It was a day much like yesterday: in fact, it probably was yesterday. Strange reports had reached Simon's ears; Stuart Murdoch, the singer from Belle & Sebastian (Neal and Simon's favourite band), had apparently been seen playing football! How could he? He must stop this strange behaviour at once! As people whose destinies had been shaped by the fact that neither of them could kick a football to save their lives, Neal and Simon had hoped that Stuart too would similarly be a kindred spirit in this department. But no. He disappointed them, but, they hastened to add, only in this department. Simon hoped that Belle & Sebastian would be impressed. He liked to think they had had real value for money from him because he was on the 'Stone Immaculate' mailing list, and because of this he had been able to convert dozens of people to the worthy cause of B&S. Simon had also heard from some of the lucky few who'd been to see Belle & Sebastian perform live that Stuart was quite an attractive fellow. Simon was thrilled to discover this for himself when he'd seen a recent photo of Stuart in the NME. At that same time Simon was in pursuit of a charming-sounding guy who'd mentioned his love for Belle & Sebastian in a personal ad. Consequently, as the band could be contacted through the magic of cyberspace, Simon wondered if it might be worthwhile leaving a message for this mysterious young man on the band's website. The message read: 'If you are 31 and live in NW London, and hate parsnips, then why the fuck haven't you written to me, you bastard?!.' For reasons best known only to Simon and himself, Neal had known about the Union Chapel gig only after it had happened! How sad for him! Then he'd discovered, much to his increasing annoyance, that they had gigged in New York - Neal's favourite city after London. He desperately hoped that Belle and Sebastian hadn't been there from the 22nd of August through to the 29th because he was there then! Neal wondered whether they would play anymore gigs in New York that year because he was going back there again for Thanksgiving. Had they loved Manhattan the way that he did, he thought to himself. And whereabouts in Manchester had they had scheduled to play later that year, and when precisely; he knew it was sometime in December, but no more than that. Neal was concerned that Belle & Sebastian were troubled by inquiring fans - he hated to think he might be a bore, even though he was never being boring. He had bought the '3 ... 6 ... 9' 12" on vinyl recently and had so looked forward to getting home to play it loudly. When he did he was not disappointed. Good God, he thought, I'm thirty years' old and haven't behaved like this oh, for some 12 years, since those heady Smiths days. How pathetic! But he knew they both adored them. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net -----------------------------------------------------------------------