M5
Behind the Counter
Reckoning
Ladybird (Green Grass)
Free Range
You’re Not Up to Much
Surmount All Obstacles
Glam Racket
Big New Prinz
15 Ways false start
15 Ways
Hey! Student
Strychnine
NOTES
- Soundboard – 56 minutes
REVIEW
Appears to be a soundboard. Excellent quality but an odd mix. Bass and Snare drums are very flat and soggy sounding in places. Smith very clear, bass nearly inaudible, guitar and synths tend to dominate.
A most peculiar confection this one. Jet Lag, awful venue, problems with the promoter? – who knows?….. but it’s obvious the band is completely ill at ease for most of this gig.
The tour was to promote the new album “Middle Class Revolt” which had been released at the beginning of the month. The band seems to be playing well but the overall feel is lacklustre and untogether. It starts off well enough with well delivered versions of “M5” and “Behind the Counter” however by the time “Reckoning” starts, and Scanlon starts to lose himself in a wall of processed guitar, the band seems to be teetering on the edge of narcolepsy as Craig plays with his fx pedals.
“Ladybird” seems to lose its way almost from the start with the band demonstrating an unusual degree of incoherence – its opening bars are dominated by a baleful bass and rhythm run- through but by the time Smith kicks its clear the band are at odds with each other time wise. Not surprising that Smith would be ringing his ex-wife at the end of the tour and inviting her back into the group to “liven things up”. This is an odd listening experience with an almost buttock clenching wish for the band to get it right at they meander around in a maelstrom of maundering muddle.
As “Free Range” kicks it begins to become obvious that problem is lying with Craig who seems oddly out of kilter and off the beat. That the recording tends to completely drown out Steve doesn’t help as there is no centre/ pulse. There is further evidence of this on “You’re Not Up To Much” which is fairly dire with overblown guitar and a half hearted attempt from Smith. Things complete collapse on “Surmount all Obstacles” where Smith walks off after a couple of bars with a “sorry I can’t work here”.
A half time team talk in the dressing room seems to have done the trick with a spot on version of “Glam Racket” – Craigs’ guitar is back down to a reasonable level and the band is locking together for the first time in the evening with Smith in angry but precise mood. This is followed by an immense ten minute version of “Prinz” which completely exonerates the mess earlier in the proceedings – this is an incredibly fast version of the song complete with taped sounds and nasty percussive noises and whines and wails from Bush’s synths.
However things start to fall apart again and there is another breakdown at the beginning of “15 ways” where Mark asks for it to be started again – oddly in the first part before the breakdown Hanleys bass is audible but then disappears for this second take. The synths dominate and Smith maintains a surly tone throughout. Things are lost again with a stuttering gallop through “Student” which feels complete bereft of any synchronicity in the band until about 2 minutes in when they seem to get their act together and the thing develops into a manic punk classic with Smith rattling out a searching polemic over the top and Wolstencroft developing some interesting drum patterns over the guitar/bass grind.
Things conclude with a very strange version of “Strychnine” – again we have the heavy metal guitar noise from Mr Scanlon’s corner and the band teetering again on the edge of incoherence. Craig plays a risible solo and Smith howls like a demented wolverine throughout – its sort of charming in its incoherence. At the end Smith orders the band off and then comes back to the audience and says “Sorry about that kids we just came from Lithuania and we got treated better there than we did here in this Sh*t Hole”.
Clearly something was amiss here and it would be interesting to know what. Probably interesting to listen to try and understand what is going on but all in all not the best gig in the pantheon.
In a note to us Jim Barker said
“I was at this gig and I remember well MES’ antics. As far as I could gather at the time the people who put the gig on promoted it not at all. There was like one poster in town and zero local press. The venue was brand new, Basingstoke’s sparkly Anvil. It’s one of those places that has a panto for 4 months every year, loads of tribute bands, bits from West End musicals, and bloody Jethro or Joe Pasquale every week. The gig was poorly attended and The Fall were the first “rock” act to ever play there. I think the acoustics and sound setup was pretty much untested in a live situation, and this may explain a lot” of the problems….”