New Grotesque in OUTSIDELEFT

Fall LP THE FALL
Grotesque (After The Gramme) 'Live'
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Serious question: How many Fall live albums do we need? If Discogs can be trusted, Grotesque (After The Gramme) Live will be the 71st to see a general release. That's more than one for each of the 66 full time "fallen" band members of the band over its entire 42 year history. Possibly also, more even than the group's apparently ever increasing stable of celebrity fans, who, if late Fall front man Mark E Smith, is to be believed, included "half the cast of Emmerdale", Philip K. Dick, Pope John Paul II and Shirley Temple. Not to mention authenticated Fall fans such as Jeremy Vine, Amir Khan, Rod Stewart, Morrissey, Frank Skinner, David Baddiel, Henry Rollins, P. J. Harvey, Nick cave, Phil Jupitus, Pat Nevin and… well, google it for yourself.

Some of the above may not be entirely accurate. The tag "massive Fall fan" having long ago become something of an Internet meme appendable to any celebrity at will. The more unlikely, the better. The value of live recordings on the other hand, is not up for debate. Outside of the neatly manicured, merch-marketing world of mainstream stadium rock, musicians hone their "product" both through rehearsal, and no less importantly repeated live performance, before committing to a final studio take. Arguably, there are few groups for which this process has been more true than the Fall.

A relentless touring schedule gave front man Mark E. Smith and the legions of the "not-yet-but-inevitably-one-day: fallen", the opportunity to adapt, hone, massage, refine and re-interpret songs. Works in progress which, in preference to already released crowd pleasers, always made up a substantial portion of a Fall live set.

Lyrics were changed at will, while their author stalked the stage randomly detuning instruments and tinkering with amp settings in order to "keep the band on their toes". And more importantly, keep it interesting. Live, The Fall were never anything less.

This collection - culled from recordings of the band both before and shortly after the November 1980 release of the original Grotesque album, catches the group in what is widely agreed to be their early high point; loud, belligerent, and very, very, very tight. Possibly even in more senses than one.

Curated by the four musicians who recorded the original disc; (BBC Radio 6 DJ) Marc Riley, Steve Hanley, Paul Hanley and Craig Scanlon - we get the chance to hear what they themselves consider to be the best live versions of the same ten songs on the original LP. Improved sound quality aside, and no less importantly, it offers the four (plus reclusive sometime drummer Karl Burns who features on several tracks), the chance to trouser some well earned royalties, not normally forthcoming from those responsible for previous live releases of dubious probity. As such it follows the release back in May of the Slates Live - curated by the same four fallen and featuring live versions of tracks released on band's 1981 Slates mini LP.

Of the ten live recordings on Grotesque (After the Gramme) Live, obvious stand outs are New Face in Hell - Smith's paranoid tale of government oppression, and (The) Container Drivers —a warts-only celebration of the trucking community. Not to say the best example of the early Fall's fiery, genre busting "Mancabilly" style and which both Riley and Hanley (S) name as their favourite track to play live. Both are delivered a deft half click faster than previously released versions, the foot-to-floor renditions confirming just how confident the band had become at delivering what were, judging by the audible audience reactions, already firm fan favourites.

Not without good reason does the September 1980 Peel Session recording of the latter regularly top Hello magazine's annual poll of "Your ten favourite Fall tunes", with the former - culled from the legendary Chaos tape "Live in London", no less regularly charting second. Also delivered a touch faster, and heavier, is the album's closing number, NWRA - North Will Rise Again, a complex, nightmarish narrative about a future insurrection in northern England, which hints at Smith's broad range of literary influences, not least T.S. Elliot, HP Lovecraft and the aforementioned Philip K Dick.

Smith's penchant for lyrical improvisation is most apparent on Gramme Friday, which by contrast is delivered slightly slower than the original. Changes, which coupled with noticeably slurred vocals, may reflect his "condition" at the time.

Other high points include thundering, bass heavy takes on Pay Your Rates and Impression of J Temperance, and a rollicking read-through of English Scheme. All three otherwise close to the studio originals.

There's even an unexpected surprise. What's presented here as WMC Blob bears no resemblance to the original album track WMC Blob 59 - a low-fi home recording of Smith intoning inaudibly over random background noise. Instead we're treated to what appears to be a raw take on Industrial Estate - from the Fall's first album, which veers off-road into an early stab at the 1982 single Lie Dream of a Casino Soul. A clear example of the creative process in action.

In truth - given the sheer number of Fall live albums already available, Grotesque (After The Gramme) Live is unlikely to win the band many new fans. But that's really not the point. For those lucky enough to have seen them during the period in question (including this writer) this is a heart-stopping, tear jerking reminder of just fucking good the Fall were. For anyone else, now's your chance to listen in. If you have any conscience at all, you'll take it. If you don't plan to… well, ask yourself why you've read this far.

But 71 live albums, surely enough is enough? Is it? Artists in whatever medium, work endlessly to perfect their art. It's a process, and understanding and appreciating that process is as important, and interesting, as admiring the finished product. Sometimes more so. By way of context - there are only eight finished oil paintings (plus another 10 of debatable provenance), attributed to renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci.

A massive Fall fan, who sagely ranked Dragnet as his all time favourite LP, Da Vinci also left several thousand pages of notes, sketches, diagrams and drawings. Evidence of the man's feverishly inquiring mind, not to say genius. And arguably far more interesting and influential than that portrait of that woman with the odd smile.

It's a similar story with Franz Kafka who openly admitted that his paranoiac, magnum opus, The Trial, was inspired by listening to The Fall's first album, Live at the Witch Trials, on repeat, on his ipod for 3 months. In regular correspondence with Smith during The Fall's crucial early years, Kafka published only a handful of short stories prior to his untimely death in 1926. Yet his three posthumously published novels and the bulk of his shorter fiction have been translated into 40 languages. And these are far outnumbered by the published volumes of his letters, diaries, notes, and even documents penned in his day job as a "workers accident insurance assessor". A job title the stress and intonation pattern of which, would later inspire Smith to return the compliment with - Senior Twilight Stock Replacer, from The Fall's 2008 studio album, Imperial Wax Solvent. What has survived is reckoned to be only around 10% of Kafka's written output. He burned the rest, an option Smith thankfully never had.

For that we should be eternally grateful to Japan's Sony that their launch of the portable, plastic Walkman coincided with the Fall's early career, and the obsessive recording and archiving habits of Fall fanatics. Marlon So how many Fall Live albums do we need? That's perhaps best answered by Hollywood's self styled, No 1 Fall fan, Marlon Brando, who first stumbled across the band at the 1978 Deeply Vale Mushroom Festival, on a day off from shooting the jungle scenes for Apocalypse Now, in the Pennine hills above Manchester. A serendipitous encounter which kick started the cinematic legend's 28 year obsession with the band. Who in all truth could forget Brando's immortal, sneering response to that self same question 25 years earlier in the classic 1953 movie, The Wild One.