Sinister: why this is important?

[Stuart Gardiner]

> In so many ways, Belle and Sebastian feel like the band I've been
> waiting for for a decade, the fulfilment of all my pop dreams of the
> perfect fusion of songs and beauty and youth and so on and on. I might
> be being unfair but I have the highest hopes for them and I am desperate
> they don't blow it, blow this unique position they've found themselves
> in. They could be so important while taking a critical stance on the
> tainted music industry. Or they could be another brilliant band playing
> music that we love, by the rules.

Important in what way? No band is ever going to change the way the music
industry works, and frankly I don't see why they should. The important
thing about music, the ONLY important thing for me, is what it sounds
like. Now I don't particularly like having to wade through hoards of Take
That / Spice Girls bandwagon-jumpers every time I turn on the radio; but
the fact is that that is what people want to hear. That's why I rarely
listen to daytime radio. Personally I would rather hear more variety, but
not just variety for the sake of it; I want variety so that I can find
more music that I can love, music that moves me. B&S do that, and so now
I'm on the lookout for similar music in the hope that it may have the same
effect on me. If B&S "sell out" (spit spit) by actually achieving
something in the music business, and get to the upper end of the charts,
we'll get other bands trying to make similar (but probably not
identical) music (maybe there are some already, they just haven't had the
exposure yet which would surely come if B&S made it big); surely that has
to be a good thing? After all, many bands have tries to copy the Smiths
(Gene anyone?), but with various variations, and the result can't be all
bad, can it?

I want as many people as possible to hear B&S music; many of them won't
like it, but if (and I'm sure there would be) some people get the same
kind of kick out of it as we all have, the world will be a (marginally)
better place. This doesn't mean having 2 different CDs for each single to
artificially inflate the sales figures (and the marketing men's egos),
because then people who only buy one of the CDs will not get the chance to
hear all the material; but it does mean making things that are released
as widely available as possible, and releasing as much as possible
(including Tigermilk), and maybe even (shock horror) doing a decent number
of gigs, including supporting other bands.

Let us all go forth and spread the word - I'm sure most of us do already -
about B&S, because then more and more people will get to hear these
wonderful refrains, and we can spread a little happiness into the world.
Let's make B&S popular. But then, that would be "selling out", wouldn't
it?

Stuart G

(Not even using words like homogenising...)

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