"I have seen the madness in my area" sings Mr Smith on track 4 of this record. That sentence sums up a lot of The Fall's appeal to me: they looked at The North, the place I was brought up in, and saw something alien and inexplicable in it. Not "Gritty Northern Realism" but rather "Snotty Northern Sur-realism". A welcome alternative to all that Hovis advert, brass-band, "Ee by gum", "Last of the Summer Wine" schtick you normally got whenever The North was mentioned in the mass media. According to The Fall, people in the North of England also had dreams and sometimes saw "monsters glowing on the roof" of the local disco and had to deal with City Hobgoblins on a daily basis. This was great news. Incredibly great news for an 18 year-old who had just left school and was on Social Security and was trying to make it in a band, which was quite difficult because the rest of said band had been forced to go to university by their parents. Plus, The North was (pardon my French) completely f***ed by 1981: it's industries closed down by the Thatcher government, leaving the entire population in a severe state of shock. We needed something new to believe in. A band to believe in.

"We are Northern White Crap that talks back" was another inspirational quote at this time (you can hear it in the introduction to "Psykick Dance Hall" on this record). Because that was what I was aspiring to do: I was attempting to find a voice. Attempting to find out who I could be. Tough job.

The Fall had always been helpful to me in matters like these: Pulp's first mention in the local press, whilst I was still at school, had likened us to "a cross between ABBA and The Fall" (best review ever!), which was encouraging, to say the least. Then I went with my sister to see them at The Leadmill which led to an argument between us as to whether what we had just witnessed was "really" music or not. Never mind that question - what about all the rest? Are you allowed to be that repetitive? Do all the instruments have to be in tune? Is the singer allowed to hang his jacket on the mic stand if he gets too hot? Yes, no, yes. The Fall provided possibilities. Showed possible escape routes. They said, "Anyone can do this - as long as you do it your own way". That meant you had to make your own rules and find your own subjects to write songs about amongst the rubble of the newly post-industrial North. Get to work.

This record brings back those days of inspiration and exhilaration. I know these songs by heart even though I never bought a Fall single back then; John Peel always played The Fall releases so I taped them off the radio. Sorry. I'm sure you're familiar with them too. But to hear them live, in the heat of the moment, really brings back the spirit of The Fall. The giddiness and excitement. The palpable hunger to find something new to sing about and believe in. This music never gets old.

The Fall are still the perfect antidote to the "madness in our area". Long may they reign. CD Digi Pac