The Fall – Live 1993 Batschkapp Germany (2018)

Mark E Smith was never precious about the band's back catalogue, especially if there was a few quid in it for him, so there's an alarming number of live Fall CDs out there. 74, according to Steve Pringle's superb The Fall In Fives website.

And while I'm expressing gratitude and admiration for Steve's work, before buying a live Fall CD, it's always worth consulting the Fall Bible - Steve's book, "You Must Get Them All", which details every known release (at time of publication).

I'm the proud owner of signed first edition number 480, so thanks, Steve!

After consulting the book, it sounded like this live CD was worth a punt at a couple of quid on Ebay, and it arrived today. This tour was promoting The Infotainment Scam album, and the setlist draws heavily from that, and half the set from elsewhere. The sound quality isn't at all bad, and it's a good band performance.

After some intro drone, there's a solid version of the (at this time) unreleased M5, followed by unremarkable performances of Ladybird and High Tension Line. But it's with the powerful Glam Racket that the album livens up, and from there it's bangers all the way, with highlights being Why Are People Grudgeful?, Free Range, Behind The Counter - hell, nearly all of them!

There's a 100mph version of The Sonics' Strychnine followed by a belting, expletive laden rendition of personal favourite Big New Prinz, and a fine ending in The Mixer and Dead Beat Descendant following an instrumental interlude for Mark to 'freshen up'.

As a snapshot of early 1990s Fall, I'd recommend this. Cracking songs, Mark and the boys on form. It's great.

Not on YouTube, so here's a Spotify link

4* - a fine live recording of The Fall