The Fall Gloucester Guildhall: 3rd October 2002 Lineage Master MD> Wavelab> Flac8 There are a few glitches and dropouts and a bit of diginoise particularly on the last 2 tracks. Lineup: Mark E. Smith (vocals), Elenor Poulou (keyboards), Ben Pritchard (guitar), Jim Watts (bass), Dave Milner (drums) Setlist: 01 mansion 02 two librans 03 and therein 04 cyber insekt 05 behind the counter 06 kick the can - f'oldin' money 07 touch sensitive 08 mere pseud mag ed 09 ketamine suns 10 mr pharmacist 11 bourgeois town 12 ghost in my house 13 the classical 14 white lightnin' 15 dr buck's letter 16 way round 17 big new prinz Reviews from the Fall Unoffical Website: Guildhall, Gloucester, October 3, 2002: Paul: Saw them last night at Gloucester - well strange. the audience more weird than Smith! Plenty of mic-stand stealing and shouting. Smith made the reference "We're not used to paying in cafes". Standard set-list - Big New Prinz was about the best thing - Mansion was great too as the opener - he had two cracking looking young and heavily made-up birds in toe too. One in black on a children keyboard for two songs and another (her mate) out of her face behind me. Phil: Bang on time at the crack of 22:12 MES's brave lads appeared on stage at the Gloucester Guildhall Arts Centre, quite possibly starting with Mansion (although I don't know it). By 23:27 and one encore, it had all proved too much and they melted away. Since I last saw them at Bristol's Bierkeller, the guitarist has slimmed down (does MES feed them?), but the bass player can now afford to turn out in jeans rather than jogging bottoms. Both seem comfortable with the material, although the band don't seem to interact with each other much apart from the odd wary glance whenever MES starts to wander about. The new drummer didn't really seem to come alive until Mere Pseud Mag Ed, after which he was more exuberant and delivered the sort of momentum I've come to associate with The Fall. Prior to this 'economy of movement' would best describe his technique, although he did nothing wrong. After reading the stirring web-tales of a brace of keyboard players, it was pleasing to at least see the appearance of the Gothic Princess shrouded with a headscarf. Whilst the Casiotone on top of a pub table she employed promised little, she did whisk us back to the Hip Priests and Kamerads version of Mere Pseud Mag Ed. She only features for about four songs it would seem. I'm sure she'd be able to assist with a version of And This Day, thus doubling her stage time each set. MES appeared sooner than I expected and apart from a couple of occasions when he neglected to use the mike, was generally there, or thereabouts. Did appear to suffer some problems with the stage door at the start of Touch Sensitive and the poetry corner spot for 'Modernity' was delivered from a crouch with back to audience, but he did gift us with a 'We are The Fall' at the start (A Part of America Therein 1981 anyone?) and some acknowledgement of us being there - which didn't happen last year at Bris'l. I think Hip Priest lyrics were injected into Big New Prinz - one of the songs anyway. Knob twiddling was kept to a single isolated incident with the guitarist's amp. No symbols were interfered with during the performance. The set list seemed to be a somewhat edited version of those posted from earlier gigs. Absentees included Telephone Thing, Hey Luciani, Free Range, Chisellers, Jerusalem, Victoria, My Ex-Classmates' Kids and Hit The North. Ghost In My House, Mere Pseud Mag Ed and White Lightning seemed to go down especially well. I'm certain they played Way Round too. The corporate banner of General Motors was not unfurled at the start of Touch Sensitive. Hope Corsas aren't the official tour vehicles - a big lad like the bass player would have a terrible time. Crowd was a real mix: from fat, balding middle-aged pillocks to those probably not born when Hit The North was bothering the charts, by way of quite a few of us thirty-somethings. Perhaps 300 people? Most of who seemed to get something out of the evening. Hi to the two blokes I chatted with after the exodus who were highly satisfied Fall Product customers and to all those wearing Unutterable T-shirts. And to the keyboardatrix. Martin: A beautiful cameo from one of the 'fat, balding middle-aged pillocks' during 'The Classical'. Well built, follically-challenged guy at the front loving every second of the gig but making a bit of a fool of himself, trying to get MES to shake hands with him, overdoing the pointing at the band, generally over-zealous. Basically, due to MES getting his leads in a tangle, one of the mics and its stand fell into the crowd. Our friend reconstructs the stand, places mic in the holster and right on cue joins in the singing, a belting 'This is the home of the vain! This is the home of the vain!' during 'The Classical'. I loved him for that. Genius. A bit of a ruck ensued after that as a roadie and a Guildhall employee had a go at him. However , the well built, follically-challenged guy at the front saw them both off with style, pushing the Guildhall employee away in cowboy bar-room brawl style. He remained among us and I thoroughly enjoyed him. MES did too I felt. Barney: A much bigger auditorium than I'd expected was pretty much full for that wonderful half-hour or so when The Fall are lurking backstage and the beer is taking effect finally. Big velvety drapes hung round the edges and there were chairs and tables against the walls: like a vast village hall, really. On to a roar as always, and not much later than his now-anonymous musicians, MES looked wise and sober, a different man from last October in Derby to these eyes. His pressed trews and shirt lent him the air of hassled 80s Halfords assistant, though having watched A Part of America Therein earlier in the day by way of preparation, his appearance will always be a shock. Mansion kicked it off, there was Two Librans with the lyrics changes around (Chorus: There were two Librans! Sat on a hill!) and And Therein to follow. I lost it at this point and did my robotic, lurching Fall dance for the rest of the set down at the front. I was disappointed more people didn't come down and groove too - they were probably too busy cursing w##kers like me. So I sweated and cavorted my way through Big New Prinz, Bourgeois Town, Way Round, Mere Pseud Mag Ed, The Classical, an unbelievably good White Lightning (come on, this 'uns a classic!!), and even the unusual swelling beauty of Ketamine Sun. Kick The Can too, Dr Buck's Letter and ... I'm sure you know that feeling. There could have been others, but my hopes and their realisations are now merged. But I'd still like to see Jawbone live, Hip Priest for what would be only my 2nd time, and I'm a Mummy. Time will tell if the chance will come, but this was a stormer of a show, and I still have trouble believing that it came and has now gone!! Anyone else remember the plaggy bage given away (I think?) by Wolstencroft at Leadmill in about 1994 with Cog Sinister shirt and postcards inside?