The Fall - Glasgow 13th November

Think of band names. Name the best. Name those that have stood the test of time. From America comes The Grateful Dead, Love Metallica. From Britain hails Joy Division, The Smiths and The Fall.

The Fall, formed in 1976, by Mark E Smith and still standing resolute, if a little shaky, on the stage of the Ferry in 2009. Count those years. 33.

Named after Camus' book of the same name and loosely based on Dante's levels of Hell, Mark E has kept his band on the edge of the inferno as seers explaining to the travellers through the levels that life is absurd, wisdom comes with age and acceptance of one's place retains our dignity. It would appear that few would listen with any attention as many of the vices of the '70s still resound today.

Mark E is no poster boy for Whitehall ministers preaching to us to walk ourselves fitter, or to eat more vegetables. Like Keith Richards, Mark wears his age on his face. Similarly you feel he will be with us for eternity, or at least until closing time has passed and he sees if there is the slight chance of a lock in.

Smith moves across the stage creating both verbal and physical mischief whilst the younger band mates power on through the songs with a relentless rhythm. He drops microphones, places them inside the drum kit, turns all the knobs on the amps up to eleven and footers about with a portable recording device and more sweetly has a D90 cassette tape that, even in this part of Glasgow, appears to be obsolete.
The band members are fit for him. This is no scampi in a basket tour. No let’s play the heritage LP from 30 years ago in its entirety. What band surviving a third of a century would be able to choose to play a visceral set comprising mainly of songs from their last two albums? Can you imagine The Stones restricting their live show to songs only from their last two LPs? Bonus points to anyone who can even name their last two albums.

Yet Mark E and the band are raging through 'Wolf Kidult Man', 'I’ve been Duped', and 'My Door is Never'.
Metaphorically, the band is ripping the skin off songs like, 'Bury’,’ Sloppy Floor' and 'White Lightning' and spreading the entrails over the stage. This is a band as relevant to this day as they were when they first formed in the Seventies. There is no pandering to commercialization, no diluting the message to attract the fickle interest of fame, no collaboration with some ex-member of some sales plummeting band, no respite in the sound. This is The Fall. An hour of relentless rhythm with barely decipherable lyrics. An hour of primal white noise. A warning of the perils that continue to await us on the journey ahead. This is The Fall sound.

The audience has an element of karma to it. There are a group of young folk, who are probably all in bands, with long hair and a larger group of older guys, who were probably all in bands, with no hair. This is Mark E's 'Great League of Bald Headed Men'. The women, not many, but those that are there are the descendants of the Amazonian tribes that ruled the world before Rachel Welch. They throw themselves into the noise with a memory of the days when opportunity, adventure and love were awaiting to be embrace.

We guys acknowledge that the spark of lost youth can be re-kindled but find the match of hope has been buried beneath layers of I.T memos, dates for the car service and the knowledge that the aisle for washers comes before the plumbing section in our DIY superstore. We applaud generously but keep our pogoing memories in the safety of the past. My advice to the young at heart, when you walk down the church aisle make sure it is with a partner who likes The Fall.

What keeps this mighty force of a band going?
Let Mark E describe it from his interpretation of Merle Haggard's song 'White Line Fever'.

'I wonder what keeps me singing this old highway song  

I've been from coast to coast

Many miles I've gone

And there ain't one town I haven't seen before

The past keeps going down like the tele' poles

The wrinkles in my forehead show the miles I've put behind me

And continue to remind me, the fact I'm growing old

I've still got that fever in my soul'

The Fall troubadours from an age past, musically they link the 50's rockabilly sound and the touring ethos of the sixties country singers with the sound of today. Long may that fever in his soul burn.

This is the set-list:
Friday, 13 November The Ferry, Glasgow
New instrumental / Wolf Kidult Man / My Door Is Never / Cowboy George / Chino Splashback / Hot Cake / I've Been Duped / Psykick Dancehall / I'm Not from Bury / Sloppy Floor // White Lightning / Over! Over! / Reformation.