Sinister: Sorry about all those question marks

[Nick.Dastoor at xxx.uk]

And who is this 'middlingly famous' Scottish pop singer?  Any hunches?

Nick xx

Belle who? . . . they won a Brit Award when no one had heard of them

Belle And Sebastian may not court fame, but they?ve sure found success. By
Caroline Sullivan

Do you want to know how much I hate them? Even their name raises my blood
pressure,? says a middlingly famous pop singer of fellow Scots Belle And
Sebastian. What seems to be an inordinate amount of spleen directed at one
inoffensive rock band is actually par for the course. Since emerging in 1996,
the Glaswegian octet have inspired more fuming than almost any other group, all
due to their so-called ?wussiness?.
There?s a good deal of evidence for the prosecution. The six men and two women
(none of whom is called Belle or Sebastian) were last in the queue when God
handed was handing out the rock?n?roll swagger, and were redirected instead to
Wistful via, with an interim stop at Puny Physiques on the way. Songwriter
Stuart Murdoch refuses to do interviews, while the others refuse to be
photographed (the cover of their debut album, Tigermilk, featured a snap of
Murdoch?s girlfriend). And their fans are
so shy they mostly converse on the internet, occasionally mustering the courage
to go to events with names like like 200 Troubled Teenagers.
Guilty as charged, wuss-wise, and even they admit it. The obverse, though, is
that it takes shimmeringly unusual music to provoke the reaction they do.
Tigermilk, which is re-released this week ? original 1996 copies, of which only
1,000 exist, change hands for up to £800 ? is a good place to begin. Songs
contain not lyrics but paragraphs, read/sung by Stuart Murdoch. A track might
begin, ?My brother had confessed he was gay/It took the heat off me for a while/
He stood up with a sailor friend/ Made it known on my sister?s wedding day.?
Cellos and trumpets have higher status than guitars, and the tempo is slow
enough for bedroom to encourage brooding.
Those who join their insular club take out membership for life ? and on February
16, fans rose in a show of strength. That night, the meek inherited the earth ?
or at least the Brit Award for best newcomer, as Belle And Sebastian won 9,500
votes in a phone and internet poll. Producer Pete Waterman, who?d expected his
charges Steps to win, called the result a fix and demanded a recount. A member
of Steps voiced the question in the minds of most of the nation: ?Who are Belle
And Sebastian?? A bad night for robopop, but a good one for music.
Belle And Sebastian hadn?t expected to win either, so only the drummer and
trumpet player had been sent to the ceremony. Murdoch, who never attends such
events, was busy that night anyway. He works as a church-hall janitor, and spent
Brits night clearing up after the local flamenco club. ?We?d heard rumours
throughout the day that it was us, but didn?t take it seriously,? recalls
Richard Colburn, who played semi-professional snooker before joining as drummer.
?The camera crew suddenly zoomed off to another table just as they were about to
announce it, so we thought it was Billie or Steps ? and then they zoomed back to
us. Rabbit-in-the-headlights time.?
Next morning, drummer Richard Colburn and trumpeter Mick Cooke found themselves
dazedly running a dazed lap of honour on The Big Breakfast as other stars
denounced their win. ?Another Level said we cheated, but what really bothered me
was when Cerys from Catatonia said, ?If Belle And Sebastian are best newcomers,
I?m Robbie Williams?. When you consider that a year ago she was in the same boat
as us...? sighs Cooke, who looks far too young to be in this Glasgow pub, which
may be why he?s restricting himself to orange juice.
He, Colburn and guitarist Stevie Jackson are the Belle?s lad faction, inasmuch
as such a thing can be said to exist. The distinction comes from the fact that
they?re the only ones willing to do interviews, although they vet these
carefully. Colburn, who flat-shares with Murdoch in the church hall, has taken
the afternoon off setting up tables for tonight?s bridge session (?It?s very
popular?) to be here. Cellist Isobel Campbell and bassist Stuart David, who
would have more to gain by being interviewed (Campbell has a solo band called
The Gentle Waves, David a project called Looper), have elected to be absent, as
have violinist Sarah Martin and keyboardist Chris Geddes.
They begin, rather surprisingly, by disputing the idea that their fans are
bashful underachievers who spend their lives on the net (although the fact that
their website receives around 50,000 hits a week does support this theory).
?It?s too easy to put a label on us. We get all sorts, agewise and
professionwise. I see quite good-looking people who?ve got girlfriends,?
maintains Colburn, ploughing through a bacon sandwich in an indeniably masculine
manner. ?I don?t look out and see a bunch of geeky, speccy shy people.?
?They?re on stage,? quips Cooke. ?We?re not responsible for a lot of things that
go on on our behalf.? This is a reference to 200 Troubled Teenagers, an event in
London in February that saw gaggles of foot-scuffling girls and boys gather to
whisper about favourite tracks from the Belles? three albums (the others are If
You?re Feeling Sinister and The Boy with the Arab Strap, both deservedly
acclaimed). It was the band, however, who were behind the Bowlie Weekender in
April: three days of holiday-camp fun starring themselves and other
limelight-rejecting bands.
?But we don?t reject the limelight,? argues Jackson, who?s quiet enough to be
one of his own fans, but way too tall. ?It?s not a predetermined policy to be
elusive, it?s just the nature of the beast. I?d love to have a hit single. I?d
love to play Top of the Pops! That?s our next goal. If you?re going to do it,
you might as well let people hear it.?
In which case, perhaps you should have signed with American music bigwig Seymour
Stein when he offered, and not refused support slots for on Radiohead and Pulp
tours.
Jackson shakes his head. ?That was because there?s eight people in the group and
a very complex sound. It?s taken all sorts of public humiliation and ineptitude
to get almost professional, and we need very long soundchecks, sometimes hours.
So we can?t do supports, because we need control, and anyway, we only want to
play to people who are there to see us. We?ve just turned down the Charlatans.?
There?s no evidence of ineptitude on Tigermilk, which they?ve decided to
re-release because ?the price [of original copies] was going a bit mad?(popster
Stephen Duffy supposedly owns 10 copies). They evince a quiet pride in the
record, which was recorded in five days as part of a music-business college
course. Now held up as the the gold standard of indie rock, it was almost
totally overlooked back in ?96, attracting just one (favourable) review.
?It?s stood up,? Colburn declares. ?I still enjoy listening to it. We couldn?t
have done it any better. Even the mistakes become defining.?
Belle And Sebastian are now feeling their way toward a their fourth album. A
It?s a tortuous process, because, typically, they insist that every decision be
unanimous. Top of the Pops notwithstanding, they will undoubtedly continue to
dodge the spotlight and irritate those who can?t understand how a band could
turn down the bright lights for insularity and church halls. Real success ?
which is predicted for the next album ? may drive them even further underground,
where even more
delicate shoots will take root.
Tigermilk is reviewed on page 18

(except it isn't, at least not in the edition that I've got.  Unless they are
confusing Belle & Sebastian with Hefner)


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