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The Fall -- Live at the Witch Trials

Ah, my favourite of all The Fall's records. This and the second LP, Dragnet, are the condensed essence of everything that's magnificent about the group.

-- Ian
 
I've NEVER heard anything by The Fall, but saw them last night in Exeter's Lemon Grove anyway.

Man, they were really awesome. I had no preconceptions, and didn't expect what I got. I was dancing around like a loon - very impressed, I was. Think I'll have to get this album on payday.
 
What's Totales Turn like? I've kept meaning to get some of their stuff, but never known which. Interesting enough Piccadilly have the two you mention and TT available on vinyl
 
lordsummit said:
What's Totales Turn like?
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Great, but not the first record to get.

My top 5 Fall LPs today:

1. Live at the Witch Trials
2. Dragnet
3. Hex Enduction Hour
4. Perverted By Language
5. This Nation's Saving Grace

-- Ian
 
...do start with Live at the Witch Trials though (the 50,000 compilation doesn't have much from this period except Industrial Estate) -- it's where it all begins and the later stuff I reckon I would find a bit hard to fathom without the benefit of hearing The Fall at its beginnings... Live at the Witch Trials is where it all starts and no one expected them to be here almost 30 years on doing good stuff and looking forwards... there's a maturity to the band at day one that people do not realise when they go into their later good LPs (my 2nd-best is Hex Enduction Hour BTW.)

Getting into the Fall is a large commitment. They cover a lot of ground their music is jutifiably part of the fabric of post punk UK.
 
Here's a question for the Fall fanatics out there. At the beginning of 'Hi Tension Wire' Mark E Smith 'hums' a familiar-sounding tune before the main song kicks in. Can anyone identify it, or is it just something he made up?
 
lordsummit said:
What's Totales Turn like? I've kept meaning to get some of their stuff, but never known which. Interesting enough Piccadilly have the two you mention and TT available on vinyl
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Totale's Turns is cool - recorded mostly live in Donny, Bratford, Preston and Prestwich around the Dragnet era. It features a song called Cary Grant's Wedding that isn't on anything else (at least it wasn't then!) and is ****ing marvellous.

Agreed re Witch Trials Fox - I bought on the day it was released and still love it just as dearly; unlike a lot of later Fall albums that I err 'admire' and 'enjoy' but don't necessarily 'love'. The early singles were all classics as well - sounds like they've bundled the 'Early Years 77-79' Step Forward comp with it?

Cheers

Rich
 
The one I have is the Earmark reissue (EAR40035LP) the extras LP is a stunner:

from the 7" singles
Bingo Master's Break-out
Psycho Mafia
Repetition
It's The New Thing
Various Times

plus Dresden Dolls
Psycho Mafia
Industrial Estate (1977 rehearsals from bootleg 7")

and finally Stepping Out and Last Orders (from the Short Circuit - Live At The Electric Circus compilation Anyhone remember that comp? A 10-inch on Virgin ISTR on blue vinyl... with Joy Division, John Cooper Clarke, Steel Pulse and The Buzzcocks plus the Drones, a band, like Eater, who fell by the wayside) -- is is that the "Early Years" comp? Its rather spiffy and oh my its all cleaner than my original pressing... but then it had to cope with some really (really!) bad record players and the cheapest Sapphire Stylus my pocket money could then buy me.
 
No that's different (and considerably better) to Early Years. Hmmm....another one on the wants list.
Short Circuit is a beauty. The 2 Fall tracks are classics. "last orders half past ten".

Cheers

Rich
 
Just pulled out my original vinyl copy of Totale's Turns and found a bit of paper inside with a review of it that I wrote in "Spring '80". I worr but a lad!

" 'Probably the most accurate document of The Fall ever recorded' - that says it all really. Witch Trials was great but not quite right. Dragnet was almost there but Totale's Turns is the truest sound, the live gig, the place where The Fall really are The Fall. No studio hardware, knobs, sliders etc, just plug in, play and switch the tape recorder on - perfect. Comparing these live versions to the originals (what am I saying? - these ARE the originals!) is stupid - no comparisons. Live, the sound is harder, Smith is twice as vicious, twice as funny. The between-song and mid-song ad libs are ace and after a hesitant start (a shakey "Intro") the music rattles along with great spirit and feel - great Dance music!
Rowche Rumble, In My Area, Fiery Jack and John Quays are all classics. The really exciting part of this record though is the mid-section of side 2 - three new songs; one live (Cary Grant's Wedding), one studio (That Man); one in someone's front room on a cassette (New Puritan). All different, all extreme in one way or another. All better than anything else The Fall have done.
Here in the sunny spring of 1980 The Fall are better than ever. The only new wave band (excuse the classifications!) along with The Jam who mean more now than when they began. That, in this here-today-gone-tomorrow world is saying one hell of a lot. As Mick Middles said 'The Fall will last forever'"

Ahh memories! You can see why I never made it as a music journalist but my heart was in the right place!

Cheers

Rich

PS The Jam?!
 
My Fall collection is patchy and somewhat random; Live At The Witch Trials, Slates, This Nation’s Saving Grace, Wonderful Frightening World Of, Seminal Live (which isn't) on vinyl and a handful of 90s CDs that I can’t really remember from the period they were using sequencers etc. At the very least I want a copy of Totale's Turns, Hex Enduction Hour and the Fiery Jack 7”.

I saw them around the Witch Trials time, one of the most memorable gigs I’ve ever been to, utterly superb, then again around This Nation’s Saving Grace and again a few years ago. A superb live band.

Tony.
 
Tony, you should be ashamed, that's not nearly enough Fall records.

Keep your eye open for the last two, Fall Heads Roll and Country on the Click. They both got vinyl releases and they're both amongst the best things The Fall have ever done.

-- Ian
 
RickyC6 said:
You can see why I never made it as a music journalist but my heart was in the right place!
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Well there's your problem... (I've never ever ever ever wanted to be a music journalist; a.k.a 'how to kill love in one easy paycheck'.)
 
fox said:
Well there's your problem... (I've never ever ever ever wanted to be a music journalist; a.k.a 'how to kill love in one easy paycheck'.)
Click to expand...

I was young, naive - thought being paid for listening to free records and writing about them seemed preferable to a 'proper' job. I'd have been a great journo me - I would never have sold out, never been taken in by no record company 'man', and I'd have given Coldplay the biggest, most vicious slagging of their career.

Cheers

Rich - off to listen to Witch Trials
 
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