Sunday, 29 July, 1984 – Elephant Fayre, Port Eliot, St. Germans, England

Smile
Lie Dream of a Casino Soul
C.R.E.E.P.
Elves
Hexen Definitive
2×4
No Bulbs
Joker Hysterical Face
Lay of the Land
Garden
Kicker Conspiracy
Oh! Brother
Totally Wired

NOTES

72 minutes
Soundboard quality – but maybe an audience

Final performance of Joker Hysterical Face

Eloquently reviewed by Stewart Lee (his first Fall gig) in the Guardian.

Exceptional soundboard quality recording which appears to be an audience given the whooping and hollering that occasional interjects – rather ruined by jumping/skipping in quite a few parts. I can only assume that this has been sourced from a vinyl bootleg.

This is a stunning performance with the 1984 band in great form. I assume the sporadic keyboards are either Hanley P and Brix.

A good range of extant material – exceptional versions of “Smile”, “Lie Dream” and “c.r.e.e.p.” kick things off with Brix doing some serious tonsil straining on latter, and MES getting into great falsetto. Interesting shift in playing on the extended coda to “Lie Dream” gives it a great feel

Hanley is magnificent throughout and there is some excellent bass riffing on a relentless “Elves”. On the copy I have there is a faux repeat of the start of “Hex” for some reason- some whistling from MES starts the proceedings – and great percussion twiddles give the whole thing a fresh feel. “Hex” goes straight into “2×4” – not Strife Knot as listed elsewhere – a joyous “No Bulbs” is somewhat spoiled by  tuning problems.

“Joker” takes quite a while to get going but once it does is rather good with MES berating   “The Thompson Twins” – mind you he describes them as “The Thompson Twits” I think. Opening twenty seconds or so of “Lay of the Land” are unfortunately missing. Bass tour de force from Hanley S on this one and the band at full tilt.

“Kicker” is played with some venom. The riff seems strangely mutated at the beginning of “Oh! Brother” and then settles down, matters conclude with a crowd pleasing, muscular “Totally Wired” which I don’t think quite works with Brix’s backing vox. MES wanders off mic at times which is a little frustrating.

Annoyingly an excellent gig with pristine sound ruined by regular skipping and jumping on the recording.

E Fayre

The Fall playing Elephant Fayre in 1984 - Stewart Lee's favourite ever gig