Ken wanted some reporting back from the Tsunami Benefit gig. I'm a bit out of practice at this here posting malarkey, but here goes... We saw Stuart walking to the gig on his own, which isn't terribly rock and roll. He was dressed as the Dog on Wheels video (black hat, tartan scarf) and striding purposefully through the tunnel that goes from the train station to the SECC. I missed the first bit of the gig, which was Stevie Jackson, Norman Blake, Eddi Reader, Eugene Kelly and "someone else" (Ally Cook really needs to practice his own reporting back skills) singing the Proclaimers' 500 Miles. I heard it from the WH Smith outside the hall where the mister was buying sweeties, it sounded ace. Some bands played, and they were mostly very entertaining. Deacon Blue were, no joke, utterly brilliant. A room full of people belting out Dignity, it just doesn't get any better. If you don't agree, you are wrong. Very wrong indeed. I almost had a tear in my eye, and I haven't had that since the Royal Albert Hall gig. And I was younger and drunker and less cynical then. Mogwai provided the perfect accompaniment to a trip to the bar, and Braithwaite is massively hugely bald and fat. Hahaha. Teenage Fanclub ruined the singalong fun by debuting some new stuff, Travis are hugely entertaining (given the theme of the evening, it was just as well they didn't play Driftwood...), Kevin McDermott now looks like the kind of guy you would avoid in the pub and sounds like a fourth-rate Bob Dylan, the Trash Can Sinatras were, as always, wonderful, Idlewild sound like REM and I didn't like them very much, Eddi Reader was quite entertaining, but I was getting quite drunk by that point (I was ceilidhing a bit, hence drunk), Sharleen Spiteri is very self-indulgent and not very good, Franz Ferdinand rock like you wouldn't believe and are almost as good as their hype, and, er, some other people were on. Gary Lightbody was, um, there. As special guest go, it was as special as getting that bloke who busks the Fields of Athenry outside of Markies on. Not very, then. The build-up he got, you would have thought it would have been someone good. We had been hoping for Ivor Cutler, or maybe Fran and Anna. Ooh, Simon Pegg was there too. And Robbie Coltrane. Just introducing bands, like, but, y'know, proper celebs. Coo. Oh, you want to know about Belle and Sebastian? They played The State I Am In (lovely!), The Boy with the Arab Strap (jaunty!) and I'm A Cuckoo (lovely! jaunty! kept the Radio Two crowd happy!). That was it! EXCEPT FOR THE MOMENT WHICH WAS THE BEST THING OF THE WHOLE NIGHT. Given that it was being filmed, there were two big screens up at the side of the stage showing footage from the stage. And they had a huge close-up of Richard gurning which was the funniest thing ever. Maybe you had to be there. Maybe you had to be party to many conversations which reflect on the similarity of Richard's face while drumming to that of a man trying to oust a particularly unpleasant poo. Whatever, this was the face projected onto a huge TV screen in front of me, and the end of my ability to watch the rest of the gig, given that I was bent over double and gasping for air. I hope they showed it on the telly. Er, that was about it then. I hope you are all praying for Edwyn Collins. It's because of people like him that people like us have people like Belle and Sebastian. Kind of, anyway. It's all connected, and he's a hero of mine, and I don't have too many of them left these days. Ailsa xx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+