The Fall
Civic Centre concert hall, Motherwell 
Scotland 
UK
5th October 1996 


01 Intro / 10 Houses of Eve
02 M5
03 He Pep!
04 The Mixer
05 Cheetham Hill (instrumental)
06 Oleano (band walk off midway, return and finish the song)
07 Mr Pharmacist
08 The Chiselers (MES attempts guitar)
09 Spinetrak 
10 Das Vulture
11 US 80s 90s
----
12 Behind the Counter
13 The Joke
----
14 Big New Prinz (MES guitar)

Mark E Smith - vocals, occasional guitar attempts 
Julia Nagle - keyboards / guitar
Steve Hanley - bass 
Simon Wolstencroft - drums

Audience recording, large 'church-hall' type venue, capacity 600?.. approx 200 in attendance

Recording info; 

Aiwa TPS30 / Aiwa CM30 mic. TDK SA90 (master tape) 
Transfer info (Dec 2017 fresh transfer); 

R-09/pioneer GR555 real time EQ/Pioneer PDR-509/Maxell CD-R XLII-80/DB power amp-WAV/Cool Edit tack split,levelling and tidying up//FLAC level 8 / TLH 

There's been a bit of discussion recently about this gig and its been documented in various books and blogs.  On the night, 
we weren't aware there had been a band bust-up and were surprised when the Fall appeared onstage without Brix. Before the
gig started, MES walked through the public bar and back again, holding onto the shoulder of his minder, slouching on behind.
Strange, but nothing out of the ordinary for MES although whispers and rumours did began to start.  We were preparing for
the worst (ie a 2 hour wait for the band to come onstage, or the gig getting cancelled..), but on they duly trotted.
It was bizarre watching a bass-led 4 piece, but they gave it their everything and if you give this a listen you won't hear
much bad attitude from MES and co. or the band being berated by the audience as some have suggested.  Decent quality recording too.

This is the first time I've uploaded this to the web from my master tape but I believe there are other versions around. If you're not
aware what went on at this stage of the band's career, here's a brief summary;

"The late September/early October 96 tour started off reasonably enough, although there were snafus on the way 
(3 takes of Birthday at Norwich, for example). The Fall clearly had a sadistic booking agent, forcing the band to decamp from
leafy Gloucestershire (Cheltenham 4 Oct, where it is alleged Mark sacked the band the performance !) to the wilds of
Scotland (Motherwell 5 Oct 96 - playing to one man and his dog*, replete with soundcheck bust-up with the ex-missus, Brix, 
resulting in her withdrawing her labour and then back down to Sussex to play a Worthing Council sponsored gig in a venue 
the size of the Royal Albert Hall."
 
* One man and his dog and quite a few others - including me! :-)  


Cheers
 

MATB 
31 Dec 2017