Sinister: I am Murdoch, hear me R!O!C!K!

[Nick Dastoor]

>I really envy the people on this list who can think of something 
>interesting
>or funny to write almost every day. But anyway, I'm German, I'm not 
>supposed
>to be funny or interesting. I leave that to the Brits.

Bloody hell, I didn't know cultural stereotyping could inflict such deep 
wounds on a nation's psyche.  Crikey.  I hope you're all proud of 
yourselves.

My sister went out with a hilarious German once.  Unfortunately, his humour 
seemed to be inextricably linked to wanton destruction of property and 
gratuituous insulting of my dad.   He was funny, but he had to go.

Sudden thought - perhaps you were being sardonic.  If only you had used 
Northy's clever ~ then there would be no room for confusion.

[Historical Note for newcomers: Northy is a late lamented member of the list 
who had many wise things to say, amongst them the suggestion that we should 
laugh at the homeless and use ~ to signify sarcastic overtones.  We will not 
see his like again.  Another suddeen thought: what if he's a back and a 
lurker.  Not actually IN The Lurkers, you understand.]

>I have 2 questions:

>One is mainly for the British people: Will there be a TV show about Bowlie?
>And if so, can someone send me a copy? A tape of B & S' performance would 
>be
>highly appreciated too and rewarded with lots of money, free sex or 
>whatever
>takes your fancy. ;-)

Ah.. you spotted the cameras.  Isn't Duglas out of the BMX Bandits doing a 
documentary on the band (I think that's what he said in the R1 Bowlie diary 
that was broadcast on Monday)?  Perhaps footage will find its way into 
there.

>The other question is to everyone who's English is better then mine: What
>does "flying low" mean???

I'm going to spoil everyone's fun by telling you the real answer.  It means 
not having done the fly on your trousers up.  That's a zip/button kind of 
fly.  Not an insect kind of fly.  Maybe Straun tried to make amends but 
caught himself in the zip and that's why he got angry and smashed his 
guitar.  It's a more plausible theory than the the Times reviewer came up 
with (see below):


The Times April 30 1999

Sorry, chums

Belle and Sebastian
Dublin

Venerable indie pop messiahs or execrable anti-rock pariahs? Belle and 
Sebastian compel and repel in equal measures. But they were among friends at 
the Olympia, transformed into a thousand-strong church of happily lost souls 
who believe this Glasgow-based octet to be the apotheosis of the indie 
aesthetic and, in the afterglow of their successful Bowlie Weekender at 
Camber Sands, living proof that every underdog does ultimately have its day.
But the performance was not so much liturgical as just plain lethargic. 
Belle and Sebastian have always preferred to maintain a self-effacing 
anonymity rather than kowtow to the cult of personality. But the fact is 
that there were eight musicians pottering before us who collectively have 
the stage presence of a cardboard box.
And as the gig limped slowly on, one could palpably feel their 
self-mythologising mystique drain away, leaving us with what? A bunch of 
carefully crafted, literate pop songs that can be pleasingly wry and witty 
but also selfconsciously clever. It's all rather bloodless and, there's no 
getting away from it, sexless.
The telling moment came near the end, when someone shouted a request for the 
Sex Pistols' Anarchy in the UK. Alive to the inherent criticism in such a 
barbed remark, Stuart Murdoch (main songwriter and singer) kicked over his 
mic stand and smashed his electric guitar on the floor of the stage. 
Brilliant, I thought: an ironic comment on the jaded histrionics of punk 
rock and an acknowledgement of his band's minuscule rock credentials. But 
then Murdoch ruined it: he apologised. That's the problem with Belle and 
Sebastian: their suffocating, strangulating politeness.
NICK KELLY



'Alive to the inherent criticism in such a barbed remark' indeed.

Nick xxx





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