added 24 May

23 May - Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, CA

Formation FD / Bo Demmick / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Wrong Place, Right Time / Systematic Abuse / Mountain Energei / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow // Blindness

Reviews on the message board. The mighty Frank has some photos here and videos of Formation FD (partial) and Mountain Energei (all 10 minutes of it) on youtube.com.

Cole:

Christ on a bike, the Fall were good last night...

All nights the lads were locked into a Velvet-y groove. Synth-babe Elen-uh ensured there was nary any dead air (at the top of a given song, she would hit her noodly micro-melodies before the applause had subsided and the lads would dutifully and gladly follow suit), and Mark E. Smith hit his marks consistently, both rhythmically, lyrically and uhh-melodically-uhh.

"Wrong Place, Right Time" was punchy and the ensemble segued into and out of the tune's double-time bridge with the precision of Juan Manuel Fangio.

"Mountain Energei" was one of the finest r'n'roll moments I've heard in more years than I'd like to think about: Smith in fine form, poetically ruminating extensively over dusty, shuffling drums, a dirty bass pulling like a V8 slowly gunning up the grapevine and shards of guitar dropping like a bottle but never breaking.

What else? In lieu of referencing East Germany during "What About Us Shipman," MES gave a sly lil' shout out to the homies w/ "I'm an immigrant from East LA/I was sort of happy..."

Smith was on a roll during "Shipman," free associating at l-e-n-g-t-h while the band churned on. The lads figured out the tune must've gone on long enuff and killed it before the song reached the chanted chorus of "What About Us, Shipman?" Nonplussed, Smith kept riffing over three beats of acapella silence, the drummer thwacked the snare on the downbeat of the "four" and the Fall were back on, churning out another controlled maelstrom of sound and MES and Elen-uh shouting out "What About Us, Shipman?"

It was really great.

(No "Mr. Pharmacist," neither...)

Easily, the best of the three 2006 LA County shows.

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added 28 May; updated 30 May

25 May - The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT

The planned setlist (not sure what was actually played):

Bo Demmick / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time / What About Us / Midnight in Aspen / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Assume / Mr. Pharmacist / Systematic Abuse / Blindness

There are a couple of reviews at the tail end of this thread on the message board. Thanks to Ajay for the poster and Baseball Hatted for the setlist.

Baseball Hatted:

I was at the SLC show. I was interested to see what developed in the band since seeing them play in San Francisco on the first night. Plus, i was intrigued to hear the alleged new song Formation D (?).

Nice people at The Depot Box Office told me the band was expected to begin at 10:50pm. The venue was cool, an upstairs and downstairs, approx 150 people in the room capacity for 1200.

The video guy, Safy was well received. His set was better than what was performed in San Francisco.

The Fall hit the stage at approx. 10:30pm, busting out with Bo D. The set was very straight forward, workman like, and no inclusion of the song Formation D (?).

Done by 11:30.

The highlight was Midnight Aspen, Mark reading from crumpled notes. He also read from notes three songs later on Assume. The last song Blindness, fairly rocked.

He seemed happy enough, but no special love. No remarks to the crowd.

After the show i walked onto stage as kits were being broken down and grabbed two set lists.

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added 28 May

26 May - Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO

Coming Down / Assume / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Pacifying Joint / Wrong Place, Right Time / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Blindness / Bo Demmick // Mr. Pharmacist

Reviews and a couple of photos on the message board.

Neville:

The Fall played in Boulder, Colorado last night; something that seems as improbable as Paul Simon making an album with Brian Eno. I have never seen them before, so I had no other shows to compare this one to, Fall-wise. I thought they were raging. Admittedly, I had low expectations, after reading about all of the stuff that went down on this tour. But they were tight, they had energy, and even smiled a bit here and there. They played for about 90 minutes. Here is the set list:

??? (something with Mark saying "We Are The Fall")/ Assume/ Sparta/ Mountain/ Pacifying Joint/Right Place, Wrong Time/What About Us/I Can Hear the Grass Grow/Blindness/Bo Demmick/Encore: Mr. Pharmacist

It was fun to watch Mark move the mics around the stage, sometimes putting one in the bass drum, sometimes singing into two of them at once. He would sometimes fiddle with everyone's amps. Must've been a sound man's nightmare! He embodied a lot of "trickster" energy in his unpredictability. The other musicians rolled with it all pretty well; and the audience, at least up front where I was, seemed to have a rollicking good time too.

I think my favorite thing about the show was noticing Mark's shirt seemed to be fresh out of a package--it still had the wrinkles--and looking closer even had the "M" sticker on it for "Medium", I suppose, but maybe for "Mark" as well. Anyway, great show!

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added 28 May; updated 31 May

27 May - Record Bar, Kansas City, MO

Formation FD / Assume / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Blindness / Mr. Pharmacist // Midnight in Aspen / Systematic Abuse

Setlist TBC. Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Bryan for ticket and poster.

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added 30 May; updated 31 May

29 May - Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN

Scenario / Pacifying Joint / Assume / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time / Formation FD / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow // Bo Demmick / Mr. Pharmacist / Blindness // Midnight in Aspen / Systematic Abuse

Reviews on the message board. Thanks to Bryan for the setlist.

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added 31 May

30 May - Logan Square Auditorium, Chicago, IL

Bo Demmick / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time / Systematic Abuse / I Can Hear The Grass Grow / Reformation / Blindness / Mr Pharmacist / What About Us

Reviews on the message board.

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added 6 June

1 June - Knitting Factory, New York, NY

Many thanks to Anthony for the setlist. Actual set played:

Coming Down / Pacifying Joint / Assume / Theme from Sparta FC / Reformation / Mountain Energei / Wrong Place, Right Time / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Bo Demmick / Midnight in Aspen / Blindness / Mr. Pharmacist / Systematic Abuse // Youwanner

Reviews on the message board.

Michael:

Show highlights:

- opening act: loud guitars, but not the fun kind...
- music video: the soundtrack was GREAT, but went on about 10 minutes too long
- there's now a lumberjack in the Fall!
- new lineup is different in their sound
- this is not to say better or worse, but different
- the set was similar to ones in the past (same songs)
- They did a nice job on "wrong place, right time"
- Mark seemed in good shape! Very little amp messing on stage
- Costumes: Mark had on his leather jacket at one point and his glove on at another point

Hilda:

factory gig was ok

liked the band more than i thought i would but not better than the
previous line-up. It seemed very very different. I enjoyed it when the
band was on, from where i was it was numbingly, intoxicatingly loud, so
blindness was good. Everything seemed thinner, including the
guitarist. Blindness notwithstanding, why do they keep playing the
same songs over and over and over and over each show for years -- it's
not like the fall doesn't have a few good alternatives.

I don't feel like i saw the fall just now, though. More like a mark
smith appearance.

I loved seeing tony, ron, pinto, mitsos, stefan (and mes) again.
don't expect a favorable review from tony on the message board.

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added 6 June; updated 15 June

2 June - Southpaw, Brooklyn, NY

Many thanks to Orpheo for the setlist.

Bo Demmick / Assume / Theme from Sparta FC / Pacifying Joint / Mountain Energei / Reformation / Wrong Place, Right Time / White Line Fever / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow // Blindness / Mr. Pharmacist

One of the best Fall shows I've seen. Reviews on the message board.

Michael:

Talking Points for the Press:

- The band was much better on the 2nd night, they played good n' sloppy.
- Still some folks not crazy about new line up.
- Once you know that the opening video goes on for a half an hour it's not so bad
- That said, most Fall fans didn't like the use of 70s pop music icons
- The lumberjack dude grows on you, and isn't a half bad backup singer
- First Time Spotting: Smith singing into two mics
- 2nd featured more knob turning than first night
- Stephan did snag the play list and will publish it on the unofficial Fall site
- The audience went crazy during Mr. Phara
- Southpaw was a much better venue than the Knitting Factory

Hilda:

> The band was much better on the 2nd night, they played good n' sloppy.

I'll never understand why so many of you thought so -- they were just awful, even i had to admit this time. all distortion and mush. guitarist botched blindness. and it's a sad state when you welcome that goofy keyboard riff in the song just to feel like it's really mark with the fall you're watching.

> Still some folks not crazy about new line up.

to say the least. not many of us, tis true. But it's been clear our fall expectations differ.

> The lumberjack dude grows on you, and isn't a half bad backup singer

maybe it was all the dampness that night, and the insistent knit cap in the ultra-warmth (soh so-cal!) but it did seem to me things probably were growing - thankfully not on me

> First Time Spotting: Smith singing into two mics

but not a single glove

> The audience went crazy during Mr. Phara

as mitsos said, audience not allowed to go that crazy during anything, remember? Though a tad obnoxious, the crowd's enthusiasm was more cheerful, rambunctious, had more muscle at knitting factory and people seemed to have a lot more fun (from where I was standing). all, especially muscle, completely lacking in new band. drummer is the only one that looks like he enjoys playing in this band. eleni slight and lovely as always.

> - Southpaw was a much better venue than the Knitting Factory

see above. good music before and after the set (for Pinto, even video soundtrack) and i did have a great time despite the band (and it being so crowded i missed seeing a couple of people I was supposed to catch up with). I wonder what the new new fall band will be?

A Humble Barfly's Contentment by Benjamin Lytal (New York Sun, 5 June)

No serious person can pretend to relish the behavior of Mark E. Smith, famed leader of the Fall, the influential and jangly post-punk band. On his latest tour, which came to a close on Saturday at the Brooklyn club Southpaw, Smith poured beer on his tour manager's head and pulled a corkscrew on his bassist. Onstage in Phoenix, Justin Williams, the frontman of opening band the Talk, retaliated by throwing a banana peel at Smith's head. Smith's own band then quit the tour.

The Fall has gone through many personnel changes, always preserving a sarcastic, catch-as-catch-can spirit that, while not identical to Smith's incidental rascality, certainly contextualizes it. Yet something about the band's oeuvre is straightforward and wholesome.

At Southpaw, Smith's new band came onstage with a tentative air. The bassist, a tall young man with a cuddlylooking beard, might have been born at around the time Smith first formed the Fall, in 1977. The guitar player sported black curls flattened against the side of his face. As one audience member later said, this was the Fall gone Williamsburg.

Smith's loyal third wife, Elena Poulou, looked more confident. A noted beauty, Poulou has not had as strong a hand in the Fall as Smith's first wife, Bennington grad Brix Smith. In the mid-1980s, Brix took the Fall in a more melodic direction, leading to some of the most celebrated of the band's 24 LPs. Poulou seems content to finger the keyboard.

After a moment's hesitation, Smith himself came onstage, wearing a trim leather jacket and a neatly tucked-in shirt. He looked like Andy Capp. Frail and almost cute, Smith gripped his microphone with both hands, nearly obscuring his small, frog-like face. Smith once famously intoned the words "All those whose mind entitle themselves, and whose main entitle is themselves, shall feel the wrath of my bombast." Twenty years later, Smith does not seem physically capable of bombast, but his voice is strong. His signature barker's drone,the extended voicing he gives to the last syllable of almost every word,washed over the Brooklyn audience like an air raid siren.

On "Pacifying Joint," a song from the Fall's latest album, "Fall Heads Roll," Smith made the refrain "pacifying joint" sound like a conversational remark, an explanation, a baleful announcement, a shrug, an obtuse slang, and, inevitably, an arty code word. On his first record, Smith announced that the three Rs were "repetition, repetition, repetition." He artfully elides words so that their sound and meaning change over the course of a song. In Brooklyn, that elision sounded more like a kind of lovable, arrogant laziness of the tongue. Everyone knew that Smith was saying something smart, and he knew that they knew.

Smith's confidence took on a paternal form whenever he acknowledged the bouncy rhythms of his young bandmates.His occasional head nod seemed to have more to do with approval than with keeping time. At one point, he leaned his own microphone stand over into the drummer's kit, as if quoting other, messier shows while also paying the drummer an almost fatherly compliment.

But there was no banter, and the band moved quickly from one song to another, almost all from "Fall Heads Roll." The new band couldn't reproduce the electronic dash of the recorded "I Can Hear the Grass Grow." A cover of an old psychedelic number,"I Can Hear the Grass Grow" sounds neither nostalgic nor ironic, but simply goodnatured coming from the Fall. It recalls their earlier hit cover, also sunny, of the Kinks's "Victoria."

Indeed, the Fall's long history of lineup changes and relentless production belies the cynicism of Smith's lyrics. Crapulous but marked by hard work, Smith's career is an essay in resourcefulness. If Saturday's show proves the fungibility of the band's identity, it also proves the competence of this seemingly erratic wild man.

Smith's only sign of personal power was his interest in his bandmates' microphones. Several times during the stage he took a second microphone, from the guitarist or from his wife's keyboard, and held it, along with his own, in front of his small face. During the encore, performing the slow and powerful new song "Blindness," about the blind British politician David Blunkett, he smashed down some of Poulou's keyboard keys.

Mark E. Smith has made a career of making messes and cleaning them up. In person, he looks like the picture of a humble barfly, and his kindly but distant attitude to his bandmates, along with his calm, droning vocals, all bespeak contentment.

Gabriele Caroti (Stop Smiling magazine, 13 June):

After the swirls of assertions regarding the chaos on the Fall’s recent tour, there was nothing more “together” than Mark E.’s juggernaut at their last stateside show at Southpaw in Brooklyn — they’re a band that thrives on turmoil. It looked, though, as if the crowd hadn’t really ever seen them before — the biggest responses were for tunes from their last two records. But when it comes to crowds, New Yorkers are weathered know-it-alls. I mean, the shit that went down in Phoenix, from throwing banana peels (I thought they just smoked ’em in the Southwest…) to opening band histrionics and frat-daddy kegger patriotism would never happen in NYC. (With the DJ playing Swell Maps and Rip Rig + Panic, it was a bit tough.)

And it didn’t happen — the night left me smiling, but began with little hope. The tropical deluge that enveloped the city kept a lot of people home (there was quite a bit of lunge-room at the venue, oddly enough — this definitely wasn’t the deathtrap that is the Knitting Factory) and the chill of the AC kept us numb. The evening started directionless and meandering: the “I’m-getting-too-old-for-this” cliché ran through my head a few times, and I arrived at the venue a bit on the early side. Then there was the unfortunate experience of the opener, Cairo Gang. I imagined a casbah band from out of Pépé le Moko. Instead, it was John C. Reilly meets Mike Watt on the drums Soft Machinin’ it up and following aimlessly (I mean, he was groping in the dark, a constant perplexed look on his face) the guitar meanderings of Thurston Moore/Eros of Gorky’s. It sounded like an amalgam of “Little Wing”/La Düsseldorf/Lonnie Liston Smith two-chord-hippie-jazz all processed thru a Small Stone and innocufied nicely, à la Elephant’s Memory.

Before the Fall took the stage, there was the requisite intro video (this time by Safi Sniper). To everyone’s dismay but mine, the video lasted a solid 45 minutes. It was what seemed like live video remixing, images scrubbing back and forth over split seconds of pop icons galore: Robert Plant singing a clipped “Waaaaaaaaaaaaay dooooooooooown inside… yooooooooooou neeeeeeeeeeeed” from “Whole Lotta Love”; Sonny and Cher rocking back and forth to muffled noise, Fat Elvis sweating and crouching, the side of his face a deep mahogany and sopping wet while singing “Unchained Melody”; Prince yelping “I Would Die 4 U”; Freddie Mercury circa Hot Space. The loops were entrancing — I could’ve watched it forever, and waited for the Fall forever. But by the time Babs appeared on the screen, that was it. Plastic cups and obscenities were hurled onto the stage, and a bald guy standing in front of me with a black cabana shirt from French Connection and a hideous earring (he might’ve had two, actually) booed and put a thumbs-down in the air.

But the Fall is the Fall is the Fall.... The band came out and they were all youngsters. But looks are deceiving — these guys were the tightest players since the days of Levitate, when Hanley, Burns and Wolstencroft were on the case. It was clear the teens were of the malleable variety. But they could spew the loud shrill punk at locomotive speed. And they didn’t care —they were getting to play with Mark E. Smith. A couple years prior they were most likely cueing the 15 Ways 10" on their college radio show.

The moment Mark came out, it was chilling, as ever (as usual). I was beaming so loudly I could’ve lit up the place. He was wearing pleated slacks, a patent leather (or maybe pleather) thin jacket and a belt that looked like it came with dress pants for 12-year-olds at Marshall’s. With this get-up, nothing could’ve stopped him — “Bo Demmick” was all snarling and screaming through two mics and R-rolling. And he actually enunciated! A rebirth. But by “Assume,” the bassist was terrified — he was looking over his shoulder and smiling nervously while Mark E. did his requisite mid-song knob-twiddling on the man’s amp. No matter — the drummer’s limbs were flailing, and even after Mark went over (God knows what he said), the lil’ guy just kept pounding away with the punk motorik of something out of Neu! 75.

At one point during “Mountain Energei,” the semi-stoic bassist smirked and seemed pleasantly amused as Smith continued his patented live-mixing. Might this be a new chapter for the Fall? Compliant band members? Mark E. still taking cues from the Buddy Rich Handbook of Band Leaders while slithering around onstage, bothering everyone and no one? I think so.

“Sparta FC” was solid as usual, and during “What About Us,” the bassist leaned in a couple of times to a mic-stand sans mic to sing backup. Funny. Hoping for some semi-obscurities, I yelled out, “The Pat-Trip Dispenser!” No dice. But I got “Wrong Place, Right Time” (a staple of recent live tours) that was less Michael Clark and more Moulty from the Barbarians: unyielding. Those hired hands get paid by the hour, you know.

After their Move cover and a new live staple, Merle Haggard’s “White Line Fever,” that was it. Elena (the most recent Mrs. Mark E. a.k.a. One Fingered Keyboardist) took her quilted Laura Ashley pattern bag off stage. But it wasn’t over.After a brief pause, the band came back and the drummer started thumping an uptempo version of “Blindness,” which is the consummation and distillation of the New Fall. Sheer gnarl and skullcrushery. Mark then steals the mic, puts it in the bass drum head and a piercingly loud and repetitive thud blares through the PA. This was it. This was the Real New Fall, and that was the gesture that brought it all together.

But how did it all end? In their speed of sound rendition of “Mr. Pharmacist,” the band sounded like the Seeds at their dirtiest and most pissed off. But as it was crystallizing, the drummer forgot to change to double-time during the bridge! Uh-oh. The bassist looked terrified. But just as Mark E. turned his head a few degrees to the left, the beat locked into place. Phew. Granny on bongos, indeed.

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added 11 June; updated 13 June

10 June - New Century Hall, Manchester

Coming Down / Assume / Pacifying Joint / Theme from Sparta FC / Mountain Energei / Reformation / What About Us / I Can Hear the Grass Grow / Wrong Place, Right Time / Bo Demmick / White Line Fever / Mr. Pharmacist / Blindness // Midnight in Aspen / Systematic Abuse

Reviews on the message board.

SimonC:

Absolutely spectacular…may have got the order slightly wrong but here we go…

Opened with Coming Down, which seems to acquired far more lyrics than on the US tour…although many of them just seem to be the phrase ‘Veteran’s Day Poppy…’ repeated over and over…maybe it’ll develop into a full blown Beefheart narrative…whatever, it’s a great start, some nice guitar lines and some delicate little synth plinks from Elini…its really rather lovely.

Things move a up a gear with Assume…I’ve never been much of fan of this one…it’s the Fall at their most stodgy, but this is pretty good…the new guys play round with the structure and vary the attack a little instead of just going hell-for-leather all the way through as the previous group did.

MES turns down Rob’s amp at the start of Pacifying Joint and he accepts this as a signal to do nothing for a while, so he does this strangle little hand-jive thing to pass the time for a while, then turns up his bass and launches in about two minutes into the song. Its not one of my favourites this, but it rocks along efficiently enough…its OK.

Sparta FC is next up…I was getting really bored with the last couple of times I’d seen the group, but this is great…they’ve injected some space into it…I like the way Tim Presley slightly truncates the riff and adds quite a lot reverb…Tim and Rob Barbato make their UK vocal debut with some appropriate ‘Heys!’ (Tim - cool-as-fuck nonchalant, Rob - scrunched up face, yelling for all he’s worth)…

Then it’s Mountain Energei…some of the recent US recordings of this have been utterly awesome…and I’m a little disappointed they’re playing it so early in the set…I was hoping for a massive fifteen minute epic at the climax of the show…and it does actually start a bit shakily, but once it gets going it’s fantastic…a word here about drummer Orpheo McCord; as well as having by far the best name of any Fall member, ever, he may also be their best drummer ever. He spends the entire gig with a huge grin on his face like playing in the Fall has been some sort of wildly impossible fantasy since he was about six years old, and now he’s actually doing it and can’t believe his luck…and he’s just a fucking brilliant skinsman…he understands drumming, understands the dynamics of it, he knows when to push forward and take things up a gear, he knows when hang back and let some space into the song…

What About Us? … the moshers a few rows in front of me are in full-on-frenzy mode by now and MES is similarly working hard in full-on-microphone swapping mode…just about every possible permutation of microphone is tried and a constant stream of increasing irate roadies sneak onto the stage each time his back is turned to try and re-arrange things. However, unlike some recent performances, you just know that with all the mike swapping and amp fiddling he knows exactly what he’s doing and why he’s doing it…and it sound great. Elini’s synth gives out some lovely electronic growls and Rob absolutely thrashes away at his bass as screws his face up again to bawl along…‘What about Us?...Shipman!’

Like Coming Down, Reformation seems to have acquired many more lyrics although I couldn’t make many of them out…some nice growly vocals though…’Rrrrrefffforrrmmmationnnnnnn...uhhhh’…I really like this one…can’t wait to hear it on record…

WPRT, this is great…you can tell that the new guys haven’t just listened to this, learned the riff, and then tried to play it like it they’ve heard it. They’ve thought about it, played around with it, discarded some bits of it, added some new stuff…and its just miles better than it was before…hooray for the new guys!

I Can Hear The Grass Grow, I can sort of do without this to be honest…it’s three minutes they could have added onto Mountain Energei or What About Us? …but its fast, its furious, the moshers love it, so who am I to argue.

When MES looks at the setlist at his feet, grins a big smirk and the opening chords to Mr Pharmamcist blast out, your heart kind of sinks to be honest…but guess what? This is just wonderful! Great thrashy, poppy fun! Moshers go into overdrive…

An extended Bo D…actually, of the longer pieces, this is probably the least strong…it really belongs at the beginning of a set, not near the end, so its slightly anti-climatic, but never mind, its still great ‘Modeninity…what is it?’. What indeed…If this is moderninity I’m all for it…

White Line Fever…when I heard this played live in Stratford in March it was just teeth-grindingly awful…this is much better but still sort of inessential…it acts as a breather though before…

Blindness. There’s a minor problem with the bass at the start so the song actually starts without it…which must be a first…but its OK and soon everything is just fine…in fact its more than fine…its brilliant, it ebbs and flows, it builds and then subsides and builds again…this is how Blindness is supposed to sound…

Off they go and short beer / cigarette break later they’re back with Aspen, which is slightly ragged to be honest, but that’s OK, before a long, long version of Systematic Abuse….’ba ba ba ba ba…Mother sky…’ goes MES…wow, a Beefheart reference and a Can reference in one gig…this is a good tune and the band have it absolutely on the nail…it builds to climax and then, with a final drum flourish its over…

Brilliant…

I have to say, that much as I concede that Ben, Spence and Steve seem have got a raw deal, I regard this new group as being far superior to the old group in every respect…they’re just so much more….I dunno, thoughtful? They have much more developed sense of dynamics…they know there’s so much more to it than just playing everything as fast and as hard as possible all the time…and I think MES knows this band is good…he’s sharp, in control, pushing it forward, having a ball…he looks like a man completely re-invigorated…

What the future holds for these guys is difficult to say…given that I imagine the Fall operate on a shoestring, I would think that its doubtful that they could afford to relocate to England (even if they wanted to) and equally difficult to imagine MES and Elini relocating to California…so this incarnation of the Fall is probably going to be a short-lived one…but a good one.

Yousef:

I thought I may as well submit a review of the New Century Hall thing seeing as I've dropped in so recently. Tis a long one, to atone for my long period of absence.

For those not in the know, the New Century Hall is essentially a civic centre in the city centre: home to record fairs and model train shows etc at the weekends, pensionable carpet, no smoking in the main hall: you can imagine. As we went in, Lizzie had her bag rifled through by the neon yellow-vested doorman, "no cameras in there, are there?" he asked plunging in. The £500-worth of recording equipment we were carrying passed unnoticed.

Inside there were loads (and I do mean *loads*) of security bods wandering around, making their way through the crowd in the auditorium - something I've never seen before at a gig. Probably just looking out for people having a crafty fag and flicking ash on the Axminster. Two bars: a proper one a dozen-deep by the time we got there and a bottle bar (five quid for two bottles of Becks poured into a plastic cup, yay) with a thirty minute queue.

After we'd been relieved of our cash we took to the main hall to see John Cooper Clarke already onstage. He was leaning heavily on his rather tired one-liners but did do a great Urban Splash-baiting reworking of Beasley Street. I think this piece is getting an airing on the radio one night this week, it's probably worth a listen.

And then came the video guy. Oh, dear Lord. This was some pillock with a laptop looping tiny audio and visual segments of Led Zep, Queen, Barbara Streisand and various others and then wittily jerking the video back and forwards to make them dance. I cannot put into words the pure and unremitting awfulness of this performance; I felt like an indulgent uncle having an untalented idiot nephew's new hobby inflicted upon me. Much booing towards the end and continuing immediately after this abomination which was swiftly followed by what one hesitates to call the Fall speedily taking the stage, setting up and kicking off.

Now. Before I go any further, I should point out that I've read a few of the reviews of this gig that appeared on the
forum/messageboard thing and many of have been of the "stunning, absolutely stunning" variety. And while this was by no means a poor gig, I have to take serious issue with these gobshite fanboy wankers.

First up, I'm not going to talk about "the new line-up". I'm presuming this pick-up band are only here to keep Smith, Wise et al from losing out on the best part of 20 grand that this gig must have raised. And I'd be willing to bet they're going to disappear pretty sharpish when words like "work permit", "salary" and "room to live" start cropping up.

They did do a pretty sound job of thrashing through the set (based largely on the last two LPs) at great volume and the gig was far from a washout. But it certainly wasn't a great, or even good, Fall gig. As we left, Lizzie (not one much given to musical commentary) said, "that wasn't the Fall; it was Mark E Smith backed by Green Day". Fucking spot-on. It's an absolute travesty that this 30th Anniversary (or whatever) show went ahead with a temporary band of hacks sawing their way through the songs with no subtlety or invention whatsoever.

What made the Fall great, and what I reckon most people allude to when they evoke the name, is that weird, unique chemistry between MES and the weird, unique musicians that populated the great Fall line-ups. The fact is, The Fall as such died somewhere between the Chisellers and Levitate and has had its corpse dragged from pillar to post ever since. If he had half the balls he likes to make out, Smith would've called it a day in 96/97 and treated the last ten years as an intermittently great solo career. As it is, he's held on to the brand name, tarnishing it irreparably with anonymous, uninspired musicians, barrel-scraping compilations, some dismal gigs and that famous revolving door personnel policy.

And yet for some reason, the critical faculties of the fanbase have deteriorated at almost the same rate as the quality of the band. Around the middle of the gig, MES was really getting into it, like the Smith of old - skulking around the stage, making weird hand gestures as if to elucidate lyrics, mouthing along to backing vocals off-mike and I thought "Ace! he's enjoying himself, maybe this new blood has been good for him". In hindsight, however, since when has having a singer who looks like he wants to be there been a signifier of a great gig? Why was this a "stunning" performance? Just because MES turned up? Didn't drop his mike and fall over dribbling? Didn't get into a fight with the band? Managed to sing the right lyrics to the right songs? Didn't have a piss-stain down the front of his strides? Check the guy's track record.

For my money, the last decade of the Fall has been more about keeping Mark Smith out of gainful employment and off benefits than making music. And yet the band is probably at it's most popular since the early nineties, certainly judging by gig attendances in this country. But I fear that this is due to an influx of fans who were too young or too dumb to catch the group in their prime and are now desperately and vicariously trying to play catch up. Face it: if you bought tickets to a Macca concert and said that you seen the Beatles play live, people would laugh you out of the building. Ditto the Fall, if you didn't see them pre-1996 (and that includes me, sadly), you didn't see the Fall. You may have seen some good and even great gigs (as I know I have) but what made the Fall unique just doesn't exist anymore.

But still the vultures circle, and what a sad pantomime they have made of this key band. If you toe the line, who knows - soon you could be writing sleeve notes for reissues, editing the official site, releasing compilations and bootleg-quality cds on your crackpot record label, even playing in the band! Or promoting them. Or managing them. Or marrying the singer.

Everybody wants a piece, everybody wants some sort of association with that magical brand: "The Fall". And the most vociferous will get one. But the true tragedy of this shameful debacle is that while half-wits rhapsodise about the 30th anniversary shindig, many of the people who imbued the b(r)and with this mercurial quality that everyone wants to rub up against are working on the very peripheries of the music industry, if they work within it at all. And the Fall lives on as one man's pension scheme and karaoke machine: tribute banditry at its very worst.

As for Saturday's gig - it was alright: loud, high energy, not too much pissing around.

Financial Times (13 June) by Steven Bird

Following the fortunes of The Fall in the 30 years since they began in a Salford sitting-room, you feel they are less of a band, more a series of movies by the same director: the sole remaining founding member Mark E. Smith. How else to explain the changing membership, culminating in the latest revolution in the domestic fortunes of the world’s premier avant-garde garage rock band.

Four weeks before this 30th anniversary concert and halfway through their US tour three band members flew home, for reasons undisclosed, leaving Mr Smith and his wife (and Fall keyboardist) Elena Poulou behind.

As ever with this group, necessity is the mother of invention and The Fall acquired two guitarists and a drummer from a Chicago band and carried on. Incredibly, even for a band with a history of upheaval, by the time they reached Manchester they were ready to channel the spirit of the Sex Pistols, whose Manchester concert kick-started their career 30 years before. And I suspect even the band’s fanatically loyal but ever-cynical following were blown away by this latest incarnation of their heroes.

The drummer Orpheo McCord played as if his life depended on it, as did the guitarists Tim Presley and Rob Barbato. With cover versions from the drug- soaked 1960s (“Mr Pharmacist” and “I can hear the grass grow”) to stompers such as “Sparta FC” and several moments of Captain Beefheart-style genius, the crowd of 1,200 found much to celebrate.

Despite random accolades and Mark E. Smith’s often disdainful attitude towards them, The Fall occupy a singular place in British music history. In a space between the Stooges and Stockhausen, Smith’s world view holds sway. His world is often as uncomfortable for band members as for a casual listener: peppered with literary references, history lessons and righteous anger, especially towards the flabby middle class – leaving the Prestwich lad (aged 49) a bit of a cultural outcast.

After 30 years it is time to start showing some appreciation. Smith is a lot more than just a failed pop singer. [five stars]

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