1985 - Paintwork
3 June: 8th John Peel Session - Cruiser's Creek, Couldn't Get Ahead, Gut of the Quantifier, Spoilt Victorian Child
14 June: Single - Couldn't Get Ahead/Rollin' Dany
23 September: Album - This Nation's Saving Grace
7 October: 9th John Peel Session - LA, The Man Whose Head Expanded, What You Need, Faust Banana
11 October: Single - Cruiser's Creek
Listening to this year's output left me wondering if this is the group's most radio-friendly year. The recordings are clean, the singles were accessible but, like the three before and one after, only made it into the nineties in the chart.
Once again it's a John Peel Session that sets the tone for the year. The 3 June transmission containing versions of tracks that would be the two singles plus two from the album that arrived in the autumn.
The first of those singles landed less than a couple of weeks later. A double a-side, both tracks came in at around two and a half minutes. Couldn't Get Ahead blasts along with Smith describing various small tales of woe of missed buses and airplane toilets. Rollin' Dany is a cover of a Gene Vincent song. The group would develop a taste for covers.
(Personal note - I saw the group at the WOMAD Festival this July. I didn't see them live as much as I should have but I never saw them better than this.)
If you're of a certain vintage chances are your favourite Fall album is either Hex Enduction Hour or This Nation's Saving Grace. I'm in the Hex camp but 'This Nation' would be a worthy choice too. If you're new to The Fall this might be a good place to start, you can work forwards or backwards from here.
Bombast bursts out of the speakers, Smith threatening people with his wrath, Barmy 'borrows' a riff from Valleri by The Monkees, I am Damo Suzuki is an homage to Can, L.A. is Brix's love-letter to her home town, there's an ensemble shoutalong in What You Need followed by the 100 mph guitar-driven Spoilt Victorian Child and there's a follow-up to last year's No Bulbs in My New House.
A second John Peel session followed a couple of weeks behind the album. There were versions of two tracks from that record plus a new song in Faust Banana (would become Dktr Faustus) and a rare turning back of the clock for a different take on The Man Whose Expanded. There's a slower section in that track that perhaps foreshadows Noel's Chemical Effluent.
Final output this year was the Cruiser's Creek single. A story of an office party that almost goes very wrong, Karl Burns' drumming nails this down and everything falls into place around it.
The choice though is the magnificent Paintwork from This Nation's Saving Grace. Is there another group that could have done this and not just got away with it but turned it into a classic?
Part rough cut, part finished article, part happy accident with a cassette recorder picking up parts of an Open University episode and maybe the Emmerdale theme tune it's something only The Fall could have done. I'll stop embarrassing myself trying to analyse it and hand over at an excellent Quietus article about the song and the album.
14 June: Single - Couldn't Get Ahead/Rollin' Dany
23 September: Album - This Nation's Saving Grace
7 October: 9th John Peel Session - LA, The Man Whose Head Expanded, What You Need, Faust Banana
11 October: Single - Cruiser's Creek
"I decided to recommence my diary"
Listening to this year's output left me wondering if this is the group's most radio-friendly year. The recordings are clean, the singles were accessible but, like the three before and one after, only made it into the nineties in the chart.
Once again it's a John Peel Session that sets the tone for the year. The 3 June transmission containing versions of tracks that would be the two singles plus two from the album that arrived in the autumn.
The first of those singles landed less than a couple of weeks later. A double a-side, both tracks came in at around two and a half minutes. Couldn't Get Ahead blasts along with Smith describing various small tales of woe of missed buses and airplane toilets. Rollin' Dany is a cover of a Gene Vincent song. The group would develop a taste for covers.
(Personal note - I saw the group at the WOMAD Festival this July. I didn't see them live as much as I should have but I never saw them better than this.)
If you're of a certain vintage chances are your favourite Fall album is either Hex Enduction Hour or This Nation's Saving Grace. I'm in the Hex camp but 'This Nation' would be a worthy choice too. If you're new to The Fall this might be a good place to start, you can work forwards or backwards from here.
Bombast bursts out of the speakers, Smith threatening people with his wrath, Barmy 'borrows' a riff from Valleri by The Monkees, I am Damo Suzuki is an homage to Can, L.A. is Brix's love-letter to her home town, there's an ensemble shoutalong in What You Need followed by the 100 mph guitar-driven Spoilt Victorian Child and there's a follow-up to last year's No Bulbs in My New House.
A second John Peel session followed a couple of weeks behind the album. There were versions of two tracks from that record plus a new song in Faust Banana (would become Dktr Faustus) and a rare turning back of the clock for a different take on The Man Whose Expanded. There's a slower section in that track that perhaps foreshadows Noel's Chemical Effluent.
Final output this year was the Cruiser's Creek single. A story of an office party that almost goes very wrong, Karl Burns' drumming nails this down and everything falls into place around it.
The choice though is the magnificent Paintwork from This Nation's Saving Grace. Is there another group that could have done this and not just got away with it but turned it into a classic?
Part rough cut, part finished article, part happy accident with a cassette recorder picking up parts of an Open University episode and maybe the Emmerdale theme tune it's something only The Fall could have done. I'll stop embarrassing myself trying to analyse it and hand over at an excellent Quietus article about the song and the album.
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