At some deep, (hopefully) unreachable level I think I have always known that the first time I saw the Fall's "Complete Peel Sessions" box set I would have no choice but to take it home with me. So it transpired. It was probably a combination of fortysomething unbidden nostalgia, still missing Peel, still missing the idea of Peel, a recurring itch to hear the Peel version of "New Puritans" (the most seething recording by any band ever, surely, and if memory serves it took place just after they discovered that Mark's (or somebody's) house had been burgled) and wondering what Mark E Smith could do with/to "Grooving With Mr Bloe" (not there yet; just reaching for disc 4).
And yet I hadn't bought a Fall record in a decade and a half. Thus I thought my interest would fade by the end of disc 2 (of 6!: could this have really been a sensible purchase?) and am rather surprised that here I am at the end of disc 3 and There's No Stopping Me. Can't get over how gorgeously dark "Realm Of Dusk" is. I don't think I took to it at the time; and as for "Kurious Oranj", well, what was my state of mind in 1987 that I failed to appreciate the "Guns of Brixton"-esque skank of the guitars? (Or maybe the recorded version lost those?)
