Music > Live Reviews

The Fall

29/04/15

It’s taken me the best part of two decades to finally get to the see The Fall in concert, so to say I was looking forward to this gig would be an understatement. It was a strangely deserted Arts Centre that greeted performance poet Matt Abbot as he began his 30 min support slot. I used to watch a lot of this kind of thing, Norwich has always had a thriving poetry scene, and I really enjoyed what he had to offer, as did the decent sized crowd that had gathered by the end of his set

The Fall’s set was advertised as lasting for an hour. I thought this seemed a bit tight for a band that has released thirty studio albums and was charging their fans £25 for the privilege of seeing them in concert. The band came onstage (slightly late) to a massive cheer and immediately locked into a heavy motorik groove – brilliant stuff. There were two drummers driving the beat and when Mark E Smith’s voice appeared from offstage, before he entered the fray, it really was one of the great live moments. Nothing had prepared me for hearing that voice live, truly unique and he just sounded so good on top of the music – it was like I was properly hearing The Fall for the first time. For the first four or five songs all was well, Mark was on good form, commenting that the Arts Centre is one of the great venues...cheer...in Norfolk...big laugh. He was everything I’d hoped he would be and even when he left the stage for short periods the band were so good it didn’t really matter. However the gaps when Mark wasn’t on stage grew longer and by the end of the main set when the band left the stage, bearing in mind they had played for barely 45 minutes, it all began to grate a little. They returned for an encore of Sparta FC minus Mark which frankly was taking the piss before disappearing again. They finally returned for another two songs for which Mark put in an appearance and then left for a final time, but made sure the lights stayed dimmed for nearly five minutes just to give their fans a glimmer of hope, before at exactly 10.30 (Sunday night curfew time) the gig was over, with a few audible boos to be heard.

I spoke to quite a few people straight after the gig and also in the days that followed and my irritation has mostly been met with “What did you expect?” Or “That’s just what they do”. At the two shows they played before the Norwich date they did 75 minute sets, so why couldn’t they have started playing earlier to give us the same? They technically delivered the hour they were contracted to do – if you include the intro tape and the gaps between the two encores and of the 50 minutes they were actually on stage I would say Mark deigned to appear for about 40 minutes of that time. Piss take.

I get the Fall, I understand that Mark E. Smith isn’t Dave Lee Roth but the cold facts are they took the piss out of their fans loyalty and excuses were made because it’s ‘what they do’. By the midway point I began to see them for what they are – a bunch of (excellent) hired hands backing a pissed bloke. Do you want to know what really grates though? The fact that despite my annoyance the whole experience has just made me like The Fall’s music even more than I did before. Bastards.

Stuart Preston @StuPres