So on that note I have here beside me a very recent recording of said band - thrashing out material from the long-awaited new slab-of-vinyl - live from 'Malaga AndalucÌa Spain 21.01.2007'
- and boy - are they a well-greased set of psych-out-well-oiled-coggs - so much so that it could almost be early 70's and here we are down the front listening to Space-Ritual era Hawkwind
man - there is stuff this band is doing that once upon-a-time would have seen them all fined/sacked and no doubt verbally and physically abused, giving reason to proceed with legal retribution against he that is MES....
It's all in there - squealing fuzzed out guitar-solos, white-noise acid-induced synth-lines - god - even key-changes ... now don't get me wrong - this is all damn bleedin fine in this household - ya see I am an old saddo who used to wade through muddy fields - stand in puring rain - at festivals tripping me gord out to the Hawk-fellows and associated mushroom-eaters ... Still have a massive soft-spot for Nik Turners Inner City Unit - a lovely merging of psychedelic-punk-rockabilly mashing ---- so here ya go - the new Fall sound - as usual - completely different - but somehow exactly the same - lovely stuff or what !!
The Fall - Fall Sound (live 21/01/2007 Malaga Spain)
So there I was grooving out to the above - when it leads to a sudden urge to hear - the real-stuff - ya know the 1970s tripped-out-flying-teapot-gnome-out-experience ... so I dig deep into me box of mouldy-old-bootlegs for some GONG ... now there were a bunch who knew how to trip out - yes for sure - and what better place to go than a 1974 performance from Rotterdam - featuring the drumming talents of none-other than Bill Bruford - man that should satisfy my need to seriously wiggout - shake me locks - and basically LET-IT-ALL-OUT .. so I slap the tape into the player - fast-forward to the track that is Flying Teapot and hit PLAY - but man-oh-man - what the fuck is this - another quantum-leap - for Gong seem to have somehow been lifted into outerspace on the Mothership and via Bootsy Collins and the boyz - have morphed into somekind of pre-Studio 54 disco-sluts - OK it has been years since I listened to this stuff - but frig - did they always have the funk ? now I know I have on the shelf here a vinyl original of 'Camembert Electruque' and last time I checked it was all elfish-folk-acid-doodlings - so what gives ... makes me damned scared to grab some old Funkadelic album should they suddenly have morphed into the Bay City Rollers ! Anyhows - judge the funk-nuggets for your self - and geddon-down to a blistering knee-trembling blast ::
Gong - Flying Teapot (Rotterdam 1974)
5 comments:
Yes, doesn't Steve Hillage now deny he was ever prog and says he was always into soul and funk? I think he was always a big Clinton fan.
There was always something of the acid head to Smith, the occult and drug references of the early Fall.
Nik Turner ... old freaks never die.
That Fall track def sounds like an out-take from 'Space Ritual'.
Never a huge Gong fan, apart from Hillage. Always preferred his solo stuff. Kek & I saw him in the Colston Hall way back. Just a great guitarist.
Hillage in Yeovil hey - was that on the Planet Gong tour ? Missed that one for reason I cannot now recall ...
and - yep the new fangled Fall are certainly pretty damn ssssonik right now - I put it down to the couple of kids he picked up in the US last year - should be a good tour me suspects..
Never did quite get old Mr. Hillage either - remember being force-fed 'L' by Graham Fallows back in the mid-late 70's as we twanged away at Beatles covers in our first band-attempt - never quite got hte stuff AT ALL ... I actually always loved the Planet Gong/here-and-Now stuff - but Gong-proper never quite cut it either ... and as for later-day System-7 era Hillage - for some reason or t'other I have a stack of 12-inch stufff lying around here which should be disposed of via ebay when I can be bothered !!
That Flying Teapot sure cuts to the funk though !!
Nah, wasn't Yeovil come to think, but Bristol.
'L' was a cracking album. His version of 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' is second only to the Buthole Surfers'.
System-7 were shite though. No guitar solos.
Yea...I was at said Fall gig at the Cervantes Theatre in Malaga. A beautiful old opera house that is used to staging those type of concerts, hence it being all seater and all very prim and proper.
The all female security certainly weren't prepared for a band like the Fall and their audience. I assume they're used to a staid Opera going crowd. Mind you I believe Bryan Ferry played there a few years back ;-)
A good number of British fans were there and obviously had to dance. The cluless attempts by security to stop us was hilarious and the Fall were great as usual.
"Bang fucking bang - the Mighty Fall!"
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