The Fall are an acquired taste. Or maybe its more a case of a band with a cult following. You don't go expecting a conventional band experience. This is partly because you have a band of very competent musicians playing fast indie rock, and then a shambling lead singer Mark E Smith who is of course the genius behind the band (all of whose members have changed numerous times over the last 30 odd years).
It is difficult to describe Mark E Smith, and I didn't bring my camera, but lets just say that if someone told you he was aged 85 and was in a home, you would easily believe them. At any given point you are not a 100% sure he knows where he is. He slurs out mumbled lyrics (not a single one of which is intelligible to the human ear) from his crumpled face into the various microphones dotted about the stage, but he picks them up and puts them down rather at random. So at one point when he was supposed to be singing he in fact found he had no mic at all and just shouted sheepishly from the stage.
Every now and again he will try and "help" one of the band members by thrusting a hand along a guitar or randomly plonking his fingers on a keyboard. You never quite know when they will come on - here it was about 10pm. Accordingly Kieron and I had happily spent a couple of hours in the Compton Arms, drinking and getting a pub dinner, safe in the knowledge there was no need to hurry. We should have stayed longer. But there is a certain fascination in it all, and the music is good. As you might imagine, a very eclectic audience - lots of old balding guys, but a surprising number of youngsters. Very much a cult band.
But certainly not the band to see for your first ever live experience, or you wouldn't try a second one.
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