The Fall
SO36 Club
West Berlin, Germany
May 23rd 1981


Andy presents a gem from the archives.
This is The Fall at West Berlin's SO36 Club on May 23rd 1981, recorded by a man from Dublin called John.
I know The Fall have released twenty-odd official live albums, but this one knocks them all into a cocked hat. It's a strong claim to make, but I believe this to be The Fall's finest live recording ever. It's an audience recording, but for 1981 it's pretty damned good.
The magic of this show is in the performance. These are best-ever performances of most of the songs featured, an absolutely dynamic performance by a band right on top of it's game.
I have included some artwork I made myself, in MS-Word format. It's basically a spoof of the official "Slates, Slags Etc" 10" release and of the Rough Trade label of the time.
There is a potential problem with this show, in that the CD lasts 81.21 minutes, including as it does a two-song instrumental sound-check. This could be a problem for those of you whose machines are unable to "overburn". One possible solution is to have the show on one disc and the sound-check on another. It's up to you.
I recorded my cassette of this directly from the master. I even used the original machine on which it was recorded to dub from. My 1st generation cassette was rarely played, although a copy was played almost to death. The 1st generation tape was fed directly into Cool Edit 2000 with no sound "enhancements" made at all, just fade-in and out and a stitch-together at the tape-flip.
The taper missed the very start of the show, so there is a fade-in to "Leave The Capital".
The show has previously only been in limited circulation, but certainly never from such a low-generation source, and never in complete form. A C-60 of this show was once in circulation, which omitted the soundcheck and tracks 9 and 10. I happen to know that this tape was made from a 3rd- or 4th generation master onto really cheap, horrible tape and, as it's still occasionally traded now, I can only assume they all have their roots from that. Time to upgrade.

Band-only sound-check:
1.	Jawbone and the Air-Rifle
2.	Container Drivers

Show:
3.	Leave the Capital
4.	Fortress
5.	City Hobgoblins
6.	Slates, Slags, Etc
7.	Hip Priest
8.	Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
9.	Fantastic Life
10.	C'n'C Hassle Schmuck
11.	Your Heart out
12.	An Older Lover
13.	Totally Wired
14.	Session Musician
15.	Jawbone and the Air-Rifle #2
16.	No Xmas for J. Quays

Andy