(by the way, if you're looking for THE POINT, scan down a page or so) hello my darlings, i wonder how you are these days? how you've grown? whether you're happier than you were? whether you're wearing clean underwear now? i've told you its important. you never know when you'll need to be wearing clean underwear. i wanted to talk to you about many things. however, i'm not going to. this is partly because of the vast amount of cheap, cheap, cheap white wine still sloshing its way through my system from last night and partly because of that bloody tim burgess album in the next room... i'm meant to be reviewing it but bloody hell its - aahh, that's better. silence. silence is nice, but silence can stop you from doing all the things in life you'd like to. anyway, there was a point to this. so i'll come to it. THE POINT:- as you may or may not have noticed a certain scottish pop/rock/beat combo will be releasing an album in the very near future. us chaps at friends of the heroes (www.friendsoftheheroes.co.uk, that's www.friendsoftheheroes.co.uk ) have decided to mark the occasion with an issue devoted entirely to b&s, and we'd like you to help. no doubt you're already jumping up and down in excitement at the prospect, and wondering how best to go about this... so i won't keep you in suspense. we're still planning the issue, but it seems likely that there will be an article on 'b&s moments' (this will, of course, have a better title. perhaps taken from some of the comments you lot will send in. you will, you will, you will, you will...) this can be anything - the moment you fell in love is a good one. preferably with the band, although it could be the moment you fell in love with your wife/ pamela anderson/ pvc/ pingu if you really want, as long as you relate that back to the MUSIC. perhaps there are lots of moments where you fell in love with them. you don't only fall in love with a thing or a person once, you have to keep doing it over and over again otherwise you forget why you loved them. tell us about those moments when they made everything click, and feel right, and gave you hope that you didn't have just a second before. or, tell us about trying to fuck to 'space boy dream'...its your decision. we also have a PROBLEM PAGE. recently, this has been run by sister janice slejj, space travelling, disco-loving, alternative-gardening nun but it will, for one week only, be written by a special guest (errr...some of you may think the guest is more special than others, all i'm saying is that its a semi-regular sinister poster and she LOVES YOU). this guest wants you to write in with belle and sebastian related problems... for example... 'i can't concentrate on my quantum physics p.h.d. because i keep thinking about the way isobel campbell holds her cello'; ' i have been spending too much time sleeping at bus stops, wondering how i got my name and what i'm going to do about it'; 'i am an indie-boy, she says i'm too skinny...boy'*; 'stuart murdoch says if i don't bugger off, he'll get a restraining order' that sort of thing. you can send them to either ian@friendsoftheheroes.co.uk or rachel@friendsoftheheroes.co.uk and we'll forward them on. we're also thinking of doing a b&s anorak's page. full of really, really useful things you didn't know about the band. while we're capable of doing our own research (honest!) anything you could help us with would be nice... any websites, sources of info, or just things you want to share (not LIES preferably, unless they're really good/exciting/pervy ones. ken, any more pictures of you in that pvc catsuit will be sent to your employers) oh, and at SOME point, we're hoping to get hold of a copy of the bloody album. it looks like all you other buggers have got one first. failing that, we'll have a b&s issue without a b&s review. but hey that wouldn't be such a bad thing, why conform to expectations anyway?? so, that was THE POINT. please write to either me, dimitra daisy, rachel sunnyset or grainne grainney (why don't you have a funny list-name?) off-list with any thoughts, suggestions, or random abuse. actually, send random abuse to dimitra. she loves it. THE POINT being over, i'll move on to BESIDE THE POINT where is that, beside the point? clearly, its close to the point but people seem to think it isn't a great place to be. but if you can see the point from there, it can't be that bad, can it? anyway: BESIDE THE POINT robin stout said: 4. I wonder who gave me *another* list crush? 5. I wonder if it was Ian Anscombe.. *another*? well, actually, robin i'd been saving myself for a tall, buffed, blonde bronzed adonis, but as casarotto keeps rejecting my advances i suppose you'll do. you'll need to earn it, mind. but it'll be tax free, on your back. not too difficult, once you've learned to relax. don't complain. you've no IDEA what i had to do for MY vote. which i've probably lost by now. and then he said: 6. Where did I put my glasses? 7. Oh, there they are! i know, i'm always leaving things up there too. i also wanted to say that i'm REALLY JEALOUS of jamie and all the rest of you who are getting to see camera obscura in the Fair City Of Nottingham tonight. i was going to join you but i'm completely and utterly BROKE. robin was right when he said their album was very good INDEED. (there's another review here http://www.friendsoftheheroes.co.uk/reviews/music/week27.html although you might think 'very good indeed' is better. there, i've mentioned friends of the heroes twice in an e-mail now, rachel. can i please have my complimentary badge-and-vibrator set? and don't pretend you don't know what you're talking about, because dimitra has shown me hers.) i wish i was as cool as SOME people, who get mentioned on the 'underachivers....' (do we have a rude acronym for that?) sleeve notes (take a look, you'll see who i mean..). finally, its great to see all these good reviews for the new BELLE AND SEBASTIAN album. perhaps very soon, i'll have to stop talking about the likes of camera obscura and saying 'they make me feel like b&s used to' and i'll just say 'they make me feel like b&s do'. wouldn't that be something? the (electronic) rennaissance starts here. oops, that wasn't the final bit, this is: aislers set - glasgow...who's going? what are you doing? can you recommend somewhere very cheap to stay? is there a picnic? tell me, cos i'm going to have to start saving (or working out someone to borrow money from) NOW. so, dears, that's our manifesto, pencil in a date, let me know when something gives, i hope its not too late. i love you all and i kiss you all. yes, even you.. i am not the milkman of human kindness, but if i was i'd leave you an extra pint. xx ian *stolen from archel playforth, of course P.S. if you'd like a space-travelling disco-loving alternative-gardening agony-aunt nun to solve your problems live on the modern interweb for everyone to see, please write to sister janice. it'll help to break up all the hard-drinking: the_space_shed@yahoo.co.uk P.P.S. that's the last plug this mail, i promise. P.P.P.S. that just begs for a pun about butt-plugs, but i'll leave that to jay. consider that a challenge, dear. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+