Hello Peeps It's been said many times before, but HOORAY! Top marks all round. It's dead weird seeing everything covered in pictures of the Belles. As Ailsa has already pointed out, there was no sign of any work being done in that studio on the news last night. £700 a day to drink tea and read the Daily Record - what a scam! And where were Belle and Stewpot? Obviously off minding the baby. Has anyone found out who's going to keep the statue? Maybe they could keep it in the tabernacle in Stuart's church so everyone can go and worship once a week. Mr Crystal Balls - that was a sad story about not going to Camber Sands. If it's any consolation, it's probably going to be full of indie-pubes getting rat-arsed and not watching the bands at all, so you're better off thinking of your education. I've heard that Peter Miller is going to be there though. He's got lots of curly hair and will be wearing a Celtic scarf and a big Parka over his PJs, which he wears at all times. Anyway, there was a point to this. This is the story from the Glasgow Herald as mentioned by Chris "Birthday Boy" Leonard. I thought he was making things up, as usual, but it's really there, and seems to actually get some stuff right for a change. Enjoy! Anne xxx A best newcomer catches the bus for a celebratory cuppa DAVID BELCHER WITHIN unhallowed rock'n'roll circles, the morning after the night before constitutes a period of recovery from sundry forms of mindless over-indulgence - especially so should the highlight of the night before have included the winning of a Brit Award. Thankfully, however, there's nothing dim-witted or oblivion-seeking about Scotland's surprise Brits victors Belle and Sebastian. Because it was in typically level-headed fashion that yesterday's dawn was greeted in Glasgow by the six members of the octet who hadn't travelled south for the big event (only two went because they didn't want money wasted on tickets and flights "for a band who had no chance of winning"). Less than 12 hours after Radio 1's listenership had voted Belle and Sebastian 1999's best British newcomers, three-quarters of the band congregated bright and early round the telly in their manager's house in their shared habitat - Glasgow's West End - to watch Channel 4's The Big Breakfast. This featured an interview with Richard Colburn and Mick Cooke, the two group members who had been on hand on Tuesday evening to collect the silver statuette from Radio 1's Zoe Ball. Immediately after the TV show's end, things took another characteristically B&S turn by becoming mildly comic, slightly shambolic and resolutely down-to-earth. Opting to visit their favourite Byres Road tea shop for a celebratory breakfast, the assembly realised they were too numerous to pile into their usual transport, the drummer's elderly Citroen BX hatchback. Summons a superstar stretch limo? Not the B&S way. Instead, keyboards player Chris Geddes drew the short straw, thus almost certainly becoming the only 1999 Brits winner to start his triumphant reign queuing for a bus. In the same way, much of the band's appeal derives from their rootedness in local everyday experience - albeit the thoughtful everyday experiences of a bunch of literate graduates of tertiary education whose dreaming locale is Glasgow's leafy and bohemian Kelvinside. What else explains the singular nature of B&S songs, which are capable of expressing a wide variety of moods and sentiments: adult, analytical, caustic, playful, child-like, fey, frank, raucous. Musically, Belle and Sebastian draw upon similarly disparate sources, everything from the uptempo melodrama of northern soul to the winsome reflections of your archetypal wispy folk-rock singer-songwriter; from the blank urban alienation of the Velvet Underground to the wry optimism of R.E.M. This creative depth is additionally mirrored in Belle and Sebastian's span of age-ranges and home-towns, as well as the band's gender-balance. The two women and six men of B&S are variously aged from 22 to 32, hailing from Ayr, Glasgow, Dundee, Balloch, Perth, and Blackburn, Lancashire. Likewise, the band's reasoned avoidance of the more stultifying aspects of rockbiz routine has led miffed sections of the media to portray them as bloodless and reclusive elitists. In fact, their decision to spurn the tour-record-tour treadmill, along with group press interviews and cliche'd hand-out photographs, is based on a desire to keep their music fresh and to the forefront of peoples' minds, not their image. This approach has certainly encouraged them to be prolific musical creators. They are currently in the midst of recording their fourth album, scheduled to appear in early summer, just before the band's third birthday. In addition, two band members will soon release solo albums, while each band member is actively engaged in playing and recording with a large diversity of Scottish performers. Handy facts about Belle and Sebastian? Their name comes from the seventies children's TV series based on the writings of French author Cecile Aubry. Their early promise prompted transatlantic visits by two legendary American talent spotters, Seymour Stein and Tom Zutaut, whose joint track record of signings includes Talking Heads, Beck, Madonna, and Guns'n'Roses. The band resisted the duo's high-powered overtures to sign to the small London-based independent label Jeepster. Their limited-edition, vinyl-only debut album, Tigermilk, was released by students on Stow College's music business course, and financed by principal songwriter Stuart Murdoch's dad. Original copies sell for £400. But what's the most useful fact about Belle And Sebastian? That their music is truly, truly, truly great. - Feb 17. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to "majordomo@majordomo.net". 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