This thing goes pretty deep. To understand this whole issue of touring schedules we have to look a little further back. During the Scottish tour, B and S deliberatley snubbed the capital, Edinburgh, which lies (proudly) on the East coast. They played two dates in their hometown of grubby Glasgow, forcing people (like myself) to make the humiliating journey from Edinburgh to rival Glasgow to see our favourite band. This is the genesis of B and S' anti-East Coast mentality. Their cavalier attitude to New York parallels their disdain for Edinburgh - just because we have the parliament, and New York has the Strokes! B and S are fundamentally an anti-East Coast band. This Coastal divide has plagued the rap industry in America. I just pray to God Stuart Murdoch isn't in any danger in California. I believe Suge Knight is just out of prison as well. Are our American comrades willing to take a bullet for the author of Fox in the Snow? Talking about missing out on the band, I have personally suffered a more depressing fate than NY. I had booked flights to go to California before the tour was announced, and I arrive just as the band are leaving. I think we should just be stoic about theses things. Belle and Sebastian are an unorthodox band, so perhaps we should accept that their touring schedule is not as orthodox and tightly regimented as Pearl Jam's, or Mr. Judas Priest's. I think there is no way they would pass up the opportunity to play the East Coast. Belle and Sebastian, like many Scots, have a fascination with America. Hence all the references to America on TBWTAS and Stuart Murdoch's unhealthy interest in baseball. dougal _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+