Sinister: true hipster-elite colors shining through

[Ryan Agnew]

My name is Ryan and I'm a sideline kicker who never ran onto the field
before.  My comment pertains to the message from Stuart, forwarded
yesterday by Lucy.

Mick Jagger conceived and performed something like this in December
1968 called "Rock and Roll Circus".  It was a filmed stage set to
celebrate, Picadilly Circus style, a future era of 70's free-styled
blues-rock.  There was a live audience and it was intended for
television broadcast, only the Stones may have been too far ahead for
the times on this one, as it wasn't commercially released until 1995
on VHS and finally last year on DVD (being the era we live in, with
bonus features and surround remixes).  It also really isn't that good,
despite Jagger's ingenuous showmanship, and riveting appearances by
Marianne Faithfull, The Who, and John Lennon.  I mean it's worth
tracking down, but not as important as Scorsese's Dylan documentary
that aired here on PBS last month.  The live audience appear carefully
hand-picked, however I don't have information about methods used to
screen them.

Anyway, this is the first time I've heard of Belle & Sebastian sending
out an instructional casting call to fans dictating their look and
appearance and requesting mobile phone pictures.  Have they done this
kind of thing before?  Has Stuart, despite the shy-to-the-press
reputation, always been this fame and popularity-driven?
I don't care to be too critical of this, because it's probably a smart
maneuver in a marketing/vibe-producing kind of way, and I bet it's a
great way to meet people.  Many bands have obviously been careful with
their look when it comes to a television broadcast.  Did the Beatles
or Rolling Stones ever ask their fans to have a particular look?  Was
John Lennon really singing "All you need is... corduroy and suede"?  I
suppose, as a fan of Belle & Sebastian's music, you can't let this
kind of thing rub you in the wrong way.  I suppose you would enjoy
Stuart's sense of humor, especially when he takes himself too
seriously and tries to rule the school.

Best of luck kids,
Ryan


--- Belle and Sebastian <mailinglist at belleandsebastian.com> wrote:

> > From: Belle and Sebastian <mailinglist at xxx.com>
> > To: "lucyalder at yahoo.com" <lucyalder at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Belle and Sebastian News message - Filming for BBC Glasgow TV
> > show,
> >  extras needed!
> > Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 19:21:15 +0100
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > A little message from Stuart ...
> >
> > ìWe require a TV audience for filming for a BBC program which will
> > feature the group performing a bunch of songs from the new album.  The
> > studio audience has to dress kind of 70s but NOT glamorous 70's, I'm
> > thinking mid-70's Oxbridge/Scumbag College students, corduroy and suede,
> > elbow patches, shades of brown and fawn, unkempt/long hair, perhaps some
> > heavy eye make-up for the girls, black rimmed specs and stripy scarves.
> > Please NO trainers, NO printed  t-shirts/logos/anything. How about the
> > odd cloak?  You will be like extras rather than just audience in this
> > program because the band will be filming the songs a couple of times
> > each and you may need to be in shot and moved round a bit."
> >
> > The filming will be this Sunday October 23rd at the BBC studios, Queen
> > Margaret Drive in Glasgow.  You will need to be available from roughly
> > 7.00pm til 10.00pm.  If you're available and would like to considered
> > for the audience, please email webcontact at banchory.net with your name,
> > contact telephone number/s and an image of yourself, by Friday midday.
> > If you can take the picture with your mobile phone and make it less then
> > 200kb, that would be even better!
> >
> > Thanks and best of luck.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Belle and Sebastian.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        +---+  Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list  +---+
     To send to the list mail sinister at missprint.org. To unsubscribe
     send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to
     majordomo at missprint.org.  WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister
 +-+       "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper           +-+
 +-+  "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+
 +-+    "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000     +-+
 +-+  "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000  +-+
 +-+  "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001   +-+
 +-+               Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa                 +-+
 +-+               Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut!                +-+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+