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 #18 was broadcast on this day, 17 December 1994; the recording date had been 20 November 1994.
The eighteenth session from December 1994 found the group in full, festive mood and marked the return of two old stalwarts; Karl Burns (last heard on Session nine in 1985) and, remarkably, Brix Smith (last heard on Session 12 in 1988). However, it was to be Craig Scanlon’s last appearance with the group. ‘Cerebral Caustic’ standout ‘Felling Numb’ (or ‘Numb At The Lodge’ as it was then known) steals the show, with its anaesthetised talk of ‘post-festivities’. The Christmas theme is writ even larger with ‘Hark The Herald Angels Sing’, ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and a revisit of ‘Glam Racket’, which became a favourite in the rejoined Brix era.
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums; Karl Burns – drums
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 #2 was broadcast, not quite on this day, 6 December 1978, having been recorded on 27 November 1978.
After a weekend gig at the Prestwich Hospital Social Club, the group headed south on Monday morning to record this, possibly the most released Peel session to date. With four months to go to the release of ‘Live At The Witch Trials’, newcomer Riley is in hos original role as bassist, complementing Burns as they grapple with the variances in tempo of a definitive version of ‘No Xmas For John Quays’. ‘Put Away’ – here in a wild, formative run-through – didn’t see the light of day until the following October’s ‘Dragnet’, while the 78/79 live favourite ‘Mess of My’ (sometimes referred to as ‘Mess of My Age’) never featured on a contemporaneous Fall release. The session was broadcast the same month that the group signed off the dole.
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 #22 was broadcast on this day, 4 November 1995, having been recorded on 18 October 1995.
Only Smith and Nagle here provide continuity from the last session, representing the largest alteration of personnel between recordings since the first and second session back in 1978.
It was still a transitional time, bedding in the latest edition of the band, and this is reflected by the tentative performances, especially on ‘Antidotes’ which fails to pack the same Zep-driven punch as it does on its key position on ‘The Marshall Suite’. Julia Nagle’s jazz piano solo on the minor-key fade-out is of note.
There are also two covers: The Audio Arts’ ‘Bound Soul One’ and a brief, skeletal run-through of The Saints’ ‘This Perfect Day’, which begins with Smith berating his roadies, reconnects the group with the garage. ‘Shake-Off’ however redeems; a broken guitar riff over insistent drums, electronics and a quick exit. All this done in less than two minutes. The 13 minutes in total for this session is only slightly more than the version of ‘Garden’ on its own from 1983.
Mark E Smith – vocals; Julia Nagle – keyboards, guitar; Neville Wilding – guitar; Karen Letham – bass, keyboards; Tom Head – drums; Speth Hughes – special effects
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 #12 was broadcast on this day, 31 October 1988, having been recorded on 25 October 1988.
To herald the release of ‘I Am Kurious Oranj’, and the collaborative show with Michael Clarke, The Fall repaired to Maida Vale for this exceptionally sprightly recording. The clear production of ‘Kurious Oranj’ really emphasises the brio in the skank. The group’s two interchangeable romps, ‘Deadbeat Descendant’ and ‘Cab It Up; follow. ‘Cab It Up’ rocks along like, if you will, the purr of a diesel engine. ‘Squid Lord’ is a revelation, and one of the hidden gems of this (box set) collection. Buried on the frankly unlistened-to-for-years ‘Seminal Live’, the direction of ‘Extricate’ and the Fontana years had their roots in this track
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Marcia Schofield – keyboards, vocals; Simon Wolstencroft – drums;
October 1984. As we have previously seen, a seriously underwhelming month in respect of decent songs making the Top 75 of the UK singles chart. Hopefully, the indie labels offered up a few things that were more palatable.
The third single of the year from one of Bristol’s finest ever combos. Commercial success would evade them throughout their career, which lasted until 1993. Lead singer and principal songwriter Davey Woodward is still very much on the go today, and his latest album Mumbo In The Jumbo, which is a very fine collection of tunes, was released earlier this year on Last Night From Glasgow. Click here for more info.
This should have actually appeared in the chart show edition of this series, as it had come in at #69 in the final week of October before peaking at #66. Big things were expected of Dali’s Car, whose three members were Pete Murphy, Mick Karn and Paul Vincent Lawford, with the first two named having been in Bauhaus and Japan, respectively. But they split after this, their only single, as well as subsequent album The Waking hour, sold poorly.
In which the American new-wavers offer their take on a 1967 song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix. And here was me thinking that their earlier 1977 take on Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones offered a different take on the original….
The Fall again defy convention by insisting that the record label, Beggars Banquet, issue a new album along with a new single. But not just in any bog-standard way, as the new single was to come out on 12″ vinyl, accompanied by a free 7″ single. The new album was called The Wonderful and Frightening World Of….and it contained nine tracks with a running time of just over 40 minutes.
The 12″ goes by the title Call For Escape Route, and contains three songs – Draygo’s Guilt, No Bulbs and Clear Off!. The bonus 7″ contains No Bulbs 3 and Slang King. I could happily have selected any of the five songs, but in the end No Bulbs 3 won out in what was a lucky draw. The full version of No Bulbs extends to a few seconds short of eight minutes while the edited down version, given the title of No Bulbs 3, is around four-and-a-half minutes long.
One of the first bands to sign to Kitchenware Records, this was their third single for the label, and it made it to #7 in the Indie Chart. It’s kind of indie-by-numbers and quite different from their better known label mates Prefab Sprout, The Daintees and The Kane Gang. I saw them a few times back in the day, and while I really wanted to fall for their charms as I loved the label they were on, they never quite ticked all my boxes.
A folk/punk band who kind of emerged from the busking scene. They were initially closely aligned with The Pogues, playing gigs alongside them, with bassist Shanne Bradley having been in The Nipple Erectors alongside Shane McGowan. There’s also the possibility that the group name The Men They Couldn’t Hang emerged from one of McGowan’s early ideas for what eventually became The Pogues.
The Green Fields of France was the debut single, a song written by Eric Bogle, whose And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda had earlier in the year been covered by The Pogues. It was a version much championed by John Peel, and despite being released quite late on in the year, it still gained enough votes to make #3 in the Festive Fifty of 1984, just behind How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths and Pearly Dewdrops Drop by the Cocteau Twins.
The band’s second 45 for Creation Records is a fabulous jingly-jangly number. It was released on 12″ vinyl, and copies fetch a decent price on the second-hand market these days. I don’t have a copy, sadly. Million Tears is one of two songs on the A-side of the 12″. The best-known track, at least nowadays, was tucked away on the b-side.
Running to almost 7 minutes in length, it’s a song that has featured on quite a few indie compilations over the subsequent years. An absolute gem of a track.
A band who featured on the September one-hour mix thanks to the guest posting on In Tape Records from Leon MacDuff. As Leon said, “Yeah Yeah Noh really ought to have a post to themselves at some point. Leicester’s finest musical export of the era (well OK, maybe tied with The Deep Freeze Mice), their time as an active group was brief but mighty: In Tape issued a string of EPs and a full album of their witty, lyrical lo-fi “unpop”, and their self-deprecating “Bias Binding” (“Yeah Yeah Noh, so full of ourselves / Not a real band, done no video elpee”) made JP’s Festive Fifty. They were ace.”
This was their second single of 1984, with the catalogue number of IT 010. And given I missed out back in June with their debut, and it’s catalogue number of IT 008, I’ll take this opportunity to rectify matters:-
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 #9 was broadcast on this day, 7 October 1985, having been recorded on 29 September 1985.
As if to compensate for the previous year’s dry spell, The Fall returned to Maida Vale just four months after their last session. The best sessions were on the verge of something big; this one. on the eve of the release of ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ is another classic, with Smith’s introduction suggesting “Lloyd Cole’s brain and face is made out of cow-pat – we all know that and herewith is an instrumental track”. ‘L.A.’ , Brix’s signature tune, if you will, is served clean and crisp. The Fall’s occasional visits to old material in sessions is also a joy. ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded’, just two years old, felt like a rare trawl into the archive. After a vibrant ‘What You Need’, we have that special moment that only the Peel sessions could offer – work in progress. Here we have a try-out of the following year’s ‘DKTR Faustus’, then only catalogued as ‘Faust Banana’. One of Mark and Brix’s greatest joint moments, here it is much better than the muddy rendition on ‘Bend Sinister.’
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 #3 was broadcast on this day, 24 September 1980, having been recorded on 16 September 1980.
Arguably the greatest Fall session, this is the occasion, according to Riley, where producer John Sparrow’s pipe had gone out, and he’d fallen asleep. Returning with newcomers Scanlon and the Hanley brothers, this is the first truly great Fall Peel Session. The definitive recording of ‘New Puritan’ (with the Ur-Smith lines “I curse the self-copulation of your record collection – New Puritan says ‘coffee table LPs never breathe'”), the fresh and quick ‘Container Drivers’ and the extended ‘New Face In Hell’ offer glimpses of past and present, while ‘Jawbone And The Air Rifle’ offers the first tart taste of ‘Hex Enduction Hour’, still some 18 months away.
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 #5 was broadcast….well actually not on this day as I messed it up and missed it by 96 hours. It was broadcast on 15 September 1981, having been recorded on 26 August 1981.
Recorded after their defining second American tour and before the group went to Iceland to gig and record some of ‘Hex Enduction Hour’, this Dale-Griffin-produced session was another showcase for ‘Hex Enduction Hour’ material, plus the accompanying ‘Look, Know’ single. It also offers the clearest description of the light rating system used in ‘Winter’ and fierce run through of ‘Who Makes The Nazis?’
You should know the drill by now. I dip into the 1000+ pages of my big red indie songs bible (big thanks to author Martin Strong) and look to see what flop* but fantastic singles were released in August 1984
*didn’t reach the Top 75 of the UK singles charts.
Here’s a few words I previously typed out about the first song up this month:-
“Let’s get a misconception about this one right out of the way. C.R.E.E.P. is not about recently departed band member, Marc Riley.
Brix Smith‘s book, The Rise, The Fall, and The Rise (2016) devotes a few paragraphs to the song, saying that she was excited by it, not least as she provides ‘bratty backing vocals that contested well with the darkness of The Fall’, and firmly believed it had a chance of cracking the singles chart. She also explains that the lyrics were aimed at another of the many hundreds of individuals who had upset Mark E Smith somewhere along the way, a German tour manager by the name of Scumech, whose name was turned into scum-egg as part of the lyric.
A bit of investigatory work by fans of the band later unearthed that the man in question was most likely Scumeck Sabottka, who would later make a fortune as the founder of one of the biggest online ticketing agencies in Germany – and looking at some of the photos of the man that can be found online, he does look something of a peace-loving, trendy wretch who was fond of ABC. It would appear therefore that MES never gave him the look of love….”
The Jasmine Minks, from Aberdeen, released their second single of the year, again on the newly emerging label of Creation Records. This one has the catalogue number of CRE 008:-
I’ll admit that I missed this completely back in the day, finally getting it onto the hard drive via a second-hand copy of the album Sunset many years later.
I’ve never taken to The Replacements, but given the paucity of singles this month (did indie labels close down for the month??), I thought I best add them.
The collective had enjoyed a minor hit some twelve months earlier when Elizabeth Fraser & Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins released a majestic cover of Song To The Siren. Neither were involved this time around. The vocals are courtesy of Gordon Sharp, who has had a few mentions elsewhere on the blog as a member of The Freeze and Cindytalk.
And that’s it for this month. Sorry.
The good news is that having very slowly gone through the big book and come up next to nothing for August, I noticed along the way that September will be a bumper month.
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 #20 was broadcast on this day, 18 August 1996, having been recorded on 30 June 1996.
Marking the final appearance of Brix, the session is notable for an early run-through of ‘Spencer Must Die’ from ‘Levitate’ dominated by Julia Nagle’s keyboards. There are extremely taut and economical versions of ‘Spinetrack’ and ‘D.I.Y. Meat’ from the recently released ‘The Light User Syndrome’ album. If anyone has doubted Stephen Hanley’s bass prowess, just take a listen to his playing on ‘D.I.Y. Meat’. The standout of the session is undoubtedly Smith’s re-working of Captain Beefheart’s ‘Beatle Bones ‘N’ Smokin’ Stones’. The warped blues’n’poetry from the Captain’s 1968 ‘Strictly Personal’ album are strictly personalised by Smith. It’s still quite a pleasure to hear Smith intone ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Steve Hanley – bass; Julia Nagle – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums; Karl Burns – drums; Lucy Rimmer – vocals
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 #24 was broadcast on this day, 12 August 2004, having been recorded on 4 August 2004.
The Fall’s final ever Peel session. The renaissance of the previous year’s workout is continued here with another crackling performance. All of the tracks – apart from the addition of The Move’s ‘I Can Hear The Grass Grow’ to the revival of ‘Wrong Place. Right Time, appeared on the late 2004 album of demos and live tracks, ‘Interim’. The storming ‘Blindness’ here comes out as the clear winner, while ‘Clasp Hands’ provides another return to The Stooges’ sound. Eleanor Poulou, the third Mrs Smith, adds noteworthy keyboard texture to these fantastic tunes.
Mark E Smith – vocals; Ben Pritchard – guitar; Jim Watts – guitar; Steven Trafford – bass; Spencer Birtwistle – drums; Eleanor Poulou – keyboards; Ed Blaney – guitar, vocals
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 #10 was broadcast on this day, 9 July 1986, having been recorded on 29 June 1986.
The tenth session represents the high watermark of The Fall at the zenith of their Beggars Banquet years. A brittle, fresh ‘Hot Aftershave Bop’ writes large Smith’s obsession with US garage punk. While other bands were flirting at the time with the movement that was to become known as goth, ‘R.O.D.’ and ‘Gross Chapel’ demonstrate real dark, gnarled, gothic rock. If this wasn’t enough, ‘US 80s-90s’ is incredible, with Somon Rogers’ machines hovering loudly above the mix.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Hot Aftershave Bop (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – R.O.D. (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Gross Chapel – GB Grenadiers (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – US 80s-90s (Peel Session)
Produced by Dale Griffin, engineered by Mike Engles
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Rogers – guitar, keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums;
The post featuring the new chart hits from June 1984 was a bit of a mixed bag. Thankfully, top of the flops proved to be a bit better.
mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – In The Ghetto
Yup….it’s now 41 years since the debut single of the band that had emerged from the implosion of The Birthday Party. This 45 had in fact been preceded by an album, From Her To Eternity, that can best be described as post-punk goth. It was less abrasive than the Birthday Party material, but it was still a long way from being what could be called commercially accessible. None of the seven songs on the album were thought of as being suitable for a single release, and so the band’s take on the Elvis Presley #1 hit from 1969 was put on sale in the shops, with a video made to help boost sales:-
It’s a mighty long way from the Nick Cave of 2025 who is such a darling of the chattering classes.
mp3: East Bay Ray – Trouble In Town
This is one I heard for the first time maybe seven or eight years ago, and it was via a blog or music aggregator site. East Bay Ray‘s guitar work was very much at the heart of what, musically, defined Dead Kennedys. This solo single from 1984, is a long way removed from that sound, It’s akin to the soundtrack of a cowboy movie and great fun to listen to. The lead vocal is courtesy of the frontman of Steve One & The Shades, a San Francisco-based power pop band back in the 80s.
mp3: The Fall – Oh! Brother
The band’s 13th single, but the first for new label Beggars Banquet and the first of what we can now define as the Brix-era. As I wrote when looking at this single in detail back in September 2021, it was The Fall, but not as we, or indeed anyone, knew them. It was a pop song, one which would have sat easily alongside those that were being released on a regular basis by Rough Trade. I’m sure that Geoff Travis would have been scratching his head and wondering just what he had ever done to upset MES to the extent that the thrawn bastard continuously refused to contemplate anything akin to radio friendly songs, while he was on his label, only for him to come up with this absolute monster once he’d moved to a major label.
mp3: The Brilliant Corners – Big Hip
The second 45 from Davey Woodward & co. Still leaning a bit on the rockabilly sound that had been at the heart of January 1984 debut She’s Got Fever rather than the indie-pop C86 sounds that they would swerve into a few years later, but more than listenable across its two minutes duration.
mp3: Microdisney – Dolly
The band’s move from Cork to London eventually led to a deal with Rough Trade, with the album Everybody Is Fantastic being released in May 1984 to not a lot of fanfare beyond those who had long been championing the band in Ireland. The following month saw the release of Dolly, a lovely acoustic-led track from the album, became their debut 45 on the label.
mp3: The Hit Parade – Forever
This features on the 5xCD box set, Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989. Here’s the blurb from the booklet:-
In 2011, The Guardian’s Alex Petridis interviewed Julian Henry about his dual life as a successful PR executive by day and his twilight world as guitarist and singer in an indie band. Back in the 80s, Henry had created The Hit Parade with Matthew Moffat and Raymond Watts, issuing beautifully crafted and overtly 60s-styled singles on their own JSH Records. It began with ‘Forever’, a Bacharach & David homage sans guitars in 1984…..
mp3: The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3: The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday
Another debut single, this time on the newly established Pink Records, from a band who would eventually be lumped in with the C86 movement but whose best songs long pre-dated that genre. Indeed, by 1986, The June Brides had more or less imploded. They are a band I knew nothing of back in 1984, but when, a few years later, I finally came across them, it was instant love, primarily as they had an unusual and distinctive sound, making use of viola and trumpet as well as the standard guitars, bass and drums, and in Phil Wilson they had a very talented songwriter albeit his vocal delivery was a bit of an acquired taste. It was a real thrill to finally see them play live at the Glas-Goes-Pop festival of 2022.
mp3: Biff Bang Pow! – There Must Be A Better Life
Back in February, I mentioned this lot’s debut single, 50 Years Of Fun, the third 45 to be issued by Creation Records, which was part-owned and run by the group’s vocalist and guitarist, Alan McGee. This was their second offering, and there’s more than a nod to the 60s mod-era.
mp3: Red Guitars – Steeltown
So much was expected of Red Guitars in 1984. Debut single, Good Technology (one of Dirk’s 111 selections) was, and remains, a bona-fide classic. A tour a support to The Smiths had raised their profile, and the press coverage in the UK music papers was almost universally positive. But they never clicked with the record-buying public, and this, their second single, was a flop.
mp3: R.E.M – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
The fourth single from the beat-combo out of Athens, Georgia. They didn’t, over their extensive career, really make too many songs that sounded as ‘countrified’ as this. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s long been one of my favourites of theirs, and it inspired a train ride out to the town when I was over in Washington D.C. attending a conference back in the early 00s.
mp3: Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop (restructure)
One of the lesser acclaimed acts on Factory Records, the band had been formed by brothers Vincent and Larry Cassidy. Their debut single for the label had been back in July 1980, and while there was a degree of critical acclaim for their post-punk sound, there was rarely much in the way of sales. By 1984, they had been through a few changes in personnel, and by now the brothers had been joined by two female vocalists and keyboardists, Jenny Ross and Angela Flowers, (Jenny was Larry’s wife, while Angela was their sister). The band’s third album, From The Hip, saw a shift in direction, being very much aimed at the dance floor. Produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order, it was released in March 1984, and the best received of its tracks, was remixed and issued as a 12″ single (FAC 108) a few months later.
mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – All At Once
mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – National Pastime (link fixed)
My big book of indie music tells a different story from wikipedia. The latter states that Stockholm Monsters formed in 1981 in Burnage, a suburb of Manchester. My big book suggests (and I have no every reason to doubt it thanks to a clarification from Swiss Adam) that the four-piece of Tony France, Karl France, John Rhodes and Shan Hira were from New York and only moved to Manchester after being ‘discovered’ by Factory Records supremo, Tony Wilson. A debut single for the label emerged in 1981 and there were further singles in each of 1982 and 1983, prior to debut album Alma Mater, produced by Peter Hook of New Order, was released in March 1984. The album, like all the three previous singles, was ignored by the record-buying public. Undeterred, and still championed by Wilson, two more tracks were issued as a single in Jun 1984 (FAC 107) and which was the subject of this post on the blog back in March 2023.
mp3: Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone
A re-release of the band’s debut single came out on 12″ in June 1984, accompanied by Add It Up, another of the tracks to be found on the rather wonderful eponymous debut album, along with Jesus Walking On The Water, a track that would be found on the forthcoming second album, Hallowed Ground. It kind of says a lot that instead of issuing the new song as the lead track on a single, it was relegated to a b-side, with the record labels in the USA and UK trying hard to get the world to take notice of the brilliance of Gone Daddy Gone.
So there you have it. June 1984’s flop singles, many of which were far better than the ones which charted.
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 #1 was broadcast on 15 June 1978 (and is here a day late so as not to interfere with The Robster’s Excellent SFA series on Sundays). The session was recorded on 30 May 1978.
1978.
47 years ago. Take away 47 years from 1978 and you find yourself in 1931. The musicians of 1931 could never have imagined anyone like Mark E Smith coing to the fore. The musicians of 2025 owe him a great debt.
Here’s Daryl Easlea’s words, written in 2025, to accompany the booklet:-
Almost exactly a year after their first gigs as a band, the group repaired to Maida Vale studios in leafy Delaware Road, London W9, with their roadie, Marc Riley in tow to embark on their maiden sesion, 23 days after John Walters first saw them in Croydon. It contained four songs that were to be the cornerstones of the following year’s ‘Live At The Witch Trials’. If reasons are ever requested for The Falls’ longevity, please refer people to ‘Rebellious Jukebox’ and ‘Industrial Estate’ included here. Bramah played both bass and guitar, as then-bassist, Eric Ferret, took one look at Steve Davis’ congas in the back of the van and refused to play with the group if such percussion was to be used. The session led to the group signing with Mark Perry and Miles Copeland’s Step Forward label, and more importantly, to them occupying a very special place in John Peel’s heart.
mp3: The Fall – Futures and Pasts (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Mother-Sister (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Rebellious Jukebox (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Industrial Estate (Peel Session)
Produced by Tony Wilson, Engineered by Mike Robinson
Mark E Smith – vocals; Martin Bramah – guitar, bass, backing vocals; Yvonne Pawlett – keyboards; Karl Burns – drums; Steve Davis – congas
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 #8 was broadcast on this day, 3 June 1985, having been recorded on 14 May 1985.
Apart from the seventh session broadcast on the third of January that year, 1984 was, remarkably, a Peel session-free year for the group. A lot had happened; the band was on the verge of becoming obscure-art darlings, with their Beggars Banquet singles tickling the chart’s bum-end and ‘The Wonderful and Frightening World’ sounding all dressed up and ready to play. Hence they performed sessions for the more pop-friendly Janice Long and David ‘Kid’ Jensen programmes on BBB Radio One. Expectations were running high for this next session in May 1985. Produced by Marc Radcliffe, it has tremendous vim, and features the next two singles ‘Couldn’t Get Ahead’ and ‘Cruiser’s Creek’, as well as scintillating run-throughs of the two standouts from their forthcoming album, ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’: ‘Gut Of The Quantifier’ and ‘Spoilt Victorian Child.’
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Cruiser’s Creek (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Couldn’t Get Ahead (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Spoilt Victorian Child (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Gut Of The Quantifier (Peel Session)
Produced by Mark Radcliffe, engineered by Mike Walters
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Rogers – guitar, keyboards; Karl Burns – drums;
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 #11 was broadcast on this day, 19 May 1987, having been recorded on 25 April 1987.
This really is one of the best sessions, from the LP-less year of 1987, which found the group turning in some of their best live performances. ‘Australians In Europe’ offers an opportunity to revisit an overlooked stage favourite of the era. Those with a lifelong distaste for all things rockist may want to switch off the track after two and a half minutes where the synth flourishes – buried in Simon Rogers mix on the ‘Hit The North’ B-side – are given full reign. No, really. In sharp contrast, ‘Twister’, from the following year’s ‘The Frenz Experiment’, is a sharp return to full-on Fall muddybilly. ‘Guest Informant’, possibly the greatest Fall song from the post ‘Bend Sinister’-era is here in one of its best readings, featuring one of Smith’s greatest couplets: “in the burning scorch, of another Sunday half-over, hotel backgarden resembled a 1973 Genesis album cover” sees Smith truly ‘Selling England By The Pound’. All men (and let’s face it, it is men) of a certain age felt a certain glow. The building-block baroque of ‘Athlete Cured’ closed this astonishing session.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Athlete Cured (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Australians In Europe (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Twister (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Guest Informant (Peel Session)
Produced details unknown
Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Rogers – guitar, keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums;
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 #4 was broadcast on this day, 31 March 1981, having been recorded on 24 March 1981.
Another truly great recording, (Mojo listed it as the greatest Fall session in the wake of Peel’s passing); packed full of light and shade, comedy and chat. The recording highlighted only one song from the soon to be released ‘Slates’: the anti-football hooliganism rant ‘Middlemass’, which had now been in the group’s repertoire for five months. The abandonment of Grotesque’s ‘C’n’C’ for the spot-on parody of Coast To Coast’s ‘Do The Hucklebuck’ after Smith’s announcement that comic Arthur Askey had been shot demonstrates the acute sense of humour near the group’s surface. The session is notable for the debut of Smith’s signature tune ‘Hip Priest’, as well as a tentative run through of ‘Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul’.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Middlemass (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Hip Priest (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – C’n’C – Hassle Schmuck (Peel Session)
Produced by Dale Griffin, engineered by Martyn Parker
Mark E Smith – vocals; Marc Riley – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – drums; Dave Tucker – clarinet
(This one is a day later than planned…..I don’t want to interrupt the flow of The Robster‘s series on Super Furry Animals)
The continuation of this 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 – and you’ll have by now spotted that March was traditionally a popular month for the band to record a session, and once again 23 March proved to be a date on which two were broadcast.
Session #14 was broadcast on 23 March 1991, having been recorded on 5 March 1991.
To promote arguably their best Phonogram album, ‘Shift-Work’, the ‘four plus one’ line up of the group convened to record an especially vibrant session. A lumpy version of ‘A Lot Of Wind’ aside, Kenny Brady’s fiddle on ‘The War Against Intelligence’ is of note, further ahead in the mix than on the album. A generous swipe at Madchester, ‘Idiot Joy Showland’ is performed with requisite venom; the use of megaphone on ‘The Mixer’ is pronounced and the similarities between the song and New Order’s ‘Thieves Like Us’ seem heightened. Smith is on fantastic, crooning form.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – The War Against Intelligence (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Idiot Joy Showland (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – A Lot Of Wind (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – The Mixer (Peel Session)
Produced by Mike Robinson
Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Simon Wolsencroft – drums; Kenny Brady – fiddle
Session #6 was broadcast on 23 March 1983, having been recorded on 21 March 1983.
The first session without Marc Riley (and also the quickest to air, fact fans – and also the longest time-wise) was as spiky as its soon-to-be parent album ‘Perverted By Language (the session material, for once, eas all to feature on the forthcoming album). ‘Smile’ is, as always knotty. ‘Garden’, the sluggish centrepiece of PBL, is rendered fascinating in its excessive repetition. Just when ‘Hexen Definitive – Strife Knot’ is running into its ninth minute, the exaggerated manner in which Smith intones “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fall” is one of this box set’s highlights. ‘Eat Y’Self Fitter’ genuinely stirred Peel, who stated on air that he fainted listening to it and John Walters had to resuscitate him. It’s a great, upbeat rendition of the track
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Smile (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Garden (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Hexen Definitive – Strife Knot (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Eat Y’Self Fitter (Peel Session)
Produced by John Porter, engineered by Dave Dade
Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – keyboards; Karl Burns – drums
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.
It was inevitable that, at some point, a day would dawn when more than one session was broadcast on a particular date across different years. And it happened more than once as you will see in due course!!
Session #23 was broadcast on this day, 13 March 2003, having been recorded on 19 February 2003.
And, the longest period between Peel Sessions reflected the turbulence within the group in this era (it had been four-and-a-half years since Session #22). However, the session represents an incredible rebirth. The recording is detailed in the Smith/Middles book, ‘The Fall’, reporting Smith continually railing against band complacency and BBC-supplied material from the forthcoming ‘Country On The Click’ album. ‘Contraflow’ is here with its false ending, and after a snatch of Mr. Bloe’s No.2 1970 hit ‘Groovin’ with Mr. Bloe’, there’s an appropriately relaxed version of ‘Green-Eyed Loco Man’, with its refrain of ‘say goodbye to Glastonbury’. ‘Mere Pseud Mag. Ed’ makes a surprise reappearance given it was 21 years old at the time, and given Smith’s mistrust of the look back bores. “He thought he was a mster of double-entendre, Carry On etc” replaces long obsolete critical references to Not The Nine O’Clock News. Middles himself is rewarded by adding his ‘fevered and reptilian’ vocals to the Greek World-Cup victory-predicting ‘Theme From Sparta F.C.’, one of the finest, punchiest Fall songs of recent years.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Theme From Sparta F.C. (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Contraflow (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Groovin’ With Mr. Bloe – Green-Eyed Loco Man (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Mere Pseud Mag. Ed (Peel Session)
Produced details unknown
Mark E Smith – vocals; Ben Pritchard – guitar, backing vocals; Jim Watts – bass, backing vocals; Dave Milner – drums, backing vocals; Eleanor Poulou – keyboards, backing vocals
Session #16 was broadcast on this day, 13 March 1993, having been recorded on 28 February 1993.
Freed from the constraints of major label Phonogram, The Fall recorded some of their best-ever music for their debut Permanent album. ‘The Infotainment Scan’. With Dave Bush now fully established on keyboards and machines, the band performed some of their strongest material for years. Bush was able to incorporate modern dancefloor techniques (is that a sample from ‘Stakker Humanoid’ at the end of ‘Paranoia Man?) into the group’s material without it in any way sounding gauche. The performances on ‘Paranoia Man in Cheap Shit Room’, the then-latest chronicle of Smith’s ageing process, are watertight. ‘Service’ continues this melancholy over slowed down Italio-house keys. However, The Fall’s garage punk roots have not been abandoned with the stomping cover of The Sonics’ ‘Strychnine’.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Ladybird (Green Grass) (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Strychnine (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Service (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room (Peel Session)
Produced by Mike Robinson, engineered by James Birtwistle
Mark E Smith – vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Dave Bush – keyboards; Simon Wolstencroft – drums
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 