This is from "Rolling Stone" on line:
<< However, if some of the nominees were a little on the conservative side, it was nice to witness one genuinely surprising award to a decidedly un- slick outfit. The Best Newcomer title went to spotlight-shy Scottish octet Belle & Sebastian. "Our table went mad and Mike [Cooke, trumpet] and I just sat
Gosh, my clipping service is busy these days.... Do you think there's a worldwide journalistic plot against poor Mick, err, Nick... whoever that boy with the horn is? there
going, 'Oh no,'" said weary drummer Richard Colburn this morning. "About three tables cheered and everyone else went 'Eh?' Then, as we wandered up to the stage, Boy George grabbed me and said, 'Well done!' It was strange."
Colburn says that even a heavy tip-off the night before didn't diminish his surprise and he attributes the win partly to the band's vast underground following which voted in the poll conducted by BBC Radio 1. "We've got a really good fanbase on the Internet," he said. "Word went round the chat rooms when we were nominated and people must have put in a concerted effort."
Colburn and Cooke received their award (a statuette of Britannia fashioned from some space-age alloy) from Huey of Fun Lovin' Criminals. They hadn't prepared a speech. Colburn simply pointed at Cooke and mumbled "I'm Belle, he' s Sebastian." Meanwhile, the bands' linchpin and singer Stuart Murdoch was with the others in a Glasgow studio working on their fourth album (due on Matador in the U.S. in August). "We rang them afterwards," said Colburn. " They were delighted." >>
L.