Oh! The Fall John Peel Sessions box set! OH! you guys.

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I got given this for my birthday on Saturday, and have made it through the first two disks so far. Standouts: "Who Makes the Nazis?", "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul", but maybe that's because they're classic tracks. Anyway, as has been said, months of return value on this little baby!

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Monday, 9 May 2005 11:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Got through the first three discs in the gf's car driving down to Dorset and back over the weekend.

Now transferred to my car but discs 4-6 are going to have to wait until I've finished the (really rather lovely so far) new Eels album.

Particularly looking forward to the last track on disc 5....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 9 May 2005 11:47 (nineteen years ago) link

Ah, just got past that one.

Um, it's alright. It won't change yer allegiance. Bit of a knock off, but yeah.

Actually, for all the slagging "Jungle Rock" gets in the book and from MES previously, I like it a fair bit.

I heared a snatch of "I can hear the grass grow" on the BBC4 docu, so I'm very looking forward to that.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 9 May 2005 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link

So...I ALMOST feel guilty expressing the joy that was receiving this thing in the mail this morning, having learned from Ned how my compatriots back home are having to wait.... But OH MY GOD. The fidelity, the whallop and whump of the 3rd session, it's not even — oh shit. Be right back, gotta change my pants ——

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:03 (nineteen years ago) link

"We Are.. Sparta! F!C!"

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 08:07 (nineteen years ago) link

£22.49 with student discount in Newcastle HMV.

And it's bloody great. Sanctuary have done a great job with the packaging; nice sturdy master-box, unlike say, what they did with the Lonnie Donegan 1955-67 set.

Have only listened to the first disc thus far, but it's striking, and I finally get to hear "No Xmas for John Quays", "New Puritans" and "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul", which do not disappoint!

I'm hoping, but non too confidently, that they include a passage of Peel speaking right at the end of CD6, after the last session; what a great, poignant touch that would be...

― Tom May (Tom May), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link

I've never heard The Fall. Have been reading a lot abt them, though. Wsa considering buying Hex Enduction Hour or their newest one, sound unheard. Should I get this instead?

― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 21:04 (nineteen years ago) link

all three ideas are sound.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 21:05 (nineteen years ago) link

agreed. don't look back..

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link

um. ok!

― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 21:15 (nineteen years ago) link

If you're unfamiliar, start w/50,000 Fll Fans Can't Be Wrong, for reals. 2CDs, brilliantly sequenced, great start to finish.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Whatever you do, stick to the studio recordings, at least to start. There are a million live album cash-ins.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 22:27 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm always nervous about buying comps for artists who have really idiosyncratic albums - it feels like i'm not hearing the songs in the proper context (and I end up paying double to get the album in the end, anyway). That said, there's a whole lot of appeal to a career-spanning Introduction To (hence my interest in this Peel box), esp if it's being recommended by the Matos...

i'll do that, tim. thanks!

― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 11 May 2005 22:45 (nineteen years ago) link

Sean, what Tim said. Also — Hex may be the best record, but I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction. It's also the most cryptic/impenetrable. I would start with either this insane box (which unlike the recent comp. will never be obsoleted by subsequent purchases) or with any of the gateway drugs: Grotesque, Slates, This Nation's Saving Grace, even the last one. Hex will pay off in greater spades once you've been steeped in (immunized by?) one of these...

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Thursday, 12 May 2005 04:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Sean--50,000 Fall Fans is budget-priced and a near-perfect introduction (i.e. I've given it to a couple of friends who'd never heard the Fall and they were capital-C Converted).

Hex is the consensus as the best (my favorite is Slates), but they are indeed rough sailing for neophytes. A few of the live records are quite good; most are not.

50,000 and the Peel box have 18 songs in common, but they're all different versions, sometimes very different.

― Douglas (Douglas), Thursday, 12 May 2005 05:20 (nineteen years ago) link

"aaahI can hear the grass groww... I see rainbowzz in the evening.."

Nearly done, you guys.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 12 May 2005 07:25 (nineteen years ago) link

you lot take your time! i got through it in six days of pretty solid listening last month (including one long drive, admittedly). and fuck me if it isn't just so perfectly ace it almost defies description. i can't think of many bands with which i could do that: listen to 97 songs in a row, and not be remotely bored/desperate to hear something, anything else.

and i'm by no means a fall die-hard; more a keen casual fan. but on a purely objective level, a selected body of work like this is just fucking awe-inspiring.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, its more I don't think Dawn would enjoy it, and Amber and Alice would be too young to. Although Alice quite liked "Bat Chain Puller" the other day.

Plus, having it as the "CD de jour" for drives to and from work eases the task somewhat!

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:18 (nineteen years ago) link

ah yes, i see. my occasional attempts to get mrs f to share my enthusiasm were met with a variety of responses ranging from blank incomprehension ("it's some CDs in a brown box, how nice") to bafflement ("what did he say? 'people jumping up and down/then they had the panel on'? why are you lauging and repeatedly using the word 'genius'?") to undisguised misery ("i'm leaving you unless you listen to it on headphones now").

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 12 May 2005 08:30 (nineteen years ago) link

Plus, having it as the "CD de jour" for drives to and from work eases the task somewhat!

The task being driving to work, not listening to the Fall, which is not a task but a pleasure. But you knew that, right?

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 12 May 2005 09:19 (nineteen years ago) link

The A-sides comp 84-88 (?) is a nice gentle introduction, I think.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Thursday, 12 May 2005 09:56 (nineteen years ago) link

458489? one of the first CDs i ever got, that. and now my mate norm has it and won't give it back. long, tedious story.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 12 May 2005 09:57 (nineteen years ago) link

there was a double-disc B-sides comp too, wasn't there? which fucking ruled too.

hmm, i'm guessing these are still in print ...

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 12 May 2005 09:58 (nineteen years ago) link

Just saw the BBC documentary from a month or so back, with great footage of Session 24, MES laying the lyrics down while banging autistically on a cymbal. Is it just me or are those last five tracks as white hot as anything in the box?

If the forthcoming (September!) LP sounds anything like this I've already got my album of the year.

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 15:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Finally got my copy this morning from Piccadilly records in Manchester.

Awww. What a fucking good thing.

My wife has spent the last 11 years being forced to listen to the greatest band in the history of the world, even she was excited at this.

I now have over 80 cds of The fall, even all the dodgy compilations but this is...breathtaking. I have about half the sessions on tape but the joy of hearing them like this is difficult to put into words really, I won't even try...

― Kris England., Sunday, 29 May 2005 22:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Nice long review of this by Douglas Wolk in The Believer:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/200506/article_wolk.php

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 3 June 2005 14:27 (nineteen years ago) link

That's fantastic Doug!!

I have not had enough time with this box yet, but two highlights thus far the stadium rock version of Australians In Europe and 2004's absolutely wonderful Blindness, proof that they can still do....whatever it is they do.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 3 June 2005 14:37 (nineteen years ago) link

American release on Tuesday (at long goddamn last).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 3 June 2005 14:37 (nineteen years ago) link

Amazon is now saying that the release date is back tgo June 28th. Barnes and Noble's website confirms that date. Agh!

― paul c (paul c), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm listening to it now. Got it three weeks ago. It's something.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:27 (nineteen years ago) link

*cries in jealousy* The longer the push back date is the more frustrated I get! Grr!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't want to read that Wolk article because it will make me want to buy the damn thing, which will inevitably lead to a fistfight between me and my wallet.

― Scott CE (Scott CE), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Fall Box Set Vs. Phone Bill - FITE!

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Thanks for the review link. Bravo.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 08:02 (nineteen years ago) link

Great review DWolk. On amazon and others, the box is listed as a "limited edition". But the sanctuary records listing mentions no such thing.

True/False ?

― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link

the deluxe edition of hex enduction hour came out in the states today.

― That One Guy (That One Guy), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link

At long last, this is mine. I am a happy Ned.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 18 June 2005 20:04 (nineteen years ago) link

I want it too...did it come out in the US already?

― That One Guy (That One Guy), Saturday, 18 June 2005 20:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Not sure -- my copy I picked up at Amoeba, had an import sticker on it but the price was $45, which I thought pretty reasonable for a 6 CD set in general. Mind you, it was even more reasonable because I didn't pay for it at all, having store credit. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 18 June 2005 20:24 (nineteen years ago) link

Does anyone have it on slsk?
or know where to get it as a torrent?

― That One Guy (That One Guy), Thursday, 23 June 2005 00:44 (nineteen years ago) link

That'll be one massive torrent!

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 23 June 2005 07:19 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah...

― That One Guy (That One Guy), Thursday, 23 June 2005 21:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Just got it and it couldn't be better.

― That One Guy (That One Guy), Friday, 24 June 2005 20:53 (nineteen years ago) link

I just picked it up, and I cried.

― donut e-g (donut), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 04:17 (nineteen years ago) link

*good thoughts*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 04:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, I think it's out in the US this week. I'm going to try and pick it up tomorrow!

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 07:41 (nineteen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

THERE IS SO MUCH THE FALL OMG IT JUST KEEPS GOING

― Jimmy Mod Is Sick of Being The Best At Everything (ModJ), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 02:57 (eighteen years ago) link

I picked this up (in US). accidentally got the box wet. ugh. avoid.

― Matt Sab (Matt Sab), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm tempted to get this, but in my heart of hearts I know I'd rarely ever need to listen to that much Fall. It's enough for me to occasionally pull out the Slates EP and give it a spin - that seems like the ideal Fall record, just the right dose and only high-quality stuff. The 50,000 Fall Fans 2-disc set is a great bargain, but a bit too much to chew in one sitting.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link

ILM Fall fanaticism always puts me in mind to explore more of the band’s output for a good few hours after reading it...then my attention wanders. But this set sounds like it must be the best thing since sliced bread.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 27 July 2005 16:02 (eighteen years ago) link

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