The Complete Peel Sessions comprises each of the twenty-four sessions the group recorded for John Peel's radio show. Peel was an avid supporter of the group from early in their career, and The Fall recorded more sessions for Peel's programmes than any other artist. The set was in the process of being compiled when Peel died in October 2004. The set charts almost all of the group's musical phases up until 2004.
Some tracks appear under different titles to their single/album incarnations. Although most differences are slight, the tracks are listed by the titles they were given at the relevant session.
The Fall were an English post-punk band, formed in 1976 in Prestwich, Greater Manchester. They underwent many line-up changes, with vocalist and founder Mark E. Smith as the only constant member. The Fall's long-term musicians included drummers Paul Hanley and Karl Burns; guitarists Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon and Brix Smith; and bassist Steve Hanley, whose melodic, circular bass lines are widely credited with shaping the band's sound from early 1980s albums such as Hex Enduction Hour to the late 1990s.
First associated with the late 1970s punk movement, the Fall's music underwent numerous stylistic changes, often concurrently with changes in the group's lineup. Nonetheless, their music has generally been characterised by an abrasive, repetitive guitar-driven sound, tense bass and drum rhythms, and Smith's caustic lyrics, described by critic Simon Reynolds as "a kind of Northern English magic realism that mixed industrial grime with the unearthly and uncanny, voiced through a unique, one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn." While the Fall never achieved widespread success beyond minor hit singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, they have maintained a strong cult following.
The Fall have been called "the most prolific band of the British post-punk movement."From 1979 to 2017, they released thirty-two studio albums, and more than three times that number when live albums and compilations (often released against Smith's wishes) are taken into account. They were long associated with BBC disc jockey John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and described them as his favourite band, famously explaining, "they are always different; they are always the same." Smith's death in 2018 effectively put an end to the group
Disc one
Session 1, 30 May 1978
1. "Futures and Pasts"
2. "Mother-Sister!"
3. "Rebellious Jukebox"
4. "Industrial Estate"
Session 2, 27 November 1978
5. "Put Away"
6. "Mess of My"
7. "No Xmas for John Quays"
8. "Like to Blow"
Session 3, 16 September 1980
9. "Container Drivers"
10. "Jawbone and the Air-Rifle"
11. "New Puritan"
12. "New Face in Hell"
Session 4, 24 March 1981
13. "Middlemass"
14. "Lie Dream of a Casino Soul"
15. "Hip Priest"
16. "C'n'C – Hassle Schmuck"
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Disc two
Session 5, 26 August 1981
1. "Deer Park"
2. "Look, Know"
3. "Winter"
4. "Who Makes the Nazis?"
Session 6, 21 March 1983
5. "Smile"
6. "Garden"
7. "Hexen Definitive – Strife Knot"
8. "Eat Y'Self Fitter"
Session 7, 12 December 1983
9. "Pat Trip Dispenser"
10. "2 × 4"
11. "Words of Expectation"
12. "C.R.E.E.P."
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Disc three
Session 8, 14 May 1985
1. "Cruiser's Creek"
2. "Couldn't Get Ahead"
3. "Spoilt Victorian Child"
4. "Gut of the Quantifier"
Session 9, 29 September 1985
5. "L.A."
6. "The Man Whose Head Expanded"
7. "What You Need"
8. "Faust Banana"
Session 10, 29 June 1986
9. "Hot Aftershave Bop"
10. "R.O.D."
11. "Gross Chapel – GB Grenadiers"
12. "US 80's-90's"
Session 11, 28 April 1987
13. "Athlete Cured"
14. "Australians in Europe"
15. "Twister"
16. "Guest Informant"
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Disc four
Session 12, 25 October 1988
1. "Deadbeat Descendant"
2. "Cab It Up"
3. "Squid Lord"
4. "Kurious Oranj"
Session 13, 17 December 1989
5. "Chicago Now"
6. "Black Monk Theme"
7. "Hilary"
8. "Whizz Bang" (this track was not broadcast)
Session 14, 5 March 1991
9. "The War Against Intelligence"
10. "Idiot Joy Showland"
11. "A Lot of Wind"
12. "The Mixer"
Session 15, 19 January 1992
13. "Free Range"
14. "Kimble" (Lee "Scratch" Perry cover)
15. "Immortality"
16. "Return"
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Disc five
Session 16, 28 February 1993
1. "Ladybird (Green Grass)"
2. "Strychnine" (The Sonics cover)
3. "Service"
4. "Paranoia Man in Cheap Sh*t Room"
Session 17, 2 December 1993
5. "M5"
6. "Behind the Counter"
7. "Reckoning"
8. "Hey! Student"
Session 18, 20 November 1994
9. "Glam Racket – Star"
10. "Jingle Bell Rock" (with substantially different lyrics to the original 1957 song)
11. "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe – Green-Eyed Loco Man"
12. "Mere Pseud Mag. Ed."
Session 24, 4 August 2004
13. "Clasp Hands"
14. "Blindness"
15. "What About Us?"
16. "Wrong Place, Right Time"/"I Can Hear the Grass Grow"
17. "Job Search" (bonus track; recorded during Session 24 but not broadcast. It was pressed onto an acetate (coupled with a similarly exclusive track by Half Man Half Biscuit) and given to John Peel for his 65th Birthday on 31 August 2004. Peel played the track on air that night, making it the final track by the group to debut on his show)
