DIARY OF A BAND 24th July 2000 As you'll probably know, Belle and Sebastian aren't playing any gigs for the rest of the year, but suffice to say we'll definitely be back playing gigs early next year. It was always the way; when the band started there was an unwritten agreement between everyone that the band would never become everything in our lives, that there would always be room for people to do other things. The band's future would most certainly be in jeopardy if it was all everyone did 12 months out of the year. In the meantime, I've been getting back to the shop floor. Last Friday I was trailing the record shops of Edinburgh with Gordy of the Amphetameanies, putting up posters for the 'Meanies album, and trying to punt copies to the indie shops the distributors missed. We had a brilliant time, and it put me in mind of the time Stuart, Richard and others did the same with Tigermilk when it was first released. In fact, the proprietor of the smaller Avalanche on Lady Lawson Street showed me the Tigermilk poster Stuart hand delivered in '96, which the proprietor claims he had to rescue from a refuse skip after it had been discarded during a clearout of the shop. The shop's brilliant though, total 'High Fidelity', as is Professor Plastic's Vinyl Exchange on West Richmond Street, where my friend Keith tells me the owner demands that his clients always refer to him as 'Professor'. We're planning a similar jaunt to London soon. I am also playing a bit with Snow Patrol. They are playing the Witness festival outside Dublin at the start of August. Richard and myself are DJ'ing too which I hear has somehow been blown into the rumour that Belle and Sebastian are playing a live gig there. Unfortunately, the practise schedule for the festival was hindered somewhat after the singer Gary fell down the stairs one night at the Glasgow Art School after a particularly heavy session, busting his eye and developing severe concussion. By the time the ambulance arrived, Gary had locked himself in the toilet, refusing to come out. Having eventually made it to casualty, he further delayed proceedings by locking himself in the toilet once more. He's okay now though, and has just phoned me to say that a practise is to be booked for this afternoon, and that he'd phone back in five minutes. That was nearly an hour ago. Perhaps the concussion has not fully worn off. Mick Cooke _________________________________________________________ the Official Belle and Sebastian Band Site is at: http://www.belleandsebastian.co.uk/home/ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead 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 +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+