Belle and Sebastian | MUSIC
TELEVISION In association with Coda Music Agency present
WED 8TH JUNE O2ABC GLASGOW
Tuesday 14th June EDINBURGH USHER HALL LIVE AT
0131 228 1155
ELVIS COSTELLO and the Imposters
SPECIAL GUESTS
Saturday 25th June glasgow
old fruitmarket
IN ASSOCIATION WITH ITB AND MCGHEE ENTERTAINMENT & GLASGOW JAZZ FESTIVAL
A N I N T I M A T E E V E N I N G W I T H RICKIE LEE JONES
by arrangement with Musicians Incorporated Roy Harper
75th Birthday Celebration Tour with String and Brass Ensemble arranged by Fiona Brice plus special guests
Saturday 17th September Usher Hall Edinburgh 0131 228 1155 royharper.co.uk
WEDNESDAY 08 JUNE EDINBURGH QUEEN’S HALL
JUST ANNOUNCED Side Pony EUROPEAN TOUR AUTUMN 2016
Lake Street Dive
WED 13 JULY GLASGOW BARROWLAND M I C H A E L R O T H E R
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
P L A Y S N E U ! H A R M O N I A & S O L O W O R K S
F R I D A Y 3 0 T H S E P T 2 0 1 6 THE ART SCHOOL GLASGOW
JUST ANNOUNCED
Monday 07 November Glasgow Oran Mor
www.LakeStreetDive.com
JUST ANNOUNCED
SAT 15TH OC T O 2 ABC G L A SGOW
F R I D A Y 3 0 T H S E P T EDINBURGH LIQUID ROOM
n g i s e D n o i t a t S
l a r t n e C
21st Anniversary Tour t r A
: t h g i r y p o c k r o w
EUROPEAN TOUR 2016 PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
SATURDAY 8th OCTOBER
plus special guest
MONDAY 10TH OCTOBER GLASGOW O2 ABC
IN ASSOCIATION WITH CAA
MIRACLE
LEGION +SPECIAL GUESTS
THE WYNNTOWN MARSHALS
Wed 23 Nov GLASGOW O2 ABC
Thu 24 Nov EDINBURGH Liquid Room
THE GLEN CAMPBELL YEARS
15TH - 18TH AUGUST ASSEMBLY SPIEGELTENT
assemblyfestival.com 0131 623 3030 18:45 15 - 18 AUG
GEORGE SQUARE
WED 17 AUGUST GLASGOW ORAN MOR
FRI 16TH SEPT Glasgow
Concert Hall 0141 353 8000
0844 844 0444 www.ticketmaster.co.uk In person from Ticket Scotland Glasgow/Edinburgh & Ripping Edinburgh and usual outlets
regularmusic.com regularmusicltd
regularmusicuk
2 Jun–1 Sep 2016 THE LIST 81
5% – taped off the radio It’s a nerdy footnote to the making of Tigermilk, but the story of track five says much about the record’s naïve magic. A bip-bopping trippy Casiotone jam inspired by New Order’s ‘Procession’ and something of a sonic oddity on the album, ‘Electronic Renaissance’ got its first advance play on BBC Radio Scotland’s Beat Patrol. Murdoch recorded the broadcast to cassette and loved the tinny, compressed sound so much that this crudely captured second- hand version became the one used on the final album.
IF YOU’RE FEELING SINISTER: 40% – on a rock’n’roll Released less than half a year after Tigermilk, Belle & Sebastian’s arguably career-defining second is the sound of a band on a roll. Its personnel and sonic palette are substantially the same as its predecessor, but there’s an assertiveness in the playing that speaks of a group rapidly coming into their own, from Jackson’s variously jangling and thrumming guitar on ‘Me and the Major’ and ‘Mayfly’ to Cooke’s rousing trumpet fanfares on ‘Stars of Track and Field’ and ‘Judy and the Dream of Horses’.
25% – fans only Where Tigermilk initially received a limited release of just 1000 copies, few of which ever left Glasgow, If You’re Feeling Sinister was the first Belle & Sebastian album to be properly distributed and bring the band to a wider audience. And yet the group didn’t exactly play the industry game. They rarely did interviews nor posed for photos, and their live appearances remained fleeting. An intrigue grew about these mysterious Glaswegians that captured imaginations on both sides of the Atlantic. 20% – definitely not Oasis Picture the musical landscape in November 1996. The Prodigy’s ‘Breathe’ was the number one single and Robson & Jerome were dominant in the albums. Earlier that summer Oasis played for half a million people at Knebworth and Britpop was in peak swagger. What a breath of fresh air this album and band sounded to ears in search of something gentler, stranger, funnier, more literate and playful.
10% – even more whimsical girls On the title track, Hilary is ‘into S&M and Bible studies, not everyone’s cup of tea’, while the album’s closer ‘Judy and the Dream of Horses’ pertains to a teenage rebel who ‘did it with a boy when she was young’ and dreams about stealing horses. There can barely have been an oddball femme knocking about 1996 Glasgow who somehow didn’t get a mention in a Belle & Sebastian song. 5% – godliness / ungodliness The album’s title track and centerpiece is a beguiling juxtaposition of religion, teen suicide and self-interference concluding with the memorable lyric: ‘go off and see a minister, chances are you’ll probably feel better if you stayed and played with yourself’. With considerations of faith, sex and romance swirling around his head, a wry sense of humour and a keen knowledge of the classic pop pantheon, nobody else was writing songs like Murdoch back then. Twenty years on they still sound divine.
Belle & Sebastian play Glasgow University Union Debating Chamber, Mon 13–Wed 15 Jun.