Subject: More
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 06:55:34 EST

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 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.