Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 15.06.78: Futures And Pasts
2. Mother-Sister!
3. Rebellious Jukebox
4. Industrial Estate
5. 06.12.78: Put Away
6. Mess Of My
7. No Xmas For John Quays
8. Like To Blow
9. 24.09.80: Container Drivers
10. Jawbone And The Air Rifle
11. New Puritan
12. New Face In Hell
13. 31.03.81: Middlemass
14. Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
15. Hip Priest
16. CnC Hassle Schmuck

Disc 2:

1. 15.09.81: Deer Park
2. Look Know
3. Winter
4. Who Makes The Nazis?
5. 23.03.83: Smile
6. Garden
7. Hexen Definitive Strife Knot
8. Eat Y�self Fitter
9. 03.01.84: Pat Trip Dispenser
10. 2 x 4
11. Words Of Expectation
12. CREEP

Disc 3:

1. 03.06.85: Cruiser�s Creek
2. Couldn�t Get Ahead
3. Spoilt Victorian Child
4. Gut Of The Quantifier
5. 07.10.85: LA
6. The Man Whose Head Expanded
7. What You Need
8. Faust Banana
9. 09.07.86: Hot Aftershave Bop
10. ROD
11. Gross Chapel GB Grenadiers
12. US 80�s-90�s
13. 09.05.87: Athlete Cured
14. Australians In Europe
15. Twister
16. Guest Informant

Disc 4:

1. 31.10.88: Deadbeat Descendant
2. Cab It Up
3. Squid Lord
4. Kurious Oranj
5. 01.01.90: Chicago Now
6. Black Monk Theme
7. Hilary
8. Whizz Bang
9. 23.03.91: The War Against Intelligence
10. Idiot Joy Showland
11. A Lot Of Wind
12. The Mixer

Disc 5:

1. 15.02.92: Free Range
2. Kimble
3. Immortality
4. Return
5. 13.03.93: Ladybird (Green Grass)
6. Strychnine
7. Service
8. Paranoia Man In Cheap Shit Room
9. 05.12.94: M5
10. Behind The Counter
11. Reckoning
12. Hey! Student
13. 17.12.94: Glam Racket Star
14. Jingle Bell Rock
15. Hark The Herald Angels Sing
16. Numb At The Lodge
17. 22.12.95: He Pep!
18. Oleano
19. Chilinist
20. The City Never Sleeps
21. 18.08.96: DIY Meat
22. Spinetrak
23. Spencer
24. Beatle Bones N Smokin� Stones

Disc 6:

1. 03.03.98: Calendar
2. Touch Sensitive
3. Masquerade
4. Jungle Rock
5. 04.11.98: Bound Soul One
6. Antidotes
7. Shake Off
8. This Perfect Day
9. 13.03.03: Theme From Sparta FC
10. Contraflow
11. Groovin� With Mr Bloe
12. Green Eyed Loco Man
13. Mere Pseud Mag Ed
14. 12.08.04: Job Search
15. Clasp Hands
16. Blindness
17. What About Us
18. Wrong Place, Right Time
19. I Can Hear The Grass Grow

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7933 in Music
• Released on: 2008-04-29
• Number of discs: 6
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

Buy Fall cds 1978 - 2004!
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!!!

The best idea anyone ever had
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.

Rock is dead. Long live The Fall
1. Throw away your entire record/CD collection.
2. Buy the Complete Peel Sessions.
3. Enjoy the rest of your life.

It's as good as that!!