The Fall – Live 1997 30th November Stage Stoke UK (2 LP)
During the 1st song, we the listener, are witness to the recordist being dragged to the lobby by someone with authority, questioning the validity of the recording. It’s a humorous moment that neatly summarises the chaos that is to follow.
Depending on your perspective, this show is either the most perfect representation of a Fall gig ever captured for the ages, or an utter shambles that having an official release beggars belief. Karl Burns walks off during Jungle Rock due to MES fucking with the drum kit. By 'Idiot Joy Showland’ the group sound comparatively super-tight, but it ends up instrumental as Mark has gone to "powder his nose”. Actually a fair portion of Smith’s vocals were seemingly delivered offstage using a mic he dragged backstage. There was an obvious amount of unrest in the group at the time and it seems fairly plain Mark is being a dick a lot of the time. Container Drivers rocks pretty hard but the recordist must've been hiding from the accusers cos the sound gets rather ropey.
Out of the blue, Hip Priest is almost great! and a muscular M5 (sounding like it’ll be be another instrumental) is good enough for Smith, after 4 mins, to see fit to grace us with his presence. Then it’s up and down, again and again, throughout. The encores are why-wasn’t-it-all-like-this? good. Tagged on after them, is a 2 min clip which I will guess was actually recorded in Belfast (accent spotted) just before stage time “they’re not gonna play [pre show music fades]….they’ll announce it now; they’re not playing” (MES sacked the entire band just before the Belfast show of this tour).
There’s no denying that this show is patchy and there’s little about the mayhem and its recording that makes sense without any research. Weirdly though, the audio, despite the occasional muffled section and tape dropout is remarkably listenable.
Label: Let Them Eat Vinyl
Country: UK
Media Condition: Mint (M)
Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)
Sealed