Is This Fall Live Album Worth Buying?

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A question that pops up frequently on social media (especially the two main Facebook groups, The Mighty Fall and It's Not Repetition, It's Discipline) is 'I've seen a copy of The Fall Live At xxxx on sale for £x - is it worth getting?'

Sometimes this is a very easy question to answer; on other occasions it's a bit tricky. This is because their quality - in terms of performance, sound quality and packaging - varies hugely. Another factor to consider is how you define 'worth getting'.

John Peel was quite clear on the matter:


Given John's 'Live in Nova Scotia' comment, you could argue that by the Peel Principle the answer is always 'yes'. However, whilst I am certainly an advocate of this approach when applied to the studio albums (I did, after call, my blog You Must Get Them All, which will also be the title of my forthcoming book) it's difficult to apply it to all of the 70+ Fall live albums. There are some, for example Mark's Personal Holiday Tony Tapes, that are cynical horrors that I would never recommend anyone spend their money on.

The You Must Get Them All book will contain a detailed appendix that considers each on of these releases one by one. I'm not going to do that here; instead I'm just going to put them into four broad groups.

N.B. They're not in any particular order within the groups.



Essential

  • Totale’s Turns
  • Live In London 1980 / The Legendary Chaos Tape
  • A Part Of America Therein, 1981
  • In A Hole
  • In The City…
  • Live To Air In Melbourne ’82
  • Nottingham ’92
  • I Am As Pure As Oranj
  • Live In Cambridge 1988
  • 2G+2
  • Last Night At The Palais
  • Live In San Francisco
  • Live 1993 at Hallam University, Sheffield
  • Live at St. Helens Technical College ’81




Definitely Worth Buying
  • Seminal Live
  • The Twenty Seven Points
  • Live 1977*
  • Austurbaejarbio**
  • The Idiot Joy Show
  • Touch Sensitive… Bootleg Box Set
  • Live At The Phoenix Festival
  • Interim
  • Pearl City
  • Live From The Vaults – Los Angeles 1979
  • Live At The Knitting Factory – New York – 9 April 2004
  • Creative Distortion
  • Live Uurop VIII-XII Places In Sun & Winter, Son
  • Live 1981 – Jimmy’s Music Club – New Orleans
  • LIVE 1993 – Batschkapp, Frankfurt
  • Live At The Astoria 1995
  • Live 1980 – Cedar Ballroom Birmingham

*For historical interest, not for the sound quality which gets increasingly grim.
**Many would have this in the first list, but I find the sound a bit cold and flat.




Only If It's Cheap

This is a sizeable list that reflects the sheer volume of sub-standard Fall live releases. All of these have significant flaws, for example poor sound quality or misleading packaging, although they might have some points of interest. A fiver in the charity shop? Fine. £19.99 + P&P? Only if you have money to burn...
  • BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert
  • 15 Ways To Leave Your Man – Live
  • Live Various Years
  • Live In Zagreb
  • Liverpool 78
  • Live At Deeply Vale
  • Live From The Vaults – Oldham 1978
  • Live From The Vaults – Retford 1979
  • Live From The Vaults – Alter Banhof, Hof, Germany
  • Live From The Vaults – Glasgow 1981
  • Live At The Garage – London – 20 April 2002
  • Live At The ATP Festival – 28 April 2002
  • Live At The Knitting Factory – L.A. – 14 November 2001
  • Live In Clitheroe
  • Live 2001 – TJ’s Newport
  • Live At Doonroosje, Nijmegen 1999
  • The Assembly Rooms Derby 1994
  • Set of Ten Box Set*
  • Another “Set Of Ten” Box Set*
  • Sheffield Poly 26-11-1986
  • Sheffield Leadmill 16-12-1989**
  • Sheffield Boardwalk 6-10-2005
  • Live 1996 28th September, Corn Exchange, King’s Lynn***
  • Motherwell Concert Hall, 5th October 1996***
  • Live 1997 30th November Stage Stoke UK
  • Live 3rd May 1982 Band On The Wall Manchester
  • Live 1998 12th August Astoria 2 London
  • ICC, Hannover, 11th April 1984
  • Tramps New York 10th September 1994
  • Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 10th October 2001
  • MOHO, Manchester 11th November 2009
  • Newcastle Riverside 4th November 2011
  • Brudenel Social Club Leeds 30th November 2012
  • Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival Belfast 8th May 2013
  • The Button Factory Dublin August 17th 2013
  • Soy Festival Nantes 31st October 2013
  • Take It Down To The Wire At Clitheroe Castle
*Many of the individual CDs included in these box sets also feature in this category.
**Although it's free to download, the poor sound quality keeps it in the C list. 
***Historically interesting record of the disastrous 96 tour, so perhaps worth hearing from that point of view, but not an easy or pleasant listen.



Avoid!

In other words, only if you're obsessed with owning absolutely everything ever...
  • Yarbles*
  • Best of The Fall & Mark E Smith*
  • Bingo Masters At The Witch Trials
  • Mark’s Personal Holiday Tony Tapes
  • Pavilion Bar Cork 21st July 2012**
*It's not that there's anything desperately wrong with the contents of these two LPs - but they're just utterly pointless reissues of parts of Creative Distortion (the Blackburn gig that featured on the Touch Sensitive DVD). 
**A typically crappy audience recording that resides here because it only contains 6/14 songs played - even though a full bootleg exists.


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