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Sat., Jan. 26	Club 22, Athens, Greece (moved from Gagarin 205)
Tues., Feb. 19	Palac Akropolis, Prague, Czech Republic support: Point (http://www.minorityrecords.cz)
Wed., Feb. 20	Szene, Vienna, Austria (http://www.szenewien.com)
Thu., Feb. 21	Rockhouse, Salzburg, Austria (http://www.rockhouse.at/default_frame.htm)
Fri., Feb. 22	Hafen, Innsbruck, Austria (http://www.hafen.cc)
Sat., Feb. 23	Conrad Sohm, Dornbirn, Austria (http://www2.vol.at/ConradSohm)
Sun., Feb. 24	Schüür, Luzern, Switzerland (http://www.schuur.ch/programm/index.html)
Mon., Feb. 25	Tunnel, Milan, Italy
Tues., Feb. 26	Covo, Bologna, Italy
Wed., Feb. 27	Brancaleone, Rome, Italy
Thu., Feb. 28	Velvet, Rimini, Italy
Fri., Mar. 1	Interzona, Verona, Italy
Sat., Mar. 2	Reitschule, Bern, Switzerland
Mon., Mar. 4	FZW, Dortmund, Germany (http://www.fzw.de)
Thurs., Mar. 7	Deli, Berlin, Germany (http://www.deliberlin.de)
Fri., Mar. 8	Haus der Jugend, Dusseldorf, Germany
also	two weekends in April (19-21 & 26-28) at All Tomorrow's Parties, Camber Sands Holiday Centre, East Sussex. This looks like quite a lineup of bands - very tempting.

The latest about other dates:

• The dates posted on Pollstar (Feb. 15-18) are not happening. According to Ed Blaney: "The Fall have had difficulties with a certain German promoter who is entirely responsible for those dates being printed in the press."
• The rumoured Paris date (March 5) is also not taking place.
• The band are trying to schedule 2 or 3 German dates for the first week of March - details when I have them. Feb. 12: the three German dates are confirmed and added above.
• A US tour still looks good for early April.
• The web site of the 11th Annual Wave-Gottik-Treffen goth fest in Leipzig, Germany (May 17-20) says the Fall are playing - it's the first I've heard about it.

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Upcoming releases:

Siren (http://www.sirendisc.com) have a 3 x CD anothology ("Totally Wired") listed for release on March 11. I have no idea what this is about yet; perhaps it's a repackaging of "The Other Side of the Fall"? That would be useful.

Jan. 31: I asked Ed Blaney about the box set - neither he nor Mark knows what it's all about. However, Ed told me a bit about the next official Fall CD, scheduled for release around April/May. It'll comprise 9 tracks recorded at the recent US gigs, plus three studio tracks, one of which is "I Wake Up in the City" - good news for people who missed out on the Flitwick freebie.

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Competition results:

Thanks to everyone (87 all told) who sent in entries to the competition. After much gnashing of teeth the judges selected the three winners of the AYAMW picture disc. In no particular order:

Andrew McLaren:

Boris Garelja:

Dave Leahy:

And for Conway, here are the other submissions.

I also got a note from Nigel Kendall, who wrote the article that accompanied this photo (Time Out, December 1997):

"By the way, what he actually said was 'I'm away being repaired' or something like that. And the girl wasn't a put-up job. She just turned up in Rock Circus that day, at the same time as we were there. I hope we didn't ruin her childhood."

[according to the article, Mark's words were "I'm away being refurbished. Haven't you heard of me, or got any of me records?" It makes sense when you read the article.]

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Pan, by Camden Joy and Colin B. Morton:

See January 13 for a few links about this book.

The publisher (highwaterbooks.com) kindly sent me a copy of Pan, and I read it over the weekend. I enjoyed it for the most part, but that may have had a lot to do with the fact that the Fall are central to the story. I'm not sure how it'll play to the non-Fall devotee. Detractors of the band and its fans are in for a treat, though.

The story takes place on April 7, 1998, the night of the infamous Brownies gig in New York City. It introduces us to a bunch of strange characters who all wind up at the gig - some are Fall obsessives, some are taggers-on, three are visitors from another QST (an alternate reality where Trout Mask Replica is the highest selling record ever released) who are on a quest for the head of Pan.

The authors predictably poke fun at the more obsessive Fall fans, who are all treated unceremoniously. The guy who comes off the worst is Alvin Snook, who's got a completely anal-retentive Fall website. I'm sure Alvin Snook = Stefan Cooke: fame at last. There isn't any mention of Fallnet though, which surprised me. Perhaps it's more heavily veiled and I missed it the first time around.

What's really interesting is the retelling of the gig itself. Camden and Carlton (sorry, Colin - who's been voted the sexiest Welshman alive after Tom Jones) must have the gig on video. The retelling of the events on stage ring true - and I'll bet Camden was at the gig as well (perhaps Carlton was too, although I think the authors haven't met but collaborated by email).

The stuff Mark said is recounted I think verbatim (although I haven't compared my tape with the book). The only discrepancy between what's in the book and what happened on stage that I could tell from my first quick reading was that the first song played was Spencer, not Powderkeg. Not sure why the authors chose to include this inconsistency.

The authors pull no punches in describing MES or the Fall on this night - it reads like the Fall ceased to exist or at least matter after the gig (and for plenty of fans, including perhaps the authors, they did). I wonder if Camden saw any of the NYC gigs last year?

I'll read it again - I'll bet I missed some key refs the first time around. I'd also welcome any reviews when the book gets distributed to the shops.

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Mick Cunningham recounts the ballad of the Bournemouth Runner:

It was October 1985 and the Fall played at the Bournemouth Town Hall, a venue that no longer exists as it has been rebuilt into office buildings, but it did host some excellent gigs, namely TRB supported by a very young and crap U2 (some things never change), Cabaret Voltaire, The Cure, SLF and almost Crass (which the council cancelled at the last minute).

From what I can remember, it was an excellent gig and apart from when they played Poole Arts Centre in 1990, the only one they've done in the area.

After the encore, Terry Stoate who like myself has been a Fall fan since the seventies, jumped on to the stage and pulled off the backdrop which was at the back of the stage (The Fall surrounded by the swirly circle like on the Wonderful and Frightening album cover). He jumped off the stage, said to me come on and ran out of the side door.

A couple of bouncers chased after him and after about 200 yards, they caught him and I arrived just in time to see the last punch thrown and the backdrop being taken back. Terry was still smiling though! He was smiling even more when the track The Bournemouth Runner was released and for a while, ran a removals firm under the same name. The backdrop though was never seen again though.

I met Mark E Smith in the George Hotel having a pint before the Poole gig and asked him about it and he said they never saw it again!

ps I saw Bournemouth play at Oldham in 1988 and stayed in the hotel where the Ghost in my House video was shot in North Manchester!

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Peter van Der Bruck kindly sent in some photos he took at the Manchester gig (November 29, 2001).

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Rutger Kuijer kindly translated yet another German review, this one by Bert van de Kamp, published in OOR magazine, #23, Nov. 17, 2001.

The Fall, mother of all British indie-bands, is indefatigably delivering discs full of inimitable jamming station-pop. Yet again the line-up has been altered rather severely (longest serving member Julia Nagle exit through side door) and therefore also the sound of the group.

After numerous trips to the land of a thousand dances, The Fall now seems to have returned to the straightorward guitar sound of their early years, including psychedelic under- and overtones. The songs again have genuine Mark E. Smith-titles, such as My Ex-Classmates' Kids and Reprise: Jane - Prof Mick - Ey Bastardo. The last one being a both funny and redundant version of R. Dean Taylor's "Gotta See "Jane" (including uncomfortable silences).Here Smith can yell at will at his many, selfmade enemies. Bourgeois Town is a cover of Leadbelly's "Bourgeois Blues" (mistakenly ascribed to Robert Johnson).

What was it John Peel said? "The Fall: always different, always the same". I liked the previous one better.

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Club 22, Athens, Greece, January 26, 2002

Kostas Loukidis:

After 10 years , the band is back in town . A town that loved this man , Mark E .

Reaching the place (Club 22) at 21:00 , doors opened at 21:15 . Crowd about 1.000 people , with ticket price 22 Euro .

The band on stage at 22:00 .

They kicked off the show with "Two Librans" , and then "Cyber Insect" , "And Therein" , "Crop Dust" , "Kick the Can (1st part)" , "F-Oldin Money" , "The Joke" , "Mr Pharmacist" , "I'm a Damo Suzuki" , "Welcome to the US 80 - 90 - 00 - 10" , "Anditotes" and "My Ex-Classmates Kids (only the band , without MES)" .

Mark , appeared at first to be in a good mood and shape , but then he give an impression to be enough drunk . He was cheating the rest of the band with their amps , and play with the drums mics.

He walk off the stage about 5 or 6 times , and he gave a bad impression to the majority of the crowd (except the real fall fans) .

Also , Ed (the manager) gave bad impression , by encouraging the people to clap hands for pleasing Mark E , to climb upon stage .

Nevertheless , for me , it was a very good Fall perfomance , but I'm afraid that the rest of the people didn't get also good vibes .

Hope to see them again !

Makis:

this is the closest i can come to a "set-list"

2 librans
cyber ("you gotta support her", captain beefheart drop-out boogie part)
and therein
bourgeois town
???
f-olding (mes singing sans mic at times - he did that later on as well)
mr pharmacist
way round
damo (mes walk out)
the joke (mes walk out - band walk out)
tapes/band returning and playing over tapes
mes coming back and bursting into ketamine sons
band walk out
tapes
buck's letter (drop-out boogie part thrown in again - mes walk out)
band walk out - tapes - nada
antidotes (mes walk out)
my ex- classmates (instrumental)

Stelios Bouras:

hello there! this is the set list i grabbed off the stage. they skipped my x classmates kids and afro man and did the joke, ketamine sons and finished with an instrumental version of i wake up in the city. no crop dust or us 80s 90s as kostas wrote.

Feb. 13, 2002

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