ever go there, it's easy to find from the station; follow signs for town centre, then the ones for the market, past the market you pop out onto Commercial Rd with Level 3 straight ahead of you). Anyway, it's a small, quite nice venue, with a small dance floor, a balcony and a big fence across the stage. I can imagine the yoof of Swindon bopping away to the Spice girls later in the week though. Also, the band had to go through the crowd to get to the stage; sad star spotter I've become, after several seconds of standing next to Julia Nagle I was about ready to fall on my knees crying "we're not worthy".

The gig; very, very good I thought, fine sound, perhaps a bit short though. In my excitement and frenzied leaping about it's hard to remember track order and such. Spinetrak barely recognisable, but good (opener I think; after about 5 mins Smithy walks on, picks up mike as the band are winding down and says "Start again please...1,2,3,4...). Classic.

Seemingly routine, planned walk-off after Pearl City, to almost no-ones surprise. Great excitement as I realised they were doing "Hip Priest", even more excitement at "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul". Apart from those, a fine version of Oleana, M5 (apparently in response to audience shouts? no surely not), Behind the Counter, I'm Going to Spain (something else I've not heard live for a while) and I think one or two new things I didn't recognise. Much leaping up and down, Smithy in fairly good humour throughout, Julia and Steve are band stalwarts and deserve huge respect, new guitarist bloke doing OK, though quite cautious (and who wouldn't be).

So; amazing number of FallNetters! In Swindon, of all places. Do we declare this place our unofficial capitol? Hello to those I said hello to (and the rest), especially the Hull contingent, who I hope weren't too pissed to forget the experience!

Oh, and those T-shirts are great! Is the man in charge still taking orders? If so, I'll have one.
And a big thanks to Rich for the lift home.

Neil, tired, bruised and very happy

by Jake Atkinson

Track list Swindon (as nicked from the drum riser....)

Ol Gang
Spine Track
Hip Priest
Pearl City
Mixer
Lie Dream
10 Houses
Spain
Pep
M5
Oleano
Masquerade
Cheetham
Vulture
Counter

High points?

1. The unbelievably tight and emotional reading of Hip Priest (MES the most animated and lyrically expressive he was all night, Hanley smiling like a cheshire cat). I felt like I'd gone to heaven!

2. The unified 'Oi' chant from the crowd in the breaks of Lie Dream.

3. MES asking the PA man if they'd brought another mike because the other was cutting out during Lie Dream, and someone from the audience shouting "are they from Newcastle?!" and Mark saying "probably" and laughing to himself.

4. Mark locking himself out of the fire exit doors mid-song and having to walk round to the front door to get back in..............

Jake

by C.B.Power

I'll start after the gig. Rich & I were really stuck. So we err waited around for something to happen. First we met Steve Hanley. I asked him if it was okay to take some pics, he was really cool and signing a copy of Rowche Rumble for somebody. Then he called Simon over who was in the picture. I chatted to him, although very loose interpretation of 'chat' as I was pissed. Yep, the Fall have been well and truely skanked by Artful. Steve stuck to the it's a crap recording line. Now I got onto the bit about Berlin, yes Mel, Steve Hanley at least is given messages or lurks this list, 'cause he said 'oh are your the one that wrote that Berlin reveiw?' He asked me if I was responsible for this list. Eeer, no. By this time Mark came out, had about 8 bottles of Holsten and some lager cans. We went over to Mark and asked if it was O.K. to take some photo's, "no problem". Mark was in a joking mood sort of chatted about Berlin, Mark was just messing about, had a real good laugh with him. Rich gave Mark his CHEQUE BOOK to sign, don't bloody ask me why, of course he chucked in the car and Rich had to more or less beg for it back. Shook hands with Julia who was quite reserved.

And that's about it really. Nowt much. Have some photo's especially for anybody with a website and a scanner. I've got last nights photo's ack. 24 exps. All the ones taken in car park have mysteriously not come out.

The Fuckface Photo's (all in T-Shirt)
====================
1) Me & Rich
2) Me and someone else
3) The infomous bouncer photo (Mel,DW,me,MJ & Barry)
4) Mel
5) Mel & RW
6) MJ & wife
7) Rich & Someone
8) Picture of Venue & Rollestone.

Gig Photo's
===========
1) The empty stage
2) 8 pics of Mark
3) 4 pics of Adrian Flanigan
4) 2 pics of Julia & Steve
5) 1 pic of Mark, Adrian & Simon.

R.J.Walker

"Mark was in a joking mood sort of chatted about Berlin, Mark was just messing about, had a real good laugh with him. Rich gave Mark his CHEQUE BOOK to sign, don't bloody ask me why, of course he chucked in the car and Rich had to more or less beg for it back."

Yeah, after Chris vexed his spleen about Berlin, Mark intimated that Chris had bought sexual favours from Bernd. He'll deny this of course! Was really fantastic hearing the MES laugh in full effect in front of my face. I only had me cheque book for the band to sign. Looks fucking brilliant now although Mark's signature is really a barely recognisable scrawl. The expertise to which Mark swiftly and furtively placed my cheque book in Wolstencroft's car was a wonder to behold. Great to see him so happy and in good spirits. Especially after being so shocked as to his facial decay at the gig (after seeing them last, 2 years ago)

STEVE HANLEY: What a fucking top bloke. Really enthusiastic, with time to listen to drunken chatter from me and Chris.

Yeahy, fucking top nacht out