The Fall play ...

17 Jun	Maria am Ostbahnhof, Berlin, according to their website.
10 Jul	Feedback Festival, Parc de la Villette, Paris - a free, 2-day event (9-10 July). The organizers say the Fall will be the last band on 10 July, and that they want the show to end at around 9pm, so perhaps a 7:45 or 8:00 start time for the Fall? Here's an article about the festival.

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Fall site news added 27 June; updated 5 July

Spurred on by the enthusiasm of new boy Clayts and an announcement by MES that he is definitely on board with communicating with us more than ever before, there are lots of projects afoot...

• Fall gigs available for download for a nominal fee. Clayts will be in charge of this area and has a vast number of gigs at his disposal. He's thinking of offering mp3 gigs for around £2 and hopefully uncompressed wav/flac gigs for £3 (it's very easy to convert a flac to a wav and burn an audio CD). There will probably be the availability of pre-burned CDRs for those without a fast connection and/or CD burning capabilities. All proceeds will go to hosting the files on an external server and any monies left over go to the Fall. Much discussion over on the Fall Forum, and Stranger has a thread/poll about which gigs should be made available.
  
• Official Fall t-shirts for purchase through the site, with all proceeds going to the Fall. Voice your opinion on what designs you'd like here, although Mark is designing the first round of T-shirts himself - see for yourself here.
  
• We're fine tuning some new design ideas about the site, including a cross-site navigation system that'll appear at the top of every page. This will make it much easier for people to jump around from area to area. I don't think the Fall News will change too much, at least not in the near future, apart from a vast improvement to the ever-increasing Fall News archives. Although I've decided to adopt Clayts's excellent idea of adding a little added 27 June note to each heading, and they've badgered me into adopting the UK's day/month/year format.

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A message from Sanctuary added June 20

A joint announcement from MES (via Clayts) & from Steve Hammonds and Paul Jones at Sanctuary Records:

Sanctuary has signed up the new Fall album Heads Roll for release in all territories outside the USA. The tracklisting and artwork is currently being finalised; details will be published as soon as they come to hand.

UK release is pencilled in for late August.

Despite erroneous reports that the new album was finished in January 2005, the actual finishing touches were added on June 15.

Slogan Records Signs The Fall added June 23

New label Slogan Records, part of the Sanctuary Group, has announced its first album signing, with The Fall. The label has previously only released limited edition 7"s by such bands as The Forest.

Label boss Paul Jones [formerly Elastica guitarist] said, "The Fall have been one of the most influential and mercurial bands for over two decades. I am delighted to be involved with the new album 'Fall Heads Roll' as it is on a par with their very best material."

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July 2 - Moris Tepper gig (with Ding on bass) added June 24

at The Band Room ("England's tiniest major venue")
Low Mill, Farndale, nr. Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire

Moris Tepper, electric and slide guitarist on Captain Beefheart's last three legendary albums - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller), Doc at the Radar Station and Ice Cream for Crow - plays here Saturday July 2 with Dingo (Polly Harvey/The Fall) on bass and Scott Mathers on drums.

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From the lastest Nightingales newsletter added June 24

"the peel/'what a scream' version of 'urban ospreys' is to be included on a forthcoming compilation cd being released by a label called gott discs, of cambridge (uk). the album will also be featuring the fall, big flame, the membranes and other such stuff from the early - mid '80s. you can maybe get some details from www.gottdiscs.com [not yet, anyway - ed.]

Daren from Pubic Fringe:

I can throw a bit more light on the Commercially Unfriendly as I'm co-responsible for it (alongside Vince Hunt from A Witness). We've had the idea for this compilation on the boil for sometime, but thankfully Mike Gott from gottdiscs has got behind it, and has pencilled in an August release date. It's possible that we'll get it out in two months, although it's looking increasingly optimistic as we're still awaiting the masters (and in one case, a decision on which track to use!) by the majority of artists. Anyway, the tracklisting at present is

Wings - The Fall / Urban Ospreys - Nightingales / I Love You, Mr. Disposable Razors - A Witness / The Judge - Inca Babies / Debra - bIG*fLAME / War Food - Pigbros / Spike Milligan's Tape Recorder - Membranes / Cold In Summer - Great Leap Forward / Gonna Rob The Spermbank - The Ex / Blackmailer's Heartache - Shrubs / Holidaytime - Noseflutes (tbc) / Incineration - Dog Faced Hermans / Fuck America - Jackdaw With Crowbar.

I think it's a bostin' little compilation, and am really proud to be associated with it. There are some notable ommissions - Stump, Bogshed, 5 Go Down To The Sea?, DCL Locomotive - but it wasn't for the want of trying...!!

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Fall on "New Waves" compilation album updated June 24

The Fall are not on this comp after all -- it was an error on Amazon's track listing (and on the preliminary artwork, if you look closely).

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A slow news day at the Daily Mirror (May 24) (added June 24)

Thanks to Jon for sending this in. Not a patch on that Jahn Rhondos photo on the last Fall news... I don't see any likeness myself.

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Live From The Vaults - the real story added June 18

Mark has asked us to publish the letter below sent by himself on May 10, 2005 to Rob Ayling, head of Voiceprint Records, regarding the legality of the Live From The Vaults series.

It clarifies the non-role of Ed Blaney within Fall gruppe:

Rob Ayling responds:

Just thought I would up date you and the rest of the loyal Fall fans the world over . .

Further to Mr Smiths letter to me 10th May 2005, where he closes his letter with the line "i will not cash that cheque until ready"

I can now confirm Mr Smith has in fact cashed "that cheque".

It is now all systems go on . . . . . The Vault Series . . . . . I hope you like them !

Ed Blaney wrote in as well, to emphasize that the deal for Vaults/Interim/Rude/Access DVDs et al. was struck between MES, Rob and Ed early in 2004.

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Conway and I are delighted to welcome Clayton Hayward as co-editor of the Fall website. Clayts has done an absolutely superb job creating and maintaining the definitive Fall Track Record -- now "officially" part of the Fall site with a link on the home page -- and co-moderating the Fall message board. And it's great to once again have a UK-based fan running the site along with us foreigners.

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Mojo award for The Fall updated July 5

A message from Mark via a third party:

The band will be attending the Mojo Awards 2005 presentation ceremony on Thursday to collect an award for The Mojo Catalogue Release of the Year.

The Fall were one of five acts nominated for the gong, which is awarded to "the reissue that is both definitive and beautifully packaged."

The Complete Peel Sessions has seen off stiff competition from The Clash, Jeff Buckley, The Mamas and Papas, The Kinks and Jack Nitzsche.

And a message from Steve Hammonds of Sanctuary:

Conway:

I just wanted to say thanks for all the work you put in on The Fall - Peel Sessions box set, as you know we picked up the best catalogue reissue award last night and it goes without saying that we couldn't have done it without yourself (and of course Will, Becky and Daryl) once again thanks.

Look forward to a major Fall announcement in the next few days as well as our continued commitment to re-issuing the catalogue over the next twelve months.

Regards

Steve

Here's a blurry photo of MES from last Thursday's (June 16) Mojo awards ceremony; thanks to Steve Hammonds of Sanctuary:

And here's the blurb and a photo from the current Mojo - thanks to Clayts for scanning these in.

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The Fall Live at Deeply Vale cd is now available: see previous Fall News for details.

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Steven has a great clip of White Lightning from the Jonathan Ross show on his site.

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updated July 5

* that MES illustration by Tony Millionaire in The Believer looks a bit familiar... the cheeky bastard! (It's based on a photo I took at the Middle East in Cambridge, April 3, 1998). A terrific essay by Douglas, though.

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June 17, 2005 - Maria am Ostbahnof, Berlin:

Some photos here -- thanks to e floodwater for the link.

Many thanks to Alexei for providing a 10 minute video (.wmv) of bits of the gig.

Thanks to Andrew for the setlist.

Dice Man has added an excellent review on the message board of the Fall's performance in Berlin Friday night.

The actual running order:

Theme From Sparta FC / Clasp Hands / Bo Doodak / Ride Away / Wrong Place, Right Time > I Can Hear The Grass Grow / What About Us ? / Mountain Energei / Assume / Touch Sensitive / Pacifying Joint / Blindness // Boxoctosis / Janet, Johnny & James // White Lightning

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Claus Castenskiold still has some of his artist-signed PBL tour posters for sale on his site -- http://www.clauscastenskiold.com -- which is worth exploring.