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All Music Guide Review:
Review by Ned Raggett
The first of what would be a veritable flock of live albums, some legit and some hovering on the edge of it, Totale's Turns, with the same lineup as Dragnet, found the Fall in a hilariously aggressive mood, as the statement of purpose "Intro" demonstrates. "The difference between you and us is that we have brains!" proclaims Smith, and from there it's off into their version of rock & roll hell. Song choices range over the first two albums and various singles, delivered with the at-once on form and shambling elan that characterized the band's rough and ready early days. The Riley/Scanlon guitar team performs their own brand of anti-guitar hero guitar heroics, scratchy, twanging, cutting, kicking into rave-up energy more often than not. The Leigh/Hanley rhythm section matches it all quite well, leaving Smith to be the howling, sneering, gurgling, and perfectly charismatic center of attention. There aren't as many one-off side comments as might be thought, but at one point he does note to the audience that "last orders are at half past ten." Some brilliant performances are to be had -- "Rowche Rumble" kicks into gear with just Leigh and Smith setting the rhythm and the pace before everyone else pours it on, a straightforward, endlessly cycling riff driving everything before it. "Muzorewi's Daughter" immediately follows, its tense exchange between slow, rolling beats and explosive chorus fully intact and even more ragged. Two of the band's most famous early numbers get some great run-throughs -- "Spector vs. Rector" has a brief intro about "those flowers, take them away" before shifting into a stuttering, lurching groove somehow perfectly suited to Smith's delivery. Meanwhile, "No Xmas for John Quays" concludes the album with all the murky and righteous kick one could want, the keyboards at the end adding even more craziness.
Mark Prindle Review:
Totale's Turns (It's Now Or Never) - Rough Trade 1980.
8 out of 10
Hilarious intro - "The difference between you and us is we have brains" - right into a true-to-the-record run-through of "Fiery Jack." Also, this one generously offers three F@*#ING GREAT studio songs that you can't get anywhere else ("Cary Grant's Wedding," which resembles "Fiery Jack," but has a slow part, too, for diversity, "That Man," which sounds like a rockabilly cover, but I wouldn't know one way or the other, and an acoustic version of the guitar smash-up "New Puritan," which I also have an electric version of, but I have no clue where it came from!). Plus, "No Xmas For John Quays" still kicks ass, and you get to hear Mark scream at whomever the bass player was at that point, "Fucking get it together instead of showing off!" (about time, though - the song has a two-note bass line, but this guy kept doing runs up and down the neck like some kinda jerkbutt, almost ruining the song in the process). "Choc Stock" is still a snoozefest, though, and "Spectre Vs. Rector 2" goes on too damn long.
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