There has indeed been a lot of reporting back of gigs lately, and I will continue this trend, though - to be honest - I'm only writing this so that the people I met at the Brussels and Lille gigs have my e-mail address. In fact, I would much rather leave this post blank, but that would probably be stretching the 15 minutes rule. Even for a slow typist like me. Until about a week ago, I had no idea there was such a thing as a Belgian chapter of Sinister. Now I do, and I must say I'm happy to have met them. First of all, there was the picnic. Which was grate (do people still use that?). In attendance were (in no particular order): - the lovely Annie (thanks for everything) - a Brazilian couple who I think were called Marcio and Marcia - wee Rocio (did I spell that right?) - Wen (who for some reason insisted that I would post to the list) - picnic mummy Jule - and of course the one and only Strawberry Boy I was late. Partly because I'm not very punctual, but mostly because I was in no rush to get there, seeing as I'm usually not much good at social occasions where I don't know anyone. As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. I know it's something of a cliché round these parts, but sinisterines probably *are* the nicest people you could ever meet. On to the gigs then... I would say they have earned a place in my all-time Top 5 favourite gigs list. Perhaps even a place each, with Lille just beating Brussels (they played "If You're Feeling Sinister" in Lille, plus I had a better view). But they were both pretty special. Brussels was special because it was my first B&S gig. Lille was special because it was a real spur of the moment thing and because going there nearly cost me my job. But I had had such a brilliant time in Brussels that Rocio, Annie and Olivier didn't have to try very hard to persuade me to join them in Lille the next day. I won't try to recreate separate set lists for both nights, but the songs I remember hearing are (again in no particular order): Fuck this Shit There's too much love Waking up to us String Bean Jean The wrong girl Don't leave the light on baby The Boy with the Arab Strap My wandering days are over The Model Wandering alone The magic of a kind word Fox in the snow Seeing other people Dog on wheels Is it wicked not to care Dirty Dream #2 Lazy Line Painter Jane A Century of Fakers If you're feeling sinister In Brussels the encore was "Judy and the Dream of Horses" and a girl from the audience sang an impressive version of Gershwin's "Summertime" (with Bill Wells on piano). There was no encore in Lille, but they did cover the Velvet Underground's "Sunday Morning" (sung by Stevie) and Isobel had a go at a Serge Gainsbourg song (not a clue what that one was called though). Already looking forward to Glastonbury... Bye, Aton. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+