Nigel Turner wrote:

At the risk of deepening Andy Dean's homesickness, and drifting further off-topic, 'cause.....err...... I reckon Utlima Thule is probably the last record shop on planet earth that'd stock Belle & Sebastian stuff (it's a great shop, but it specialises in "Krautrock" and prog stuff. Julian Cope name-checked it in his "Krautrocksampler" book, and can often be seen "hanging out" in said shop. But the guys that run it are, um....rather strange).

Yes, few people see the prog element in B&S. I've only ever been to Ultima Thule once, but it's like a parallel universe. The fabulous furry Freeman brothers are indeed strange, but really very nice indeed. In the hour or so that I was there, one of them (they are indistinguishable to the untrained eye, like the Max Walls who run that shop on Byres Road together with Jim Foetus) brought the other one some leek and ham soup, which they later had a conversation about. Apparently there wasn't much ham in it. Kosmische, eh? All this to a constant background of wurp-wurp-wurp-wurp cosmic music. And they've got the Star Trek warp drive screen saver on their computer. While one brother is in the shop, the other one's upstairs practising his Klaus Schultze drum pummelling technique. I had great difficulty deciding what to buy, because I'd had the Cope book for ages and failed miserably to find any of the music in cosmic Spain. The best one I got was a second hand (whose hand?) copy of "Yeti" by Amon Duul II for about six quid. I have subsequently bought more Amon Duul II things. My favourite is "Wolf City". In fact I think I'll go and listen to it now....wish me luck.

Peter, where is "here"? Not Leicester, presumably. (Spiritualized are playing "there" tomorrow

Bound to pay a visit to Ultima Thule.

, oops...sorry Andy!). But yes, I have seen Will Oldham playing with the Palace Brothers (great band...sort of warped, self-indulgent country music) in Norwich about 4 years ago. They were supporting Tindersticks, with whom Belle & Sebastian have often been compared (phew, got back on topic!)

Here is exotic San Sebastian. Or rather there. Because I live and compute just outside. Will Oldham is playing as part of a series of subsidised(!) concerts to keep groovy young kids off the streets and away from the temptaions of drugs and petrol bomb throwing, both major recreational activities round here. Previous beneficiaries of the council's genorosity include Morcheeba, who were really good - honest!, and Red Snapper, who were good too, but Morcheeba were more...erm...entertaining. Tickets cost about two pounds, so you can't really grumble at that. Unless you are a taxpayer. About the Stylophone: Former Stylophone owners will have noticed that on "Mayfly" it is played in the correct "sliding" manner, as demonstrated by Rolf on the instructional flexi disc. Not as easy to master as you may think, as I recall, so three cheers for Belle and Sebastian's Stylophone player! And three cheers for me for a dramatic last minute return to the topic of our favourite oddball popsters! Peter ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . 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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------