Well quite a bit has been said about the last week's various shenanigans. But sod it, I'm going to add to it with my tuppenceworth. Well, actually it's quite long, maybe it's about threepence worth... SCARBOROUGH: Oh my God. Fabulous, fantastic, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring. But enough about my dancing already, what about the gig? Various people had picnics on the beach beforehand. Well actually, there were about 5 separate mini-picnics going on at once, so if you were at one of the other ones, hello. And we did try writing "Twee Roolz" in the sand, but it didn't work very well. The Futurist Theatre is literally over the road from the beach, and is one of those places which advertises shows and films above the doors. So the sign actually said "Tonight - Belle and Sebastian. Tomorrow - Get Over It"... Normally, I wouldn't expect a good atmosphere in an all-seated venue; but hey, this is Yorkshire now. After a storming Pastie to start with, before playing Too Much Love, Stuart asked if anyone wanted to come down the front and dance; naturally, about a hundred of us charged down the aisles, and tried to copy Stuart's pixie dancing. The management got a bit upset about fire risks (if it's a fire risk to have people in the aisles during songs, how the hell are you supposed to get out of the building in a fire?), so we all got sent back to our seats, and just danced there instead (so apologies to whoever was sitting behind me and Amy! Still, it serves you right for not getting up and dancing yourselves...). And by the end when they finished with Women's Realm followed by Legal Man (complete with about 500 people on percussion), we all just charged the stage. One ambition realised then - we actually managed to get a moshpit going at a B&S gig! And a seated one at that... For the cover version slot in the middle, Stuart came out into the audience to ask what we wanted. I did ask him for Scarborough Fair, but he said if they played that, there was a man at the back with a rifle who would shoot them for unoriginality... So they settled on Summer Holiday, mainly because Stevie played the opening chords just before asking what anyone wanted to hear... The band really seemed to be enjoying themselves, even when Stuart forgot the words to Dylan In The Movies (again!); and with Stevie's voice in a very fragile state, I'm sure he wasn't helped by having Stuart go down on one knee in front of him to put him off during Wrong Girl... Stuart finished the gig with the words "For a Tuesday night in Scarborough, you lot are fucking amazing", and we all felt exactly the same about them. After the gig finished, and a brief sojourn to a pub (during karaoke night, never a good plan...) we joined the party on the beach, attempted and failed to throw a frisbee in a straight line, had a wrestling match, spoke to various interesting people, dug ourselves deep holes in the sand to try to get down to the same height as Katrina, and tried to figure out how we can afford to get to Rio... So hellos to Jon and Liz who came in my car, and a big hello to the delightful Amy who was sitting next to me. PRESTON: I suppose after such a wonderful evening the day before, this was always going to be a bit of a disappointment. That's not to say that they weren't very good - just not quite as mind-blowing. It may have been partly due to the band's hangovers, but it was more that the atmosphere wasn't as friendly - more locals, more neds, less real fans. And there's absolutely nothing the band can do about that. It sounds like a real indie-snob thing to say, but a gig's just not as enjoyable when there's 3 or 4 blokes standing next to you with a bottle of vodka persistently singing along to the wrong bloody song. If they had taken a long walk off Scarborough pier, everyone would have been happier. As for the band, Isobel had her hair in pigtails, which was a relief because the previous night she had looked alarmingly similar to Sarah. Richard was the centre of attention - he was really nervous because he'd always wanted to play Preston Guild Hall (admittedly he wanted to play in the snooker tournament there, which may excuse the jumper he was wearing). Quite why he always plays the drums with a face like he's giving birth is a mystery. Sarah's parents were there (she was chatting to them in the bar beforehand), so Stuart didn't sing the last few lines of Arab Strap. Aah, bless. Cover versions were the theme from BBC's Snooker coverage (played by Mick on the guitar, because Stevie didn't know it) and a Rolling Stones number which I can't remember the title of, sorry (I think he said it was off Sticky Fingers) which coincidentally was the first song played over the PA after the band left the stage. Stuart did try inviting someone onto the stage to dance, but when the bloke tried, a bouncer leapt out of nowhere and carried him off, much to the band's annoyance. Sightings of Chris and Sarah in the bar afterwards, as well as more old-school Sinister types than you could shake a stick at. LONDON: When I turned up at the pre-gig picnic, there was already a football game going on featuring Stuart M and Wee Chris, amongst others. And more to the point, there was lots of drinking going on (well, Ailsa was there, what do you expect?). We all went on a 5 mile hike to find a pub, had one drink, and then came back again, because Honey and Honeyetta had turned up, amongst others. Then came the moment of truth - entering RAH. I spent the next hour alternating between oh-my-god-i'm-in-the-Royal-Albert-Hall and oh-my-god-the-drinks-are-expensive-in-here. I ended up about 5 rows back, fighting off annoying Australian women, and looking round thinking oh-my-god-i'm-in-the-Royal-Albert-Hall. Needless to say, the gig was fabulous, almost up to the standard of Scarborough. At half-time, two blokes with microphones and comedy wigs on (I think one of them might have been Neil Robertson, but I was too far away to see), who were in a box at the back, started slagging off the band in a Muppets style (after later discussions, we think the two old blokes in the Muppets were called Waldorf and Statler?), and saying that the singer was rubbish, anyone could do better. So this was Stuart's cue to head off the stage round towards their box, where he asked if anyone from the audience had ever wanted to sing at the Royal Albert Hall; and he plucked three Sinister-types from their seats and brought them to the stage. After a few bars of The Final Countdown, Lorraine (and later Stuart as well) gave a stunning rendition of The State That I Am In. The setlist followed much the same as before, with just the three new songs; Magic Of A Kind Word and My Girl's Got Miraculous Technique in the first half and I Love My Car (described by Stuart in Scarborough as a Dexy's Midnight Runners sounding song) in the second half. After Legal Man (which sounds infinitely better live), the band left the stage, and the Muppets at the back started talking again; along the lines of "Boo", Hiss", "That Was Rubbish", "Actually it wasn't that bad", "There were parts of it I quite liked", "It was good", "It was great", "More!", "Encore!". At which point, the band re-emerged, complete with Monica Queen (who is much smaller than I imagined for someone with so strong a voice, and who spent most of the song flinging her arms behind her back like Shirley Bassey), singing LLPJ. Then the finished with a cover of Everyday People, which they had started the set with in Preston. At this point I would like to apologise to anyone who was behind me (as always!), to David Moore for my voice intruding onto his tape, to whoever's foot I landed on when I was dancing, to Archel for taking the piss out of her new haircut, to the people camping at the side of the hall queueing up for Cliff Richard tickets for laughing at them behind their backs, and to anyone who tried to speak to me afterwards because I was completely incoherent and babbling with excitement. Saturday saw a second picnic happening on top of a bloody big hill in Greenwich. I claim full credit for scoring the white shirts' first goal, and no credit at all for the fact that we still lost. Lorraine made us very jealous by talking about the after-show party back at the band's hotel, and Starry Sarah spent the afternoon torturing innocent young boys. Then we all trooped off to the DLR to get to the Camera Obscura gig at the Spitz. The support band sounded like Ride, which is not a good thing. But the main attraction were very impressive - I've not heard them before, but I was convinced to try and track down some of their material. There then followed dancing and drinking until the wee small hours, and the startling realisation of just how similar Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's song Summer Wine is to the verse of Dog On Wheels - let's hope their lawyers don't find out, I wouldn't fancy taking on any of Frank Sinatra's connections. Those in attendance included (in random order, and forgetting many more than I remember) Carsmile Steve, Starry Sarah, Cresida, Ailsa, Honey, Honeyetta, Big Gay Mark, Miss Vicky, Lixi, Liz Daplyn, Martin, Wee Chris Geddes, Stevie Jackson, and Stuart Murdoch. And probably lots of other people who decided to avoid me because I spent the whole weekend going on about The Whitlams and how great Scarborough was. Fair enough really. Katrina asked me on the beach if my faith in B&S had been restored; I think it probably had been by the new EP (I don't care what anyone else thinks, I believe those three songs are as good as anything they've ever done), but they've certainly never been better live, and Scarborough was as good as any gig I've been to in my life. See you all in Birmingham tonight then... Big Stu +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+