Skip to content
The Fall: Live 1977 LP (2023, Cherry Red Records)
A few years ago, when Castle Face Records released The Fall’s Live at St. Helens Technical College 1981, I wrote about that record and toyed with doing a series of staff picks dedicated to live records by the Fall. You can consider today’s installment the second entry in the series, and maybe one day I’ll get to Live in London / The Legendary Chaos Tape, Fall in a Hole, A Part of America Therein, and then to the scores of releases that have come out in recent years. For now, though, let’s turn our attention to Live 1977, which Cherry Red Records released as a Record Store Day exclusive this year.
These tracks (well, most of them… we’ll get to that later) first appeared on 2022’s 8 CD box set called [1970s]. That box set purported to compile all the band’s 1970s studio recordings along with several live sets. Honestly, that box set seems like a mess. What person who wants to hear eight different early live sets by the Fall, but also still needs copies of Live at the Witch Trials and Dragnet on CD? I can’t imagine it’s many. Mercifully, though, Cherry Red put the entire box up on streaming services. I spent a couple of days with the set playing in the background when it came out last fall, but my friend Rich pointed me toward the May 23, 1977 gig, specifically the songs “Race Hatred” and “Sten Gun Rock” that (unless I’m mistaken) don’t exist on any other recording, live or in the studio. I wouldn’t say either is a lost classic, but it’s cool to hear early songs by the Fall that I’d never heard before.
Live 1977 is basically a vinyl version of the full May 23, 1977 gig that appeared in the [1970s] box. I’m glad to have this as a stand-alone release rather than buried on disc 5 of an 8-disc set, because it’s a brilliant gig and historically significant to boot. The band is on fire here, ripping through great early tracks like “Repetition,” “Industrial Estate,” and “Frightened,” all of which sound remarkably similar to the versions the band recorded in the studio. For a group that had just started, the Fall sounds so confident here. The closeness of the arrangements to the recorded versions shows they were well-rehearsed, and they play with power and confidence. I don’t think it’s in appropriate to say they’re on fire. The fidelity is also pretty good… noisy, but with every instrument present and accounted for. It can get a bit blown out during the loudest parts, but the power comes across even if some of the subtlety gets lost.
While the music on Live 1977 is great, the packaging is a massive disappointment. The front and back covers are pictures of (presumably) the box the tape was stored in, and it is as uninspired as it is aesthetically unpleasing. There is a printed inner sleeve, but it’s all but worthless. One side features a grainy photograph of the building where the gig took place and the other side has two newspaper clippings, one of which doesn’t even mention the Fall and the other of which is so poorly scanned that it is illegible. On the evening of Record Store Day, when I first put the record on, I was grooving out to the music, excited by the strength of the performance and the quality of sound, when I picked up the packaging to learn more about the gig. I quickly grew frustrated that Cherry Red gave us essentially no information about the gig.
Thankfully, though, there is an active community of Fall nerds online, so I could glean a little information from other sources. Live 1977’s credits refer off-handedly to this being the Fall’s first gig, but that isn’t the case. While the Fall’s first gig was at the same venue and also in May 1977, keyboardist Una Baines didn’t play the first gig because she hadn’t yet saved up the money to buy her instrument. This recording has clearly audible keyboards, leading one to the conclusion that it’s the Fall’s second gig and Una’s live debut. At least that’s what guitarist Martin Bramah said on Twitter… it would have been nice if Cherry Red had gotten the details straight so the people who bought this record could understand what they’re listening to.
The other big mystery with Live 1977 is the last track. It’s an instrumental tune that doesn’t appear on the 1970s box set, which means it’s exclusive to this Record Store Day vinyl release. The first time I listened I suspected something was amiss, because it doesn’t sound like the Fall at all and has no vocals, hence no Mark E. Smith. (Perhaps your granny is there on bongos somewhere low in the mix.) Maybe members of the Fall play on this jam (but then again, maybe not), but there’s nothing musically that indicates it’s part of the Fall canon. You can hear the musicians chatting before and after the jam, and folks on the Fall message board note the accents don’t sound Mancunian. Of course, the packaging for the record doesn’t even mention the track, so I’m at a loss what to make of it. Is it something unrelated that happened to be on the same tape? Who knows?
While the above details are still cloudy, it seems to be the case that Live 1977 is the earliest known recording of the Fall. With so many books, articles, and podcasts devoted to the band, you’d think Cherry Red could have found someone to put this recording into its proper context, but I’m glad that at least the music made it into the world.