- Senior Twilight Stock Replacer
- Tommy Shooter
- Fall Sound
- Can Can Summer
- 50 Year Old Man
- Pacifying Joint
- I’ve Been Duped
- Wings
- Alton Towers
- Strangetown
- Systematic Abuse
- No Xmas for John Quays
NOTES
73 minutes
Given that four separate recordings of this, the last gig of 2007, exist, there is ample opportunity to carefully examine and review this performance.
Concert-goers at the time were split over this show. Some felt it was lacking something vital, others thought it was just above average, and the rest were overwhelming in their praise. A typical reaction to a Fall gig!
Of the four extant recordings, the Consortiums “minidisc” recording is the best capture providing a good vibrant mix with all instruments well presented. I’d hazard to say that this is probably the best capture of 2007. Unfortunately, there is a little bit of audience intervention – but not too much.
The gig clocks in at just over 56 minutes – relatively short for a gig during 2007 – but for all that it is a generous slab of Fall sound and more importantly getting back into the swing of the majority of the set being material not yet officially released in studio form.
A pulsing synth kicks of a muscular and still developing “Stock Replacer” – interestingly Pete is now using a slightly morphed guitar tone here which sounds incredibly like the one used by Craig Scanlon on “Who Makes the Nazis?” on “Hex Enduction Hour”.
The previously named “I’m mere Mark” has now been retitled into “Tommy Shooter” and Mark advises “here’s another one I don’t know the lyrics too…”. I’m particularly impressed by Pete’s playing on this track – his style is definitely coming through as this version of the band comes into its own. He plays effective and memorable guitar lines here with great structure – a contradiction perhaps to the loose improv of Tim Presley. As mentioned previously this one has all the hallmarks of a Fall classic.
“Fall Sound” has again developed – the core of the song remains – but the band are throwing in little subtle asides in the “pauses” – whammy bar from Pete, and swirling synths from Elena. This is a punchy, fast version both hypnotic and motorik.
The shuffling “Can Can” get its third outing. A great riff, guitar scraping “call” and a synth figure “response” dominates the para funk/skank apeing early “Tago Mago” like behaviour. There are elements of “Shiftwork/Code Selfish” era Fall about this and there appears to be a short keyboard dalliance from MES at the end.
“50 year old man” appears to be developing into a lengthy mid gig classic now clocking in at just over seven minutes. This has real form and structure now and is probably the most accomplished of the band’s newer material. The delta blues swagger of the middle section is superb as is the mind-numbing repetition of the main riff. There is some visceral howling from Mark here which is a bit scary.
A perky version of “Pacifying Joint” seems oddly out of place in this set. I guess the jury is still out on “i’ve been duped” with a lot of the band’s listeners. On this performance it’s not coming across as a classic – a little overlong and a tad retro, for some reason I’m reminded of Lena Lovich (not something I like to be reminded of in all honesty).
“Wings” gets the usual intense performance – if I’ve got a gripe I guess Elena might try and do something more inventive on the keyboards instead of her trademark “hop hop hop” one-note pulse. Mark intones about various matters before the spacey chords and loose beats of “Alton Towers” kick in – this is again replete with space noises from EPs Korg – and has a great open feel to it. The “metalist” ramble from the Groundhogs vault starts to sound like both White Lightning and Psykick Dancehall (the “my garden is made of stone” bit) but resolves into that North Manc mutant blues.
An oddly short and drummerless version of “Systematic Abuse” starts and then stops as the band get a bit confused when Mark and Keiron leave the stage. Having said that its a nice spacey improv version.
One encore featuring some crusty lookalike road crew member that some gig goers named “Swampy” . After a gap of a couple of decades “No Xmas for John Quays” makes a triumphant return. Good to hear it again after such a long time – notably Mark’s count in doesn’t quite work. As you can see from the video link “Swampy” doesn’t do much other than some rather intense freaky type dancing.
So, and in conclusion, I would not say it’s the best Fall gig ever, but it is not as bad as some of the detractors would have. I think it’s safe say it’s a fairly important one to have given the development of the new material and the resurrection of “John Quays”