Live in London 1980

1982 live album by The Fall

Live in London 1980

Live album by

The Fall

Released| February 1982
Recorded| 11 December 1980
Venue| Acklam Hall, London
Genre| Post-punk
Length| 60:29
Label| Chaos Tapes
Producer| none
The Fall chronology
| Slates
(1981)  | Live in London 1980
(1982)  | Hex Enduction Hour
(1982)

|
|

Live in London 1980 is a live album by the Fall, released in 1982 on cassette on the Chaos Tapes label. Initially a limited edition of 4,000 copies,[1] the album has since been reissued several times as The Legendary Chaos Tape.

## Recording and release

[edit]

The Fall had played two nights at the 600-capacity Acklam Hall venue (later known as Bay 63 and Subterania, before reopening as a nightclub)[2] in Notting Hill on 11 and 12 December 1980, performing material from the recently released Grotesque (After the Gramme) album as well as songs that would later appear on Slates and Hex Enduction Hour. The band had been booked by Mike Hinc, who claimed that the band had broken the terms of their contract by playing another gig in London, at the 100 Club, a week earlier, which Hinc claimed "split the audience and meant a bad night for everyone".[3] Featuring the performance from the 11th, recorded by Grant Showbiz, the original release misidentified a handful of tracks, with "An Older Lover etc" being listed simply as "?" - although the track was unreleased at the time of the performance, Slates had been issued nearly a year prior to this cassette.[4] Mark E. Smith also told the NME that he felt Chaos Tapes had released the wrong recording and that the 12th had seen a better performance (as quoted in the 2004 edition sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea).

The recording is of only adequate sound quality and the performance is notably shoddy in places, with some songs badly fluffed by the group and even Smith making lyrical errors. However, it dated from a time when live albums by The Fall were not the regular occurrence they later became and the 4000-copy edition on Chaos Tapes was snapped up quickly. Just a few weeks later, the group released one of their most highly regarded studio albums, Hex Enduction Hour.

Chaos Tapes was a short-lived imprint, specialising in live material by established punk artists and releasing exclusively on the cassette format; the inner sleeve of this release advertised previous releases by the likes of Anti-Pasti, Discharge, Vice Squad, Chelsea and G.B.H.

## Reissues

[edit]

The album has been issued on CD four times. It was issued via Scout Releases/Rough Trade in 1996, in the US only through Feel Good All Over in 1997 and then in 1999 through the group's own Cog Sinister imprint. On each of these occasions it was issued under the title The Legendary Chaos Tape. Castle Music restored the original title upon a further reissue in 2004 and added three more tracks taken from London performances in November 1980; "Cary Grant's Wedding", "Totally Wired" and "The NWRA". The sleeve does not identify the exact venues where these tracks were recorded. This edition was also released on vinyl by Italian label Earmark in 2005.

## Reception

[edit]

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [5]
AllMusic| [6]
Sounds| [1]

Edwin Pouncey, reviewing the album for Sounds, gave it four stars, commenting that "the recording quality is good, with Mark's voice predominantly up front, providing some excellent moments, notably 'New Face in Hell' where Mark's vocal is mutated into a shrieking echo spitting out the words to some crazy nightmare."[1]

Ned Raggett, reviewing the 1995 CD reissue for AllMusic, gave it three stars, stating that it "captures more of the anti-smooth genius that was and is the Fall", and that it includes "some of the Fall's all-time best".[5] A review of the 1997 CD release on the Feel Good All Over label was also given three stars by the site's Ted Mills, who stated that the "performance is vintage Fall", and called it "past glories covered with a patina of analog distortion".[6]

The original cassette release reached number 7 in the UK Independent Chart in 1982, spending ten weeks on the chart in total.[7]

## Track listing

[edit]

1. "Middle Mass/Crap Rap"
2. "English Scheme"
3. "New Face In Hell"
4. "That Man"
5. "An Older Lover etc."
6. "Slates, Slags, etc."
7. "Prole Art Threat"
8. "Container Drivers"
9. "Jawbone And The Air-Rifle"
10. "In The Park"
11. "Leave The Capitol"
12. "Spectre Vs Rector"
13. "Pay Your Rates"
14. "Impression Of J Temperance"

## Personnel

[edit]

* Mark E. Smith – vocals
* Marc Riley – guitar, vocals
* Craig Scanlon \- guitar
* Steve Hanley – bass guitar
* Paul Hanley – drums

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Pouncey, Edwin (1982) "High Priest of Paranoia: Live at Acklam Hall, London 1980", Sounds
2. ^ Allen, Carl (2016) London Gig Venues, Amberley Publishing, ISBN 978-1445658193
3. ^ Taylor, Neil (2012) Document and Eyewitness: an Intimate History of Rough Trade, Orion, ISBN 978-1409135586
4. ^ Smith, Mark E. & Middles, Mick (2008) The Fall, Omnibus Press, ISBN 978-1-84772-416-8, p. 320
5. ^ a b Raggett, Ned Live in London 1980 at AllMusic. Retrieved 7 March 2018
6. ^ a b Mills, Ted "Live in London 1980: The Legendary Chaos Tape Review", AllMusic. Retrieved 7 March 2018
7. ^ Lazell, Barry (1997) Indie Hits 1980-1989, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-9517206-9-4, p. 84

* v
* t
* e

The Fall

* Mark E. Smith

* Steve Hanley
* Paul Hanley
* Craig Scanlon
* Brix Smith
* Marc Riley
* Karl Burns
* Tony Friel
* Martin Bramah
* Una Baines
* Simon Rogers
* Simon Wolstencroft
* Julia Nagle

Studio albums|

* Live at the Witch Trials
* Dragnet
* Grotesque (After the Gramme)
* Hex Enduction Hour
* Room to Live
* Perverted by Language
* The Wonderful and Frightening World Of...
* This Nation's Saving Grace
* Bend Sinister
* The Frenz Experiment
* I Am Kurious Oranj
* Extricate
* Shift-Work
* Code: Selfish
* The Infotainment Scan
* Middle Class Revolt
* Cerebral Caustic
* The Light User Syndrome
* Levitate
* The Marshall Suite
* The Unutterable
* Are You Are Missing Winner
* The Real New Fall LP (Formerly Country on the Click)
* Fall Heads Roll
* Reformation Post TLC
* Imperial Wax Solvent
* Your Future Our Clutter
* Ersatz GB
* Re-Mit
* Sub-Lingual Tablet
* New Facts Emerge

EPs|

* Bingo-Master's Break-Out!
* Slates
* The Remainderer
* Wise Ol' Man

Live albums|

* Live 1977
* Liverpool 78
* Totale's Turns
* Live in London 1980
* A Part of America Therein, 1981
* Fall in a Hole
* Seminal Live
* The Twenty-Seven Points
* Touch Sensitive... Bootleg Box Set
* 2G+2
* Last Night at The Palais

Compilation albums|

* Hip Priest and Kamerads
* 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
* The Complete Peel Sessions 1978–2004

Singles|

* "Rowche Rumble" (1979)
* "Fiery Jack" (1980)
* "Totally Wired" (1980)
* "Cruiser's Creek" (1985)
* "Hey! Luciani" (1986)
* "There's a Ghost in My House" (1987)
* "Hit the North" (1987)
* "Victoria" (1988)
* "Telephone Thing" (1990)
* "Free Range" (1992)
* "Why Are People Grudgeful?" (1992)
* "Theme from Sparta F.C. #2" (2004)

Album tracks|

* "Paint Work" (1985)
* "I Am Damo Suzuki" (1985)

Associated bands|

* The Adult Net
* Blue Orchids
* Brix & the Extricated
* The Creepers
* Darker My Love
* Imperial Wax
* The Passage
* The Teardrops
* Tom Hingley and the Lovers
* Von Südenfed

Related articles|

* Discography
* Band members
* Hey! Luciani: The Life and Codex of John Paul I

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz release group

|

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