Live in London 1980
| Live in London 1980 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by The Fall | ||||
| Released | 1982 | |||
| Recorded | Acklam Hall, London, 11 December 1980 | |||
| Genre | Post-punk | |||
| Length | 60:29 | |||
| Label | Chaos Tapes | |||
| Producer | none | |||
| The Fall chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
Live in London 1980 is a live album by The Fall, released in 1982 on cassette on the Chaos Tapes label. Initially a limited edition of 4000 copies, the album has since been reissued several times.
Chaos Tapes was a short-lived imprint, specialising in live material by established punk artists and releasing exclusively on the cassette format; the inner sleeve of this release advertised previous releases by the likes of Anti-Pasti, Discharge, Vice Squad, Chelsea and G.B.H.. The Fall had played 2 nights at the Acklam Hall venue (later known as Subterrania) on 11–12 December 1980, performing material from the recently released Grotesque (After the Gramme) album as well as songs that would later appear on Slates and Hex Enduction Hour. Featuring the performance from the 11th, the release misidentified a handful of tracks, with "An Older Lover etc" being listed simply as "?" - although the track was unreleased at the time of the performance, Slates had been issued nearly a year prior to this cassette. Mark E. Smith also told the NME that he felt Chaos Tapes had released the wrong recording and that the 12th had seen a better performance (as quoted in the 2004 edition sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea).
The recording is of only adequate sound quality and the performance is notably shoddy in places, with some songs badly fluffed by the group and even Smith making lyrical errors. However, it dated from a time when live albums by The Fall were not the regular occurrence they later became and the 4000-copy edition was snapped up quickly. Just a few weeks later, the group released one of their most highly regarded studio albums, Hex Enduction Hour.
Track listing
- "Middle Mass/Crap Rap"
- "English Scheme"
- "New Face In Hell"
- "That Man"
- "An Older Lover etc."
- "Slates, Slags etc."
- "Prole Art Threat"
- "Container Drivers"
- "Jawbone And The Air-Rifle"
- "In The Park"
- "Leave The Capitol"
- "Spectre Vs Rector"
- "Pay Your Rates"
- "Impression Of J Temperance"
Reissues
The album has been issued on CD 4 times. It was issued via Scout Releases/Rough Trade in 1996, in the US only through Feel Good All Over in 1997 and then in 1999 through the group's own Cog Sinister imprint. On each of these occasions it was issued under the title The Legendary Chaos Tape. Castle Music restored the original title upon a further reissue in 2004 and added 3 more tracks taken from other contemporaneous London performances; "Cary Grant's Wedding", "Totally Wired" and "The NWRA". The sleeve does not identify the exact venues where these tracks were recorded. This edition was also released on vinyl by Italian label Earmark in 2005.