Caroline said:
Apart from my Hefner fridge magnets (and Mogwai earplugs) I don't have any band merchandise. I feel silly in band T-shirts. Does anyone else ?
Yes. For years I only ever wore my Smiths T-shirts as underwear. I hate wandering around town telling everyone "Yes, I am proud to be a bedwetter." Not that I was a bedwetter (props to real bedwetters, though), but I didn't want to have to go around proving this to everyone I met. Worse still would be to be wearing one in non-high street 'indie' environments, where the whole thing takes on the status of some kind of gang colour. I've never liked gangs. I have occasionally been known to wear a B&S T-shirt in public, but it's not brought me happiness. Oh, I lie. I love it. But I draw the line at badges. Joe Egg was on BBC London Live last night talking about 2000 Troubled Teenagers. It was in the gay entertainment zone hour. I seem to remember 200 Troubled Teenagers being listed in the gay section of Time Out. I'm not sure if this is because Joe is gay or because The Paradise Bar is usually gay or whatever. Anyway, it looks like BabyChrisCrystalBalls was right all along. DOUBLE ANYWAY, Joe did his best to explain to the presenter why B&S had a gay following and generally went on about why they had such an obsessive fanbase. Then he talked about the event and what a success it had been last time and how great the sequel would be. He said there'd be Crystal Tipps & Alistair videos, prizes for the person who bulit the best life-size models of the Velvet Underground in clay and something on stage which wasn't quite sorted out and was 'secret'. I very much doubt this will involve a surprise set by Belle & Sebastian, but you never know. Then they had Joanne Kinney (cover star of Tigemilk and Dog on Wheels) on the phone. That was kind of weird. Presenter: So, Joanne, you work for a major record company. What do you think about the promotion of pop stars as icons? Joannne: Actually, I work for an independent record company. Presenter: Oh, I'm sorry. Joanne: That's OK. [pause] Err... What was the question again? Presenter: It was 'What do you think about the promotion of pop stars as icons?' Joanne: Umm.. [talks about how B&S have a fairly low media profile] I haven't really answered your question, have I? Presenter: No, but that's OK. Joanne also talked about how she went to 200 Troubled Teenagers and how odd it was, like some kind of cult. She was asked if anyone recognised her and she said no. That was about it really. Then they had a competition to win two pairs of tickets and I won for knowing that Belle was a dog. Actually, I said she was a Pyrennean mountain dog, but I think they thought I was showing off. I'm not sure I can actually go to the thing (if someone in the know would like to tell me who the surprise stage guests are that would help me to make up my mind) so it was rather selfish of me to win, really. Thanks to Elisabeth for translating that interview. Isn't it amazing that Stevie speaks Norwegian!
"It's not like we try to keep up with the new musical trends. Yesterday someone asked me what I thought of Spearmint. Spearmint! He thought it was incredible that I hadn't heard about them. Have you heard about Spearmint?" -No " Thank God! I thought it was just me!" -What do you listen to? " I like pop. And musicals. When I'm drunk I like to do a couple of songs from "Guys & Dolls" and "West Side Story". And I like Madonna. And Miles Davies. And the Beatles. So I am not really down with the latest trends.
Yeah, me neither. I have a confession to make. I'm really quite prejudiced against Belle & Sebastian fans who *are* down with the latest trends. I don't mean wearing the latest hip-hop threads and all (that's jsut fine), but I just get a bit... queasy around people who are into loads of current 'indie' bands. I think this is a hang-up from the time I had completely lost interest in any new bands (96-97), turned off my radio and only listened to show tunes and Madonna. When I finally caught onto Belle & Sebastian in Summer 97 I was angry that all that shit indie had prevented me from hearing something truly startling earlier. I sometimes insist that Belle & Sebastain aren't an indie band at all, but maybe I'm just kidding myself. At the very least, they transcend the genre. I have a half-formed thesis about the development of indie, which involves accepting all those bands that bore me as belonging to a genre that's just not my cup of tea, much like swingbeat. The idea is to separate out all the people who are trying to do something interesting. In my scheme they don't belong to any genre at all, because that's the whole point. Like I say, it's a half-formed idea that's probably self-serving and meaningless. Comments welcome. Nick xx +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+