Hi All, There's been an abnormal amount of press about the band recently, but so far I've not been able to find this interview on line, & its the one I find the most interesting (confirmation that IWUTU is about Struan & Isobel, wanting to play Glastonbury, "heads in the clouds", etc.) . So here it is: "Considering that Stuart Murdoch has refused to speak to the British press for the past four years, he has chosen bizarre circumstances for his first one-on-one interview of the 21st century Fifteen hours before our meeting in an Albanian bar in the centre of London, he had boarded a plane at Tokyo’s Narita airport. He hates flying and never manages to sleep, so he took along a bottle of whisky to keep him company. “I must admit I’ve been drinking solidly,” he says, ordering a Martini Rosso. He looks glassy-eyed with jet lag. Belle and Sebastian have a reputation for treading their own idiosyncratic path, of course. Easily the biggest cult band in Britain, the eight-piece from Glasgow have actively broken every music-business rule. They decline to pose for standard band photos. Murdoch — the band’s 33-year-old singer and guitarist — stopped giving interviews as soon as people started calling his group the new Smiths. And they hardly ever play live. Indeed, when Belle and Sebastian won a Brit award for Best Newcomer in 1999 (beating the hotly tipped Steps), they sent their drummer and trumpet player to make the acceptance speech. The past 12 months, though, have seen a subtle shift in B and S’s attitude. Previously contrary through inexperience, as much as sticking to points of principle, they now have the confidence to enjoy themselves. “We got together to specifically record one record (their critically lauded debut album, Tigermilk] and then spent years learning how to play together, and making all sorts of mistakes and burning out.” How did they burn out? “When you’re passionate to the extreme and things go wrong and you don’t know why, and you see them through to the death, then your health can suffer. I got into that situation a couple of years ago. We finished our last record and I couldn’t take it any more. I said I’m going to leave it and go at my own pace.” Murdoch’s main problem was his relationship with the band’s cellist, Isobel Campbell (always assumed to be the Belle to his Sebastian, although the singer has previously denied this). The couple were falling apart and the band couldn’t help but be affected. Now, though, Murdoch has channelled his feelings into the music: the band’s most recent single, I’m Waking Up To Us (on the Jeepster label), was generally regarded to be a return to form. “There’s something of that in there,” nods Murdoch. “It certainly took us a long time to realise that the group wasn’t happening while we were arguing” What does Campbell think of the song? “She’s never made any reference to it. I don’t know. I think she managed to get over things a lot faster than I did. But it’s not a vindictive song.” Even with lyrics such as: “You need a man who’s either rich or losing a screw”? “I think at the end the caring things outweigh the niggling things.” Another turning point came with a comment from the band’s manager, a friend called Neil Robertson —although Murdoch is essentially B and S’s mentor. During the difficult years, Murdoch admits he “put more effort into keeping the group together than I did writing, singing, playing”. B and S had turned down countless magazine covers and television appearances and Robertson had had enough. “He said: ‘If you have complete disdain for the media, how can you expect them to have anything but disdain for you?’ It is a point.” Most cheering for the fans, B and S have also been signing up for concerts (including the Brixton Academy next Wednesday). Last summer’s tour of Britain in July culminated at the sold-out Albert Hall. The band also toured America (where they enjoy a critical reverence on a par with Radiohead), played two dates in Brazil and five shows in Japan. “I like to communicate with people,” Murdoch says now “I love getting up in front of folk.” This doesn’t mean that Belle and Sebastian have lost any of their original charm or eccentricity. Far from it. “I really felt like playing golf in Japan. So we rolled out a bit of turf halfway through the gig and knocked some balls into the audience. They were going ‘Hit me!’ Someone had a big Bing Crosby cap at the front, so I borrowed that. In the meantime, my guitar started to feedback and this reminded Stevie [Jackson, guitarist] of I Feel Fine by The Beatles, so he sang that while we played golf” A new album Storytelling, will be released on Jeepster in June and Murdoch has an ambition for this year that will surprise many long term fans: “I’d like to play Glastonbury. We had a brilliant time at Benicassim [festival in Spain], so I think the group’s ready. I’ve never been to Glastonbury. I’ve been to T In The Park, which is terrible.” Any year’s Glastonbury line-up is a compendium of the contemporary British music scene of the moment: how exactly will Belle and Sebastian fit into that? “I don’t think we fit in at all,” smiles Murdoch. “We’ve got our heads in the clouds. Me and Stevie are living ha1fway between the Sixties and the Seventies. And I don’t really care.” Amen to that." Sorry its a bit old now, I had to teach myself how to do OCR. (It was an old dog, new tricks kind of thing) Nearly everything has been said about the UK bit of the tour now. I'd just like to enter a plea for the band to PLAY LOUDER! (And I'm not a Linkin Park fan. Oh yeah - who ARE Linkin Park?) On reflection, the reason I didn't enjoy the 2 gigs I was lucky enough to attend as much as I should have done is that often the sound of people chattering even several yards away was loud enough to drown out the sound of the band playing & singing, & not just during the quieter passages. So please, turn it up a bit. And play Highway To Hell :) A couple of things about the Brixton gig: they sounded very much like they were going to move into Sympathy for The Devil from the percussion bit of Legal Man, but didn't :( - teasers! ....... No one mentioned Stuart/Stevie's AC/DC type opposing runs across the front of the stage during one number & Stuart's chucking the mic into the crowd ...... Struan looked like he was contemplating climbing up the PA to jump off at one point (frustrated rocker!) ...... Katrina was looking even more gorgeous than usual. Hope everyone enjoys the mainland Europe shows. Love, David Moore Chelmsford, UK +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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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