The Complete Peel Sessions [Box set]

 

 

Create your own review

Despite the fact two compilation albums of Peel Sessions had been released ('The Peel Sessions', 'Words of Expectation') there was much in the vault and finally THE LOT get released in one fantastic box-set. Those disappointed by the rather MOR-Peel Compilation/Tribute album should look no further than this collection to find a major part of his legacy. Apparently Peel's producer John Walters (like Peel sadly deceased) thought The Fall were worse than Siouxsie & the Banshees...so offered them an initial session in 1978. Peel allegedly got The Fall a session or so later, igniting one of the major poles of his life.

Some of these tracks are surfacing on the definitive Fall reissue programme, but this is one that is nice to have in one place. Some of the versions of songs here could be argued to be superior/as great as their recorded counterparts - the storming version of 'U.S. 80s-90s', a groovier 'The Mixer' (predicting 'The Remixer'), future b-side 'Hot Aftershave Bop', a more comic take of 'Australians in Europe' and epic takes of early delights such as 'New Puritan', 'Hip Priest' (the 'Silence of the Lambs' one) & 'Garden.'

A few versions are of academic interest to the Fall scholar - the version of 'Guest Informant' slightly different and missing its reference to Marillion! Many of the sessions precede the LP version, so things like 'Immortality' (from 'Code: Selfish'), 'Touch Sensitive' (two years before its recorded version & several years before appearing in a car advert), 'Faust Banana' (later known as 'Bend Sinister's 'Dktr. Faustus') & 'Athlete Cured' (which is sharper than the 'Frenz Experiment' take and reminds me of a song by Spinal Tap!).

This is one that the hardcore Fall fan needs to own and provides entertaining contrast to the reissue programme - which has made me realise that all Fall records need to be owned once more. I'm listening to all my old LPs and tapes at present and rediscovering the joys of Mark E. Smith & co. There are many highlights - the anti Lloyd Cole-intro to 'LA'; the updates of 'The Man Whose Head Expanded', 'Glam Racket' & 'Mere Psued Mag. Ed'; the fiddletastic take of 'The War Against Intelligence'; a wild cover of 'Strychnine'; the 'LA'-referencing 'Clasp Hands'; the cover of Lee Perry's 'Kimble' (a single in the early 90s with 'C'N'C Hassle Schmuck' on the flipside); rarities like 'Job Search', 'Whizz Bang' (later 'Butterflies 4 Brains'), Xmas songs and the mythical 'Words of Expectation' - one slice of genius to rank alongside 'Backdrop' & 'New Puritan.'

It's great...it's The Fall - though there are sessions that stand out - notably the third-session (Container Drivers-Jawbone-New Puritan-New Face in Hell), the fifth 'Hex'-era session (Deer Park-Look, Know-Winter-Who Makes the Nazis?), the tenth session (Hot Aftershave Bop - R.O.D. -Gross Chapel...-US 80s-90s), the sixteenth (Ladybird-Strychnine-Service-Paranoia Man...)...though the strongest seem to be the more recent sessions here, when the band have settled into its best line-up since the early 90s: the twenty third and twenty fourth. The final session is probably one of their best and shows that the Interim/Fall Heads Roll-material is up there with previous greats - 'Clasp Hands' is wild rockabilly garage rock that nods to 'This Nation's Saving Grace', 'Blindness' genius, the Harold Shipman-referencing 'What About Us?' already a Fall-classic, and the closing medley sees a return to 1988's 'Wrong Place, Right Time' fused with the fiery cover of The Move's 'I Can Hear the Grass Grow.'

Some people might draw the line at the great compilation '50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong', while others may pick out certain favourite albums ('Live at the Witch Trials', 'Hex Enduction Hour', 'This Nation's Saving Grace', 'Bend Sinister', 'Extricate', 'Shiftwork', 'The Infotainment Scan', 'The Marshall Suite' & 'The Unutterable' often cited as the masterpieces in the brilliant career). I'd go for the lot though - and the Peel Sessions is a geat box-set which is screaming good value 97 tracks at this price? As Peel said "The Fall, a band by which, in our house, all others are judged." Though don't get the idea that this box-set anyway captures The Fall definitively - classic singles ('Kicker Conspiracy', 'Totally Wired', 'Ed's Babe', 'Hit the North', 'Hey Luciani!', 'Rowche Rumble') aren't here, while loads of personal faves aren't either - 'Disney's Dream Debased', 'Bill is Dead', 'Shiftwork', 'The Birmingham School of Business School', 'I am Damo Suzuki', 'A Figure Walks', 'English Scheme' etc). But it gives you a great counter-history to '50,000 Fall Fans...' - obligatory listening to anyone interested in literature or rock'n'roll. Buy Fall cds 1978 - 2004!!!

Most of the greatest ideas somehow never come to fruition. After listening to this I can delight in saying that one finally has.
This is the miracle that was never meant to happen. Six CD´s charting over twenty five years of The Fall, a collection of music that captures the band in their element. The Peel Sessions are where you really find the essence of The Fall, where many of the tracks come alive.
I´m not going to tell you that every second of this is amazing; it´s not. For me The Fall have produced music of wildly differing quality down the years. What it does show you is how the band constantly evolved but somehow always remained familiar. To quote the man ultimately responsible for this collection,"always different, always the same."
John Peel did more than anyone else to bring this band to the music listening public, he slowly infected me as a young teenager in the early nineties. I always enjoyed listening to the sessions. They had an abrasive and inventive touch that few other bands who recorded for Peel´s show could match on a consistent basis.
There are many highlights to be found, Daryl Easlea´s sleevenotes are informative and in my view give a very accurate analysis of the music.
I don´t have time to go through the whole lot but listen especially to sessions 3 and 4 on the first CD in which you´ll find the signature tune,"Hip priest."
A thunderous,"Couldn´t get ahead," shows The Fall at their very best to me at the start of disc two. It´s the edgy bass that does for me a lot of the time. "The man whose Head Expanded," is particularly memorable for Smith´s intro. Check out the use of machines on US80-90´s, session ten is interesting for it´s foray into goth rock.
I really like the tracks that are more engaging than the album versions such as,"Kurious Oranj," and a blistering version of,"M5," on disc five.
Things tail off dramatically from session 18 reflecting the changes and tensions within the band.
Session 23 marks something of a re-birth for the group I love the crisp,"Theme from Sparta F.C." one of their finest tracks in recent memory.
I´m not a fanatic of this band, I only own about a dozen of their other records but then again I don´t think you need to be to consider buying this. If you appreciate inventive music that doesn´t postulate you´ll quickly warm to it. Or at least the ideas.
I admire Mark E Smith but he was typically pompous in the light of John Peel´s death and although they weren´t friends it´s clear that The Fall´s music would have never reached the audience that it has without John.
Always the classic anti-popstar, a grumpy so-and-so who doesn´t want to be idol of any sort.
"I´ll make the music, you listen to it," is the impression I always have. That kind of relationship suits me just fine.´
I can´t deny that I bought this not just because I wanted to, but that in some way I felt a strange duty to buy it. John Peel did more to influence my musical tastes than anyone else. He taught me not to care what my fashion conscious contemporaries thought if I listened to something different. I think this influenced my attitudes towards a lot of other things in life too. His radio programmes fostered an interest in many genres of different music and for that I am forever grateful.
Perhaps most importantly he always tried to push the musical boundaries. This collection is a fitting tribute to that idea.

I own very few Fall CDs (although I started ordering all of them earlier in the year - once my basket got to £156 my wallet refused to continue) but this set is essential.

I won't bother to list my favourites as it's boring, but the chap who simply reviewed each session as 'genius', below, was right.

The most great music you can get for the least money, without venturing into the world of the complete J.S. Bach boxed set in my opinion, (and I've got that too).

Buy it.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 24 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars From the perspective of a fall beginner.
Trying to get into The Fall at this point in there lifespan is a difficult task. The first place any new fall fan should start is the greatest hits compilation "50,000 Fall Fans... Read more

Published 1 month ago by George Leak

5.0 out of 5 stars The Amplified MAn
Not much to say, really : to my ears and mind, a complete MUST. Versions, mostly more dynamic than the ones on the albums, sober packaging though very efficient, sums up the whole... Read more

Published 9 months ago by azélie

5.0 out of 5 stars Where do you go from here?
'Deadsoul' said it right -

I paraphrase -

'Buy this - ignore/get rid of the rest of your record collection - enjoy the rest of your life -'

I got... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Dr. Robert A. Josey

5.0 out of 5 stars The Mighty Fall Rise
Does what it says on the tin - blows all the cobwebs away, scares the wife out of the room, makes my sone ask "what's that dad? Read more

Published 19 months ago by Robin A. Stirling

5.0 out of 5 stars Gimme the lead, gimme the lead!
Best version of 'Winter' ever, and all the rest is class as well. I had some of these sessions on a grimy bootleg cassette I bought in Portobello rd. Read more

Published on 7 Sep 2009 by Mr. J. Mccool

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
It's difficult to add anything which hasn't already been said in other reviews about probably the greatest compilation, and certainly the best value for money, I've ever... Read more

Published on 15 April 2009 by markfrombilbao

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcendental
The ultimate Fall document. Everything that is great about this band can be heard here.

Highlights are too numerous to mention. Read more

Published on 23 Feb 2009 by Dave Gilmour's cat

5.0 out of 5 stars Fades In This One...
The Fall are - in themselves - a little bit like listening to a John Peel broadcast, odd one minute, puzzling the next, stretching your patience, and then suddenly something comes... Read more

Published on 7 May 2008 by pjr

5.0 out of 5 stars At last - a box-set worth having!
Generally, I dislike box sets and 'career overview' albums. All too often, they distract from the substance that makes a 'stand-alone' studio album more of a captured moment in... Read more

Published on 9 Feb 2007 by P. J. Towler

4.0 out of 5 stars All The Fall You'll Ever Need (for now)
This is what The Fall are all about. Disc 2 alone is worth the asking price. I've only dropped a star because, as with everything they do, some of it is not easy to listen to.

Published on 29 Nov 2006 by Mr. Peter Barrett

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 24 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!