Hello all, The Glasgow University Guardian has stopped publishing for the summer break. We don't even know if they want to include our diaries in the next academic year (different staff), but we're going to continue the diaries whenever the mood takes us. DIARY OF A BAND 16th June 2000 It's been two weeks now since Top of the Pops, and seeing as Stuart's been in the States since then, and Diary time is here again, I thought I'd better write a bit about that. Playing on Top of the Pops truly was a lifetime's ambition realised. It didn't disappoint either, something I have heard other bands bemoan. As we may never have such a chance again, we decided to make the most of it. There was quite a crowd of us there. Our (mentally un-)sound engineer Tony Doogan came along, and caused quite a stir with his monkey cavalier cavortings. He was actively encouraged by us, naturally. What happened was, we had hired two costumes, the monkey suit and the cavalier, for two people to wear. We thought Jonny Quinn- on bongos- might want to wear the monkey suit, but understandably he wanted his face seen on the telly. Can you imagine- 'Look mum, that's me there, on Top of the Pops. That's right, the gorilla'. So it was all down to Tony. He tried the monkey suit, he tried the cavalier, but neither seemed quite right. It was Chris who suggested he be a monkey cavalier, and the rest is, well, history. Needless to say, Tony was the biggest hit with the kids. The flowers weren't our idea, by the way. They were there when we got there. Obviously some bright spark at the BBC thought, 'L.O.V.E, love, what does that suggest? Ah, I know, roses!'. Quite a good thing to throw at a young teenage crowd though. We had a blast. Afterwards, in the bar, Stevie achieved another lifetime's ambition by jamming with Chrissie Hynde. I don't understand how it started really, but I turn round one minute, and there's Stevie doing his Elvis Costello impression- he always does 'The Sun Has Got His Hat On'- to Chrissie Hynde, and she's doing her Joni Mitchell impression back! Then she gives us a medley of Pretenders classics. At one point she was kneeling on a chair, with Stuart's electric guitar held against a bar table (to amplify it), screaming away at 'Don't Get Me Wrong'. It was during this stage of the proceedings that some people thought it would be a good idea to check out Albert Square. So off they trooped, past the 'no entry' signs, into the Square, into Pauline's house, over to the Queen Vic (all the lights were out). Neil and Richard had a piss in the bushes in the Square. Then security arrived. Stuart legged it, and Neil and Richard, having relieved themselves, were off, but the others were held in the security hut while the police were called. It took the Top of the Pops producer and Jamie Theakston to diffuse the situation. Watching Eastenders will never be the same again. Mick Cooke _________________________________________________________ the Official Belle and Sebastian Band Site is at: http://www.belleandsebastian.co.uk/home/ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+