dear sinister, so much to tell you/bore you with (delete as applicable). i finally got to RAH! on friday after a challenge anneka style dash up exhibition road with ailsa shouting instructions/abuse down the phone. it was far too late to picnic, but not too late to have people stare in frank horror at my hair. once everyone who was likely to recognise me had done so, i sloped off with The Boyfriend Who Prefers Looper and The Best Friend Who Likes Drum N Bass to get some drinking in before the main attraction, shouting rather rudely at carey and martin en route, i seem to remember. we then bought snacks from a bizarre international store which sold oreos, twinkies and hershey bars. mmm. once ensconced in the red plushness of RAH! (which was somewhat like a womb) i felt a bit civilised and awestruck and sat regarding the sea of twee for a while. just as i was wandering down to the front to say hi to some sinisterines, the band suddenly came on and i was trapped there! a mere stone's throw (note clever JD reference...) from the stage! ailsa, liz d. and i were kindly (and fortunately) made room for by big stu's even bigger long lost american twin, so then had only smoochy couples and excitable schoolgirls to negotiate. B&S were... well, we all know how great they are. they were a lot more polished than i'd been expecting, but not in a bad way. the songs they so wonderfully played, in an entirely incorrect and probably incomplete order (me not the band) were: le pastie de la bourgoisie too much love dog on wheels the wrong girl mayfly my wandering days are over miraculous technique simple things family tree jonathan david woman's realm i love my car the state i am in (feat. the hodottir and friends) the boy with the arab strap we rule the school the model lazy line painter jane everyday people some notes from what would normally have been the mosh pit: - stuart wears a white short sleeved shirt with shop crease still in it, and has an approach to dancing more enthusiastic than rhythmical. later, he refers to wanting 'to smash something up'. he does indeed rule the school. - stevie is suffering from a sore throat, but stuart helps him on the high notes in jonathan david and the wrong girl. ahhh... - mick gives great lip. his way with a variety of horns is certainly impressive live. - chris seems surprised, though happy for a day, at his respectable vocal on the arrested development/sly & the family stone cover. - isobel looks anxious, bob dylan looks enigmatic. her voice does not carry very far, though the ungenerous (ailsa) are probably happy about this. - richard is cordoned off behind a screen (bulletproof perspex, maybe?) to gurn in peace. - sarah sits on the floor for much of the time it seems. - monica queen looks like a mischievous schoolgirl in her plaits, but sings like a true diva. - percussion eggs are widely and reverently employed. maybe they're trying to hatch something. - the brave and beautiful sinister Voice does us all proud. (though i do worry that her name means 'daughter of ho' in icelandic...) unfortunately i had to leave straight after, without saying goodbye to many of the starry-eyed sinisterines in attendance. i did get to see a dramatic police convoy on the way to victoria though. was it b&s, under protection from a crazed steven wells? (well, no, unless they'd all disguised themselves as black middle aged men.) like hannah, i felt kind of wrong later. somehow going to work on monday was even worse than usual, and i kept wanting to shout ' hey, i was at the royal albert hall on friday you know! having a transcendent if sweaty experience! don't you care?!' i did consider sitting around in a cafe and forming a band instead. but that would have been stupid. coming down... luv archel xxx *************************************** Rachel Playforth 'She may not be famous, but she's right' - Homer Simpson For the best in new writing on the web, visit www.buzzwords.org.uk Contact us on buzzwords@bigfoot.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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 +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+