Well, nobody seems to have completed the 'B&S in London story', so I will try, although those that played a more active role might be able to do it better. Let's start from the beginning anyway. EXCITABLE BATH I took a very hot bath on Tuesday night to make sure I would sleep. I then proceeded to wake up at 5 am, too full of the joys of a Belle And Sebastian gig day to go to sleep again. Every conceivable thing went wrong on the bus journey to the station, but I made it with 20 seconds to spare. A wonderful day had just begun. PICNIC Much has been said about this already, but myself and other members of the YSM joined the beautiful people of Sinister in Green Park, where profiteroles were prolific and champaign corks were dangerous. We left early to eat macaroni cheese at Feather Boa's house, the others went to drink Ribena in some kind of licensed establishment. WALTON WHINING Sam whinged at me for being slow, but I had to decide what to wear and whether to put face paints on. Others speculated that i would look like a tw*t and so I didn't bother. "We're going to be late, the doors open at 7!" he cried, but we got there in good time to sit around inside the fairy castle that is Brixton Academy. LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS There sound was a good description of what life without buildings might be like. Repetitive, slightly dull and a little craaazzzyyyy. i didn't mind them, but by the fourth song, i still couldn't understand what that mad woman was saying and it sounded like everything else they'd played. BELLE AND SEBASTIAN They took ages to come on, seemed like some techie problem in the corner, but started with a wonderful rendition of STCA. To be brutally honest, it was the least exciting of the three gigs I've seen. The Academy was a little impersonal and people weren't getting into the swing of things. The people around me made space so that I could bop around lots, but they looked bemused and confused as to why I would want to dance. Archel and Mr Apps waved at me intermittently from a location slightly behind my person. The sound levels were a bit off, with Struan's guitar and Stevie's being quiet as well as the piano, but it was marvellous to hear a set so different to the last tour, with breath taking renditions of YMMFMD's, JATDOH and String Bean Jean. Pre Tigermilk material - Wow!!! The steel band in the middle were bizarre. Very enjoyable but incredibly random. F*** This S*** was odd and sounded not dissimilar to a jazz rendition of Miraculous Technique. We all enjoyed clapping to Wandering The Night Away. i can't get enough of that funky Legal Man either. Afterwards, we were shunned by Mr Walton who found better company in Jeremy and the band at the after show party, but we are reliably informed that he didn't sleep with Isobel. The most hilarious part of the night must have been seeing B&S hoodies on sale outside! FITBA - OOOHHH YOU SEXY BOYS!!!! The one thing that most people have omitted to mention so far is Struan's on stage invite to take part in a kick about on Thursday outside the Royal Albert Hall at 5 o'clock. Well, how could we miss such an event! Trooping down on a glorious sunny spring day, we were treated to the delights of Struan, Beans, Murray, Neil and one of the other violinists whose name I forget playing with and against an all star team comprising of such sini-celebrities as Ben Apps, Mark Cassarotto, Jeremy, The Boy G, Stevie Trousers and Asm Walton (sorry if I left anyone out). I watched patiently from the side lines, taking photos for a sinister record and watching Belfast Bob chatting to ladies on the sidelines. After a brief stint in goal, the immaculately dressed Mr Murdoch bounded round the pitch with youthful exuberance, and an unrivalled amount of energy. Beans was solid in defence while Murray fed well from the right wing. Numbers fell as time rolled on, but the hardcore few continued to play. Ben Apps was particularly dangerous in his capacity as a footballer and human being while Trousers minced through the defence in poetic style. Beans gave up and sat with Bob, showing off the new yellow Adidas trainers he had bought. The were joined shortly afterwards by the bizarre sight of Mick in an athletics vest as he jogged through the park. The match ended with a highly disputed score line, but Struan stayed around to chat and sign things. he did reveal a few of the answers to the London treasure hunt, including the final hiding place of the treasure, but i don't know if I should tell you, because he might want that honour. We discussed the gig, he said all the journalists has complained that it was too quiet. We disagreed. I asked if they would ever release Lord Anthony, and he said quite possibly. He even swore, but did ask me to excuse his French before signing a postcard of Tigermilk for me and trying to steal my fountain pen. It was a wonderful couple of days. Chris Jones. xxxx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+