The Fall Cup: Stage 1, Groups 9-10

    

Group 9

All Leave Cancelled, Mess Of My, Lie Dream of a Casino Soul, Das Boat, One Day, Mr. Pharmacist, Hot Runes, Stay Away (Old White Train), Your Heart Out, Where’s The F***in Taxi? C**t, North West Fashion Show, W.B., Everybody But Myself, My Door Is Never, I Wake Up In The City

The Fallen

As was the case with 'Outro' in the previous round, we need not dwell too long on why 'Taxi' did not trouble the scoreboard, although I will quote Richard: 

'I have been to the Jude The Obscure pub in Oxford on a few occasions.  It gets mentioned in this track.  You’ll have to take my word for it, because you’ll never listen to it again.'

The other 'nul points' track was, not surprisingly, 'Stay Away (Old White Train)'. In YMGTA, I said that 'Burns’ Friday night pub karaoke vocal places it firmly in "possibly forgivable as a b-side" territory', but the rest of the panel were less kind, Richard going so far as to suggest that Dave Simpson's inability to track Burns down was due to the fact that the drummer was 'hiding from the shame of this vocal'.

You might have expected 'NW Fashion Show' to have drawn a blank as well, but Eric found it in his heart to give it three points. Lewis thought it 'funny' and bzfgt considered it 'not terrible', but it's a piece of flippant larking about that we won't be seeing again. I was alone in finding much to enjoy in the murky funk of 'Everybody But Myself'.

Perennial live favourite 'Mr. Pharmacist' received little love from most of the panel. If you've attended a lot of Fall gigs and/or listened to many bootlegs, it's a song that it's easy to tire of. Eric, however, did find himself 'sort of shocked' at awarding it 6 points:

'I've given the studio version some love this week (haven't listened to it in ages), and it's, y'know, pretty alright and not bad, punchy and polished in comparison to many other Fall covers. It also adds a bit of musical brightness and sparkle to a dark and dreary album, so in its place, it works. Go figure.'

In the middle of the table, there's a clump of songs that weren't a million miles from qualifying. 'Hot Runes' had some support ('cool guitar', bzfgt thought); 'Your Heart Out' may well have made it through in another group; 'One Day' (a 'good old rollicking Fall song' according to Lewis) was similarly unfortunate. 'Das Boat' owes its mid-table status mainly to Richard's outlier mark of 10, although bzfgt also thought it 'bonkers but cool'. Lewis' view is probably more aligned to that of most Fall fans: 

'Needed fading out 2m and seguing into 'The Bad Stuff'; ditch all the "ee ee ee" cobblers.'

The (Are You Are Missing) Winners

Following in the footsteps of 'Couples Vs Jobless Mid 30s' and 'Amorator!', 'All Leave Cancelled' turned out to be another late-period big-hitter, attracting appreciation across the board. 'Lie Dream' and 'Mess Of My' were predictable early-years successes, even though Lewis' praise for the latter was somehat lukewarm: 'It's fine but there were better ones from that era; probably why it wasn't on the album.' 

William Blake tribute 'W.B.' recieved strong support from all, including a maximum mark from bzfgt: 'MES's delivery makes this, I love that kind of bored intonation he gets around this time'. 'I Wake Up In The City' was a little more divisive, Lewis and Eric not being as keen on its no-nosense garage rock as bzfgt and I were, but it still sailed through with comfort. 'My Door Is Never' just squeaked through, however. bzfgt might have appreciated its 'good groove', but Richard's zero almost scuppered its chances: 'Shoots for kruauty hypnosis, hits clumsy playground chant. Like lots of RPTLC it was better live.'

Group 10

Blindness, A Figure Walks, Hollow Mind, Afternoon Disco, Theme from Sparta F.C., The Bad Stuff, British People in Hot Weather, Clasp Hands, Exploding Chimney, Bombast, 15 Ways, Cosmos 7, War, Overture from “I am Curious Orange”, M5

The fact that I felt this a relatively easy group to score in comparison with several of the earlier ones found me out of step with rest of the panel, who all seemed to find it the most challenging yet. Lewis, for example, described it as a 'nightmare' and had to 'rearrange the points a dozen times.'

The Fallen

None of us particularly disliked 'Afternoon Disco', but it's clearly just a work in progress. As Richard put it, 'a lightly diverting funk sketch. I can imagine it sprouting into a good track.' 'The Bad Stuff' is a rather slight interlude from an album that already has far too much of that kind of thing. Eric: 'It's not really that bad, but it's a wonky jaunt that doesn't really nail its landing in any way.' Richard was less forgiving: 'Some of the sawdust bulking out the budget-range sausage that is RPTLC.'

'Hollow Mind', despite featuring the memorable line 'you don't know f*ck sh*t', is a pretty mundane trundle, although Lewis has some time for it: 'A great AYAMW number; just a shame it doesn't build from acoustic to full blown band a bit sooner.' Lewis was also a bit of a champion for 'Overture' (I've always loved Brix's Overture and I don't care who knows it'); Richard also had some sympathy, even if he didn't find any points for it:

'An attractive, melancholy chord progression with some elegantly simple picking.  It’s a pity Brix didn’t make something more of this, or at least had the courage to leave it an instrumental.'

'Clasp Hands' is a cheery bit of rickety rockabilly that was unfortunate to find itself in such strong company. The pleasant-enough jangle of '15 Ways' attracted so-so marks from most of us, although Lewis was less than impressed: 'possibly the blandest Fall track ever.' I'm sure many people will be disappointed to see 'British People In Hot Weather' make an early exit, but it's hampered by that very dated synth/brass sound. Likewise, the failure of Lovecraftian horror story 'A Figure Walks' ('a classic' according to bzfgt) to qualify will doubtless go down badly in some quarters.

For me, 'Exploding Chimney' is a cracking piece of garage rock that features some particularly excellent work from Pete Greenway. Sadly, only Eric agreed. 

The (Are You Are Missing) Winners

No surprises with the top two of 'Blindness' and 'Sparta' (the former receiving the highest total score so far). The high placing of Steve Hanley's tour de force 'Bombast' wasn't a shock either. 

In general, cover versions have not performed well in this competition so far, but the group's take on Henry Cow/Slapp Happy's 'War' bucked the trend to take the bronze medal. bzfgt declared it 'their best cover' and both Lewis and Eric consider it one of their most successful. (My favourite cover has yet to appear in this round.) Its appeal stems from the fact that it's far from a straight reading - mainly because they didn't have a copy of the original at the time and so it was constructed from MES' memory. As Eric put it, 'the group completely blow the original up and reinvent it as something . . . else.'

I enjoy the slurred, frenetic clatter of 'Cosmos 7', although it would seem not as much as bzfgt, who gave it top marks ('it has a kind of magic'). It was largely his score that helped it over the finish line, as it attracted little support from Eric and Richard. Sixth-placed 'M5' had more solid backing.

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