Mark E Smith & The Fall perform 15/05/2014 Manchester Cathedral gig - Simon Archer, Mark.E.Smith, Pete Greenway Guitarist & Elena Poulou Keyboard

The Fall Set List Manchester Cathedral 15-05-2014 The Remainderer Cowboy George Auto Chip 2014–2016 Bury Pts. 1 + 3 White Lightning Pledge Sir William Wray Happi Song Mister Rode Amorator! Facebook Troll Strychnine Wolf Kidult Man Hittite Man Encore: Blindness Encore 2: Aborted Reformation Mr. Pharmacist Manchester evg News Review - https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/gig-review-fall--manchester-7129956 I’ve seen Mark E Smith at a range of venues, from sweaty club gigs to confusing 100, 000 Gorillaz fans at Glastonbury’s main stage, but to see Manchester’s most dissident music icon at the city’s cathedral felt like it would be a surreal experience. When the man himself strode past paying customers into the main nave of the grand old building, with the assurance of a man who very much owned the place, it was a double-take moment which seemed fitting of the whole event. The Fall have been an unusually settled outfit in recent years, now on their fourth consecutive studio album with the same line-up. For a band which has clocked up almost 70 members – one of whom was reportedly fired by its iconic frontman and dictator-in-chief for ordering a salad – it’s been a period of relative calm which could have brought accusations of sterility. The rousing opener ‘Your Future, Our Clutter’ quickly dispels any fears of the serene venue taking away any of The Fall’s traditional sting, if anything the acoustics of the cathedral add another layer to Smith’s barking, hectoring vocals. The follow-up number ‘I’m not from Bury’ seems appropriate as the Prestwich rock deity holds his hometown crowd in the palm of his hand, especially the ones craning their necks around the cathedral’s dramatic pillars as he prowls around the stage like an overlord searching for something that needs correcting. In nearing 40 years as The Fall’s supreme leader Smith has exhibited a fondness for ‘live-mixing’ during sets – a tweak of an amp here etc