Well I would have put some money on that horse today, but I'm still recovering from the news that Mark C thinks of my singing every time he hears Modern Rock Song. Poor bugger. And I must just say how nice it is to have the delightful Genevieve back with us again. I'm just jealous of all the people at her prom who'll see her in an old-style heaving bosom type dress. We demand photos! Anyway, the real reason I'm posting is because noone has mentioned yet the Genital Warts article in this week's NME. It's quite long, but here goes: "People are rarely what they seem. It's the quiet, 'keep themselves to themselves' types who end up rampaging through shopping centres with rifles, and the jovial pub jokers who end up putting their heads in the gas oven. Meeting Isobel Campbell, sometime cellist with Belle And Sebastian, in the sunny surrounds of a South London bistro, you'd have her pencilled down as a gentle, happy-go-lucky funstress within 15 seconds. And you'd be wrong. The release of her first solo project, The Gentle Waves' 'The Green Fields Of Foreverland...' will show that behind the effervescent persona and lilting Glaswegian burr lurks a heart of darkness. Its eerie, psychedelic-folk overtones, leavened by some sparkling songwriting, cannot mask the fact that this is mournful stuff. "I am quite grim," she smiles. "Ask anyone that knows me properly. A lot of people think there's nothing going on in my head because I'm giggly, but I'm a lot more thoughtful than people give me credit for." So exactly how did this exercise in dourness come about? What was it that turned this mild-mannered, multi-instrumentalist into a squeakier version of Nico? She pauses. She's not really sure. The facts are simple. Before joining Belle And Sebastian she was a 19-year-old university student, lazing about, going to parties and buying records, but long, long before this, she had started writing. "I had been making four-track recordings with friends for ages," she explains. "But I was writing songs even when I was a wee girl." While her musical contribution to B&S has been plentiful, she still harboured ambitions to make her own record. In the end it took only one week out of the band's busy schedule to make that dream a reality. "We'd been away in America in the tourbus and it was awful," she groans. "It doesn't matter if you're with the most wonderful people in the world, if you haven't got your own space it's just..." she makes a face, "Grrrrrrr. We had four days off when we got back and after I'd caught up on my sleep I made the record." Recorded with the help of friends and bandmates Richard Colburn, Chris Geddes, Stuart Murdoch, Mick Cooke and Stevie Jackson, 'The Green Fields...' and forthcoming single 'Weathershow', sound anything but rushed. That being said, there is a song on the album,'Tree Lullaby', which appears to be addressed to, well, a tree. Care to explain? "It's not to a tree," she states with mild disdain. "It's more humanity." She rolls her eyes in disgust: "Oh God, that's so cheesy. I like trees though. Sometimes trees look like people because they're so twisted, y'know?" Erm, yeeeesss. We edge towards the door smiling and making sure to maintain eye contact. Sure, Isobel Campbell seems like sweetness and light personified but you can never be sure." I don't think I'll bother typing in the Looper live review as well because, well, it's not quite so complimentary. Other top moments from this week's NME include their description of "Belle And Sebastian's forthcoming nambling pambling rice pudding & crochet holiday camp gangwanking whimsy-thon". I kid you not... Big Stu PS If you're bored, head for http://www.email.net/work-well-together.html o o o, ,o, ,o o o> <o> <o o o o |^ ^|^ ^| | |~ ~|~ ~| | \> <X> </> <|> /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ Hey! Macarena... +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+