Sinister: Scottish Socialist Party

Wed Dec 8 12:18:03 GMT 1999

Hi List ! 

I thought you would be interested to read this small article... which is on
http://www.scotsocialistparty.org/VoiceContents.htm

Stuart Murdoch
Belle and Sebastian
Before I was in a band I would look at the likes of Francis and Douglas*.
They were doing their own thing long before we came on the scene, and I was
quite in awe of someone who could work in the music industry but do exactly
what they wanted to do.
There's a lot of examples of people like that, especially I think in Glasgow
where there's a good collective feeling.
I think the likes of Francis and Douglas are examples of being a complete
success. They do pretty much what they want and suit themselves. I certainly
thought that of people who ran their own labels or their own venues or
simply made a record at all.
I though that was it, if you sent off to Czechoslovakia and got a thousand
cheap copies then you were a success.
The selling out question, I'm not sure about. I'd be in favour of bands
selling out all the way, depending on the quality of the music they came up
with.
My favourite band is The Smiths. They made the most fantastic music and they
seemed to do it from such a righteous background.
But, I'm kind of sure that if they signed to a major label, they'd probably
take as much money as they could and be an entertainer and be manipulated.
As long as the music is produced, I think that's the main thing.
I think that things are happening all over Scotland. These initiatives that
happen, the underground, just keep at it, you know what you're doing is
good.
The major guys, the major labels, are in trouble. They know they haven't got
a scoobie and they're panicking. You know what's going on so just keep doing
it, they'll come to you and you'll have the upper hand.

* Francis McDonald, Shoeshine Records, and Douglas McIntyre, from Creeping
Bent, who says : "I think Belle and Sebastian are the best example that's
ever come out of Scotland of a band having their own autonomy and creative
independence allied with popularity. It's very difficult to attain that, you
need a degree of talent and luck and timing. But if there's any musicians in
the audience my advice would be don't sign for a major record label - stay
on the dole."

Hummm... Discuss !!!

Stéphane

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
   +---+  Brought to you by the reborn Sinister mailing list  +---+
  To send to the list mail "sinister at majordomo.net". To unsubscribe
   send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
  "majordomo at majordomo.net".  WWW: http://www.majordomo.net/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        +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+