v/a "Before the Fall"

This is a compilation from Ace Records of tracks that have been covered by popular band the Fall. Some of these I had heard before, some I had not. Overall there is a bit of a bias towards '60s punk and broadly that kind of music, which I suppose reflects the kind of tunes that the Fall play themselves. But there some odd side steps, like 'Lost in Music' by Sister Sledge. The Fall covered that on The Infotainment Scan, the first Fall album I ever heard, and their version remains surprisingly disco, for all its Fall arrangements.

With other songs where I was hearing the original for the first time, the difference was sometimes rather striking. On 458489 A-Sides, 'There's A Ghost In My House' has an almost gothic post punk quality. On this compilation, R. Dean Taylor's original is revealed as a Tamla Motown stomper.


An odd track here is 'I'm going to Spain' by Steve Bent, a tune whose cover by the Fall I have never heard. It is a gentle song about some guy who has had enough of rainy England and is heading off to live out his life in Spain. But for all it's 'I'm off to the sun!' qualities, there seems a poignancy to it, as though the singer's heading off to Spain effectively marks the end of a life of failure. He does not actually seem that excited about his impending emigration and it might not be projection to imagine that his moving to Spain is code for suicide.

My beloved tells me that apparently 'I'm going to Spain' has some kind of reputation on some hipster website as the worst song of all time, which seems a bit unfair. I would not describe it as one of my all-time favourites, but there are definitely far worse songs in the world.

FURTHER RESEARCH reveals two astonishing things:

1. I have heard the Fall's version of 'I'm going to Spain', as it is on The Infotainment Scan, but I had forgotten this as I have not listened to that album in years as aside from two great tracks (not this one) it is a bit dull. Listening to the Fall cover again I would have to say that it is inessential.


2. It seems that it was actually Kenny Everett who invented the idea that 'I'm going to Spain' is the worst song in the world, by including it on a compilation called The World's Worst Record in 1978.

One song that is definitely far worse that 'I'm going to Spain' is 'African Man' by Iggy Pop, again a song whose Fall cover I have never heard. This is a song from the shite period of Iggy's solo career (i.e. nearly all of it) and it features Iggy singing basically racist stuff about the kind of primitive and fairly bestial life lived by African men, one of which he proclaims himself to be. The music is rubbish too.

[Oh wait, I have heard the Fall's version of 'African Man', as it is appears on Are You Are Missing Winner, a record I do not listen to that often as it justifiably has a reputation as the worst Fall album ever]

I will not go through all the songs, save to mention that there are many classics here, many of which you may have already heard. I suspect that most of my readers would find this record interesting rather than enjoyable, as you would have to have some interest in the Fall to enjoy it - enough to be curious as to the originals of these songs but without the kind of musical knowledge that means you have heard them all already.

Image source (from Ace Records, with a more useful description of the record's contents)

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The Fall - live in the Button Factory

I went to see the Fall to celebrate the end of a particularly busy and stressful period at work. Also, they had been great at the Jeff Mangum ATP earlier this year, so I thought "if they were great at a festival, then surely they will be even greater playing a full gig on their own?". In this I was to be somewhat disappointed.

Arriving I was struck by how many older men there were in the audience. As you know, the Fall have been around for a long time. They are famous for having a rather fluid line-up. On this occasion, however, it struck me that the band's membership has stabilised somewhat. The guitarist and keyboardist were with them the last couple of times I saw them. Internet researches suggest that other members of the band have also been around for several years too. And I think the singer has been with them for a while as well.

The band are also famous for being a bit erratic live. For a long time I had managed to avoid duff Fall gigs, but when I saw them a couple of years ago in the Tripod they seemed a bit below par (or maybe it was all the trend people in the audience harshing my buzz). But they were so on form at ATP that I was prepared to write that off as an aberration. This time I would not describe them as being musically off-form, but I was struck by how short a set they played. They were gone less than an hour after they started, and if you factor in the time they spent between the main set and the encore then they may only have been onstage for 50 minutes. This provided me with somewhat poor value for money, so I retaliated by not buying another t-shirt or many of the fine albums they had for sale.

What they did play, however, was great. When people talk about the Fall, they tend to focus on their singer, Mark E. Smith, the band's only constant member. That focus tends to overstate the importance of vocals and lyrics to the band, underplaying the importance of the music and the band's playing. And the music is great. The musicians are great at laying down a motorik groove and chugging away. I did maybe sense a certain disengagement from some audience members whenever Mark E. Smith was not present onstage, but for me the band's playing was more than sufficiently entertaining. The musicians also radiate a great "don't give a fuck" attitude, suggesting an acceptance that Fall membership is not a life-sentence. The possible exception to this is the keyboardist (and current Mrs Mark E. Smith), who actually seems quite excited about playing in the Fall. Maybe she was head of their fan club before she was recruited.

I know surprisingly few Fall songs and recognised almost nothing of what they played. One song, I realised, was 'Strychnine' - an old 60s punk cover or blues standard or something? They also encored with a song whose lyrics made me realise that it was the 'Theme from Sparta FC'. This seems to be one of their big tunes, does anyone know what album it comes from? ["What am I, your Google bitch?" - Reader's Voice] I think they might also have played 'Guest Informant' from The Frenz Experiment, with the keyboardist really going for it on the shouty vocals.

One other fun thing was that when Mark E. Smith gave a mic to some guy in the audience, after shouting "Mark E. Smith! The Fall! McGonagles 1981! I was there!", the guy then started providing surprisingly good improvised backing vocals on all the following tracks. You might have had to be there on this one.

Hip Priests and Pandas

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Irene reviews two albums by The Fall

"Hex Enduction Hour" and "The Frenz Experiment"

I am so short of copy for that I have had to start raiding my beloved's record reviews.

So impressed was I by the Fall's ATP set (hooray for low expectations, probably) I ran to the merchandise table afterwards to buy some of the Fall's humungo back catalogue. Don't worry, I didn't make the same mistake this time as I did last time (there does not yet exist a device fine enough to measure the interval of time between my putting Are You Are Missing Winner on the CD device and flinging it into the discard pile). Instead I bought the much-lauded Hex Enduction Hour from 1982 and, hedging bets a bit, picked out the Brix-era Frenz Experiment on the basis that Brix-era Fall was their commercial heyday. By Fall standards, anyway.

And they're both great, albeit in different ways. Hex is very snarly and spitty and kicks you in the teeth at every opportunity. From 'The Classical' onwards you get a real sense of why the Fall were great: Smith's sense of humour ("made with the highest British attention to the wrong detail" indeed), how on several occasions a cheery jangly Marr-esque riff drops in and spoils the gritty thunk-thunk relentlessness, the combination of Dadaesque lyrics, krauty drone and rockabilly riffs, but mainly just the sheer attitude. And the feeling that, although they'd be annoyed if you said it to them, they were having a huge laugh. Listening to this reminds me that there used to be a thing called the indie charts that was completely alien to my Duran Duran-trained ears.

The Frenz Experiment is from 6 years later and is a poppier, more produced major-labelly affair altogether. In some places they sound like they're channelling Madness rather than Can, so you could see this as sell-out Fall if you were so inclined. And they do 'There's A Ghost in My House' by Holland/Dozier/Holland and an inexplicable paean to a place that serves steak ('The Steak Place'). But you get occasional ur-Fall waywardness in the likes of 'Bremen Nacht Alternative' which goes on for ages to no decipherable end. And it ends with 'Hit The North', so you can't help but love it.

Thus spake Irene. For myself I still find it hard to believe that something as strangely postpunk as 'There's A Ghost in My House' could be a Holland/Dozier/Holland tune (not that there is anything wrong with HDH tunes, they just do not sound like that. I also feel that attention should be drawn to 'Athelte Cured' from The Frenz Experiment, with its riff lifted from Spinal Tap's 'Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You (Tonight)'.

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Jeff Mangum ATP Part 4: Real Festival Write-Up Starts Here

My adventures at the Jeff Mangum curated All Tomorrow's Parties continue

By now you may be wondering – did I actually see anything at this ATP? Well, yes, I did. See Executive Summary for a full list. But let me talk about a few of these acts in a bit more detail, starting with some people who were completely new to me.

Feathers proved to be an interesting proposition, being an all-woman band playing music that nodded back to synthpop of yore without sounding like electropop revivalism. They also were striking in their visual appearance, being done up to look quite glamorous, none more so than their lead singer Anastasia Dimou. Now, I am a bit suspicious of bands comprised entirely of beautiful women ["O RLY?" – Reader's voice], but there seemed something a bit different to this lot that made them come across like a fascinating art project than just something for the dads. It also helped that in Ms Dimou they have a striking and unusual front person. I feel this band would repay further investigation and I note that they have a some songs people can listen to on the YouTube.

I had not heard of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble either, but they do what they say on the tin, being an ensemble from America and playing contemporary music. But of course, you have to be wise to the lingo – contemporary music does not mean all music that is contemporary, so they were not playing Katy Perry covers, but rather it is contemporary classical music [And yeah, I know some people do not like the term "classical music", but do they have an alternative?]. And they were playing at midday on Sunday morning, so it was like one of those concerts at the Hugh Lane Gallery I sometimes go to. They played a couple of pieces, but the biggie was this Gavin Bryars thing called Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, which features a sampled voice repeating some little song about how Jesus' blood has never failed him yet, over which the musicians play their stringy modern sounds. It was very involving and in the darkened environment of the Crazy Horse venue it made for an affecting and otherworldly experience.

Now let me move on to talk about people I saw at ATP whom I have seen before. Maybe you have seen them before too. We wandered along to see The Fall with no great expectations – they had been a bit below par last time we saw them in Dublin. People always seem to tell me that The Fall are patchy live but up until that time they had always been exceptionally good, so for me a below par concert raised the worrying prospect that this once great band are in terminal decline. But they turned out to be great, huzzah. The line-up was apparently more or less the same as when we saw them before, I think, so maybe they have just become more used to Mr Smith and his funny ways. In fact, the band generally were great, playing out the songs well with a great "who gives a shit, we are not long for this band" demeanour. And the latest Mrs Mark E. Smith on keyboards seemed less visibly terrified of him than the last time, which was nice. Mr Smith himself was flying, rambling incoherently in a most engaging manner. An emblematic moment was when between songs he muttered "[something-something] Joanna Newsom [something]". Could he be already lining up the elfin harpist as the next Mrs Mark E. Smith?

Stay with Inuit Panda for all the latest ATP action.

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Live in Tripod: The Fall

Wow, this was ages ago. Check with Kevlol for an in-depth review. I can only mention drunken ramblings and an infernal racket – everything you want from a Fall gig, although the presence of so many haircuts in the audience was rather baffling.

I unfortunately cannot remember the name of the support band, but they were strikingly rubbish, combining all the worst features of the Happy Mondays and Oasis.

Mark E. Panda image source

The Fall "Hip Priest and Kamerads"

I bought this to get some tracks for the Fall-intro CD I am making for KevLol. Turns out that I should just have got Hex Induction Hour, as much of this is from there and the rest is slightly ropey live recordings. Nevertheless, the good stuff is great – if you like the combination of a persistent drumming led racket and stream of consciousness gibberish vocals.

This recording features the song 'The Classical', about which there is an interesting story. Reputedly, in the early 1980s, the Motown label was for some reason interested in signing The Fall. However, when they procured a copy of Hex Induction Hour, they heard the song 'The Classical', and were shocked to make out the clearly enunciated line "Where are the obligatory Niggers?". The record deal fell through, with The Fall being filed in Motown as being having no commercial potential.

Although widely repeated, this story appears to have no basis in reality.

At my recent 40th birthday party, some of the people got so into The Fall that they spent their taxi journey home doing Mark E. Smith impressions. Is it any wonder that so many taxi drivers turn into serial killers?

Nottingham Blues Explosion

They have some record shops in Nottingham, notably Selectadisc and Fopp. I did my best to keep them in business.

Kate Bush Aerial

You know, Kate Bush returns after years away with new album about cleaning her young fella’s kecks. It does not have the far-reaching madness of her earlier works, yet it is rather engaging. I struggle to remember any of the individual tunes (bar the washing machine one and the pi one), but the record washes over me oceanically when I listen to it, so on balance I will judge this a HIT.

The Fall 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong

They were playing The Fall in Fopp while we were in there, I had had a little drink, and this little puppy was the result. And this is not even the record they were playing. This covers the band’s career from its earliest days to the relatively recent past. One thing I was struck by was how relatively stable the line-up was for a long period of time, with essentially the same people being in the band from the mid-1980s until the New York unpleasantness. This contrasts with the perception I had had of the Fall having a line-up that changed every week or two.

It was nice to renew my acquaintance with ‘Totally Wired’, though it’s a pity that neither ‘I’m Into CB’ nor ‘Who Makes The Nazis’ made the cut. And where’s ‘Glam Packet’? And all those other songs?

Cornershop Hold On, It Hurts

Bought so that I can complete the Cornershop album set on teh iPod. This is their first full album, still rather guitar heavy but with occasional twinges of sitary stuff or Wiija spoken word. I have always loved it, and demand satisfaction from anyone who asserts that ‘Born Disco, Died Heavy Metal’ era Cornershop somehow represents a time before they chose quality.

Joy Division Substance

Again, iPod fodder. Also, my vinyl copy skips on the odd track. My new theory on Joy Division is that people go on about Ian Curtis too much. Great as he is, he is not what makes the band, and Joy Division is at its least interesting on songs (like ‘Atmosphere’) which hang solely on his voice. You really see the converse on tracks like ‘Dead Souls’, where Curtis is almost irrelevant to the track’s brooding power.

I’m still waiting for some pop slappers to cover ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ in the style it deserves.

Ramones [first album]

The first couple of listenings had me thinking that this was grand but that all the songs really do sound the same. I’ve got into it more since then and started to realty get off on tracks like ‘53rd & 3rd'… man, being a psychotic rent boy in mid 70s New York, that must have been cool.

v/a Keeping The Faith: a Creation Records Dance compilation

What, fifteen years late I get a copy of this popular Creation Records dance compilation? This is great fun, featuring many of your favourite tunes, including the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy’s cover of ‘We Love You’, Terry Farley’s mix of ‘Loaded’, the dancey mix of ‘Soon’, and much much more. I like it.

“Charley Says”

This being a two DVD sets of public information films. It was nice to be frightened once more by old favourites like that one where the spectral figure lures children to their deaths in canals, or to marvel again at the extreme seriousness of the “Think Bike!” guy. There were also some I’d forgotten, like the water safety one with the grim voice over “She survived. You drowned”. What was it with the 1970s, were people always falling into stagnant pools of water?

The overall effect, though, of endless ads about people getting run over by cars is to generate a fear of leaving the house. But of course, you’re not safe there either, given that you could accidentally burn the place down around you. Blimey.