Last week made mention of The Fall signing to Domino Records in late 2009.
It was a short-lived partnership, with just one album Your Future Our Clutter, released in April 2010, before MES decided Laurence Bell & co. weren’t for him. The same month also saw the release of a new single via Domino, one which was pressed in limited numbers on 7″ vinyl for Record Store Day but which was also issued on CD.
mp3: The Fall – Bury! #2+4
Bury Pts 1+3 had been a track on Your Future Our Clutter, an album which received fairly positive reviews and which entered the UK charts at #38. As you can see from the sleeve pictured above, the single issued for Record Store Day has a different title altogether, and indeed has a different mix and edit, being at least a couple of minutes shorter, to that found on the album.
mp3: The Fall – Bury Pts 1+3
Oh, and don’t concern yourself with the poor quality of the opening 100 seconds of the track….it was wholly intentional on the part of The Fall.
I should also mention, more for the benefit of some of our overseas subscribers, that the song is referencing Bury, the town some ten miles north of Manchester, and not the more common use of the word in terms of shoving things deep underground.
This was the b-side to the single:-
mp3: The Fall – Cowboy Gregori
Anyone lucky enough to pick up the single would likely have been expecting some sort of remix or version of another song on Your Future Our Clutter, but as you hear, they are two completely different entities.
mp3: The Fall – Cowboy George
Indeed, the album track is attributed to MES, Peter Greenway, and Elena Poulou, while the b-side of the single is the sole work of MES.
Worth mentioning that Jonder, in one of what have been six ICAs devoted to The Fall, had this to say in #137, back in September 2017:-
Bury! #2 and 4 is one of the best Fall songs since Sparta FC, an insistent march with a memorable refrain. The lyric “A new way of recording/ A chain ’round the neck” is aimed at Domino Records, who wanted the band to put more time into the album.
I’ve long thought it would have been interesting to see where The Fall would have gone, musically, if they had stayed with Domino, but I’m guessing Jonder’s observation, combined with the facts that there were strong personalities at the head of the label, and it had such a large roster of bands and artists, most likely reminded MES of the Rough Trade era, and so it’s no real shock that he was again on the lookout for another new home.
And, as we will see next week as we head towards the final few singles, that new home would prove to be where The Fall would abide until the end.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
MES really getting hard to understand at this point. Looked up the lyrics and saw some artful couplets but a lot more text that’s hard to decipher.
I know where Bury is, incidentally. When the Aces toured 4 years ago we stayed in a motel not far from there after the Manchester gig where I first met JC. There was some kind of confirmation party in the bar, with little kids running around the joint in their best clothes. The rooms were a horrible murder scene. The only thing missing was a chalk outline on the carpet. Would have made for a better Fall song than these.