Sin sisters, - BRRRM - The Glasgow University Guardian's Jason Cranwell sent the article below to the band's office to pass on. Thanks Jason. It's mainly about Stuart's new friend, Max. It's good. I bet Max doesn't get a namecheck in Time magazine. - SWEARING - This list has a long and honourable tradition of swearing. Some of you will remember Tim's "Belle and Sebastian Swear Word Competition" or Profanathon: http://www.missprint.org/cgi-bin/listsearch.cgi?query=swearing%3Bcompetition http://www.missprint.org/cgi-bin/listsearch.cgi?query=Profanathon I can't remember if we ever announced the winners, maybe they were too rude for Tim; I seem to remember "Bell-end" featured in almost every entry. Others will remember the Welsh "Yale College Rude Word Collector" ("YCRWC") that only knew English swearwords, not Welsh: http://www.missprint.org/cgi-bin/listsearch.cgi?query=Welsh%3Bpomegranate Chris Leonard got a thanks on the new LP for his contribution to B&S themed swearing, and his place of work also scores rude words out of 10 and sets off alarms when you hit 50 or something and he gets in trouble: it's fun to mail him and see if you can score 49. Finally, as confessed by Steve Carsmile, he also lives somewhere that doesn't like the words "bum", "willy", and I regularly get told off by the mail software there for you all swearing in mails to the list that wind up in his mailbox. At night I sweat through fevered dreams imagining I'm stuck in a windowless office with the central heating on full in one of these venerable institutions, in a meeting where they decide which words they should detect, whether "bugger" is still rude, if they should meet regularly to add new emerging swear words like "flibbing", whether "pish" is valid Scots dialog or not. I awake exhausted. With regards to the current incident, originating as someone pointed out from some crazed software on the loose at a school in Cornwall, I've moved the unsuspecting listee from the main list to the digest, meaning I'll hopefully get the emails instead of all you, and less frequently. I hope this time the software points out *which* words it objects too; it doesn't do to get left behind in the ever evolving world of objectionable phrases. Anyway, I hope you're all doing well, all 1400 of you. I'll be back a bit more in a little while probably. Did someone review a Bon Jovi LP on this list a few days ago, or was it my imagination? Honey x ----- MEETING MAX for the first time was a strange experience. Sitting there on the side of the road with the sun gleaming off his black body he looked elegant, like he'd grown old gracefully and could tell you some stories. But we weren't there to meet Max. You see, Max's owner is a certain Stuart Murdoch. And Max is his recently acquired 1973 Ford Granada. Stuart is understandably precious about his recent automobile purchase, politely warning your Guardian scribes not to lean on the door. His eyes are lit with pride as we sit within the confines of its leather interior, before a flick of the key starts the car first time, and the engine rumbles contently with a gallant whir. Stuart obligingly tells the story of its acquisition. "Me and my brother were expecting the worst. We'd already seen a car that this guy couldn't even get started, and this one was ten years older than that. My brother was like 'this is going to be a wreck, do you still want to see it?'" Stuart's gut instinct was to take the trek to a farm in Aberfoyle. The decision was the right one, as the car proved to be what can unequivocally termed a 'classic'. However, the pair were still cautious, as the young lady owner hadn't actually stated a selling price in the advert. "We eventually asked 'What are you wanting for it?' And she said '900'... Me and my brother were like [gesture of stifled excitement] 'don't say anything!'. Stuart thought the Granada suited the name 'Max', after a character in 'Hart To Hart'. "It's not a woman. Because it carries you about and does things and it's black, you look at it more as your butler." Driving along the city boundaries of Maryhill, Stuart speaks of the houses that were once there and points to a church name-checked in a Belle & Sebastian song. Memories are sparked from teenage days of skateboarding and jogging along the Forth and Clyde canal, and it becomes clear the extent to which the landscape of Glasgow is a source of inspiration for Stuart's songwriting. "Sinister, for instance, is so geographical," comments Stuart on Belle & Sebastian's second album. "Every song was written in a specific part of the city, and the place left its mark on the writing." As we edge with terrifying predictability closer to Buchanan Street Bus Station, the temptation to Park and Ride must surely be overwhelming bus fanatic Stuart. But Glasgow's main terminus does not hold the same fondness for Stuart as the depots at Knightswood and Butterbiggins Road in the Southside. A detour from the city centre via Strathclyde University reminds Stuart of his fresh-faced years as a DJ there, helping to run a club night called the 'Wasp Factory'. "We did it at the QM as well, actually. It was a Thursday night. Thursday nights in the QM were usually great. In the end I got sacked for playing alternative music. And within a year the alternative was the mainstream." Stopping at traffic lights, we notice a fly-poster for Belle & Sebastian's 'Legal Man' single and inquire as to whether Stuart often listens to his own songs. "I listened to Tigermilk again when we mastered it and stuck it out. That was the first time I'd heard it for ages. I don't feel big-headed when I say I think it's perfect, but I think it sums up that time that we had and the coming together of the group. It's got a lot of energy and I wouldn't change a thing about it." However, the Belle & Sebastian frontman is surprisingly much more critical about the band's second album, If You're Feeling Sinister. "It's really flawed, it's all over the place, and it's not such a happy listening experience. For a long time afterwards it was hurtful, because when we were still learning about how to make records, I thought 'we could have done that better. I want to do it better. I want to do it again.' I don't think about it too much now. Personally speaking, for the songs I've written, I think they're definitely the strongest, but the music on it fell short." As for the new album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant, Stuart is again frank about how he thinks it has turned out. "To be honest, it's not as fresh, and I think it will lose a bit in time. I'm happy now that the record's finished, but there's songs I've been disappointed in and it's been a total struggle. I can't describe how much work we put into that, and how much we've thrown away and chopped and changed and re-recorded. Hopefully next time we'll be able to craft a song and an arrangement without so much pain and waste." Fold Your Hands... and previous LP, The Boy With The Arab Strap have seen the songwriting and vocal duties evolve from a Stuart Murdoch showcase to the present situation where almost all of the band members contribute songs. "I think it's great that we've moved on, it's what the band's become. After we did Arab Strap, a lot of the band were really unsure what their role was, and if it was right that they should be putting songs in. And I was half way down on my knees begging them for songs, and that was wrong at the time. It actually reflected in how the album went badly initially, because the balance was all wrong, and we chucked it in for a few months and came back to it. By that time, Stevie had a couple of songs he wanted to do with Sarah, and I was like 'Sarah, where the fuck have you been hiding that one?!' Chris had started a song which we wrote together, and suddenly the whole dynamic of the record was right. We couldn't make a record like we used to - the interest wouldn't be there. We all know about music to an extent, and we can't deny that to ourselves." A near-escape onto the rush of motorway traffic, before a sharp change of direction, and Stuart decides it's time to park Max kerbside at St. Mungo's Cathedral. Religion plays a significant part in the life of Stuart Murdoch. Much of his time away from the band is spent looking after his local church hall, and the influence of his faith often extends into Belle & Sebastian songs. "My favourite book is the Bible, and my favourite book in the Bible is 'St. John', and I've lifted freely and happily from that since I read it." Unfortunately, the intended pilgrimage to the visitor centre proves elusive, as we arrive 45 minutes after closing time, so a brisk walk to the nearby caf for a cuppa seems a sensible alternative. In the multi-national surroundings of the caf (it's a strange mix of foreign tourists, post-work drinkers and college kids), Stuart ruminates on life before Belle & Sebastian. "It was a long drawn out process of actually hoping to be in a band and getting a band together. From '92 till the end of '95 I was playing with musicians and trying to get songs written. I recorded demos with Stuart, other people and on my own, and there are still songs that haven't been recorded, and from time to time we'll drop one in."
From a creative flurry in 1995, a name was now needed under which Stuart could release the fruits of his songwriting labour.
"In the summer of '95, I started writing a story about two characters. One was a guy, a bit of a layabout, quite directionless; the other was a young girl who was quite plugged into what she was doing, and they'd see each other about. Basically, he ends up giving her a guitar lesson and stuff like that, and he finds that she's got a great talent for songwriting, and he's absolutely enraptured. I called the boy 'Sebastian' just because I quite liked the name, and then I thought it would be quite funny to call them 'Belle and Sebastian' because it's a nice memory from childhood." Events closer to the present day have seen bassist Stuart David relinquish his responsibilities with Belle & Sebastian to pursue his pet project, Looper, full-time. Stuart recalls the moment his namesake announced his departure from the band. "We were having a meeting to decide what we were doing about gigs and things, and Stuart said he was going off on a Looper tour, and I think I said he should maybe take a break from the band." Stuart David, though, felt a permanent leave of absence was more suitable. "I don't think he was very happy with the band or else he would have stayed. It was totally amicable when it happened. It dawned on me that day that that's what he had to do, and that's what he was completely intending to do. I mean, he basically wasn't there [laughs] - there was no real grief about it, it was a relief. My memories of Stuart and his contribution to the band are totally sweet." Coffee break over, once again we return to Max, and Stuart executes a textbook three-point-turning before we journey homewards. A couple of suspect lane changes go unmentioned, but by and large Stuart's driving skills are admirable, content as he is to cruise in resplendent leisure, paying full attention to the road ahead. "It's just as well it's an automatic," smirks Stuart, "if I had to change gears as well I wouldn't be able to speak." As Max climbs the gradient of University Avenue, just before we are dropped off, we enquire if Stuart thinks he'll write a song about his beloved car for the next record. "I don't know, if one of the songs talks about a guy called Max then you'll know what it's about..." Jason Cranwell +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+