The Fall's
Live at St. Helens Technical College '81 was released in 2021, after former member
Marc Riley discovered a bootleg of the set through Twitter and sent a link to ardent fan
John Dwyer. He loved the set so much that he contacted the other surviving musicians who played on it, as well as the people who handled sound, recorded the show, and took photos, and he organized an official release of the concert through
Castle Face, with half of the label's profits donated to an organization that helps homeless citizens in
the Fall's hometown, Manchester. Compared to other
Fall live documents from the same era, such as
Live in London 1980 (aka
The Legendary Chaos Tape) or
Fall in a Hole,
Live at St. Helens sports sharper sound quality, but it takes a few songs for the band to warm up during this set. After a brief, tentative intro, they launch into the commanding "Prole Art Threat," but it sounds kind of scraggly, and doesn't match the power of the studio recording or the performance on
Fall in a Hole. "Jawbone and the Air Rifle" sounds pretty on point, though, and the remainder of the set is generally quite great.
Mark E. Smith sounds as cantankerous as you'd expect, and the band skillfully navigate through his fiery missives, plowing through the songs with conviction and keeping diversions to a minimum, even as the songs themselves are ragged and angular. The set list concentrates on material from
the Fall's early
Rough Trade releases such as
Slates (all six songs from the EP are present) and
Grotesque (After the Gramme), and additional highlights include an electrifying take on earlier single "Rowche Rumble" and a jubilant version of B-side "City Hobgoblins." ~ Paul Simpson
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