belle_and_sebastian pete *is floating in the music* 050825 ... pete I Fought In A War Lyrics I fought in a war and I left my friends behind me To go looking for the enemy, and it wasn't very long Before I would stand with another boy in front of me And a corpse that just fell into me, with the bullets flying round And I reminded myself of the words you said when we were getting on And I bet you're making shells back home for a steady boy to wear Round his neck, well it won't hurt to think of you as if you're waiting for This letter to arrive because I'll be here quite a while I fought in a war and I left my friends behind me To go looking for the enemy, and it wasn't very long Before I found out that the sickness there ahead of me Went beyond the bedsit infamy of the decade gone before And I reminded myself of the words you said when we were getting on And I bet you're making shells back home for a steady man to wear Round his neck, well it won't hurt to think of you as if you're waiting for This letter to arrive because I'll be here quite a while I fought in a war, and I didn't know where it would end It stretched before me infinitely, I couldn't really think Of the day beyond now, keep your head down pal There's trouble plenty in this hour, this day I can see hope I can see light And I reminded myself of the looks you gave when we were getting on And I bet you're making shells back home for a steady man to wear Round his neck, well it won't hurt to think of you as if you're waiting for This letter to arrive because I'll be here quite a while --- The tune is really catching.. almost that from an oldies tune, til it ends a bit short... 050825 ... z i can't tell if they are sardonic or openly sarcastic. i love the sound. strangely. 050825 ... pepperdrinks i step into their office gladly 050826 ... nom) "IT WAS IN HIS THIRD YEAR OF university that Stuart Murdoch was diagnosed as suffering from chronic_fatigue_syndrome, more commonly known as ME (Myalgic_Encephalomyelitis)...Although by this time he'd effectively become a part-time student, he was forced to drop out completely as the illness took its toll and had no choice but to leave Glasgow and return home to Ayr. He was entirely housebound, and compares his life at this point to that of an old-age pensioner barely able to look after himself. "It was quite definitely the biggest thing that's happened to me in my life, in practical, physical terms," he says. "It came along and took seven years out of my life. I actually look back on that time and I think about happy spots. I think about the spots I came through and how I made progress and grew up. It was an amazing time in all respects. Just amazingly boring," he shrugs, affording himself a rueful laugh - "amazingly dreadful"...After three years Murdoch decided that he was at least fit enough to return to Glasgow. But still he wasn't healthy enough to devote enough energy to his studies, and he soon fell into a trough of despondency. Feeling utterly helpless and without direction, he started to doubt whether his health would ever fully recover, whether he would ever discover the sense of purpose he so desperately craved...In the winter of 1993, he and Michael, housebound and freezing, decided - like Joe Buck and Ratso with their daydreams in Midnight Cowboy - to move somewhere with a Mediterranean climate. Their sickness benefits weren't going to take them very far, so Murdoch sold his extensive record collection to fund their trip...Often, he barely had the energy to leave the house, let alone get up on stage, but he'd be damned if he was going to let this viral bullshit get in the way of his dreams. As over-romantic as it sounds, he knew he'd finally found what he'd been put here for, the reason his body had failed him: it was at once both a warning and a spur. He says it was "obviously my time to be reintroduced into the world of work and people". So the days passed in a lethargic blur of inaction and dreams, the nights bringing more and more chances for him to stand in front of strangers and say what he had to say. And people were listening. And people were liking..." -the scotsman.com Sat 20 Aug 2005 full artcle: http://news.scotsman.com/features.cfm?id=1811622005 050911 ... nom) i say right_on) 050911 ... nom) he fought in a war 050911 ... nom) "Inspired by his long periods of ME-induced solitude, as well as his innate empathy for the lost and the lonely, he willingly cast himself as a bard of the dispossessed, hoping that his songs could touch people in the same way as those of his idols." . 050911 ... nom) A Summer Wasting - Lyrics Summer in winter Winter in springtime You heard the birds sing Everything will be fine I spent the summer wasting The time was passed so easily But if the summer's wasted How come that I could feel so free I spent the summer wasting The sky was blue beyond compare A photograph of myself Is all I have to show for Seven weeks of river walkways Seven weeks of staying up all night I spent the summer wasting The time was passed so pleasantly Say cheerio to books now The only things I'll read are faces 1 spent the summer wasting Under a canopy of Seven weeks of reading papers Seven weeks of river walkways Seven weeks of feeling guilty Seven weeks of staying up all night Summer in winter Winter is springtime You heard the bird say Everything will be fine . 050911 ... nom) i'm just now discovering belle and sebastian! i don't know why it took me so long. first heard of them in june of this year when mr. murdoch helped raise funds for dr. gow's "pioneering research" in glasgow. 050911 ... nom) sleep the clock around 050924 ... nom) beautiful 050924 ... pete they just came on :) i made sure they were in the cd player for the party 050924 ... mon i have to hear more 051007 ... pete i lost the cd sometime between sunday and monday. 051007 ... nom If You're Feeling Sinister Anthony walked to his death because he thought he'd never feel this way again If he goes back to the house then things would go from bad to worse, what could he do? He wants to remember things exactly as he left them on that Wednesday And if there is something else beyond, he isn't scared because It's bound to be less boring than today It's bound to be less boring than tomorrow Hilary walked to her death because she couldn't think of anything to say Everybody thought that she was boring, so they never listened anyway Nobody was really saying anything of interest, she fell asleep She was into S&M and bible studies Not everyone's cup of tea she would admit to me Her cup of tea, she would admit to no one Her cup of tea, she would admit to me Oh but her cup of tea, she would admit to no one Hilary went to the Catholic Church because she wanted information The vicar, or whatever, took her to one side and gave her confirmation Saint Theresa's calling her, the church up on the hill is looking lovely But it doesn't interest, the only things she wants to know is How and why and when and where to go How and why and when and where to follow How and why and when and where to go How and why and when and where to follow But if you are feeling sinister Go off and see a minister He'll try in vain to take away the pain of being a hopeless unbeliever When she got back, her spirituality was thrown into confusion So she got a special deal on renting From the man at Rediffusion "Look at me! I'm on TV It makes up for the shortcomings of being poor Now I'm in a million pieces", picked up for deliberation By the people listening at home By the people watching on the telly By the people listening at home By the people watching on the telly But if you are feeling sinister Go off and see a minister Chances are you'll probably feel better If you stayed and played with yourself 051220 ... IGG i go to the same 6th form that a girl from belle_and_sebastian went to. i found this out from a friend of mine that was in the same class as her. apparently she was at glastonbury recently, maybe this year or last year, and saw her, said she looked just the same as before. 051221 ... nom smallworldness 051231 ... glasgow herald "...I've got to be careful because if I get run down it can kick off again, and that throws the whole band off. I started having acupuncture in 2003, when I came down with yet another bug. I was laid low and had a cough for almost a year, which was playing havoc with the singing. It was an asthmatic cough which was apparently all tied up with the virus. I went to a Chinese physician for acupuncture, which I took with a pinch of salt, but it worked. I've been going ever since. I've tried the whole range of alternative health practices, mainly because I was laid low for so long. In the midst of my long- term illness, when I was totally out of the game, the one thing that turned it round for me was going to a spiritual healer. She was just a little old lady who lived in Mosspark [on the south side of Glasgow]. She put her hands over me and went round my whole body for an hour. And that was the turning point, believe it or not. It might sound like rubbish to some, but it was a big thing to me. I ran a marathon when I was 18, and have been a keen runner off and on. I haven't done so much recently, but I plan one day to get back. I would love to do the New_York marathon. I was down to run there two years ago, but the album over-ran. It would be a private victory to run 26 miles again. I use football as a barometer for my health. I play with Chris "Beans" Geddes [B and S keyboard player], our manager and other bands. It's the slacker game; the Tuesday afternoon wasters' game. But I think we could hold our own in a Sunday league. A few years ago, out of the blue, I started getting eczema. I think it was our fourth album that did it. Things were going badly, and right in the middle I got this incredibly itchy rash. Over the years I got rid of it with this strict regime where I found I was allergic to lactose in milk. I could have a slice of pizza and be itching within hours. The other thing was alcohol, which is not a great one for a rock-and-roller. I get bored at the after-show parties, but I tell you I get a lot done. I don't tend to get too stressed out, because the group's well organised. But if you're stressed I would recommend shiatsu - it's a terrific treat..." - 2005-02-21 051231 ... hmm Stuart is "MOST LIKELY TO: Don the black and white of Ayr United. Suggest a game of Scrabble. Get the train instead. Have an “idea for the show tonight”. Enter the stage on a motorcycle, despite never having ridden one in his life. Resist getting a mobile phone. Take off his shirt. Go bright red when embarrassed. Run for miles for no apparent reason. Sing in a choir. Identify a tree or bird. Permanently damage his foot kicking a studio wall. Try and knock himself out before a flight. Argue black is white. Wear his pyjamas under his trousers. Stay up all night watching baseball on the telly. Only drink half of his 2nd cup of coffee. Embark on a new dietary regime." - from belleandsebastian.com 051231 ... nom he is an august25ther 051231 ... nom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25_August 051231 ... nom "O: You didn't begin writing songs until relatively late in your life. What was the catalyst? SM: I don't know if it was the catalyst, but quite frankly, the biggest thing that's ever happened in my life was I got sick at the end of the '80s. I was sick for about seven years. That was a big desert at the time, a kind of vacuum in my life. From that, these songs started coming out, these melodies where I could express what I was feeling. O: How much of your songwriting is autobiographical? SM: I just got this image in my mind of a cake, of writing songs being like baking a cake. The autobiographical part of things is like the flour, and the romance side of things and the fantasy part are like the sugar and eggs. By the time you're done mixing it all together, it's hard to tell which is which. When you write a song, it just comes out. There'll be little strands of it, and some are of biography, and some are things that have happened or that you think about..." - avclub.com, September 24th, 2003 051231 ... nom electronic renaissance 051231 ... nom i'm a cuckoo 051231 ... nom "Q.Dear B&S, My husband & I have been having a discussion recently about the lyrics to one of your songs. Perhaps you could comment: In the song "beautiful" has Lisa gone blind from diabetes, syphilis or masturbation? A. Hi Aubrey I don't know how much I should really give away when I answer things like this. Her 'blindness' is a metaphorical affliction. I guess the song in some sense parallels the experience some friends of mine have had with Chronic Fatigue or M.E. They are left to fend for themselves as their sickness does not seem to readily recognised by many doctors, or by the government. They are just left to 'go blind' in a sense. I don't mind that you might have thought that, or that song lyrics are misconstrued. I guess I'm flattered you've gone to the trouble of asking. Stuart - 29/12/04" - belleandsebastian.com 060101 ... nom i wondered about that myself) 060101 ... nom we are the sleepyheads 060102 ... nom they're gonna be at the commodore (vancouver) mar 24th! 060120 ... nom "Once known as Britain’s most reclusive band, Belle and Sebastian have reinvented themselves as a sophisticated pop machine desperate to convert the masses. Their leader Stuart Murdoch tells Peter Ross about his ambition, and explains how his songwriting talent and religious faith were born out of a long illness" "...He is 37, and so was nearing the end of his 20s when the band started, but has always been preoccupied with adolescence in his songs. He is the anti-Alice Cooper; for Murdoch, school is always in. “Coming of age can happen to someone when they are 17 or 28,” he says, when asked to explain why the subject interests him. “At that point you can go in many different directions. You can find yourself conforming to jobs and careers and relationships, or you can head off in a different direction.” When does he feel he came of age? “I only started having fun when I was 31 or 32,” he replies. “To be completely honest, my adolescence probably lasted from the age of 12 until 32. It lasted 20 years. I had a great time when I was 12. I was on top of my game. I had a lot of interest in girls, I was really into music, and then everything stopped. I don’t think I felt completely comfortable with myself again until I was 32, and then I felt exactly the same as when I was 12.” This prolonged period of not feeling at ease in his own skin was exacerbated by the fact that while studying physics at Glasgow University, Murdoch developed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the beginning of “a nothing period that lasted for seven or eight years when I just dropped out of everything and had a shitty time”. He quit university and moved back in with his parents. I mention that I have spoken to people who were ill as children, which turned them into outsiders and natural observers; although he sickened in early adulthood, was his experience similar? “Absolutely. It was the biggest thing that happened to me and will probably ever happen in terms of a crisis and change in personality. Everything changed within the course of a year. From being someone who was active in every way, suddenly I was not just observing, but fantasising about everyday life. Beforehand, I had been at university, I was running my own business – DJing and putting on clubs. Three years later, I’m sitting in a box bedroom in Ayr, unable to go out, and fantasising about going down to the shops or being able to make a cup of coffee for somebody. But these things were so far away from me, so all the fantasies became songs.” What caused the condition? “I see it as a breaking down of your physical health due to long-term duress and stress, a physical manifestation of long-term mental stress and abuse of your body. That’s what happened to me. I drove myself into the ground.” He was burning the candle at both ends? “Oh yeah, completely. All that stuff.” Stuck in his bedroom, Murdoch brooded upon his favourite albums, films and books. “I would romanticise them, build them up and try to live inside them because it was a better world. I took the music of The Smiths or Felt or the Cocteau Twins and tried to live inside it, or the films of Hal Hartley, and just tried to exist. Then, happily, I started to write my own songs and that was a place to exist for a while.”..." "...With music pouring out of him, Murdoch was keen to go public; it was important that people hear his songs because he had a very clear sense of what they were for. “All this bad stuff had happened to me,” he says, referring to his illness, “and it seemed that it maybe could have been avoided if a certain figure had stepped in at a certain time – a mentor figure, a wise figure. You look around your friends when you are 18 or 19, and they are not really much use when suddenly you are in trouble and drowning. I felt that if I had had a mentor figure, some of the trouble could have been avoided or at least alleviated. “So, to be quite honest, I felt that if I was going to do anything with songwriting, I wanted to be a mentor figure to whoever might be going through that same business and needing some help. That period in somebody’s life that we were talking about before, the cusp of adolescence into adulthood, there’s so much can go wrong and leave scars. It happened to me. So I wanted to write songs about that situation and put into somebody’s hand a record which is a guide on how to avoid the pitfalls. To some extent, I still do it.”..." "...There was a time when it looked like Murdoch might have completely blown it. When members of a band leave, some of the original spirit and magic is always lost, and Belle and Sebastian are no exception. Tension within the band cast a pall over the sessions for their fourth album, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant, and it was eventually released in 2000 to bad reviews, a new experience for this most critically admired of bands. Exhausted by his efforts to keep the group together and complete the album, Murdoch suffered a relapse of his Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. “I was out the game for a year or so, and I felt that isolation again. When we toured in 2001, I was completely surprised to see people turning up, and in large numbers. It was intense. Suddenly we had sold out the Royal Albert Hall. That really affected me.”..." - "I want to bring people weeping to their knees", 15 January 2006 full article: http://www.sundayherald.com/53559 060120 ... nom All I wanted was to sing the saddest songs If somebody sings along I will be happy now 060120 ... nom the fox in the snow 060122 ... nom too bad i'm not gonna be in vancouver when they play. the show is sold out now anyway. 060208 ... pete my morning music 070216 ... n o m new pitchfork documentary, mentions m_e http://youtu.be/4de-RHHLCBA 130228 what's it to you? who go blather from