What an odd review. April Long struggles to articulate what it is that's so annoying about the band, makes a few completely bizarre assessments ('The Chalet Lines' documents a 'half-forgotten romance'? Some romance) and then wraps it up by saying they record's bloody good. I've heard of love-hate relationships, but how anyone can describe something as both 'cloyingly sanctimonious' and 'irresistible' in the same sentence, I can't really understand. It's not that NME writers can't write anymore - it's as if they can't *think*. Stuart's got a letter published in Angst. It's a bit of a rant really. I like his 'it's like we're going out and you're trying to change me' analogy. What a lot of fuss this thing is causing. I agree with Peter Miller that the original piece wasn't half as bad as everyone's making out. Yes, Steven Wells's argument comes across as incredibly half-baked, but I almost got a sense that he knew it. It all comes down to whether or not you agree with his (and April Long's, it seems) belief that people who make records have a certain set of responsibilities to the media. I don't understand why they do, but there you go. Wells tried to drag the fans into it by saying the band treat them badly (tuning up with their backs to the audience and making 'in jokes' apparently - can't say I've ever noticed this especially and I was at the same Manchester concert as he was) but I think he's way off target. The Shepherd's Bush debacle was a pain for some people and that's a shame, but the band did apologise. Oh, and there's the new single format 12"/CD bollocks. But it's not really enough to build a whole thesis on 'contempt for the fans' is it? There's two other letters supporting the band this week. One a bit crap (describing B&S as writing some 'pleasant' songs is hardly going to win over the naysayers). The other one's good though. I hestitate to fall in with the 'NME are angry cause they know they don't matter much anymore' crowd, just cause it seems like a bit of a "ner ner ne ner ner" argument. Reminds me of that Half Man Half Biscuit song 'Bad Review' where the aggrieved party mutters "I only buy it for the gig guide, anyway." But yeah it might be valid nonetheless. It's a weird situation when I'm only buying a publication to read a letter from someone slagging it off. Nick xx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+