Gotta admit they fell quite off my radar after Frenz Experiment, which was the tour I saw in '88 at the Commodore in Vancouver. Great gig, except for when some loser threw a bottle at Smith. (A week later I talked to a friend who was bastard-lucky enough to have a beer with him afterwards - apparently my friend needed to have his wits about him during their quaffing).
Total toss-up, for me, between their cool-as-shit Witch Trials period and the slicker John Leckie-produced Wonderful, Frightening World of…, Bend Sinister, and This Nation’s Saving Grace period.
Always loved his thing for hot keyboardists! (And guitarist Brixie looked like a dream at that gig).
Apparently there used to be a card-issuing Fall fan club, like, way back in the day, and I knew of someone who was Fall member #48.
Anyway Smitty you mangy, kicker-conspiracy sod, you!
You had a pretty good kick at it.
Here’s probably my favourite piece of Fall footage. It’s from The Old Grey Whistle Test, on the BBC. It’s the band doing the tremendous Lay of the Land, and it also includes Michael Clarke (the later collaborator on I Am Kurious Oranj) and his troupe of contemporary dancers with the arses of their costumes cut out. Oh, and there’s a pantomime horse too.
Gosh.
That’s quite, the interpretive…ballet.
Funky! Too bad they didn’t bring them on the road.
(slight derail) A little backgroundon awesome long time Fall bassist Steve Hanley.
Hm - darned curious, now (ha - orange?:p) about Hansen’s 2014 autobiography The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall.