A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.
Session #21 was broadcast on this day, 3 March 1998, having been recorded on 3 February 1998.
The final recording of ‘the old Fall’, if you will, pre-the New York on stage disintegration. If anything, it demonstrates why the schism in the group was sorely needed. For the first time, the group actually sound jaded. Compare ‘Touch Sensitive’ here with the one that appeared on ‘The Marshall Suite’ over a year later, you know what I’m talking about. Tempos seem to be mired in sludge. The ‘Masquerade’ B-side, ‘Calendar’ fails to thrill, and only its flipside’s trickery comes near the album version. ‘Jungle Rock’ is actually, er, not very good. At all. The tape intro of ‘Masquerade’ deeming that ‘this is new, fresh’ sounds doubly ironic.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Calendar (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Touch Sensitive (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Masquerade (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Jungle Rock (Peel Session)
Produced by Mike Robinson
Mark E Smith – vocals; Steve Hanley – bass; Julia Nagle – keyboards, guitar; Simon Wolstencroft – drums; John Rolleson – backing vocals
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I love The Fall, but I’m far from (being) a Fall expert. I think every word of Easlea’s analysis is probably true. Still, I like these versions of “Touch Sensitive”, and especially “Masquerade”, which forms the centerpiece of this Peel session. The album version of “Masquerade”, in contrast, never particularly caught my attention.
There is a small typo: The Peel Session was also recorded in 1998.