**Caveat Emptor** Röyksopp's gig last night was, in a word, bluddycrap. No support turned up, so after two hours of trying to stay hydrated in the stifling humidity of Belfast's Mandela Hall, and trying to stay awake after two hours of the most tedious filler tape I've ever heard, the Norwegian twosome took the stage. And I'm not sure, but I think they brought lots of very fancy computery electronic wizardry and fed it at top volume through a couple of £9.99 casio speakers. Melody A.M. is a beautiful, intricate, breathtaking album, and I'm forever indebted to the McDermott girl for her recommendation, but I think there must have been a case of alien body snatching last night. I don't ever want to hear cacophonous crap like that again. I can take white noise when it's intentional, and when I'm in the mood, but Röyksopp? Get thee to a nunnery, boys. So we walked out after an hour (the first time I've ever walked out of *anything*, and we weren't the only refugees making an exodus), found a nice pub, commandeered the radio, tuned it to the last hour of John Peel's show, and he did save our lives. Beware, brother, beware. **Cunning Linguism** Mr Stuart Gardiner asked, in a round-a-bout way, what the etymology of the phrase "on the bandwagon" is. And I'll tell him, and you, because I've just finished reading Bill Bryson's Made in America: a History of American English, and I want to off-load some of the trivia clogging up my head. Bandwagon was a neologism coined by P.T. Barnum in 1855, and was used simply to describe one of his many new circus acts: a small band playing atop a horse- drawn wagon to entertain the crowds. In its modern context it refers to the fact that in the late 19th/early 20th Century in America there was a tradition of politicians parading around town to advertise their candidacy. Often these would take the form of a marching band leading, with the candidate standing atop a horse-drawn wagon. In more modest parades a smaller band would play on the wagon as well, just as in Barnum's circus act. Local notables, both to show their support of a particular politician and to add to their own publicity, would climb onto the bandwagon. If you have seen the Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" you'll know what I'm talking about. **This is the End** Here's an interesting piece by John Densmore. He's talking about the pressure on bands to flog their old songs to advertisers. The scene in Oliver Stone's movie of The Doors where Jim Morrison freaks out because the rest have agreed to allow Buick to use Light My Fire to flog their latest car is, apparently, quite accurate. http://thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020708&c=1&s=densmore **An interesting chord structure, if structure is the right word** Post-gig conversation last night, naturally, did not centre on the gig. Instead we talked about the last gig we saw in the Mandela -- Belle and Sebastian. (And you thought you were never getting any content.) I mentioned the Peel Acres set and, by no small miracle, just happened to have a copy of it in my walkman, right there with me. No one else having heard it, a slight jigging of the pub's sound set-up (in retrospect, that's where Röyksopp should have played; it was infinitely superior to the tat they brought with them) and soon *everyone* was enjoying my oh-so-masterfully edited session tape. Twice, even, because it was just that good. Except for Love on the Marsh, which was skipped second time around, 'cause I still think it's crap. Thing is, a few of the (chronically unhip, granted) youngsters in the place came up to us and asked us who was playing. More converts, perhaps. I think it's a great idea*, and I recommend that before the month is out each one of you takes charge of a pub stereo and subjects the patrons to your own B&S mixtape. [*Smallprint: I accept no responsibility whatsoever should you misjudge your audience and get ripped to shreds by monosyllabic nu-metalers. Your house may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments.] +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+