I see that Ye Olde Christmastide Albumne is being advertised on telly now, however it's 'Little Drummer Boy' that they're using, so unfortunately there's no chance to jump up and point at the screen yelping 'oh! oh! Belle and Sebastian!! Belle and Sebastian!!', while your flatmates/parents/friends/cellmates look on with utter indifference. I suppose that would be too much to ask, after the Brookside incident. And while that might have been fun, surely it would be much funner if, say, 'Legal Man', was to be heard in the Queen Vic. If you're played on Eastenders, then you've really made it! I still keep looking to see if any of them managed to scratch their names onto the laundrette wall during the infamous post-Top of the Pops invasion of Albert Square. We can only hope. As for 'Emmanuel', well, it's rather loverly, isn't it? Although it is disappointing, as David Moore pointed out, that they've jettisoned the second verse - 'O come thou Rod of Jesse free/Thine own from Satan's tyranny' et cetera. Maybe no one else fancied singing, but you'd have thought that if they were going to get rid of one verse it would be the fourth, what with that awful 'high/misery' rhyme that poor Sarah had to try and mangle in. Having listened to most of the album (and skipping through the other bits that didn't sound too promising) it seems that B+S are one of the few bands that aren't trying to be too smart or too clever, which is a good thing, one would have thought. So-called VodkaBird said that she thought that they were "lumbered with the duff track", but one would imagine that they chose it themselves and it's not really a surprising choice. It's much better than being oh so flipping ironic like some of the others on the album. And it fits in nicely after 'Winter Wooskie' on my EPs tape, which resides in my walkman from time to time (if admitting to listening to Belle & Sebastian is still allowed, seeing as lots of Sinister types appear to have given it up!). Remember, you might well be able to hear live renditions of 'O Come O Come Emmanuel' at some churches this weekend, it being the start of Advent and all. You're even allowed to sing along! (But Jen, try to stay out of the confessionals!) On an entirely unrelated excursion through to Glasgow earlier this week I popped in to the 'Electric City' exhibition at the Lighthouse that I mentioned in my last post (what? you don't remember?!) which, to be honest, wasn't at all as exciting as I hoped it might have been. It would probably be best to go when there's actually something on (but it was free and it did keep me out of the rain for a bit). However, they do have two tailor's dummies dressed in what appears to be the clothes that Mick and Richard wore to the Brits, which, while hardly the Turin Shroud, might be of interest to some people. Not entirely sure which people, mind you. Anyways, good weekends all round, and happy confessing! Ian N. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead 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 +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+