The Fall Cup

                    The panel must award a total of 78 points to the songs in these groups; no song may receive more than 20 points, and they must give points to at least 8 of the 12 songs. The top 4 go through to the last 64. Group E  is made up of the qualifiers from  groups 9 and 10  in the first stage. Three of the four qualifiers were pretty predictable, and once again  'Blindness'  achieved first place by some distance. What was interesting was  'All Leave Cancelled'  coming in ahead of  'Sparta'  and  'Lie Dream' , with big marks from everyone but Richard: 'Fungus growing rampant on a folk rock tune, or perhaps a possessed R.E.M. song. Sometimes more fascinating than good, but proof that Fall Sound is more than krautabilly.' Eric enjoyed hearing the final lineup 'flexing their prog and noise and experimental muscles most ably, while still integrating some crushing riffery.' 'W.B.' ...

                  The panel must award a total of 78 points to the songs in these groups; no song may receive more than 20 points, and they must give points to at least 8 of the 12 songs. The top 4 go through to the last 64. Group C  is made up of the qualifiers from  groups 5 and 6  in the first stage. 'Amorator! ' demonstrated that its first-round victory in group 6 was no fluke, topping this one by ten points. Lewis would have given it 15 'had it not faded out so soon,' although Richard was less impressed: 'a brilliant sound, like a transcription of a long uncertain growl from a tipsy dog, but there's not quite enough musical material here for me.' 'Two Librans' got a clear nod from everyone, Eric for example calling it 'titanic... one of the best rocking riff-based songs they ever produced.' There was not so much of a consensus with our other two qualifiers, however. 'Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room' was blanked by Eric a...

                 The panel must award a total of 78 points to the songs in these groups; no song may receive more than 20 points, and they must give points to at least 8 of the 12 songs. The top 4 go through to the last 64. Group A is made up of the qualifiers from groups 1 and 2 in the first stage. A resounding victory for 'New Puritan' was no surprise, given how it comfortably topped group 2 - even if Eric described it as 'not special to my ears'. 'Living Too Late' s passage to the last 64 was also relatively comfortable, Lewis singling out the 'crushing bass line' of the 12" version 'Living Too Long' for particular praise. It was very tight for the remaining pair of places. Surprisingly, 'New Big Prinz' got a zero from bzfgt, but its qualification was assured by strong support from Eric. 'Hip Priest' squeaked through on a tie-break: bzfgt boosted 'Victrola Time'  with a whopping 17 that tied the scores, but 3/...

  Before we embark upon Stage 2, here are a few statistics from the first stage of the competition... Highest point totals: 58: Blindness 56: The Classical /  Weather Report 2 /  Smile /  Fantastic Life 54: Winter /  Gross Chapel – British Grenadiers 53: Mister Rode 52: New Puritan /  Leave the Capitol /  Dr. Bucks’ Letter 50: Bury! /  4½ Inch /  Fortress-Deer Park Biggest winning margins: 20 Fantastic Life 18 Dr. Bucks’ Letter 16 Blindness 14 Weather Report 2 / Gross Chapel – British Grenadiers 13 Leave the Capitol / Smile 10 Winter / Mister Rode / I Am Damo Suzuki Only just missed out: Went out on a tie-break :  Mother-Sister! Finished 1 point behind 6th place: Blood Outta Stone Bourgeois Town One Day Serum Birthday Song Finished 2 points behind 6th place: Early Days of Channel Fuhrer Futures and Pasts 986 Generator Taurig Shift-work Room To Live There were 33 songs that failed to get any points - list h...

                Group 31 Shake-Off, Spectre vs. Rector, Shut Up!, Fol de Rol, Haf Found Bormann, Birthday Song, (Jung Nev’s) Antidotes, Lost In Music, Loadstones, Segue, Loop 41 Houston, The Steak Place, Portugal, Systematic Abuse, Jetplane The Fallen As it says in YMGTA , 'There’s something exceptionally Fall-like about calling an opening track ‘Segue’, and few other artists have explored the "inebriated-tramp-hits-a-bottle-with-a-stick" genre'. But even if you love New Facts Emerge  (as I do), it was clear that this half-a-minute of playful nonsense was never going to acquire any points.  I find 'Houston' pleasant enough, and Lewis thought it worth three points, but the rest of the panel agreed with bzfgt's assessment of 'pretty weak'. 'Steak Place' fared little better. Even bzfgt, who gave it three-quarters of its four-point total, could only say that it was 'dull but nice'. The latest cover to be panned was 'Shut Up!': ...

               Group 29 Session Musician, To Nkroachment: Yarbles, The Remainderer, Fortress/Deer Park, Dramatic, Gramme Friday, (We Are) Mod Mock Goth, Don’t take the Pizza, Spencer Must Die, Just Step S’Ways, Lucifer Over Lancashire, Das Katerer, Behind the Counter, Tommy Shooter, Cowboy Gregori The Fallen 'To Nkroachment: Yarbles' is one of those tracks that suffers from being taken out of context. ' Don't Take The Pizza ' is, as Lewis said, 'B-side fodder; not terrible but just a b-side'. I was quite surprised by the level of antipathy toward 'Session Musician', which Lewis thought was 'tedious nonsense' and Eric judged to be 'another of those would-be epics that just doesn't merit its length'.  The other songs that didn't make double figures were ' Dramatic ' (' a truly slamming power trio rock song, very good, but not particularly Fall-like' , thought Eric), ' Das Katerer ' and ' Cowboy Gregor...

              Group 27 Black Roof, Distilled Mug Art, The Quartet of Doc Shanley, Frenz, Smile, Greenway, Eat Y’self Fitter, Auto Tech Pilot, Early Life of the Crying Marshal, Dice Man, Jim’s “The Fall”, Snazzy, Touch Sensitive, Ed’s Babe, Funnel of Love The Fallen Whilst YFOC  is generally regarded as one of the best albums from the final lineup, nobody found any points for its solitary cover version, 'Funnel of Love' (originally recorded by  Wanda Jackson ). Not that any of us hated it ('better than many Fall covers' was Eric's opinion), but as Richard said: 'A fair shot at a cover, but it doesn’t quicken the pulse'.  'Greenway' (another cover - sort of - originally done by  Athenian comedy-thrash-metallers Anorimoi ) fared little better, although I'm sure I can't be alone in finding it hilarious. Lewis was less sympathetic: ' Completely and utterly horrible'. ' Beware of Greeks bearing riffs', Richard warned. 'Early Lif...