Gig of The Year

It was quite a funny year gig wise. Didn't go to nearly as many as I have done in the previous few years. This was partially due to the fact that all the gigs I did want to go to were on in the same week or fortnight or when I was away with work.

There is a more worrying reason that has crept into my lack of attendance this year and that is,  I cannot be arsed. I look at the listings,  see somebody I wouldn't mind hearing live and then I check out the date and it is usually mid week and at the Wah Wah Hut and all of my enthusiasm drains away. I say to myself,  do I really want to drag myself back out, drive into the Town stand through a couple of mediocre at best support acts then wait for the main act to come on stage at 10:30 pm and eventually get home sometime after midnight to get up again at 06:30?  The resounding answer 99% of the time is no. And before anybody comments that it is because I am becoming an old git, I am well aware of the fact and this is why I am troubled.

Without a shadow of a doubt my best live experience this year was The Airborne Toxic Event at the Pleasance Theatre in Edinburgh. As with the Wedding Present I have never seen this band give a lackluster performance.  Granted I have only seem them 5 times and that has been over the space two years but it is still quite an impressive track record. But the performance in Edinburgh was particularly special I think that this could have to do with the quite intimate,  rather lovely venue complimented the band wonderfully. Also there set was chosen extremely well and the segueway from Missy into I'm On Fire truly inspired, the 2 and a bit years of near constant touring have certainly paid off. It has been a while since I left a venue with quite as big a smile on my face. The only downside is that that will probably be the last time that I will see them in such an environment as I think that with the new material that they aired that they are on their way to bigger venues and good luck to them.

It is also very easy to pick the biggest disappointment of the year and that rather dubious honour goes to that contrary bastard Mark E Smith, who will most certainly not give a damn about it. So much for your work ethic Smith, you robbing bastard, it wasn't big and it certainly ain't clever. And to the guy whom we overheard saying " That's Mark E Smith and that's why we love him" you must be even stupider than you look, fanboy.

The Airborne Toxic Event - A Letter To Georgia

Best Glastonbury Performance Ever

Only one man would turn down Mick Jones' amp.

Sheer Brilliance

Von Sudenfed

Yesterday we had a track by god today the track features the person whom my wife thinks could possibly be auld Nick, himself.

It's been too long since the dulcet tones of MES have been heard round these parts.

Today's post comes from Smiths's 2007 collaboration with Andi Toma and Jan St Werner from techno producers,  Mouse on Mars under the alias of  Von Sudenfed. The three had initially collaborated on a single in 2004 and decided to make a full album. Tromatic Reflexxions was released on Domino records and duly failed to set the world on fire.

In December 2007, Smith issued a statement on the Unofficial Fall Website saying that 2 Von Sudenfed gigs had been cancelled due to Smith being sacked by the German duo. This should be taken with a pinch of salt but if true must have been a novel experience for Smith more used to dishing out sackings to band members.

The new Fall album, Our Future Your Clutter is out on the 26th April. I managed to get a snidey copy the other week and it is the most consistent album for me since 2005's  Fall Heads Roll, although it doesn't have anything as brilliant as Blindness it is well worth getting your hands on, even with probably the worst cover art of any Fall lp and that is saying something.

The gruppe start a UK tour on the 24th of April at Studio 24 in Edinburgh, although I think that somebody is taking the piss, with the tickets being priced at nearly 30 quid for that toilet, last time I got both nights at the Renfrew Ferry for less than that.

Von Sudenfed - Fledermaus Can't Get It.

No One Said It Was Gonna Be Easy

It's been a while since we heard the dulcet tones of Mark Edward Smith on this blog. Time to rectify that state of affairs, I think.

Here he is on blistering form in collaboration with Inspiral Carpets. This was released as a single in 1994 and led to Smith's only appearance on Top Of The Pops, that I can remember seeing anyway. Smith has collaborated with quite a few people over the years, Edwyn Collins, Coldcut and most recently Mouse On Mars to name but three.

Inspiral Carpets - I Want You



Sheer brilliance.

Snooker Loopy

Who else but the genuis that is Mark E Smith would write a song about snooker?

Chas n who?

Not very interesting fact - Eminem sampled Chas n Dave on My Name Is. It's amazing what you can learn from Radio 4.

Von Sudenfed - Slow Down Ronnie

Welcome! Living Leg-end

It was inevitable, I have tried to resist but have succumbed to posting about my favourite band, the band or rather lead singer, gang master, team manager, whatever who makes my wife's blood boil and my friends all shake their heads and look at me with pitying expressions.

There is absolutely no reason to do a post on the Fall other than being completely selfish. You, will be in one of 2 camps you will either love the Fall, in which case this post is pointless as you will already own this track and at least 30 of the 90 odd releases, or you will hate them and will not have read any further than the first sentence of this paragraph. One of the things I love about them is that there is no sitting on the fence, I can't recall anybody saying "yeah the Fall, they're alright".

By the time you have read this I will already have driven to Edinburgh for one of my infrequent appearances at my company's office. I will have struggled to get up at 6am, after what can only be described as a rather uplifting weekend. The Edwyn Collins gig on Friday night and the rest of the weekend spent doing absolutely nothing, just lounging about with the better half and the boys (that still sounds strange, boys plural).

On the 40 odd minute drive, a lot longer if left any later, what better than a piece of M.E.S. genius to get another week of to a pounding start.

The Fall - Blindness (Peel Session)