Live

November
19 - Oxford - Zodiac
21 - Nottingham - Rock City
22 - London - Dingwalls
24 - Liverpool - Lomax
25 - Edinburgh - The Liquid Room
26 - Glasgow - The Garage
27 - Sheffield - Sheffield University
29 - Manchester - Jilly's Rock World
30 - Leeds - Irish Centre

December
1 - Whitley Bay - The Dome
2 - Leicester - Princess Charlotte

Voiceprint/Cog Sinister release three historical albums in October:

Live In Cambridge 1988 features:
Track details: Shoulder Pads, 2x4, Get A Hotel, Cab It Up, Hit The North, Bremen Nacht, Frenz, Pay Your Rates, Hey! Luciani, Oswald Defence Lawyer, LA, Carry Bag Man, Victoria, Mr. Pharacist (2nd Half) US 80 s-90 s, Lucifer Over Lancashire.

Then there's the excellent Live in Reykjavik 1983:
Tempo House, The Classical, Eat Y self Fitter, Hexen Definitive, I Feel Voxish, Man Whose Head Expanded, Garden, Kicker Conspiracy Look, Know Backdrop

And finally the Backdrop bootleg gets a legit release:
A collection of studio out-takes and alternate versions..
Marquis Cha Cha, Bremen Nacht run out, Mark ll Sink Us, Lucifer Over Lancashire, Hey! Luciani, Wings, LA, US 80 s-90 s, Guest Informant, Man Whose Head Expanded, Backdrop, Dresden Dolls, Strychnine, Race With The Devil, Plaster On The Hands

Royal Festival Hall, 22 September 2000

Chris Hopkins:
Terry Edwards' sax playing reminded me of James White and the Blacks. Nice. His bass player had a go at dancing. Not so nice. The sound was awful.

Dick Dale was a right showbiz tart crowdpleaser, playing the bass while the bass player was still wearing his instrument, ditto the drums, playing a not bad trumpet, appearing among the crowd playing "smoke on the water" (really, but it wasn't as awful as you'd think), talking to the audience...still, all this was forgiveable because when our Dick plays a guitar it *stays* played (left handed and with the thin string at the top).

As for the mighty Fall...well, I'm not qualified to be objective. Having frothed with anticipation all day I was delighted to find that despite the RFH being a nice, seated venue it WAS possible to lurch around in front of the stage, lose both shoes and receive a pint of horrible beer over one's horrible clothing, all this without being stared down by wankers in tight T shirts. Fair took me back to my drug-crazed youth, that did. The noise was gratifyingly distorted, the moshpit satisfyingly argybargesque, but the standout was "Hey! Student!". There weren't any new tunes that grabbed me. MES was neither out of order (he turned Neville's amp up once, and moved one drum mic) nor finger-pointing and charismatic. Still The Fall, though, absolutely no chance of being embarassed by a bass player attempting to dance or a vocalist being chummy with the audience. That counts for a lot. 9/10 by anyone else's standards, 5/10 by their own.

I was sat behind the mixing desk, which was manned by Grant Showbiz, who was clearly v.excited to be working with The Fall again and quite possibly the most animated person in the entire hall. Personally I thought it was a satisfactory but not vintage Fall performance, the band didn't seem to be functioning as a unit. Or, as Deb put it, they didn't appear to be quite as passionate about their product as were the Fall of old.

Dick Dale - what an appalling spectacle, quite shameful!

But as Fall gigs go, this one was simply AMAZING.

Asterisks for the ones I enjoyed the most.

http://www.visi.com/fall/gigography/rfh2000/rfh2000photos.html

The Fall/Dick Dale
The bumbling voice of John Peel - tonight hosting his penultimate Sessions Live - calls us to attention: "This is the voice of God," he says, and it's instantly clear tonight is primarily about worship. Partly of Peel himself, judging by the gnarled enthusiasm of the crowd, but he, in turn, is equally in thrall to these bands. First up is Dick Dale. He creaks comically in leathers and, not being a man to communicate verbally unless about guitar strings, he makes his instrument howl, screech and, mainly, twang. Sometimes he sounds punky, sometimes more mellow, but the premise is painfully thin. Dick Dale invented surf guitar, you know. In the '50s. And he's not about to let us forget it now.
Like Dale, Mark E Smith picked his field long ago and he's ploughed it single-mindedly ever since. He still huffs and scowls like a cabbie waiting for a fare, but whereas he sometimes seems to be going through the motions, tonight he's almost effusive as he cracks the odd joke and even indulges in a little wobbly dancing. Besides this, though, little has changed.
Smith and his interchangeable troupe might have rendered relevancy so distant a concept it's not even a dot on the horizon, but there's still something intangibly thrilling about his stoic denial of fashion. Hero worship has been bestowed on a lot less.
By Jim Alexander

Doktor Pete:
Behold! a scan of the cover to the seminal Fleetway Thriller Library No.6, published 1977. Printed on cheap wood pulp, and staple-bound with a glued-on cover, it's amazing it's survived so well. Before you ask, there's no mention of wireless enthusiasts or servants of government anywhere in it. The back cover blurb: "Carnage confronts the CID in a casion where three people have been gunned down. An armed killer is on the run and this tense, tough novel spotlights the life or death decision of Eddie Quick and his sergeant - whether to follow orders and play it safe or to go it alone!" It is, of course, utter shite. A prose sample: "Maurice Jones was a sharp operator. A winner. He used people the way he used his socks."

Mitsos:
For those in New York, the Anthology Film Archives will be showing video work of Pascal Le Gras, who did many Fall covers. The music in many of his videos is by the Fall. The AFA's website is at www.anthologyfilmarchives.org Their current schedule on the website is only up to 9/15/00. the Pascal Le Gras videos, I think, will be in October.

Pete retrieves the rest of the 1989 calendar from behind the radiator:

August - A group of 6 year olds spontaneously burst into tears as Smith throws his mic stand at the drum kit. The group are doing a charity performance at the local community centre and Smith is furious with the band for sulking because he's ordered them all to wear party hats (Smith is without hat)

November - Smith approving art work for the Imp Utensil 12"

December - Xmas dinner at the Burns household. Hands full with a huge tray of spuds, Karl can only roll his eyes and tut as Smith fiddles randomly with the knobs on the cooker

http://www.northcoast.com/~btiffee/fallsoundcheck.jpg

http://www.alexchiu.com/spacestation/spacemainmenu.htm

Check out the rest of the site, this guy knows everything - how gravity works, how to build a teleport device, how to LIVE FOREVER. He even knows "what is inside a matter." Why isn't he president of a unified world government, eh?