trawling through my files of 'pop' writing today i came across the following, penned as an introduction to the band for several year 11 kids who wanted tapes and badges... um, i've altered it a little for this. hope you enjoy it, even if it is a little wordy :-) keep the faith, duke --------------- Belle & Sebastian. A Pocket History. Stuart was a boy from Glasgow. He wrote songs and poems in his head about the people he saw in the city, and these songs and poems were Great. One day he played his songs for some underground pop stars at a party and the pop stars looked embarrassed. So he resolved to get some people to make a band to support him. He walked the streets of Glasgow and asked strangers to be in his band. Soon he was so notorious around the West End that people would cross the street when they saw him approaching. At this time too he wrote some stories about a boy called Sebastian, and a girl called Belle. He travelled in buses a lot. Glasgow is a good city to travel around by bus because it rains a lot. Eventually Stuart got fed up, and decided to enrol the first six people who came into the café which he used to frequent. Thus, the group that he would call Belle & Sebastian were formed. (This part of the myth of Belle & Sebastian is recorded in a very delightful cartoon.) When they had practised a bit, Belle & Sebastian played some shows in a recording studio. About four people watched them. Shortly after this they played regularly at the café at which they had met, and at the Art School, which welcomed them with open arms. Slowly, Glasgow started to realise that another gem was nestling in it’s grey streets. The first Belle & Sebastian record was made as part of Stuart’s college course, and was released in early 1996. It was called ‘Tigermilk’ and the cover showed a picture of a naked young lady, apparently breast-feeding a stuffed toy ‘Tigger’. Only 1000 records were made and they sold out very quickly thanks to them being asked onto the Radio One ‘Mark Radcliffe’ show, for which they recorded some more songs. The ‘Tigermilk’ record now sells for up to £250 a go. Which is stupid, but there you go. In November 1996 the band released their second LP, and it’s still available, on CD too! Called ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, it was the best record of the year for loads of people. Loads of people with taste, that is. The group started 1997 by playing sell out shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a couple in London. They released a single, ‘Dog On Wheels’ in May, and it made the lower end of the Top 75. Then in July they released the excellent ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’ single, which entered the charts at 41. In July they also played the infamous Union Chapel show, a show which sold out several months before it happened and to which a throng of Popstars (stand up Jarvis Cocker!!) and media types flocked. The Big Serious newspapers were unanimous in their praise, and with Select magazine voting them into a close second place in the battle of Next Big Thing, everyone who knew what was what was suddenly saying the name Belle & Sebastian. In September they went to New York, where they recorded a TV show and played some sell out shows to great acclaim. More famous Popstars were seen at these shows (step up ‘alternative rock’ stars Mark Eitzel and Pavement!), and the word is that all of New York was talking about them. Well they did get a good review in the New York Times, so that’s something! They were described as being something like, or rather, totally NOT like Oasis, which is about as good as it gets, surely? An Evening Session show on Radio One was aired in late September, and the third single called ‘3… 6… 9 Seconds Of Light’ rocked the charts at number 32. As a result of this success the NME attempted to get an interview and were given amusingly short shrift. Their fans wonder if people in school will really like them or if they’ll just say they sound like wimps. Secretly they hope they’ll do both. Oh yeah, and the underground popstars who looked embarrassed when Stuart played his songs at their party now sell far fewer records than Belle & Sebastian, but pretend they have known and loved them from the start… there may be a moral here but I’m damned if I know what it is. -- Tangents On-Line http://www.virtual-pc.com/tangent/ Tangents On-Paper: PO Box 102, Exeter, EX2 4YL, UK tangent@mail.zynet.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . 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? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter Miller and/or Arantxa Ubieta wrote:

Whatever happens I think it would be a shame to let this oppurtunity pass by. I shall sustain a huge beamer if we actually pull it off, so to speak.

I agree, i'm not very good at writing stuff, but ok with all the facts etc. I know there's people out there who can write, so let's see how we go. I think i saw Paul mention birthdates ... so here goes:- Stevie Jackson 16th January 1969 Sarah Martin 12th February 1974 Isobel Campbell 27th April 1976 Richard Colburn 25th July 1970 Stuart Murdoch 25th August 1968 Chris Geddes 2nd October 1975 Mick Cooke 15th December 1973 Stuart David 26th December 1969 (and mine's November 15th .. all cards + pressies to either Jeepster or the PO box please ...!) i'm gonna have to phone Alan Rankine for the details on Tigermilk (recording dates, release date etc.), so stay tuned for that. This info looks as though it's gonna come in dribs and drabs ... sorry! - umm, tracks off "Dog On Wheels" ep only feature Stuart M & Stuart D and Mick Cooke, all the other peoples are session musos, as those tracks were the original Rhode Island demos (what they were before B&S ... i think there were a few {bedroom} gigs and a radio session performed under this name ... glasgow only). - first tape sent to jeepster featured Dog, State, belle and sebastian (which were the tracks in the same form - no remixes - on the dog ep) and a demo version of my wandering days are over. - wandering days and state were re-recorded and appeared on tigermilk. stuart d lived with richard, and stuart d was on the training course with stuart m. - richard was the one doing the stow college course, and he took the demos of the two stuarts in to stow, hang on, i'm just looking at an early press release, and it said neil (robertson, jeepster scout) introduced the band to stow as he was doing the course (?). - band were formed by Stuart m in january 1996 recruiting members at the grosvenor cafe over three days. - band by that stage was the two Stuart's, stevie, richard, isobel and chris, with mick being the trumpeter but not a full-time member, as he was in a band called "Hardbody" (recently dropped by Sony). - tigermilk was recorded and mixed in three days at Cava and produced by stuart m who also did the artwork. - first live radcliffe session was july 1996. - sarah joined sometime after tigermilk came out and the band were signed to jeepster on August 1st 1996. - sinister recorded mostly live an finished in seven days, with another three to mix it. again, produced by stuart. - initial lp title (stuart m's anyway) was Cock fun. - modern rock song was going to be on sinister, however they only wanted ten tracks, so when they asked mark what his fave was, they took it off. - sinister released november 18th 1996. - stuart won't release dog ep in other countries, as it doesn't feature all the band. aarrrgghh ... overload! that's enough for now, questions might help, then i know what you want. cheers, katrina. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . 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? -----------------------------------------------------------------------