Seminal Live is a 1989 album by British rock band The Fall, recorded partly in the studio and partly at live performances in 1988. The album was the last to be released by the group through Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet Records

Beggars Banquet is an English independent record label that began as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin, and is part of the Beggars Group of labels...

, and as such is often seen as a "contractual obligation" album. It was also the last Fall album to feature Brix Smith

Brix Smith

Brix Smith-Start is an American singer, guitarist and television presenter, best known for being a member of post-punk band The Fall, and as lead singer and songwriter with The Adult Net.-Biography:Brix grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago...

, former wife of lead singer Mark E. Smith

Mark E. Smith

Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...

, until her return for 1995's Cerebral Caustic

Cerebral Caustic

Cerebral Caustic is an album by The Fall, released in 1995 on Permanent Records. It spent one week on the UK charts at number 67, 19 places lower than its predecessor Middle Class Revolt, marking the end of one of the group's relatively more successful periods.The album was most notable for the...

.

The studio recordings on Seminal were all new songs and make up the first five tracks of the album—side one on the original vinyl release. The live recordings on side two, meanwhile, are all versions of previously released tracks. Partly because of this, critical response to the album was somewhat mixed. Andrew Collins, writing in the NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

, suggests, "Seminal Live is worse than an intellectual letdown, it's a tease." The songs themselves also provoked a variety of responses from journalists. Jason Pettigrew of the Alternative Press

Alternative Press (music magazine)

Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....

writes, "For pure weirdness value, look no further than "Mollusc in Tyrol", a musique concrete rave-up on top of a Neubauten "Yu-Gung" rhythm track that's been buried alive." A reviewer for the Record Mirror

Record Mirror

Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...

, by contrast, says, "'Mollusc In Tyrol' is a totally unbearable drone which should never have found its way from the vaults."

Vinyl version

Side one

1. "Dead Beat Descendant" (Mark E. Smith, Brix E. Smith) – 2:25
2. "Pinball Machine" (Lonnie Irving) – 2:53
3. "HOW" (M. Smith) – 4:18
4. "Squid Law" (M. Smith, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 3:42
5. "Mollusc in Tyrol" (M. Smith, Craig Leon) – 5:10

Side two

1. "2 × 4" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:55
2. "Elf Prefix"/"L.A." (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 5:02
3. "Victoria" (Ray Davies
   Ray Davies
   Ray Davies, CBE is an English rock musician. He is best known as lead singer and songwriter for the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave...
   
   ) – 2:57
4. "Pay Your Rates" (M. Smith) – 3:52
5. "Intro/Cruisers Creek" (M. Smith, Rogers) – 6:58

CD/cassette version

1. "Dead Beat Descendant" (Mark E. Smith, Brix E. Smith) – 2:25
2. "Pinball Machine" (Lonnie Irving) – 2:53
3. "HOW" (M. Smith) – 4:18
4. "Squid Law" (M. Smith, Steve Hanley, Craig Scanlon) – 3:42
5. "Mollusc in Tyrol" (M. Smith, Craig Leon) – 5:10
6. "Kurious Oranj" (M. Smith, Hanley, Simon Wolstencroft) – 5:59
7. "Frenz" (M. Smith) – 5:23
8. "Hit the North" (M. Smith, Simon Rogers, B. Smith) – 3:12
9. "2 × 4" (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 3:55
10. "Elf Prefix"/"L.A." (M. Smith, B. Smith) – 5:02
11. "Victoria" (Ray Davies) – 2:57
12. "Pay Your Rates" (M. Smith) – 3:52
13. "Intro/Cruisers Creek" (M. Smith, Rogers) – 6:58
14. "In These Times" (M. Smith) – 4:12
    • All additional tracks are further live recordings

• Tracks 8–10, 12 and 14 recorded at the Arena, Vienna, Austria on 16 April 1988
• Tracks 6, 7, and 11 recorded at an unknown venue, possibly in Manchester, in 1988. Track 13 recorded at Manchester G-Mex; Bill Grundy
  Bill Grundy
  William "Bill" Grundy was an English television presenter and former host of Today, a regional news programme broadcast on Thames Television...
  
   introduced the band onstage and his intro was used on the album.

Personnel

• The Fall:
  • Mark E. Smith
    Mark E. Smith
    Mark Edward Smith is the lead singer, lyricist, frontman, and only constant member of the English post-punk band The Fall.-Early life:...
    
     – vocals; violin
    Violin
    The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
    
     on "Elf Prefix"
  • Brix Smith
    Brix Smith
    Brix Smith-Start is an American singer, guitarist and television presenter, best known for being a member of post-punk band The Fall, and as lead singer and songwriter with The Adult Net.-Biography:Brix grew up in Los Angeles and Chicago...
    
     – guitar
    Guitar
    The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
    
    , vocals
  • Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon
    Craig Scanlon is a British guitarist, best known as a member of The Fall between 1979 and 1995. During this period he co-wrote over 120 of the group's songs; Mark E. Smith excepted, this tally is unmatched by any other musician to have passed through the group.-Career:Scanlon joined the band...
    
     – guitar
  • Steve Hanley
    Steve Hanley (musician)
    Steve Hanley is an Irish-born English musician, based in Manchester. He is best known for playing bass guitar in The Fall from 1979 to 1998, and afterwards in The Lovers....
    
     – bass guitar
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
    
    ; banjo
    Banjo
    In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
    
     on "Pinball Machine"
  • Simon Wolstencroft
    Simon Wolstencroft
    Simon Wolstencroft is a musician from Manchester, England, best known for playing drums with The Fall between June 1986 and August 1997.Wolstencroft was a member of an early incarnation of The Stone Roses; having previously been a member of The Weeds and The Colourfield. He was also drummer for...
    
     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
    
    
  • Marcia Schofield – keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
    
    
• Bill Grundy
  Bill Grundy
  William "Bill" Grundy was an English television presenter and former host of Today, a regional news programme broadcast on Thames Television...
  
  - voice on "Intro" (uncredited)

External links

• Lyrics
• [ Review of "Seminal Live"] by Ted Mills, of Allmusic