Sinister: Lips, selfishness, glassies and biscuits (more rubbish)

[Tim Hopkins]

Good afternoon, you fine fellows. I hope you are all feeling well today. My 
arms and legs hurt and I am a little saddle sore on account of having been 
riding a bicycle for the first time in fifteen years. It's true what they 
say: once you've forgotten how to ride a bike, you never remember it again. 
I have been away for a few days, so I've a couple of things to say. I 
thought I'd bung them all in one long message to make it easier for you to 
delete. Do yourself a favour, do it now.

Beth Bobbins said:

>the flaming lips. What can I
>say. Go and see them live. They are orgasmic. Hey, they are POST orgasmic.

When I read this, I immediately had a vision of all the women in the 
audience looking pissed off and wondering when the fun would start, and all 
the men snoring contendedly. Oh. Was that too much information?

Or did I get the wrong end of the stick?

Later in the evening, Elish contributed the following...

>I know that they, themselves, aren't
>in it for the money, but it is really none of our business.  And >even if
>they were - who wants to spend their life in a dole que?

It's probably deeply irrational and can't be justified on a pure theoretical 
basis, but actually how an artist feels about her/his art is quite important 
to me. I often feel very uncomfortable with music or other art which is (as 
far as I'm concerned) made *for* the money.

I think being 'in it for the money' is just about the worst reason I can 
think of for making art. (Propogating hate politics would be worse I 
suppose, but I'm sure you know what I mean).

>What is so wrong with making money?

I think there's something wrong with money being someone's principal 
motivation for making something. Some of us work to make money such that we 
can fund the other things that we want to do. I'd rather have it that way 
round than make a perverted version of something I love because I 'have to 
make money'. I'm not saying B&S have done that, incidentally.

Money changes everything.

>More to the point, all this aside, when have you EVER known Jeepster >or 
>B&S
>(AS A BAND) to steer us wrong and take advantage of us.

Aside from, let's say, the odd limited-edition 7"s that some people are 
already desperate for, and unable to get hold of?

>Sometimes it sounds like people are being a weeny bit selfish by >asking 
>all
>these questions.

Sometimes I think that an entirely uncritical attitude to anything(except 
perhaps Vic Godard) might be a bit of a problem.

>I think it is disrespectful to carry on
>about these things when Jeepster and B&S have always done right by >the 
>fans.

My attitude towards Belle and Sebastian is not a very critical one, but that 
surely doen't mean that I shouldn't say that they're doing things wrong if I 
think they are. I think the whole Tigermilk reissue issue has been 
disastrously handled, and it has led to desperate fans paying over the odds 
(their choice, I know, but not an unpredictable one)and extensive 
bootlegging. Neither of which the band claim to want. It's an old issue, and 
one that has been thoroughly played out in the archives, but it serves as an 
example. Please note that I'm not saying that anyone has the right to tell 
B&S what to release and how and when, but at the same time that doesn't mean 
they have 'always done right by the fans'. This doesn't mean that I don't 
love B&S completely, either, because I do.

As for Jeepster, I think their attitude towards this list it has left some 
things to be desired from time to time. But that's a whole 'nother story.

>This email may not win me any friends here, and I am sorry.

I hope it hasn't made you any enemies either. I'm all for a bit of informed 
discussion. More of this later, perhaps. You never know your luck.

Nasty Dickstoor said:

>...Least of all FluffySarah - she's a gun totin' bitch from hell.I >mean 
>Preston.

And Contessa ffluphington-Sarah of Preston Manor wrote:

>I've cheered up now. I have also eaten a Marble for post-exam comfort

Blimey! A *marble*? Was it a clear one, or one of those with little wisps of 
colour in them? I knew you were hard, but actually eating marbles for 
comfort post-exams?

Do you chew them like rock, too hard to take any notice of the shards of 
glass embedding in your gums? Bloody hell.

Do you use ballbearings for bubble gum? Murder on your fillings, I bet.

As for those of you moaning about the state of the list, if nothing's 
happening, bleedin' well make it happen. I always think that mailing lists 
are in trouble when they become too obsessed with their own internal 
workings.

I am quite interested, however, in the fact that Belle and Sebastian fans 
have managed to take on the mantle of sad twee biscuit nibblers that 1980s 
indie-pop kids were given. And the truth of the matter is so often very 
different: you only had to look around the savage, slavering mayhem which 
constituted the Sinister corner in the bar at Bowlie to know that. Most of 
the tweeness you see/read is distinctly self-deprecating. And I'd 100 times 
rather skip over a slighly sickly mail than put up with crappy internet 
brawls or gross intimidation.

What else?

I have been living about 150 miles from my record collection for around six 
months, and I am starting to notice myself getting the urge to play peculiar 
records that I haven't dug out in years... 'The Apple Stretching' by Grace 
Jones, 'Bustin' Out' by Material, that version of 'Angel of the Morning' 
which is on 'Tighten Up Vol.1', even Aztec Camera's version of 'Jump' by Van 
Halen and Dexy's Midnight Runners' version of 'Margarita Time' by Status 
Quo. Strange how deprivation can make you want unusual things. I feel like a 
pregnant woman craving cashew nut ice cream with hundreds and thousands made 
of ground up bricks and spiders legs. Mmmmmm, chitin.

Yeah yeah, I know, I look like a pregnant woman, too. Cheers.

Anyway, gotta go. I've a large pile of copies of 'Atom Heart Mother' 'Surfer 
Rosa' and 'The Bends' to use as clay pigeons before matron brings supper.

Cheerio

Tim.


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