Sinister: For Those About To Rock Biography

20 Aug 2004

      Outside, a world of rain. It is invisible save from
the right angle, but its whoosh and swish rains off
the parades, rains in the lucozade, rains off the
show, drains out the woe. It is, naturally, beautiful,
on the red brick and the green grass, the colourful
vinyl and the grey slates. Thought turns, with a bit
of luck, to a past.

On August 20th, 1998, PJ Miller wrote:
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As for a B&S book, I'd like to see one of those
"In Their Own Words" books devoted to them.
It is odd that five years later, there has been no
book, or buik. I blame JtN, who never sent me his
proposal. I think he left it in his other smoking
jacket.
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What a buffoon I am!
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It's an encyclopaedia of Krautrock, dead big and
That's not really true - but it's funny.

As Miller's list of rock books goes on, it reminds me
of how much diverse !pop! music he likes.

probably full of bollocks.

It's hard to tell, at a distance, how Miller produces
effects like this. Is it any easier, closer up? I'm
not telling.

I'm starting to think that Miller made up the names of
the rock books.
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They've got the Deacon Blue book really cheap.
Poor old Ricky Ross, Mister Bargain Bucket.
He must be making it up. I mean, there is no Deacon
Blue book that I have seen. Miller, if you have bought
it since, could you send it to me?

A funny thing is that Miller would not now dare to
write about Deacon Blue without mentioning the
pinefox.
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But it was the Huns, they did eat all the pies.
See, that's funny as well - but how does he do it?
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T!mothy Hopk!ns, you can't pull the wool over my
eyes. At least not for more than a couple of scary
seconds.
Here, it is the joke about the wool being scary,
because it obscures Miller's vision, that is the
source of comedy. The comedy is mild, here.

One could reflect that Miller's comic style, excellent
then, has not changed much since. (That would, I
think, be a good thing.) But how about other writers?

Later that day, Tim Hopkins replied:
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Here are some more rock book recommendations:
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'Unwelcome Home: the strange tale of Peters and
Lee' by Mrs Evander Mitchell This details the descent
of the once-great 1970s light entertainment duo from
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'Post-Hegelian Homesick Blues: The List Song in
Postmodernity' by Steffan Hosen Here's what it says on
Just like that - straight in!

pop stardom into a seedy life of accountancy and
ventriloquism. As a tale of everyday madness, 
this one is hard to beat.

I am missing something here, but the phrase 'everyday
madness' reminds me of the time I wrote about two
years ago, when Hopkins pointed to a big building and
said: 'That's the Stephen Trouss� Institute for
Contemporary Madness'.

the back: 'Fascinating study (adapted from an acclamed
doctoral thesis) which puts the list song at the
epicentre of postmodernity, as the apotheosis of
one-dimensional fractal culture, referencing,
re-referencing and self-referencing out of control,
nowhere and everywhere, forever. It demonstrates that,
even more than 'machine music' like hip hop, the list
song has ruthlessly exposed the modernist myth of the
creative subconscious, and locates postmodern
creativity in the act of turning on the television,
the only purposeful act which remains available to
us.' Quite how the author managed to do this much
research into list songs without once mentioning
Ian Dury's 'Reasons To Be Cheerful Pt 3' is beyond me,
but a scintillating read nevertheless.

That was good enough to demand reproduction in full.
It just demanded it, out of the pink, like that, and I
could not say no. I wonder was TH thinking of 'We
Didn't Start The Fire', as paradigmatic?
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Sarah Records 40: A Celebration
This large format, glossy book tells the amazing tale
of how Sarah Records was founded 40 years ago on the
tiny Caribbean island of Bristol, and through amazing
luck, great judgement and a sense of adventure, has
grown and prospered through 40 years and across the 
whole spectrum of popular music. Guest star forewords
are contributed by Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and
Andrew Dean.

I don't really understand the joke, here. I am missing
some key connection.
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The Strange Tale of Litres of Pee: Indiepop
Babylon, by Roberto Carro
Amazing expose of the darker side of the indiepop
world. You wouldn't believe some of the things
those indiepopsters get up to. Read about how Bjork
destabilised the molecular structure of the other
Sugarcubes' brains, using worrying glares she'd bought
from Tricky. Read how the size of Brett Anderson's
head is directly proportional to the popularity of his
band, and how he now wears hats stolen from Lego
figures. Read how Belle And Sebastian's Stevie Jackson
was spotted by Dave Lee Roth while filling in on
guitar for the BMX Bandits in LA. He accepted a job in
Roth's band, but was thrown out after just twenty
minutes for throwing a meat pie at Seymour Stein,
esteemed head of Sire Records. It missed. Stevie wrote
a song about the whole incident. It's a great song.
And it's a fantastic book, you should try to get hold
of it.

That one doesn't work quite so well for me, but the
deadpan material on Bjork and Suede is well turned.
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Take the book back off the shelf,
That sign-off signals a moment when TH would quote
Belle & Sebastian, knowing that everyone knew what he
meant. The following month, I would buy the song he
was referring to! I like it still.

In response to Miller, Hopkins concludes:
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I'm not sure what this means, but it's worrying
me. Wool? Eyes? Leave me alone.
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Welcome Marco#7. I'm going to be annoying and not
answer your question. But I propose that 'I brought "
THE DELGADO" but i'm not satisfied.' be made the new
Sinister sig file quote. Of course, that's only a
There is a little sweet innocence about this. But
there is familiarity too. TH can almost be imagined
writing something similar today, somewhere.

I think that these examples demonstrate what good
comic writing Belle & Sebastian were, once, sometimes
able to provoke, from some particularly witty people.

The same day, Nick Dastoor wrote:

personal opinion, but I must admit it's one I hold
quite strongly.

Oh, dear - that is not N. at his best. It makes me
reflect that his sense of humour, timing and style
has, or have, improved since.
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Nick xxx
He has never given me three kisses. He did not even do
it then - I was not on the sinister mailing list.

There were about 54 posts to sinister, that day.

Brother Mirrorball

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P F

Peter Miller

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