How Does It Feel To Be Loved? The thing I remember the most clearly was Harvey coming up to me right after I¹d started playing "Found A Little Baby" by Plush and telling me that while he admired me for picking a song he rated as one of the most beautiful ever recorded, he thought it was little foolhardy playing something that was impossible to dance to and thus bound to clear the dancefloor completely. "Yeah, but the thing is I never expected anyone to dance anyway," I explained, trying not to talk too loud over the drop dead "oooh-oooh" bits that sound like they¹re lifted from Brian Wilson: The Melancholic, Wistful And Achingly Beautiful Years. "So in that respect the whole thing¹s been a complete disaster." I¹d convinced myself that no-one was going to come, so the plan was to please myself. I was going to play my "Found A Little Baby" seven inch, possibly both sides. I was going to play the version of "Wouldn¹t It Be Nice" I have that¹s vocals only. I was going to play "Your Ghost" by Kristen Hersh. I was going to play "Everything Flows". No would be there, no one would dance, and I¹d have the time of my life. When a guy knocked on the door at nine pm precisely and asked when we were opening I was practically dumbstruck. I didn¹t know him. He wasn¹t one of a handful of pals who were kind-hearted enough to say they¹d come and drink a few pints while I played my favourite late night records. He was a complete stranger. "Er, eight o clock," I said, even though it was a good hour after that. I thrust a flyer into his hand in a bid to hide my flusteredness. He was coming already, he didn¹t need a flyer. What was I doing? He scanned the printed names and said "Go-Betweens. Cool". I was secretly delighted but kept my calm. "Come back at nine o clock," I said. It was, by that point, about five past. Then Ben showed up. He was on his own (The first guy was with an off duty Prom Queen. That¹s what you get for being punctual). We still hadn¹t opened but it was ten past by then and that seemed like as good a time as any. "Want to hear Simon & Garfunkel?" I asked him. He did. Well, he said he did, probably out of politeness more than anything else, although he was close enough to see the rising mania in my eyes so self preservation probably played a part as well, and off I scurried downstairs. Song one: "Keep The Customers Satisfied". My little joke. A few songs after that: "We Can Have A Party On Our Own". Still amusing myself, all going well. I played the Go-Betweens before the punctual guy came back. Over-enthusiasm plus stupidity equals irony. So now you know. In the space of half an hour, a lot of people turned up that I didn¹t know and a lot of my friends did as well. I couldn¹t believe it. I was doubly happy on two different levels. Ben said he came because of my postings on the Sinister Mailing list and thought that quite a few others turned up because of those. The off duty Prom Queen¹s mate said she came along because of my postings on the Prom Night messageboard and that a few of her mates did too. Ah, the wonder of the internet. I will never doubt its potency ever again. If I had been forced to bet all of my money on which song would get someone up dancing first, I would never in a million long years of studying form and going through mine and Angus¹ record collections with a magnifying glass and a fine tooth comb have picked "Therese" by The Bodines. That is why I¹ve never won the lottery, one of those flats that the Evening Standard give away, or "Parallel Lines" in a Smash Hits competition (my brother won the last one, though, so I got to listen to his copy). But it did. One guy, dancing on his own. Respect. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. I drank enthusiastically, I played records that I loved, it was a fine way to be. Songs by the following artists were aired: Belle & Sebastian, The Temptations, The Razorcuts, The Mills Brothers, Tom Jones, The Stone Roses, The House Of Love, The Field Mice, Aretha Franklin, The Velvet Underground, The Four Tops. I didn¹t play Kristen, "Everything Flows" (but I did chance "The Concept"), or the Beach Boys a cappella (went for "Sloop John B" instead). I didn¹t have songs by Television, Another Sunny Day, Suede and countless others. The last two songs were: "The End Of The Affair" (this is it, isn¹t it?) "Homeward Bound". We lasted til 2am when I thought we¹d be hard pushed to make it til midnight. It was a great and it¹s taken me about a week and a half to get over it and type up this account. Sorry for being so slack. That¹s it. I¹m just trying to sort out when the next date will be and I¹ll post it up on the site when I¹ve got it sorted. Other than that, all that remains to be said is: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. It wouldn¹t have been half as good without you. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+