Music Banter - View Single Post - Urbans Rough Guide To The Wild & Wonderful World Of The Fall

Urban Hat€monger ? · 03-18-2007, 05:52 AM

Totale's Turns (It's Now Or Never) - Rough Trade - 30th April 1980

Original Album Tracklisting : Intro / Fiery Jack / Rowche Rumble / Muzorewi's Daughter / In My Area / Choc-Stock / Spectre vs. Rector / Cary Grant's Wedding / That Man (Studio Outtake) / New Puritan (Home Demo) / No Xmas For John Quays

Re-issue Extras :Container Drivers / Jawbone And The Air Rifle / New Puritan / New Face In Hell (John Peel Session 24th September 1980)

Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals / Marc Riley - guitar / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - bass / Paul Hanley - drums

Critique: Totale's Turns is a live album , and the bands first for Rough Trade. It was put out mainly for two reasons. The first being that the band desperatly needed funds , secondly because Mark E Smith was becoming extremly happy with the bands dynamic & wanted to capture it in a release and a live album was a cheap & easy way the achieve this. Also as not to rip off fans Smith instructed Rough Trade to retail the album at half the price ,which they did.
The live material on the album was recorded in working mens clubs in the north of England mostly to an indifferent crowd to whom Smith isn't shy about letting his feelings towards know. In fact during the intro Smith addresses the crowd with 'The difference between you and us is we have brains'.
The sound quality isn't great but it's listenable and once you get over that there are some energetic run throughs of some of their best material off the Dragnet album. The album also includes Cary Grants Wedding a pretty decent song that never made it any further than being played live .That Man is an interesting song that sounds like The Fall doing rockabilly , I don't think they've done anything like this before & I really like it. There is also a home demo version of New Puritan which Smith recorded as a drunk tried to break into his house.The final song on the album is an 8 minute rendition of No Xmas For John Quays the only song from the Witch Trials era. This really is a great addition to the album because Smith is in a foul mood and starts launching into his own band with statements like 'C'mon get a bit of f*cking guts in it' and 'Will you f*cking get it together and stop showing off'.
The sole extras on this album come from the bands third John Peel session from later on that year.I'll cover the Peel Sessions later in detail but this particular session in my opinion is the best one they ever recorded out of the 24 they did and it's inclusion on here is a masterstroke.

Songs You Need

Cary Grants Wedding : Because you can't find it anywhere else & it stands up to the rest of their material from this era.

That Man:What The Fall would have sounded like if Mark E Smith had put them together in 1958

No Xmas For John Quays: Because it's faster , heavier & longer then the album version and hearing Smith shouting at his own band is funny.

Verdict: I was scared of this album for a long long time. Not being much of a fan of the Dragnet album and hearing of it's reputation for being really lo-fi I wasn't really in a rush to hear it. So when I did finally hear it I was pleasently surprised to find myself listening to the whole album and enjoying it. Most of this is down to Mark E Smiths onstage banter and the urgency & togetherness of the band , being a stark contrast to the looseness of the band that recorded the Dragnet album. You can really see why Smith wanted to document this era of the band. Obviously this is not the best album to start with if you want to get into The Fall but those who are familiar with this era of the band will have a soft spot for it.
4/10

03-18-2007, 05:52 AM	#12 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	Totale's Turns (It's Now Or Never) - Rough Trade - 30th April 1980 Original Album Tracklisting : Intro / Fiery Jack / Rowche Rumble / Muzorewi's Daughter / In My Area / Choc-Stock / Spectre vs. Rector / Cary Grant's Wedding / That Man (Studio Outtake) / New Puritan (Home Demo) / No Xmas For John Quays Re-issue Extras :Container Drivers / Jawbone And The Air Rifle / New Puritan / New Face In Hell (John Peel Session 24th September 1980) Band Line Up: Mark E. Smith - vocals / Marc Riley - guitar / Craig Scanlon - Guitar / Steve Hanley - bass / Paul Hanley - drums Critique: Totale's Turns is a live album , and the bands first for Rough Trade. It was put out mainly for two reasons. The first being that the band desperatly needed funds , secondly because Mark E Smith was becoming extremly happy with the bands dynamic & wanted to capture it in a release and a live album was a cheap & easy way the achieve this. Also as not to rip off fans Smith instructed Rough Trade to retail the album at half the price ,which they did. The live material on the album was recorded in working mens clubs in the north of England mostly to an indifferent crowd to whom Smith isn't shy about letting his feelings towards know. In fact during the intro Smith addresses the crowd with 'The difference between you and us is we have brains'. The sound quality isn't great but it's listenable and once you get over that there are some energetic run throughs of some of their best material off the Dragnet album. The album also includes Cary Grants Wedding a pretty decent song that never made it any further than being played live .That Man is an interesting song that sounds like The Fall doing rockabilly , I don't think they've done anything like this before & I really like it. There is also a home demo version of New Puritan which Smith recorded as a drunk tried to break into his house.The final song on the album is an 8 minute rendition of No Xmas For John Quays the only song from the Witch Trials era. This really is a great addition to the album because Smith is in a foul mood and starts launching into his own band with statements like 'C'mon get a bit of fcking guts in it' and 'Will you fcking get it together and stop showing off'. The sole extras on this album come from the bands third John Peel session from later on that year.I'll cover the Peel Sessions later in detail but this particular session in my opinion is the best one they ever recorded out of the 24 they did and it's inclusion on here is a masterstroke. Songs You Need Cary Grants Wedding : Because you can't find it anywhere else & it stands up to the rest of their material from this era. That Man:What The Fall would have sounded like if Mark E Smith had put them together in 1958 No Xmas For John Quays: Because it's faster , heavier & longer then the album version and hearing Smith shouting at his own band is funny. Verdict: I was scared of this album for a long long time. Not being much of a fan of the Dragnet album and hearing of it's reputation for being really lo-fi I wasn't really in a rush to hear it. So when I did finally hear it I was pleasently surprised to find myself listening to the whole album and enjoying it. Most of this is down to Mark E Smiths onstage banter and the urgency & togetherness of the band , being a stark contrast to the looseness of the band that recorded the Dragnet album. You can really see why Smith wanted to document this era of the band. Obviously this is not the best album to start with if you want to get into The Fall but those who are familiar with this era of the band will have a soft spot for it. 4/10 __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.