The Fall 1998-04-04 Trocadero, Philadelphia AUD FLAC additional info From the torrent posting back in 2005, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/bot-dimeadozen-org/conversations/messages/87882 As promised, the first in Clayts' new series of Disastrous Fall Gigs for you to rubber-neck over. This is a comical gig, with plenty of instrumental versions and the whole gig coming to a rather ugly end during Everybody But Myself, with Hanley throwing his bass down on the floor and throwing a mic forcibly at Mark's shin before storming off stage with Burns and Crooks. Cue the funniest version ever of Cheetham Hill (it's actually rather groovy), with just Julia's DAT for company, and performed in a similar fashion to Powder Keg from that, er powder keg of a gig three nights later in New York City. The middle section of the gig really picks up, so it's not all doom and gloom, but rest assured this performance will never win any 'Best Live Act' awards. The quality of the recording isn't too hot, with Mark's vocals (what few of them there are) quite low down in the mix, and Julia's keys fairly quiet too. I've done my best to enhance the sound, but you can't polish a turd, more's the pity... This gig is added at the express request of Crashing Beat, and with my whole-hearted endorsement, due to the eBay shenanigans of one person selling this gig for stupid quids on the UK version of the auction site. Hopefully, getting this gig out there into trading circles promptly will prevent anyone else falling foul of this despicable practice. Reviews of the gig, in all its unfolding horror (including stories of a hockey puck being kicked out into the audience by Mark, and other general tomfoolery by the main man), can be found at the foot of http://www.visi.com/fall/news/980405.html and top of http://www.visi.com/fall/news/980410.html. ====================================== http://thefall.org/gigography/gig98.html - "The P.A. (...). (...) fucking thinking that we're stupid. (...)." (between attempts at "He Pep") - "Good evening, we are The Fall. Lazy fat-assed twats in their late-thirties." (during "Free Range") - "The mic (...) is shit. Fucking (...)." (before "Hip Priest") - "(...)! Speak English! Attention! Fucking shit!" (before "I'm A Mummy") - "Right, 'Cheetham Hill', here we go." (before "Cheetham Hill") - "See the cruisers in the cars. See shits scared to come out." (amended lyrics to "Cheetham Hill", referring to the rest of the group, who'd walked out) ====================================== http://thefall.org/news/980405.html Philly Troc 4 Apr From: PQuig99164 In the interest of timing I'll post this version of the events of 4/4/98 at the Trocadero but I'll depend on the hardcore Fallnetters who were upfront to fill in with the exact setlist and details. Opening insturmental, then He Pep with MES coming on and making remark about a restaurant. He then leaves after knocking over papers etc over by Julia's setup. The band finishes He Pep. Mark comes back for Hip Priest. Second walkoff of the night within 10-15 minutes. Comes back for a few songs including Calender (?) and Lie Dream. Things start to go awry during I'm a Mummy as audience member is handed lyrics and microphone by MES. Fan takes the stage and sits on the drum riser and trades grunts with MES. About a verse of Jungle Rock around this time. Entire band leaves. They return and start up Everybody but myself, MES starts fucking with Hanley's amp and is butted by Hanley. Circles back but Hanley throws bass down and pushes him away as he leaves the stage, followed by Karl and Tommy Crooks ( who, in my opinion, played some decent guitar during Hip Priest). Then it gets even more bizarre as Mark and Julia launch into Cheetham Hill with only the keyboard samples. They play the entire song (more or less) in this fashion. Then Mark disappears behind the stage, Julia walks off, and a few minutes later Mark ascends the stairs and the show is over. Masquerade was in there at some point and maybe an instrumental 4 1/2 inch. Once again I'll depend on the Fallnetters upfront for exact details etc. Speculate- ---------------- From: Kard2000 < Subject: Philadelphia Trocadero review this is pretty much the way i remember it: The band came out and opened with Spencer Must Die, the band then started into he pep, MES walks out mutters some comment into the microphone which is buried very low in the mix. Mark makes a cut gesture to the band and motions to leave the stage, Mark walks off and the band launch into an instrumental and then leave. They come back within a few mintutes and launch into Free Range, we get a Good Evening We are The Fall from Mr. Smith. The mike is sounding a bit better at this point. They go into Hip Priest throught which Mark switches from the Microphone he is holding to the one in front of Tommy, dragging each around dropping them tangling the wires. Mark also begins messing around with the mike in front of the drum kit knocking it on the floor and fiddling with the amps and all that. Mark spends some time behind the drum kit smoking a cigarette and then comes back out front and spends a good five minutes untangling the microphone cords as the band continues playing Hip Priest, eventually unplugging one microphone and dropping it on Julia's Roland and unplugging the other one as well (Trocadero personnel later plugged them back in) -- and after Hip Priest , I believe is where the next walk off appeared Mark comes back and stands on the side of the stage out of view of everyone and delivers the lyrics for Levitate as the band plays, comes out for Pearl City and Calendar, at one point taking has black pullover jacket over his hand and walking over to Julia's keyboard and doing a litte improv work. Then Mark sits on the side of the drum riser and as the band launches into I'm a Mummy goes mumbles some uncomprehinsible comments of which the only things i could understand where fucking shit somewhere in there, he then proceeded to get up walked to the edge of the stage, kneeled down and handed this kid the microphone and a piece of paper. From what i could see the piece of paper had a typewritten comment about how it is Trocadero policy not to allow photography or recording of anykind, he motions to the kid to read the paper, which he does a little and then trades remarks with MES in MESspeak, he tried to hand the mike back to mark at a couple of points but mark wouldnt take it. The kid ended up jumping up on stage and ended up trading lines with MES, the kids best line was "look what happened to me" to the look what happens line. Near the end of Mummy the kid ends up going back to the audience. Mark decided to kneel down next to another kid and handed over what looked like a set list for the kid to read. Somewhere during all this a hockey puck and two ciggarettes where thrown up onstage, Mark smoked one of the ciggarrettes and ended up kicking up the hockey puck into the audience. After Mummy the band left. Everybody but Myself was triggered off and the band came back down and started playing, and this is where things got ugly. Mark started for Hanley's amp, Hanley wouldnt take any shit from Mark and gave him a shove, Mark tried a second time and Hanley whacked him with the neck of his bass and then unplugged it, dropped, and on the way of the stage gave Mark a huge shove and then grabbed the other microphone at Tommy and tossed it towards Mark and grazed his knee, Karl and Tommy followed Hanley off stage leaving Mark and Julia to finish. Mark and Julia finish with Cheetham Hill over verbal taunts from the audience, "Mark E. Smith your an asshole", "Your finished", "You should join Brix's band" -- the night finished with a thank you goodnight, the crowd waited around to see if anything further was going to happen -- Tommy came out to grab his guitar and shook his head to signal this was the end of the evening I think the complete highlight of the night was the Mark E. Smith for Drain Commissioner band Mike Wright got to the band to use for a backdrop and of course meeting Mr. Wright and some of the other Fallnet members, Russ, Kurt, Jeff Curtis -- this is everyone i remeber meeting, sorry if i forgot anyone. Did anyone manage to tape the show? I couldnt get my recorder past the security guard. hope they manage to stay together for two shows at Brownies next week, im hoping one out of the four shows im going to will be a good one joe --------------- From: Hank Tomczak Subject: Philly Report To the best of my recollection after 8 or so Sierra Nevada Pale Ales. 1:57 AM Oh My. Night starts out great. Hugh Fallnet presence. Botswanas sacked from tour. Looks to be a good night. T-shirt girls tells me band in good spirits, out to get bite to eat. Sounds good. Bush Tetra's put on decent opening act show. Everyone up for a good show. First two songs - Spencer and I forget what. No sign of MES. Band tight but Hanley looking pissed. Walkout. Band returns for rocking Free Range. Soon as I saw Smith thought to myself "this doesn't look good". Smith looking totally fucked up. Into Hip Priest. Band is hot but Smith into fucking around with microphones and wires gets all tangled up. Disconnects microphone and tosses over shoulder. MES leaves stage. Band continues and finishes up, kicking ass. Next song (I forget what - done as instrumental). Band walks again. Mikes set up by roadies. Lie Dream, Calendar, Pearl City, some others. This was the best part of the show. Band tight, Smith hanging in, fucking with everyone's gear. I'm a mummy . Smith hands mike to front row guy who jumps on stage and shares vocals. Very light-hearted moment with everyone seeming to enjoy it. Levitate with Hanley siting on drum platform. Smith walks over and Hanley pushes him away. Things starting to look ugly. Smith wanders about and back to Hanley's gear, twisting knobs. Hanley VERY upset at this point, almost pushes Smith off stage. Jabs Smith in ribs with bass, throws bass onto drum platform and walks, soon to be followed by Burns and Crooks. Last time they would be seen. Julia and MES launch into Everybody but Myself, everyone waiting for band to re-appear. Never happens. Cheatem Hill with Julia and MES, no sign of rest of band. Song ends Smith and Julia walk. House lights come up. Crowd boos. End of show. Was great meeting all you guys and girls - this show had so much potential and was just killed by MES antics. Well i'm off to bed. --------------- From: Older Brother Gert Subject: Re: Philadelphia Trocadero review Kard2000 wrote: > Mark and Julia finish with Cheetham Hill over verbal taunts from the audience, At one point, either just before or after CH, Mark begins an acapella Mr. Pharmacist but gives up after one line. Another highlight: uproarious cheer from crowd as Smith finally untangles the mic cords after five minutes of hard labour. Entire show was approx 1 hour, including walk-offs, cigs, etc. I don't have much to add. The show was a bit shambolic. Hanley's a saint, Smith's an ass. The MES For Drain Commisioner backdrop was hilarious. Great to meet AmC, JC, John Huston, Brent & Peter again, Kurt V,Mike Wright and company, Fiona, and others I'm forgetting --------------- From: JF Howard & MW Hamilton Subject: Fall in Philly Well, Martha and I arrived at Philly about 7:00pm. We gave the meetup at Dirty Franks the miss, due to cover charge, lateness and chili cook off. Met many Fallnetters in the upstairs bar...too many to mention. Everybody was great. Mike Wright's MES for Drain Commisioner was hung up behind the band! That's Mike's story and I am sure he will tell it. As for the show... Quite enjoyed the Bush Tetras, very post punky, parts reminded me of Thalia Zedek era Live Skull, no bad thing. Ahh the Fall...well, rumour was that our man Smiffy was in a foul mood, but the band seemed chipper wandering around the stage. They opened with Spencer, which ended as Smith took the stage and they started to go into 10 Houses. After about 2 seconds, Smith stopped it, and yelled at Julia, the band played it instrumental, Smith walked off the stage and off into the dressing room. They played through the song and started into Hip Priest. Smith came back and spent most of the song untangling microphone chords. He left the stage again. This was to become a theme. Smith left the stage a couple of times, forcing the band to go chase him, Karl jumped up at one point, looking like he was going to kill him. Each time they coaxed him back, getting passable versions of Free Range, Levitate, Pearl City and Calender (great song). During I'm A Mummy, Smith gave words to a kid in the audience (who it turned out had never heard of the Fall) and made him sing. Finally he wandered around the stage for a while, stepped in back, had a smoke. The band started a new song (I forget what it was) MES began to walk over to Hanley's amp, Shanley bumped him away, vigorously. After a moment, Smith started back at Hanley's amp again, Hanley stepped in between him and the amp, jabbed him with bass and pushed him across the stage, taking off his instrument and yelling at Smith in the process. The band left the stage at this point. Mark wandered around for a while and then Julia started Cheetham Hill,and the two of them did a version of that (not bad I might add) and that was the end of the show. I have to say the band sounded ripping, and if Smith had bothered to be on stage it would have been musically great. As it was it was frustrating and entertaining. We really did not know what was going to happen next. The entire audience stuck around for the whole fiasco. When Hanley shoved Mark and stalked off stage you could have heard a pin drop though. I have never seen anything like that before. Well, It's 4am and I am going to bed. Glad to meet the Fallnutters that I did, glad I saw the whole thing, sorry it happened. Whew. Hopefully, judging by the every other gig good pattern of the tour, tomorrow will be good. john ---------------------- From: Russ Smith Subject: disaster in Philly - Hanley/MES fight I met a whole bunch of Fallnetters for the first time. Mike Wright got Hanley to put up the MES for drain commissioner sign. Several people had tape recorders taken away. The third band was not there so it was the Bush Tetras opening. Then the Fall came on and the disasters began. MES walked off the stage several times and they had to keep stopping to go get him. When he did come out he went up to Julia's keyboard and knocked her notebook to the ground. Then MES started fooling with all the cabling on the stage. He spent about 20 minutes untangling all the cords and eventually disconnected some the microphones (the road crew fixed it). MES also kept fooling with all the knobs, etc. on stage. At one point when it got quiet and MES was off the stage smoking a cig. I yelled "anyone got a bottle of ketchup" and a few of the band members laughed. Mike Wright found a hocky puck (an official Phila Flyers puck) on the floor. I rolled it on the stage when MES was fooling with the cords. MES eventually kicked the puck into the crowd hitting Mike Wright. Eventually MES started fooling with Hanley's equipment. Hanley jabbed him a few times with his guitar. MES tries it again. This time Hanley pushed him and they both started a struggle on stage. They almost broke into a fist fight but Hanley ended up just storming off the stage. Then everyone left except Julia. At that point I yelled to MES "you can join Brix's new band now." (I was right up front). At that point MES stopped, came up to me crouched down and said "wot did you say." I thought he was going to start a fight but he just walked away. He then did a song with Julia and the show ended. Not a good night for the Fall. Russ Smith --------------- From: (Robert Getz) Subject: The Fall At The Trocadero Set list: Spencer Must Die (Insr.)/He Pep! (Instr.)/Free Range/Hip Priest/10 Houses Of Eve(Instr.)/Lie-Dream Of A Casino Soul/Levitate/Pearl City/Scareball/I'm A Mummy/Jungle Rock (Instr.)/Everybody But Myself/Cheetham Hill Well, I'd read about some of those legendary shambolic gigs where everything went out of control but in my 18-odd years of seeing The Fall play live I had never actually witnessed one. Last night changed all that. As you may have gathered from the large number of "instrumentals" in the set list, the evening's performance was less than stellar. Most of the evening was spent watching minders attempting to coax Smith back onto the stage after his second or third attempt to hide or run back up the stairs. They needn't have bothered. MES spent most of his time wandering the stage like a spoiled and petulant child, doing everything possible to ruin his bandmates' efforts to actually put on a show. You knew there was going to be trouble when the band got through all of "Spencer" without any vocals. Smith staggered onstage towards the end of it, grabbing the mike to mutter something. Launching into the next number, Smith stopped the band and made them start again, only to remain silent throughout it. Seeming barely able to stand up, Smith wandered about, miming that he couldn't hear himself on the mike, tried all the mikes to find one he did like, put the other musicians' mike stands off stage or on the floor, etc. Fed up, the band left the stage. This set the pattern for the night. When the band returned to go into "Free Range", Smith actually deigned to sing, albeit with much dropping of mikes on the floor, pushing Julia's notes off her keyboard and general misbehavior. Throughout, MES seemed to be making a conscious effort at ruining any possibility of the show succeeding. Most of his time was spent gathering up microphone cords to see from whence they sprang. Whatever Smith unplugged was then replugged by frantic roadies. Managing to get through "Hip Priest", Smith disappeared again and returned to sit off stage to watch the band run through "10 Houses." (The audience was privilged to watch his cigarette smoke curl up.)Things went fairly smoothly ( though with the audience beginning to throw things at the band) until "Scareball" and "I'm A Mummy." Smith sat on the drum riser to get through "Scareball" and then went to the audience for help with "Mummy." Picking a young man from the crowd, he invited him to sing the song and proferred a lyric sheet. Turning his back, Smith never noticed the kid scrambling up onstage to continue the duet. When he did notice him, he was happy to continue and the combination bacame a sort of call-and-response: MES: "Look what happens when I try to talk to someone!" Kid: "I don't know what happens! What happened?" Poor Steve Hanley made motions to the audience inviting them onstage as if to say, "You might as well come up here, too." Then it was offstage for Smith again, as the band tried to coax him into singing "Jungle Rock."The audience wasn't about to leave, transfixed as if by an auto accident. Smith returned for "Everybody But Myself." Part of the way through, he approached Steve and was pushed away. It was hard to tell what was going on exactly: was Mark trying to readjust his amp or just be irritating? Whatever it was, the third time it happened, Steve slammed Smith with the body of his guitar and for a moment, it seemed like the fight would spill out into the audience. Disgusted, Hanley grabbed a mike and threw it at Smith, clipping him neatly in the knee. If it hurt Smith showed no sign, but then again he barely seemed able to register what had been going on all night. The rest of the band followed Steve offstage (except for Julia) , leaving us with the bizarre tableau of Smith singing the words "everybody but myself" on a mostly darkened stage all by himself. Julia soldiered bravely on, head bowed. Someone in the front called out, "Maybe you could join Brix's new band!" which inspired an impromptu vocal of "Mr. Pharmacist." In a last ditch attempt to keep some kind of show going, Julia hit the programming for "Cheetham Hill", and Smith obliged her by singing. At one point, Mark peered into the darkness and said, "You haven't come back yet, eh?" and then made his last exit of the night. The audience remained transfixed throughout this entire affair. Some called out for refunds, but the hard-core fans seemed to take it in stride. The only thing godlike about MES this particular evening was his colossal contempt for the audience. Perhaps it was really for the band: the entire evening seemed to be spent pushing all of them as far as they would go and Hanley finally snapped. (He got terrific applause for this, by the way). Witnessing everything I've described may sound sort of interesting but it was actually pretty unattractive. To see a group like this devolve into this sad parody is unnerving. Then again, from all the other gig reports it sounds like I just hit an off night ( to say the least). I certainly won't be surprised if this is their last go-round. I think it may have been mine, however. Robert W. Getz ================================ http://thefall.org/news/980410.html Fall News - 10 April 1998 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Reviews -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Philly Trocadero ---------------- From: Chris Kovin Subject: Philly as we saw it Hi - Chris and Fiona here, anticipating the DC show tonight (hopefully), Okay we went to Dirty Frank's about 7, and met Mike Wright and John Huston and Mike ff (fantasy football) buddy inside, but Fiona, Fiona's friend Andrzej, and I had the 20-year-old Luke Beetham in tow and were told we could not stay. So we hoofed it up to the venue and bought t-shirts, then staked out our places for Fallnetter sightings. First sighting was Mark Healy and wife Karin (sp?) and first-timer Rick. Mark told his tale of woe about the morning after oysters in DC with me the previous week - not a pretty story. Then we repaired to the bar upstairs, where we met Russ Smith (father of Fallchat), Bob Gilroy, John Howard and Martha Hamilton (who we will be dininig with pre-gig tonight), Hank Tomczak (who had taken a sack of White Castles to Dirty Frank's!!!), and then the DF contingent starteed arriving. Mike and Anderson and tortured passenger Kurt Vaigl, Huston, and then Jeff and Mrs Jeff, then Eston Martz and Angela were next to make an appearance. Then the New York Three Unwise men arrived bearing DP prizes: Peter Messiaen, Brent Colyer and soon-to-be-rookie Fallnetter Adrian. Thanks, guys. Then the subtle strains of an awful racket began (thought Fiona and I shared: "Don't worry - the Bush Tetras will surely be better than this!" -only to find out when they announced the set-close as 'The Bush Tetras Theme' that this might *not* be Botswana after all). Right in there, the tall vicar, Gert, and the less tall, Mrs Gert [very happy to have just been carded at the door], showed. Gert is one scary-looking, but extremely personable gentleman. We're still drinking upstairs at 10:15, when Fiona hears and reports a rumor - that there is a noise ordinance in the Chinatown neighborhood we're in, which mandates that live acts are to cease and desist playing at 11:30! So now we're looking at a 75 minute set, tops. So right then and there, we decided to make our way down to secure prime viewing positions, Fiona pressed against stage (with backpack filled with t-shirts as a cushion), Peter M. and me about 6 rows back, Gert and others further back. Right at this same time, the band lauches into Spencer, sans MES. This continued as an instrumental. Then He Pep! He didn't look too peppy when he came in. He was rather unpleased (rightly so) immediately. The PA was not turned up to adequate volume, and he gesticulated wildly to the auto-techs what the problem was and to get it sorted out. Clothing note for Mel: brown slacks, very clean black shoes, and even cleaner white shirt with blue striped sweater and a belt (for obvious reasons given his rail-thin demeanor). He is obviously very drunk, going in slow motion. And then begins the obligatory messing with equipment. After meddling to his heart's content (and to the band's chagrin), he buggers off the stage, to return (sans sweater) and go into Free Range. It was what we came for. It was also one song. It's now about 10.35pm, and they launch into Hip Priest. (approx. 7 min long this time; half of it Mark spends fiddling with untanging the mic cables with all the absorption of a bemused four year old). At this point, the audience is not appreciative at all, and various projectiles (mainly cigarettes.... but Russ rolls a Philadelphia Flyers hockey puck on to the stage too..... which later MES kicks at Mike Wright) hit the stage, followed by shouts of abuse. He unplugs the two mic cable and goes off again, leaving a tech to fix it (from the look on his face, I think he was used to it). This Spoilt Victorian Child behaviour continues, with the band becoming more pissed-off as it continues. However, cracking version of Levitate (Tip: reissue the US release with a live version and we'll all gladly buy it all over again.... to keep MES in the style to which he has become accustomed), Calendar, Lie Dream (with Doc Shanley shaking his head wryly as Mark snarls "well I didn't eat the weekend, but I put the weight back on again" for obvious reasons). Now, it's time for audience participation, as Mark hands the mic and a piece of paper to Adam (State College resident who "almost" didn't come to the gig in favour of seeing another band. I think he's glad he was persuaded now....). He hasn't heard Levitate yet, hence his puzzling look at reciting "What's happening here?" under the instruction of Mark who seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself for the first time. He then hands the mic and piece of paper to someone else in the audience, and leans over, grinning inanely as he writes something on the paper for them to say. To cut to the chase...the Hanley incident from close range was very ugly indeed. A bass guitar is pretty heavy, so I think Mark will be feeling pretty bad today. Hanley visibly flinched as he stormed past Mark, half-shielding himself from an anticipated attack, and was gone.... all that was left was the smoke from Mark's abandoned burning cigarette. Karl and Tommy follow suit. With Julia and Mark left on-stage to complete Everybody But Myself, it's glaringly obvious that..... good evening.... MES is *not* The Fall. (AmC here: Also a very very weird Cheetham Hill, and also MES *is* The Fall -still- always will be -sorted!). AmC and Fiona ---------------- From: Peter Messiaen Subject: Waiting for Godot in Philadelphia.... I'll post a more complete review sometime soon maybe, but for right now I'm kinda burnt out on the Fall and creeped out by the absurdist spectacle of last night's show at the Trocodero in Philadelphia. The only thing that saved it was hanging out with the Fallnet folks (You know who you are.........) There's one image I'll never forget: That's when the band is standing there playing at full throttle (I forgot which song), Hanley doing his best to marshal the troops and get a groove going and center stage is empty.... It's empty because Mark is at stage right, behind the guitar amp, facing the black wall at the back of the stage. In his starched white button down dress shirt he looked like he was in orbit; about as faraway from that stage as anyone could possibly be with out leaving it. Not only that, he looked like a condemned man.....don't get me wrong it was a very cool image...very theatrical and very.....um existential, but this is the point in the show where I thought to myself "Shit.......this isn't a band anymore it's a goddamned Samuel Becket play!!!" And hey..... I'm cool with that, but at the very least he should let the audience in on the fact, so no one will mistaken him for a pop-singer or some such, and he and his bandmates can choreograph the shoving matches, knob twiddling, wire untangling, cord unplugging etc....so that they don't look, so awkward and predictable and nobody gets hurt. I was introduced to Hanley and Tommy after the show. Very nice, the both of them. I think I might owe Tommy an apology. He played really well last night and does the best he can in the presence of an erratic drunken bully. ---------------- From: "Kurt Vaigl" Subject: Re: DC Black Cat Ah, shit, shoulda went to DC instead of Philly. On the long ride back to Cleveland with Mike Wright (thanks again for the ride and being an all-around good guy) we jokingly said, "DC will probably be a great show, just wait." AARRRGGHHH!!!! The show in Philly was certainly entertaining at first (MES is truly a unique individual, also very well dressed), but turned dissapointing when it was apparent that walk-outs would be the order of the night. The band was excellent, though. The instrumental version of He Pep was smoking. The numbers that MES sang on (Hip Priest, Pearl City, Calendar(?), part of Free Range, a couple others) were only hindered by his obvious lack of interest in the music being played around him. Never thought I'd hear the Fall play Hip Priest and say "That could have been a lot better." Great to meet so many good people from Fallnet and put a face with the name. Everyone certainly looks different than I pictured they would. I'm glad I went, I just hope that it was not my only opportunity to see the band. One more vote for Tommy as a damn good guitarist, kurt ---------------- From: Jeff Curtis Subject: Philadelphia Trocadero review -Reply >>> Kard2000 04/05/98 05:22am >>> this is pretty much the way i remember it: ::Yes, that was pretty much it. Mrs Jeff sez she heard MES say when he came out, "Make *me* look stupid...* , we wondered if maybe he was having a bad reaction to the drain commissioner sign. Or to whatever bad drugs & drink he was obviously on. >>Mark and Julia finish with Cheetham Hill over verbal taunts from the audience, ::This was almost the best-performed song of the whole night. The band at that point had thoroughly humiliated Smith, giving him a taste of his own medicine -- it's a wonder Julia stayed, surely she was hoping to still salvadge something of the night -- and there was a funny line Smith threw in the beginning of the song, after the line about two figures making out in a car, he said "two shits afraid to come on out" referring to the band. I could easily see a minimalist Fall with MES singing along to electronic music from the kbd. ::I really felt sorry for the folks who've never seen them before and won't be seeing them again. I can laugh because I have seen great shows by them, but this was really a sad show music-wise. JC ---------------- From: Eston Martz Subject: Philadelphia: Complete Restructure of Your Pretentious Life Well, well, well. Well. Well. Others have covered most of the blow-by-blow quite well, so I won't belabor things too much, but Saturday night's "performance" was a complete and utter fiasco. My heart mourns for those who had to travel further than I did to see this atrocity, especially those who hadn't seen the Fall before and probably won't again. One point of interest: The second fellow whom Smith gave the mic to had been loitering around outside the Troc before the show, and asked Hank, Mrs. Eston and myself whether the show was worth going to see. As usual, I couldn't rightly _recommend_ the show to him, but between the three of us we managed to give him some sense of who the Fall were and whether it might be in his best interest to plunk down the cash and go inside. He hadn't heard of the Fall before. Wonder what he thought afterward... As others have pointed out, the best part of the night was meeting Hank, Chris, Mike, Matt, John, Jeff and Mrs. Jeff, and the other FallNetters in attendance. At least something was salvaged. The "Mark E. Smith for Drain Commissioner" backdrop was great, too. (SHanley really oughta do something to make this up to Mike W., whose foresight in bringing said banner proved to be responsible for the most entertaining thing on stage.) I'll second those who have stood up for Tommy -- I reckon he was dead good, esp. with all the shite he has to put up with. Also should be mentioned that he, not Mark, finished the vocals on that night's "Hip Priest." In fact, the whole band was dead good -- there's nothing like the feeling of a live Shanley bass line at loud volumes rumbling yer internal organs. I'm heartened to hear that DC went better, although it doesn't really lessen the sting of the burn we got on Saturday. Spent some time yestiddy consoling myself with _In A Hole_ (picked up at the show) and _In the City_. But I think I'm just about ready, after this, to get those Emerson, Lake and Palmer albums out of mothballs. Or maybe _Relayer_. O'er and out ========================== http://hiptran.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/mark-e-smith-ra.html April 29, 2008 Mark E. Smith Rampages Across Philly and NYC -- April 1998 Mark_e_smith With all the talk of pop tarts like Britney and Amy Winehouse being walking disasters, it's almost imaginable that we could forget about the Fall's Mark E. Smith. Almost. Ten years ago this month, Smith and his legendary avant-punk band were in the midst of one of their wildest tours on record, the east coast leg of which looped them through NYC, Jersey, and Philadelphia for concerts at Coney Island High, Brownies, the Loop Lounge, and the Trocadero. Although I didn't get to attend any of the shows myself, I had the fortune to be on the air at WPRB on the evening of the Trocadero show (April 4th), when Smith physically battled onstage with his bandmates. Fellow DJ Greg Lyon witnessed all of the action live, and on his way back from Philly, visited me on the air at WPRB to deliver a play-by-play of the evening's most shocking events. The voices you will hear in this MP3 are my own, my WPRB co-host Jen Moyse, and Greg. There were definitely some other PRB DJs of the era lurking about in the studio that evening, but I can't remember exactly who. [Listen] (Poor sound quality alert... This MP3 was made from a cheap cassette, and the levels being blown out certainly isn't helping.) I have only vague recollections of what happened the following week, but I remember that the Fall scheduled two consecutive shows at the Brownies nightclub with only one or two days advanced notice. (The band's popularity notwithstanding, tales of the on-stage antics in Philly made their way up the coast quickly, and both shows sold out immediately.) According to the Fall's gigography page, only one of the Brownies shows actually happened due to Smith being arrested on assault charges at 3 AM on the morning of April 8th. If my memory serves correctly, the opening band for the Brownies show was none other than the Chrome Cranks, whom I later heard had most of their gear tossed onto the sidewalk by Smith. Yeesh, what a night! Courtesy of Brian Turner, here is an audio snippet of the Fall onstage at Brownies, in the midst of the chaos. At around 4 minutes in, it sounds like someone from the crowd gets ahold of the mic and the whole thing quickly devolves into a violent cussing match between the crowd, band members, and Smith. [Listen] In the ten years and however many millions of lineup changes that followed these events, the band went on to release three of their best albums, in my opinion. (Country on the Click, Fall Heads Roll, and The Unutterable.) May they ring on for another decade at least! As Smith famously professed at around the same time these recordings were made: If it's me and your grandma on bongos, it's the Fall. The Fall - Theme from Sparta F.C. [Streaming Real Audio] Posted on April 29, 2008 at 01:25 PM in History, Music, Radio Comments Stefan Thanks for the mp3 and Greg's eye witness account. Great stuff. A few things to clarify: the 1998 US tour only had an east coast leg, and the two Brownies shows were always part of the itinerary (they weren't added later as you suggest). They did indeed play only one of the scheduled gigs there, however. The on stage brawl on the 7th continued back at the hotel before management finally called the cops and Mark was arrested. He spent about 48 hours in NYC lockup near the WTC. Steve, Karl, and Tommy Crooks quit and flew back to Manchester. The keyboard player was Julia Nagle, not Marcia Schofield. MES's black eye at Coney Island High was allegedly due to her hitting him with a telephone, so you can see the tour didn't get off to the best of starts. I was at both of the Coney Island shows and the second started really late - about 1:30 am I think - due to Mark oversleeping at the hotel. The tour had a few halfway decent gigs: the Middle East, Cambridge, Mass. was pretty good (the third one I caught), and the DC show was good, too, judging by the recording. The new album, Imperial Wax Solvent, out yesterday in the UK, is just great! The best in many years. I don't know what's up with US distribution though. I'll stick a link to your mp3 on the Fall news tomorrow. Thanks again. http://www.visi.com/fall/news/fallnews.html Posted by: Stefan | April 29, 2008 at 08:56 PM Julia Thanks for this re-account of these shenanigans a decade back :) A few more things to clarify and add to Stefans reply: the UK tour prior to the US had also been a shambles, as the group had received a large VAT/TAX bill and were not happy chickens (threats of houses being lost etc. were the main topic of conversation or argument). Also, regarding to the incident at the beginning of the US tour, I defended myself with my fists during an argument about sharing a room with Mark and in the morning he had a black eye from that fracas. (there were many fracas's during this time in The Falls history and they were nothing to be proud of). The Unutterable album released later, was something to be proud of though. I am having to address some of these matters again as not only is it a decade ago, but Mr Smith has a new book out and also talks about this time in the groups history.. I haven't read it all yet, but I'm glad they changed the title to 'Tales of Mark E Smith' rather than the 'Gospel According to Mark E Smith' (as was the original title) as it isn't that factual but is an entertaining read! Thanks again. Posted by: Julia | April 30, 2008 at 05:33 PM