This one was taken before the band started playing. The compere is on-stage trying to fill in a gap in the show. Behind him, Stuart is sat by the keyboards, riffling through a sheaf of papers. He's drinking something from a white mug, with a teabag tag dangling from the side. Richard is stood at the edge of the stage, looking all beardy. It's nice to post something that's on-topic, instead of all th usual diary posts that just say "My parents think I'm a freak! My doctor wants me to move house and my landlord wants to evict me! My cat is upset!" It's even nicer to have something on-topic to ost about. Last night's gig was billed as an "oh no, it isn't really Belle and Sebastian, honest, so don't get your expectations up" gig; but as it turned out, the whole band were there (although Bob only just made it), and it all went rather well. I'm no good at remembering set-lists, and I didn't catch all of the song titles; but the set started with "Step Into My Office, Baby", "Wrapped Up In Books" and "Roy Walker". Later on, Stevie was in charge of covers of Johnny Cash and Pink Floyd songs, and their encore was a cover they've done before, "Alone Again Or". Some of the audience seemed disappointed that the band didn't play any songs they've already released; but they explained that they've spent so long in the studio recently working on new material, they've forgotten how to play all the old stuff. The new album that will hopefully come out of all this session time will be interesting, because it will be their first 'proper' album, discounting Storytelling, to be recorded before Stuart David left the band, never mind about Isobel. It may just be the effect of seeing the band perform on their own rather than with an additional string section, extra woodwind players and so on, but they now seem to be producing a closer, harmonic sound, very much in a 1960s pop style. Most songs have two or three guitars together, and two- or three-part vocal harmonies. There's no need to squeeze a 'cello part into as many songs as possible; Sarah's viola only came out for one of the band's own songs, and played pizzicato at that. In fact, Sarah seemed a little under-used: on several songs she did little but sit at the edge of the stage nodding her head along to the music. These new songs aren't really a 'new direction' for the band. In fact, they aren't at all. This is traditional B&S, albeit with slightly less variety in the songs. It's not as if these songs are fresh this week from Stuart and Stevie's notebooks; these are all well-formed and carefully worked-on. Two of them have already been performed for John Peel - including "Step Into My Office, Baby" with its bluesy flute riff - and it feels like Stevie's been performing "Travelling Light" for a couple of years now. This picture is of Stevie before the gig. He's sat cross-legged on the floor, quite near the front of the room, listening to a political rant from the stage. He's leaning forward with the light catching his face, his chin resting on his knuckles. He's nodding, and smiling. It was lovely to be able to see B&S playing in such a small venue. I've only ever seen them play in large venues or theatres before, like the Barrowlands or Carnegie Hall; this gig was a refreshing change. On their last tour the Guardian's reviewer (a former Sinisterine himself) said he thought their large-venue style with lots of added musicians was liable to alienate and disappoint their original fans. Last night's gig proved that it's still the core band that matters, not complex production or session artists. The glass wall between us and them was still there, but there was still a lot of intimacy. They weren't way up above the crowd; we could have reached out and touched them. We were close enough to see Sarah's trainers and Stuart's sensible shoes. When Sarah was spare and sat down, it was as if someone from the audience, sitting at the front, had managed to sneak onto the edge of the stage. I was quite surprised that the whole band fitted onto the stage, as it happened. Not only was there plenty of room for all seven of them, bt they even squeezed in a rather large glockenspiel, which some of the band took turns to play. Chris was upright and precise, treating it like a keyboard. Sarah was less sure of herself, and might have slipped a couple of wrong notes in. Stuart bent over it and hammered away like a dervish. This is my last Ink Polaroid from the gig, and it's the only one I have of the band performing. I can't remember which song it's from; but Stevie is on guitar and Stuart just has a tambourine in his hand. They are turned towards each other, and Stuart is pushing Stevie's glasses back up his sweaty nose whilst Stevie keeps on playing. They are both grinning, and there's a look of joyful intimacy in their eyes. xx caitlin -- http://www.joannou.net/topofthestairs/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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. 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