Dublin Opinion

What was he thinking, sending out inexperienced players last Saturday before an expectant, roaring crowd? You’d imagine, with all the lineup changes, the injuries sustained along the way, the fights, the firings and rehirings while playing away, that there’s no way they could hold it together. But they came on so confidently, and as the skeptical fans waited nervously for the real action to start the champions pounded confidently along. Immediately we realised that they were going to be magnificent. They’re playing so well, we thought, this can only end in glory.

At this point of course, you’ve probably realised that I’m not talking about Ireland’s miserable performance against Cyprus last Saturday, but rather another spectacle entirely. Last Saturday evening the mighty Fall played the Village in Wexford Street and despite some ropey Dublin shows down through the years this time they were definitely a triumph.

Pardon my conceit though. The ‘he’ referred to is of course, Mark E. Smith, but there is a reason behind my duplicity. Smith has expressed a fondness for soccer once or twice and when explaining why the Fall have had so many lineup changes over the years in a recent BBC2 documentary he even likened himself to a football manager, who in order to get the best out of his team has to change things around a bit.

Perhaps Mark E., with so much experience trying to keep things fresh and exciting, could tell the tender Staunton a thing or two about getting the most out of his team. Because the Fall played so brilliantly and Ireland’s performance on the pitch was such utter shite it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.

The football analogy continues. While speculating before the gig with my mate (and Fall expert) Alan about who will be playing in this gig and who’s been sacked, he told me that Smith now has two bands, kind of like an A and a B team. This allows him complete flexibility, swapping one band member for another to suit the touring schedule. The one who always remains his wife of course, Elenor Poulou, on keyboards. Smith had famously said after sacking the whole band in the late 90s (including members who were considered to be the biggest contributors to the ‘Fall sound’) that if it was just him and your Granny on bongos then it was the Fall.

But he was younger then. On Saturday night the only one on stage who was close to drawing a pension was Smith himself, and considering that he has a tendency to play with his dentures during gigs and can often be seen wrapping his toothless gums around the head of the microphone its fair to say that he looks even older than he is.

Everyone else on stage looked startlingly fresh-faced in comparison and could have been no older than 30. It was an age profile that matched the audience. Seasoned Fall fans still trapped in an illusion that the Fall remains on the outer regions of popular musical taste were probably surprised that the Village was completely sold out and that the fans ranged in ages from what looked like 20 to grey haired and balding 50 somethings. And there were plenty of women there too! Although following the Fall is still a predominately a male hobby, it seemed to me that anyone in Dublin who liked their music decided to turn up.

So the band consisted of a lead guitarist, a bass player, a drummer and Elenor on keyboards. Checking out the unofficial Fall site I presume these to be Pete Greenway (guitar), Dave “The Eagle” Spur (bass) and Orpheo McCord (drums).

Although the lineup changes faster than the time it takes to learn to tune a bass, some things never do. The band played the opening of Pacifying Joint for about a minute and Mark appeared from behind the drum kit dressed in a white shirt and ‘corny’ brown leather jacket. He hit the lyric straight away and apart from a couple of quick costume changes (he took the jacket off and later put it on again) played straight through with only one visit to the back of the stage to interfere with the bands amps. Only once that I noticed anyway.

These little parades around the back of the stage are a bit like the manager walking the sideline during a football match and in the past they’ve often involved him hollering at the players or doing something to get the wind up them. But there was none of this last Saturday. It seemed as if there was no time for it. The band have a very tight arrangement, with strong bass lines thundering through the tracks.

Most of the songs came from the latest LP, Heads Roll, so we were treated to Bo Demmick, the mosh crowd pleasing Theme from Sparta FC, the paean for Eastern block druggies What About Us, Mountain Energei, I Can Hear the Grass Grow, Blindness (about former Home Secretary David Blunkett) and a fairly true to the original sounding Mr. Pharmacist, the only song from way back. There was a couple of new ones too; one I hinted at earlier called Fall Sound and from what I heard on Saturday night they pretty much rock. One was standout, though I don’t know the name of it, with an interesting guitar lick that I liked.

Now if I have one complaint it is that it wasn’t long enough. They came on at 9:30 (to the surprise of everyone around me) and were off stage by 10:30.

But in terms of putting in a performance, I’d say to Steve Staunton, if you want to get some steam in your team get your notebook out and start plagiarising Mark’s management style - he may well be a hard bastard, but he gets the job done.