Does anyone remember the song 'Belfast' by Boney M? It was a jaunty piece of disco nonsense about the socio-political situation in the northern capital during the 1970s. As far as I remember, most members of Boney M were immigrants to Germany from central Africa who spoke no English, so they were completely unaware of the seriousness of the lyrics they sang. In only a few weeks, I'll be going up to Belfast with my best girl, that's up from sunny Dublin. Obviously we're going up there to see popular Scottish group Belle & Sebastian, which will be nice. I think there ought to be a Belfast meetup before the gig, is anyone game? I'm not really sure of a location, and I reckon if there are any Belfast-based listers they might be able to help here. One thought that flitted through my mind was meeting in the Botanic Gardens during the day, as they are kind of central while also being kind of near the University area where the band are playing. But maybe it would be too parky for an out-door meetup and instead we should go to some cosy bar with a roaring log fire to drink hot ports and chit chat about stuff. Any suggestions? Meanwhile, in news about me, I've been to the United States of America. There are lots of squirrels there. I saw one hiding some walnuts in the base of a tree, and considered stealing them on him but decided against it. I also discovered that the Moldy Peaches are B*R*I*L*L*I*A*N*T and can see why everyone loves them. They're kind of like an American Vaselines or something, which is obviously a good thing. I also bought a fab compilation CD called "Ultra Chicks Vol.6". It's not the soundtrack to a Russ Meyer film, but rather a collection of very likeable French pop tunes sung by women and girls from the past. If you had volumes 1 - 5 as well and a CD multi-changer set to shuffle-play you would have a Bowlie disco of your own in your living room, which would be groovey. Mark Sweeney, meanwhile, mentioned that the bus to Belfast has been cancelled, which is a bit poor really. I've already got other commitments up north so I won't be able to join in with any bus hiring pranks. And I suppose I should disjointedly mention the new B&S single. I'm not really that taken with it - with the title track anyway. I still haven't bonded with it, yeah. I find the funny vocal inflections Stu-Boy adopts on it a bit strange. Obviously though, I love 'I Love My Car' as it brings back happy Uptown Shufflers related memories. And 'Marx & Engels' is endearing in a b-sidey kind of way. But overall, nyeh, try harder next time. OK, off to write zines and stuff. bless you all, DV +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+