W.B.
A Past Gone Mad
Touch Sensitive
Cyber Insekt
The Joke
F’-‘Oldin’ Money
Way Round
Hands Up Billy
And Therein
White Lightning
Ten Houses of Eve
Ol’ Gang

NOTES

Audience Audio and Video Recording

Where to begin? Well quite clearly Mr Smith and/or Mr Wilding has had a drink. This is readily apparent due to the uncharacteristic bonhomie with which Mr Smith addresses the dreadlocked chap in the audience. Reviews at the time reflect on the collapsing, fighting and general un-togetherness. The DVD displays this in spades.

The group is in fine form. Helal and Head locking together well and Wilding covering for the missing Julia with a more than usual thickness to this guitar sound. When his guitar has not been unplugged, turned off or he isn’t mucking about that is.

“W.B.” has a loose feel and doesn’t quite work, given that this is its first live performance , this is understandable. However “A past gone mad” is an unrecognisable mess and clearly cannot be delivered with this stripped down version of the band. “Touch Sensitive” and “Cyber Insekt” – with a quiet bit in the middle with guttural prose – are both well delivered – and “The Joke” is delivered with some panache until about a minute from the end when Smith disappears, a pattern to repeat during the rest of the show.

“F-oldin’ Money” shows some promise but is compromised by distressed diction and a lack of light and shade on the drums. Again Mark disappears about half way through and eventually re-appears in a slightly different time continuum, microphones rattle and some of the crowd demand that Mr Smith gets his act together.

“Way Round” is good with Smith retaining some of his composure and the band producing a good driving sound. “Hands up Billy” is an unholy mess with Wilding’s vocals fading in and out and the band collapsing in on itself as Mark holds the microphone. Only Head and Helal hold it together as Smith and Wilding dance around each other in an effort to mark their territory on the stage.

“And Therein” suffers from a degree of slurring in the vocal department and Helal is pushing it as a two-beat sound which tends to detract. Wilding plays a few duff notes and Head adds some extra beats where they are not expected.

“White Lightning” has similar moments of distress but all in all just about works. “Ten Houses” is an altogether surreal experience. Smith does some high pitched stuff at the beginning but then Wilding takes over on completely over the top vocals as Mark hands the microphone to him and wanders off. “If only Mark would come on stage …..” replaces “shards will relocate” as Wilding exhorts the audience to call Mark to come on stage as he doesn’t want to “do poetry” – not unexpectedly he fails to attract his leader back to the microphone. Excellent bass from Helal on this by the way but it judders to a halt in the absence of the leader.

After what loosely might be called an encore break the band returns with a workmanlike version of “Ol Gang” which seems, on this evening at any rate. to initially concern tramps from Islington. Smith seems back to normal and the rhythm is good.

And so it ends – a peculiar gig notable for the first performance of “W.B.” and the onstage antics of the Bard of Prestwich and his errant guitarist.

VIDEO REVIEW

A recently unearthed video of this gig reveals a night of tomfoolery, laughter, and strangeness. A typical Fall gig really with perhaps some added spice as we have a visual record of said event. From the opening bars of W.B. there is clearly a deal of tension between Mark and Neville as the MES is roundly shoved forward by Mr Wilding. Mark takes this in good spirit and smiles. However he describes Neville as being too slow (in an anglo saxon fashion).

At the start of “Passable” Mark approaches a rather hirsute member of the audience with a grin on this face and says “How yer doin’ – yr’alright?” and then seems to say “Get a shave”.

This is a gig with an incredibly stripped down line-up with just drums, bass and guitar – often just bass and drums – the sound is sparse, minimal with little attempt to go beyond a very raw garage sound. At the end of Passable Mark announces “I am surrounded by homosexuals” for no readily apparent reason.

“Touch Sensitive” features some shouty vocals from Neville and half way through the song Mark appears to pick up a beer mat from the stage floor and put it on Mr Wildings head. Mark then decides to sing the song without a microphone which sort of works in a small venue like this one.

“The Joke” is performed with some venom until about 3/4 of the way through Mark and Neville start jostling for some stage space and both fall on the floor in a tangle – miraculously Neville still manages to keep playing as he returns to his feet, Mark pats him on the back then ushers him to “his place” on the stage right.

“Hands up Billy” is also suitably foolish with Mark holding the microphone up for Neville, faking a yawn when he is singing, and then taking over the vocal duties only for Neville to propel himself across stage and knock Mark over.

This is all done in an incredibly light hearted fashion and their is much grinning and laughter amongst the protagonists……Mark loops the microphone around Nevilles neck and he attempts to sing through it as the gig descends into something that Brian Rix might have written.

The final chapter of this torrid affair centres around “Ten Houses of Eve” where Mark basically gives up and leaves it to Neville.

All in all a peculiar night with the supporting cast of Adam and Tom getting down the rhythm with muscularity and some venom.