Sinister: Why does noone talk about Glo-Worm on the list?

[Stuart Gardiner]

Well I would have put some money on that horse today, but I'm still
recovering from the news that Mark C thinks of my singing every time he
hears Modern Rock Song. Poor bugger.

And I must just say how nice it is to have the delightful Genevieve back
with us again. I'm just jealous of all the people at her prom who'll see
her in an old-style heaving bosom type dress. We demand photos!


Anyway, the real reason I'm posting is because noone has mentioned yet the
Genital Warts article in this week's NME. It's quite long, but here goes:

"People are rarely what they seem. It's the quiet, 'keep themselves to
themselves' types who end up rampaging through shopping centres with
rifles, and the jovial pub jokers who end up putting their heads in the
gas oven. Meeting Isobel Campbell, sometime cellist with Belle And
Sebastian, in the sunny surrounds of a South London bistro, you'd have her
pencilled down as a gentle, happy-go-lucky funstress within 15 seconds.
And you'd be wrong.

The release of her first solo project, The Gentle Waves' 'The Green
Fields Of Foreverland...' will show that behind the effervescent persona
and lilting Glaswegian burr lurks a heart of darkness. Its eerie,
psychedelic-folk overtones, leavened by some sparkling songwriting, cannot
mask the fact that this is mournful stuff.

"I am quite grim," she smiles. "Ask anyone that knows me properly. A lot
of people think there's nothing going on in my head because I'm giggly,
but I'm a lot more thoughtful than people give me credit for."

So exactly how did this exercise in dourness come about? What was it that
turned this mild-mannered, multi-instrumentalist into a squeakier version
of Nico?

She pauses. She's not really sure. The facts are simple. Before joining
Belle And Sebastian she was a 19-year-old university student, lazing
about, going to parties and buying records, but long, long before this,
she had started writing.

"I had been making four-track recordings with friends for ages," she
explains. "But I was writing songs even when I was a wee girl."

While her musical contribution to B&S has been plentiful, she still
harboured ambitions to make her own record. In the end it took only one
week out of the band's busy schedule to make that dream a reality.

"We'd been away in America in the tourbus and it was awful," she groans.
"It doesn't matter if you're with the most wonderful people in the world,
if you haven't got your own space it's just..." she makes a face,
"Grrrrrrr. We had four days off when we got back and after I'd caught
up on my sleep I made the record."

Recorded with the help of friends and bandmates Richard Colburn, Chris
Geddes, Stuart Murdoch, Mick Cooke and Stevie Jackson, 'The Green
Fields...' and forthcoming single 'Weathershow', sound anything but
rushed.

That being said, there is a song on the album,'Tree Lullaby', which
appears to be addressed to, well, a tree. Care to explain?

"It's not to a tree," she states with mild disdain. "It's more humanity."

She rolls her eyes in disgust: "Oh God, that's so cheesy. I like trees
though. Sometimes trees look like people because they're so twisted,
y'know?"

Erm, yeeeesss. We edge towards the door smiling and making sure to
maintain eye contact. Sure, Isobel Campbell seems like sweetness and light
personified but you can never be sure."


I don't think I'll bother typing in the Looper live review as well
because, well, it's not quite so complimentary.

Other top moments from this week's NME include their description of "Belle
And Sebastian's forthcoming nambling pambling rice pudding & crochet
holiday camp gangwanking whimsy-thon". I kid you not...
 

Big Stu


PS If you're bored, head for http://www.email.net/work-well-together.html





 o     o     o,   ,o,   ,o     o     o>   <o>   <o     o     o     o
 |^   ^|^   ^|     |     |~   ~|~   ~|     |     \>   <X>   </>   <|>
 /\   /\     /\   /\     /\   /\     /\   /\     /\   /\     /\   /\

Hey! Macarena...




+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
   +---+  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" +-+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+