Sinister: All To Mooro's Parties

24 Jan 2001

      I shall start with the topical. 'Stuart Gardiner', about whom Nick Dastoor 
has commented memorably in the past, today ventured:
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...
As in, nice as it was, it was more or less a not-quite-as-good copy of 
Twattybus. Right down to "Women's Realm" being almost a carbon-copy of 
the song "...Arab Strap", complete with handclaps.
I find this all terribly unconvincing. I don't think that FYHC is a copy of 
TBWTAS at all. They are awfully different. 'Wicked Not To Care' *doesn't* 
resemble 'Beyond The Sunrise', for instance; there is no 'Spaceboy' on FYH; 
'chickfactor' and 'Seymour Stein' are *not* like 'The Wrong Girl'; and 
moreover, there is nothing on FYHC that sounds like the title track of 
'TBWTAS'. Oh, hang on - 'Woman's Realm' does? No, it doesn't. Not at all. 
Apart from anything else (I won't list anything else), it does not *swing* 
like 'TWBTAS'. Songs that swing include 'Panic' and 'John, I'm Only 
Dancing'. They do not include 'Woman's Realm', which does not sound very 
much like 'The Boy With The Arab Strap'.

It's been a while, and seeing as one or two folks were nice enough to ask 
me, or some other Pinefox, some specific questions, I shall try to answer 
them.

The geezer Miller asked:
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The Pinefox, did you go and see that Foxgloves photo in New York? Were 
there any stragglers from the lumberjack community?
I didn't 'go see' it, but I saw it anyway. I didn't really have to go 
anywhere to see it, once I'd 'gone' to New York; it was sort of there 
anyway. Not much travelling was involved. A few yards, maybe. Hm. 
Lumberjacks? Oh, you bet. Straggle is the word. The verb. Straggle, rock.

Mooro UK wondered:
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Are you going to write a song about entertaining the NYC gliterati to 
dinner at the Gotham Grill?
Well, I wrote some songs out there, and the glitterati were all very 
uninterested. Should I write a song about *not* entertaining them? That's an 
idea. I don't know about this Gotham Grill. What an idea. It must be one of 
Mooro's secret haunts, from the old days with 'David Johansen'. Or David 
Fairclough. Peter Johnson. Steve 'Lost' Heighway. They're not *all* 
glittery, by the way, close up. Some of them are quite hairy. Straggly, 
even.

The lad 96 cooked:
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Discoveries recently: Cake, by The Trashcan Sinatras, which is a lovely 
album, makes me want to dance crazy tears, whatever that could mean, as 
many of the best often do.
'Dance crazy tears' - I only just noticed that phrase. Baxendale, man, 
Bax*&^%$dale.

I think I have a tape that used to have that album on, but doesn't have it 
on anymore. I have never heard the album. Tears go by.
...
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...
Anyway, listening to The Negatives (NYC, 1998) do Jennifer She Said so 
wonderfully reminded me of that festival thingy I went to last year (CS, 
2000). Many things seem to. Smiles as ba ba dada da
da comes around.
That is very nice to see, but let's talk more about the lad Cole. The geezer 
Miller was on about it a while back, and none of the rest were up to speed 
with him, when he discussed 'No More Love Songs'. 'NMLS' smoulders and 
refuses to flame. It thuds gently. It whines gracefully.
The rest of the LP is ace, too. Has no-one else heard of it? Yesterday I 
sent a bunch of votes to that geezer who does the B&S Vote 2000 thingy (did 
he receive them? I don't know), and I had to put The Negatives at #1. Cole 
position. That kind of thing. Believe me, this is one trek of an album. I 
don't usually say 'Buy It' of LPs - for who buys LPs anyway? Not me - but in 
this case I ought to, for Lloyd's impecunious sake.
...
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I should be playing "chords", apparently.
Correct.
...
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At the moment I'm having only limited success.
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Could anyone give me the "chords" to any of the Go-Betweens songs,
You've only started. At this stage, limited success is success. It's better 
than unlimited failure.

preferably those without bar "chords", since I can't play those yet.

I wish I could. Give them to you, I mean. Let's think: 'Bachelor Kisses', 
the best GBs tune I have heard, is presumably something like:

Verse: C-D-G-Am (x2)
Next section: C-D-Bm-Em
Chorus proper: C-Bm-Am-G
Bridge: something like: Em - G (x3), Em-A
Solo = verse

Let's try 'Dive For Your Memory' also. How would that go?
I'll put it in a D, for the sake of argument.

D                        Bm
  If the cliffs were any closer
C                        G
  If the water [blah blah blah]
D                       A
  I would dive for your memory
G                                D
  [blah blah blah] rocks and the sand

D                A
When I hear you say
D                 G
That we stood no chance
    D                 A
I-I-I'd dive for your memory
A              A
We stood that chance

etc.
...
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Here's The Pinefox. I still know of no others. Though even if I did know 
of others, I wouldn't know of others.
...
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Fine things to be interested in. But spare a thought for Jackanory. At a
I'm not sure I know what you mean. Or am I?

pinch, ...Morning Glory. Or even Tobermory.

Yes, do. It's the thought that counts: or the character counting them.
...
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I always thought the Wombles were common, until I found out it was just 
where they lived. Tobermory? No, Wimbledon. John Fashanu? No, but he made 
that clay sculpture over there...
Ooh! I must at this point remark:

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO? NO, I FORCED HER TO COME.
...
...
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I could, but that's what the photographs are for. However, even those 
aren't sufficient, damn it, I mean they're all the same; eyes skyward, 
little-girl-lost.
By The Icicle Works? Why does no-one talk about The Icicle Works on this 
list?
...
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It's time for something new, so lets run a competition to
find a new pose for Welthorpe. Answers on a post-it note, just stick them to 
Nick's fridge.
I agree. I endorse that. I can't think of a pose that rhymes, though. Any 
fool can think of poses that rhyme. Actually, I already have Welthorpe shots 
not quite like that. If you have as many as I do, some of them are bound to 
be break the mould. Or break the lens.

All Back To Mooro:
...
...
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Ease Your Feet In The Sea must be the most muzak-friendly Belle and 
Sebastian song, as today I heard it in Argos as I was hovering around my 
collection point.
You know, that's a thing. I was in the silliest pub in London last week, 
namely the one on the concourse of Charing Cross station, drinking a *half* 
of Guinness that cost... £1.40, or something. And various old TFI things 
were playing as I bided my time and coped with the waste of money - and 
then, yes, it really was, 'Ease Your Feet Into The Sea'!! I felt like one of 
those kids you used to see on sinister who would write about hearing 
'TBWTAS' in Starbucks, or, you know, 'Ease Your Feet Into The sea' in Argos, 
or Charing Cross. Anyway, what did it make me think of? It made me think of 
people like David Moore, and Nick Dastoor. People who have dedicated 
themselves to Belle and Sebastian, or seem to have done so at some stage. I 
was moved at the thought of those people.

Juicy said, ages ago, in what was my original spur to writing this 
disappointingly dull thing at all:
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Over two nights we listened to sixty-nine songs.
Gosh! Really? So did we!
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The wallflowers of the album pulled their gladrags from the wardrobe, put 
on a bit of slap and sparkled.
I agree, in a manner of speaking. Things that really don't do much on record 
did a lot live: esp 'It's A Crime', whose gradual build of harmonies 
thrilled; 'Wi Nae Wee Bairn', whose escalating lyric hit home for the first 
time; 'Love Is Like Jazz', an unpredictable highlight; 'Xylophone Track' for 
going lowest of all; 'I Shatter' for its - again - freshly audible words; 
'Zebra', which I suppose was aided by the facial expressions; 'King of the 
B', ditto in a way. I agree. That's what I was saying, wasn't it? I can't 
remember.

I note that most of these wallflowers are from disc 3. I maintain that disc 
3 is by far the worst of the three, and that those who think otherwise have 
probably seen the Magnetic Fields live too many times, if such a thing is 
possible.
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Laughter at lyrics took me by surprise and left me feeling slightly 
puzzled, like friends laughing at Grandad's favourite joke.
Hm. This question of laughing at lyrics is an interesting one which could be 
worth pursuing in various contexts. Steady Mike and I were saying at 
half-time, over a cup of Bovril, that people really shouldn't be laughing at 
the lyrics, haven't they heard them 100 times anyway?, etc; but despite all 
that I did find myself laughing at some of them. Is it about delivery, about 
hearing the line delivered anew, about liveness (as though the joke, such as 
it is, whatever it may be) is fresh-minted; or is it also merely a matter of 
(as said above) some of the less familiar joke lines never having really 
registered before? Do people laugh when they see Belle & Sebastian live?

Do people see Belle & Sebastian live?

I'm sure I had a lot more to say about those gigs, but it is slipping from 
me, like my marbles. Where have they gone? If anyone can remember anything 
else about the gigs, please say so. In any case, they were two of the best 
shows I have ever seen by a pop group. Right up there with, you know, the 
Sundays in December 1992. Jeez, honey, how Up There do you want?

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