Tuesday, 4 June, 1991 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Blood Outta Stone
Idiot Joy Showland
Bill Is Dead
The Mixer
White Lightning
Edinburgh Man
The Book of Lies
Pitsville Direkt
High Tension Line
You Haven’t Found it yet
The War Against Intelligence
Life Just Bounces
Tape Interlude
And Therein
Big New Prinz
Dead Beat Descendant
Mr Pharmacist
Shift-work

NOTES

Soundboard/Audience Audio – 78 minutes

Two versions of wide variance exist – one soundboard and one audience

Version 1 comes from a tape transferred by “Fredheadset” and appears to be a very good soundboard. It fits on one CD.

Version 2 (from Tim) is split over two CDs and features a fore-shortened version of “Blood Outta Stone”. The keyboards are slightly higher in the mix for some reason. The song order gets suitably messed about after this. There is a tape flip before “Pharmacist”. I have an impression that the order of the material on Version 1 is correct given the gaps and fading. There are also some sound break-ups on version 2. Version 2 is also missing “Dead Beat Descendent”. The tracklisting on version 2 is
Blood Outta Stone
Idiot Joy Showland
Bill Is Dead
The Mixer
White Lightning
Edinburgh Man
The Book of Lies
Pitsville Direkt
Mr. Pharmacist
Shift-Work
High Tension Line
You Haven’t Found It Yet
The War Against Intelligence
Life Just Bounces
And Therein
Big New Prinz

Some of the material from the gig was broadcast on radio VPRO:

Pittsville Direkt
Edinburgh Man
High Tension Line
You Haven’t Found It Yet
The War Against Intelligence.

 

 We are fortunate indeed to have access to this exceptional quality recording from the “Shiftwork” tour. Also notable as Kenny Brady’s last gig with the band.

From a bass driven version of “Blood Outta Stone” onwards we are blessed with an excellent realisation of this version of the band. Simply memorable versions of “Bill is Dead” and “The Mixer” dominate the first half of the set – the importance of Brady’s violin in this context is never better realised than on the latter where together with Hanley’s bass it drives the beat.

However the use of keyboards throughout the gig is somewhat questionable. On “White Lightning” it is not clear, for example, whether the insistent playing is a keyboard patch, or the violin played pizzicato – on balance. When Simon, Craig and Paul lock together its debatable whether this band needs another musician to make up the sound as it is right on full and rich.

The material from “Shiftwork” dominates and is variable. “Book of lies” feels somewhat rushed whereas “Pittsville Direkt” is suitable scabrous and tense. Future single “High Tension Line” is initially tinny but Wolstencroft soon thickens the sound out with solid drumming. “You haven’t found it yet” is atmospheric and dominated by Scanlon’s full guitar sound and effective keyboards from Brady, and “War Against Intelligence” is a fine noise indeed with the violin taking an effective lead.

The version of “Life Just Bounces” is unique and immense. Brady leads the band in a mad jig around the melody – Smith rescues the original core of the song every once in a while but this is simply a wild celidh of speedy noise which just has to be heard to be believed.

After another night around the bodhran with “And Therein” the soundscape is given a good cleaning out with a measured and funky “Prinz” which features weird percussive keyboard squiggles but is carried effortless by the leader who is in fine screaming and yelping form. Bluesy violin leads us into a manic “Descendant” which is blessed with some seriously dirty guitar from Scanlon.

The drums rattle along in a martial fashion – the violin plays a simple evocative melody redolent of klezmer – Smith yelps “Hey Mr Pharmacist” and the core of the Fall is centred around an excellent take of the song many Fallophytes have grown to hate -I have to say with all candour that this is one of the better versions despite a bit of cack-handedness from Craig about half way through.

It ends with a ticking cymbal, chords, techno surge and bleep and then a memorable meander through the density of “Shift-work”.

All in all a simply breathtaking recording of the band about to change again. Useful to have such a great recording of the Shift-Work material which is, in some respects, superior to the studio version.