Written by:
Mark E Smith, Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon

Initial release:

Dragnet, Step Forward Records SFLP4 LP

Date:
26 October 1979

Subsequent reissues:

Fiery Jack, Step Forward Records, SF13 7″; January 1980
Early Years, Step Forward, SFLP6 LP; LP; COPE 2 (?) Cassette; 1981 (single version)
Dragnet, IRS Records SFLPCD4 CD; 1990
Oxymoron, Receiver Records RRCD246; November 1997 (alternative version entitled E.S.P. Disco)
Northern Attitude, Music Club MCCD350; June 1998 (same alternative version as on Oxymoron; details above)
Dragnet, Cog Sinister COGVP113CD CD; March 1999
Early Fall, Cog Sinister/Voiceprint, COGVP123 CD; March 2000 (reissue of Early Years under different name)
Psykick Dance Hall, Eagle Records, EEECD010 CD; 7 August 2000 (album version)
Dragnet, Turning Point (Italy) TPM02209 LP; August 2002
Dragnet +, Cog Sinister/ Voiceprint, COGVP140 CD; 11 November 2002 (includes single and album versions)
Early Singles, Cog Sinister/Voiceprint, COGVP136 CD; 2 December 2002 (single version)
It’s The New Thing: The Step Forward Years, Sanctuary/Castle, CMQCD697 CD; 31 March 2003 (album version)
Dragnet, Sanctuary/Castle, CMRCD848; 26 January 2004 (includes single and album versions)
Dragnet, Earmark (Italy), EAR40036 LP; 5 July 2004 (includes single and album versions)
Rebellious Jukebox Volume Two, Secret Records SECCDD006; 28 September 2009
13 Killers, Secret Records SECCDO68; June 2013 (single version)
Creative Distortion Vol. 2, Secret Records; 18 May 2015
Dragnet, Sanctuary BMGRM067LP; 21 August 2015 (vinyl)
The Classical, Secret Records LP; 16 February 2016
Punk. Secret Records Presents 40 Years of Punk, Secret Records SECDD143; 2016
The Fall: Singles 1978 – 2016, Cherry Red CRCDBox 30; 24 November 2017

Officially released live performances:

Live From the Vaults – Retford 1979, Hip Priest/Voiceprint HIPP007CD; 15 August 2005 (recorded at the Porterhouse, Retford,16 November 1979)
Live From the Vaults – Los Angeles 1979, Hip Priest/Voiceprint HIPP008CD; 15 August 2005 (recorded at the Anticlub, Los Angeles,14 December 1979)
The Fall – Set of Ten #2, Cog Sinister CD; 1 December 2019 (recorded at Moho, Manchester; 20 November 2009)
The Fall – Set of Ten #2, Cog Sinister CD; 1 December 2019 (recorded at Riverside, Newcastle; 4 November 2011)
The Fall – Set of Ten #2, Cog Sinister CD; 1 December 2019 (recorded at Brudenell Social Club. Leeds; 30 November 2012)
The Fall – Set of Ten #2, Cog Sinister CD; 1 December 2019 (recorded at Pavilion Bar, Cork, Ireland; 21 July 2012)

Group on initial performance:

Mark E Smith – vocals; keyboards Marc Riley – guitar, keyboards vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass, vocals: Mike Leigh – drums (+ Kay Carroll – backing vocals)

First played at:

29 July 1979 Marquee, London

Last played at:

15 July 2016 Sajeta Creative Camp Festival, Tolmin, Slovenia

Number of known performances:

72

Commentary:

The song appears in two main versions, the single one having “no. 2” affixed to the title. In Simon Ford’s book “The Fall”, Kay Carroll explained the origin of the song’s title: her mother opened a psychic centre “on the corner of Gardner Road and Bury New Road in Prestwich. It was over a row of shops that consisted of a bakery, hairdresser’s and a shoe shop…It had originally been a dance studio, you know tap, ballroom dancing, things of that nature.” However Dannyno has discovered a newspaper clipping stating the exact address at 2 Clifton Road (which runs into Gardner Road).

MES quoted – original source unstated – in TBLY (no. 8; February 1997): “The version on Dragnet is about dancehalls, but the version on the last single was about psychics.”

Excerpt from the single version:

“Helen Duncan was accused of being a fraudulent medium
They burst into a seance over a over in Portsmouth, over a chemists shop
A length of ectoplasm or a suit of cheesecloth
Was grabbed but it got away
The Witchcraft Act 1735 was used to give her 9 month’s jail
The vibrations will live on”

Tim Ellison, writing in Modern Rock Magazine (San Diego; January 1999):

“Though perhaps ironically intended as merely a humorous musical setting for the subject matter of the song, “Psychic Dancehall” nevertheless set a precedent for a use of dance rhythms in The Fall’s music. The counterpoint between the two guitars and the bass in this is the first of their innovations in this area. Spindly-sounding riffs (again repeating insistently and slightly deliriously) from the lead guitar in the verses go against a mildly dissonant chord progression (A, B, and C major) and a contrapuntal bass fine. A strangely brief (economical) buildup involving an odd, brief modulation down a half-step (the type of musical innovation The Fall are never credited for…) is very effective coming in after the verses and leading to the refrain. Consisting of merely these few elements, the cyclical structure of the song is peculiar–inspiringly simple, yet lacking something. Much like Can, The Fall compensate by creating a coda. Rather than have an instrumental solo, they merely place another ridiculously simplistic, random (yet consonant and appealing) melody (riff) briefly near the end (similar to the effect of the appearance of the brief keyboard lines in the above-mentioned songs by Can). The entire contents of this song are delivered in timbres from the guitars (and bass) that are raw and biting sounding, yet not clouded in fuzz or overdrive distortion, seemingly such that they were not unpleasantly loud in performance: also an important (and again, appealing) distinction to be made in comparison with much Rock music.”