Bah, a new job and I'm not getting enough time to waste hours joining in the list anymore. And I'm very scared of installing an IRC program on my PC. An element of disharmony seemed to creep into the list whilst I was been away. Just all close your eyes and dream of horses in the Czech Republic, the first flush of Spring and games of kick the can in Kew Gardens and you'll soon feel much, much better. Another thing I recommend doing next time the sun is shining is starting your day with the session version of 'Lazy Line Painter Jane' at top volume, windows wide open. The neighbours won't complain. I know it's too late for questions to the band, but I've got one that maybe you lot are better equipped to answer anyway. I just thought I'd step back from it all a minute and ask whether or not I'm being hopelessly blinkered in thinking that Belle And Sebastian really have inspired the most fanatical, excited following of anyone in years. And if I'm not, do you think the band _know_ that they have? It must be very hard for anyone who suddenly 'makes it' in any way for the first time in their life to be objective about just how successful they are. I know they're not selling out two-week residences at Wembley Stadium just yet, but it strikes me that it _must_ all explode fairly soon. Or is it just that they are extraordinarily appealing to a certain section of the population and its just that that section happens to consist of us and all our friends? I just get so excited when I hear of converts like that Wall Street analyst brother in law someone mentioned a while ago. It's the sheer perversity of things like that that thrills me. I'd have little interest if it were just some sell-out businessman with a vaguely 'indie' student past who buys Oasis CDs. It's the thought of people who don't really listen to contemporary pop and rock at all but hear this peculiar band from Scotland and find themselves hooked almost in spite of themselves. I never got all this stuff about them being charming in an amateurish, lo-fi way. I know they can be that at times (I was there on Friday night in Manchester) but when I put on 'If You're Feeling Sinister' for the zillionth time, I'm still struck by how musically accomplished, immaculately arranged and yes _well-produced_ it is. "Nobody writes em like they used to so it may as well be me" - oh the utterly warranted cockiness. They'll never storm the world with a 4-track demo of 'Hurley's Having Dreams' (much as I love it) but I think its extraordinary how they lost none of that charm, and added a whole lot more, when they made such a 'proper' sounding album. I know I'm ranting, but I think rants (nice rants anyway) have their place alongside biscuit/bar tomfoolery. I still haven't decided whether SM was taking the piss with that. Was it really Danny Baker in disguise? [For our non-UK friends, Danny Baker is an old man who wrote for the NME in the 1970s and is now part of the Chris Evans media mafia that took trivial male conversations out of the popular-culture obsessed clever-clever ghetto and turned them into a mass media industry. A bit like Tarantino films without the violence and good soundtracks. The original perpetrators of such mental masturbation then saw themselves for what they were and became a bit embarrassed with the whole thing. This may have inadvertently led to last year's abortive 'new seriousness' movement in UK indie music. The problem with which was, of course, that most people who like to act all serious and troubled are not deep or artistic but just boring.] But having said all that, it is still fun to talk about biscuits and bars and children's TV. Just don't let it take over your life. Or you'll end up calling a Danny Baker phone-in. I should divulge at this point that I am a regular listener to Danny Baker's Sunday morning GLR show. But I like to pretend that it's only to hear Laurie Pike talking. Shall I stop now? _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . 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 . We're all happy bunnies humming happy bunny tunes. Aren't we? -----------------------------------------------------------------------