"Stuart M:" "We got together about a year ago to record a record for a Glasgow college called Stow College." "And it's funny, because it seems to have been fated by various different things and it's... I can't decide who gave a tape to who." "And it all seems to have been a devious plan by our drummer Richard because he heard the tape and he was at the college and... he ended up being the drummer in the band... and my flatmate." "I still can't figure out how it happened." "Every time there was a song on the radio it got you in the same way I can remember writing to somebody afterwards and saying" ""well y' know, I know it's yourjob but thanks for playing that anyway because it's quite possibly the best moment of my life."" "Which doesn't say much about my life up to this point." "1995, it's just a kind of sunny wilderness." "I can remember it was boiling hot for about four months solid." "But I spent it in a, pretty much a windowless, airless concrete box looking at the wall with a pair of headphones on..." "Dreaming about the outside world so maybe that's what inspired certain songs to come along." "I'm Isobel and I play lots of different instruments..." "It just depends what suits the songs." "When we were asked to pick something we liked best to show people for the television I couldn't think of much." "Everything I like best happens when I don't expect it." "When I plan things I get disappointed." "It all got very confusing and complicated for a while but then Stuart David explained." "He said this part was to be like 'Why Don't You'." "So this is why I'm shuffling around the Victoria Park with my dog Aldo." "He used to be a guide dog for the blind." "He worked in the city and was no stranger to the London Underground." "Now he stays at home most days, dreaming up fantasy dinners while he waits for my brother to finish school." "This is where l bring him on days when there is nothing to be done and in the summer I bring my diary." "Sometimes we feed the ducks but mostly we just throw sticks." "My name's Chris. I play piano and organ in the band Belle  Sebastian and I wanted to take you to Celtic Park because I've always supported Celtic and it's a place I..." "Well I like going along to the games." "Last year I was doing kitchen work and stuff for this agency and one of the jobs l was doing was just working in the food bits at Parkhead selling the pies." "When you're there watching the game, you're up at the top and you can look down over the pitch and it's strange 'cause you're quite disconnected from it. lt's like watching a game of Subbuteo or something" "but at the same time you're dead involved in it as well." "The first gig we done as Belle  Sebastian was through in Edinburgh and it was a bit of a shambles." "That was the first time I'd met the people from Jeepster Records as well and I just remember they seemed totally, totally insane at the time." "I'd only justjoined the band at that point and on the songs I didn't play on I'd sort of get up and just go to sit down somewhere and the woman from Jeepster was going" ""What're you doing?" "What're you doing?" "Get back on that stage!"" "and I'm like "l'm not playing on this song y' know?" "Just, just leave me alone"" "I'm on buses quite a lot. I just really wanted to maybe get into the cockpit or something." "Whether it be in the bus depot or where the buses go to sleep at night just really somewhere to be as close to the buses as possible and to get behind the scenes rather than being a punter." "Basically I've moved up the social ladder 'cause I've got a Zonecard instead of a Bus Pass which gets you on the tube as well, so that's a nice wee change but you always get drawn back to the buses." "Obviously when you become an experienced city traveller like myself you know which ones are smelly, you know which ones are cold you pretty much know the friendly drivers, and so as long as you're not actually going anywhere specific" "then you can choose your vehicle carefully." "My name is Richard Colburn. I play drums." "The reason I wanted to be filmed cooking was that I'm the most fussiest eater on Earth and I like about five things." "It's Pasta and Chicken Soup Surprise, the surprise being that it's not very good at all." "And I thought I'd throw in a side order of rolls with bran flakes." "Myself and Stuart, we live in a church hall which is quite a bizzare place to live." "It's actually a flat above the church hall, and we're actually the caretakers in a kind of way where we have to look after the hall and make sure the running is good and we have to put tables and chairs out for coffee mornings" "and keep the doors open for any clubs that are coming in." "It's quite an unusual place to live but I suppose the landlord must be God." "I used to have a camera called a Zenith but I gave it to Wee Karn and she used it to take photographs of pavements for a while but when I went to get the camera back she said there was a bit of dirt in the lens." "To make up for it she gave me a really good pen she had." "A Space Pen." "The instructions said it was the most advanced writing instrument in the world and it was designed for astronauts to use on their way to the moon lt can write upside down, over grease and fingerprints, in blazing heat and even under water." "So I took that." "I wasn't planning on going to the moon but I thought maybe I could sell it to buy a new camera." "But it didn't turn out to be worth much so in the end I decided what I would do is, I would just take photographs with the pen instead." "I would just write the picture down, and it turned out quite well." "The first good thing is no one really notices when I'm doing it I can watch people doing things and they just stay natural 'cause there's no camera pointing at them and they don't know I'm taking their picture and that makes the pictures better" "'cause I see people doing the craziest things." "I'm Sarah Martin, I play violin and a couple of other things." "I joined the band through friends of friends just in time for the second album to be recorded." "I was going to climb a tree for my little sketch but I just thought well the weather's not really particularly great for it and I'd probably fall out." "And I've recently moved into a new flat and I've been putting up a lot of shelves 'cause I've got loads of stuff and I've just got to get it off the floor." "And it's become a kind of hobby. I can't stop." "We decided to do a gig in the Mitchell Library as part of the Mayfest in Glasgow." "We ended up bringing another stage in which even wasn't big enough for the whole band we had the band on two separate stages and it was quite a strange gig." "Slide shows and tables and chairs and everybody's parents were there it was a kind of funny concert but it was really good fun." "Stuart M:" "You get a little tickle in your tummy and then you start to write something down." "To tell you the truth I can't remember writing any of the songs really so that's quite lucky in a way. 'Cause I do quite like some of them." "Stevie:" "I think it's good. I think it's probably had an effect that we're far from London." "Which is, y' know, traditionally the, y' know, where you go to be a musician or where you go to make it in the pop world." "And I think it's been good that we've not been part of that because maybe that makes us distinctive." "I think there's a tendency for things to get gobbled up in this big thing that is London y' know?" "They get..." "There's an expression, it's called Londoned Up." "People, people y' know?" "People start off in bands and they go to London and they come back and they're Londoned Up, you can... just see it y'know?" "Stuart:" "Ah cannae sing in any conventional sense of the word." "Chris:" "You can't do patter in any conventional sense of the word either." "Stuart:" "That's great..." "Fantastico" "I think we, I think we..." "We maybe don't kind of have a terribly high production rate but then you hear about Seal making his third album now." "I think in terms of getting records out we still do. I mean it's maybe not, I don't know I think it would be cool to still be banging out an album every year and a few singles and stuff as well, 'cause I kind of would," "I kind of would enjoy being able to be that bit more casual about music and doing it like that but even so it's still better than only getting to do an album every like, three or four or five years or something." "Richard:" "I think sometimes people see the band as being a little bit up our own arses." "But there's other people as well, that kind of see us as a bit mysterious and stuff and we've actually done quite a lot of interviews and personally I do quite a lot." "Stuart D:" "And the record company have said that they can't see it going past the number of people who buy the records just now without us doing a lot more promotion and I think that might be..." "It won't go beyond the numbers just because of the type of band it is." "Stuart M:" "We've hit our peak y' know?" "As far as like, record sales go and stuff like that, y' know?" "It..." "Andy Symington:" "How do you know that?" "Stuart M: 'Cause we, 'cause we just have." "IsobeI:" "I think we've got..." "We've not fulfilled our potential quite yet but I've no idea when that could be because it's quite..." "It's quite erratic." "Stevie:" "In the past I kinda got it from Lazy Line Painter Jane and there's a new song called The Model which I get it from." "You can really feel a buzz from something y' know?" "It's good." "I think 'cause we're becoming more experienced hopefully there'll be a..." "Y' know?" "it'll happen less by accident and a bit more by design" "Chris:" "Everytime you play something or everytime you think about how you want a record to sound you've got your record collection looking over your shoulder at you." "Stuart M:" "There was a feeling against tunes y'know?" "There was definitely a feeling against songs and melodies and that sort of stuff and it made you wanna actually make the most tuneful sort of..." "You just explode y' know?" "and if you could find people to play with you'd make the most tuneful, lush sounding records imaginable" "Chris:" "You could almost use them as some sort of..." "Stuart M:" "Cosh." "Chris:" "Well I was going to say some sort of piece of furniture." "Stuart M:" "What fucking piece of furniture would...(laughs) Chris:" "A table!" "a fucking table just put two of them..." "IsobeI:" "You should be on that game show thing where they renovate peoples homes..." "Richard:" "I think maybe you need a break son." "Stuart M:" "Yeah, easy big tiger." "Richard:" "My sister says lkea's gonna have a big sale on so they're driving down to Newcastle it's like, better than Habitat's..." "Chris:" "Let's hire a van..." "Let's hire a van and drive down to Newcastle and come back with furniture for everyone." "Richard:" "Furniture all round!" "Hey hey!" "Chris:" "Oh God!" "..." "I can't believe you just filmed me saying that." "Stuart M:" "We've been on this kinda trail..." "On this little boy scout trail to try and find the perfect sound or the perfect acoustic or the perfect way of working and there is no..." "There certainly is no perfect way of working." "We've made some pretty messy records." "But we've made some alright sounds as well." "Mick:" "I've not actually been at a church hall, full church hall recording session." "The quality of the recordings that have been done there definitely have a certain feel, certainly adds a lot to it." "I think Lazy Line Painter Jane sounds great recorded in the church hall." "What sort of people do you think you appeal to?" "Stuart M:" "Bowlies." "Richard:" "Thirtysomethings." "Sarah:" "Apparently we appeal to fiftysomethings in a little... a little record shop sort ofjoined into a music and instrument shop in Blackburn." "Stevie:" "I've come across so many people over thirty that like us." "And even at gigs I've noticed a lot of them y' know?" "So I don't really think we're a... total teenage bowlie group." "IsobeI:" "It's not like Boyzone or something, there's a lot of, kind of, I don't know, thirtysomething?" "Or even people a lot older and there's quite young people, like kids at school I think quite like it and then there's some quite strange people that quite like it there's students that like it and I think there's like, sort of, someone said" "that at one of the gigs at Shepherd's Bush there was quite a few like, business men." "Stuart D:" "It does quite often seem to be people that are quite alone or feel isolated from the, sort of, mainstream." "I've nieces and nephews that are just about five or six they'll put it on to dance around to as well." "Ladies and Gentlemen." "The winner is..." "Belle  Sebastian." "Belle  Sebastian, a band that actually formed in an all night café in Glasgow." "Now the band began working together as part of a Government training scheme and their third album, they're already on that one, The Boy With The Arab Strap that reached number one in the indie Charts." "Hi." "This is Belle, I'm Sebastian." "Well we are tonight, The rest of the band are in the studio but, em, well don't know if this was meant to happen or not but pretty bizarre anyway but, em, thanks to Jeepster who're sitting in the corner and, eh, bizarre night." "Thanks a lot." "It turned out to be a successful evening for the little known Glasgow band Belle  Sebastian." "They picked up the award for Best British Newcomers but they were so sure they wouldn't win only two of them bothered to make the trip to the ceremony." "I had strict instructions to get autographs from various people for my friends and that's basically the whole idea for us coming down." "In Glasgow it was business as usual for the other six who prefer to stay home and get on with mixing their fourth album than rub shoulders with the glitterati in London." "They did, however, manage to take time out to watch their success being broadcast on lunchtime Scotland Today." "I think they'll be a lot more, I don't know, animated or something than probably most of us would have been and my mum would have killed me as well for not wearing a dress on telly or something." "I'm glad the two of them went, it was only when I found out Richard was sat at a table next to Muhammad Ali that I really wished I'd, that I really wished I'd went." "So what's a normal day like for you whenever you're not recording?" "As a Rock Star?" "Do you consider yourself a Rock Star?" "Ehh Stuart David once tried to chuck a CD player out the hotel window one time but the window didn't open wide enough for him to fit it out." "That was just totally pathetic." "That's pretty twee in itself. lt's kinda like twee hotel wrecking' or something." "is that a Dukes Of Hazzard mug?" "Wow yes. lt's a present from Bob." "It's the General Lee." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." "I was in a group called The Moondials and they kinda broke up at the end of '95 I think." "And I think about a week later Stuart approached me and it was as simple as that really." "To..." "I think like at that point... this Stow College thing came up I think Stuart approached me 'cause he wanted to make a single, and would I play guitar on it?" "And I think he actually asked me to join his group but I refused, 'cause I was very sick of groups and he wrote me a letter saying "l know you're tired of groups but can you do this?"" "I've still got it actually..." "Y' know, how dumb can you get?" "We've been on and off aeroplanes quite, fairly frequently and that makes me so happy y'know?" "Travelling the world y'know?" "I've been to Brazil and Japan." "Eh..." "How do I get on to this street?" "Belle  Sebastian." "Please!" "Jo:" "Don't you think that Scottish are the nicest people in the world." "Richard:" "Sometimes" "Jo:" "Sometimes..." "Usually." "And I see the band over there." "Beautiful girls one very tired..." "Sitting here..." "The lazy one." "How old..." "Does your mother know that your with the band?" "Stuart:" "Yes." "Jo:" "You too?" "Chris:" "Yeah." "Jo:" "You're sure?" "You didn't run away from home?" "You're sure?" "Chris:" "No I didn't." "Jo:" "No, OK." "Stuart:" "We're older than you think" "Jo:" "You think so?" "Stuart:" "Yeah yeah." "Jo:" "You are older than what eighteen, seventeen?" "Stuart:" "Yeah." "Richard:" "Twenty two." "Jo:" "Twenty two?" "Much older!" "..." "You all take turns on the microphone?" "Richard:" "Some do..." "I'm the drummer." "Mick:" "We do on the stage yeah, we all..." "Jo: 'l'm the drummer', I don't give a..." "I don't give a ff... a hoot." "And is it true that you just made, or you sing something in Portuguese too?" "Stuart:" "Well, these guys here, they're the..." "They know Portuguese." "Stuart:" "They just sing from the sheet." "Jo:" "You have the sheet there?" "Great!" "Sing a little bit for us, come on." "Go ahead..." "Now he doesn't know how to read it." "Stevie:" "There you go." "Jo:" "Go ahead, go ahead go ahead... sing it to us." "Stuart:" "Get up there Stevie." "Jo:" "Fantastic!" "Stevie:" "Thank you." "Jo:" "You have a gift for this..." "Really." "You managed to sing in Portuguese..." "And, nobody understands... a fucking thing that you say." "No just kidding. it was great, it was really great, first class!" "Where did you get this fantastic name, Belle  Sebastian?" "Stuart:" "Well we stole it from a French writer, an authoress called Madame Cecile Aubry." "Jo:" "Ahh..." "Cecile Aubry." "You speak French?" "No." "Jo:" "You just steal from French people." "That's very good." "That's great." "Belle et Sebastian, and it's nice." "Who is the good cook here?" "Who cooks." "Beans, Chris." "Jo:" "You do?" "What's your best?" "What's your speciality?" "Chris:" "Umm, lt's all vegetarian, I'm vegetarian" "Jo:" "So you're vegetarian?" "So you don't even bother to cook them." "You just pick them up and eat them." "And you're the best cook?" "Stuart:" "No." "He does a good, he does good curry and he does good pasta and he does lasagne." "Mick:" "His stir fry's good." "Jo:" "But no meat?" "Chris:" "No." "Jo:" "None!" "..." "None!" "Whatsoever." "Chris:" "No." "None, you can keep saying it but still..." "Jo:" "So, a vegetarian and chaste also?" "Chris:" "Sorry?" "Jo:" "Chastity is also, chastity is also um, vegetarian and chaste too?" "Nooo" "Jo: well man you said no meat, no meat at all." "Mick:" "No, he gives meat but." "Jo:" "You're not that radical." "But which..." "OK I see the other ones with their instruments are ready and the beautiful lazy girl here." "What do you do in the band?" "Tell us." "Andrea:" "I play the flute." "Jo:" "You play the flute?" "Andrea:" "But today I'm clapping" "Jo:" "Clapping?" "Wow..." "That's great, that's great." "And who else claps here?" "The vegetarian of course because he doesn't look like someone who wants to work a lot." "You're clapping and singing?" "Bobby:" "Just clapping." "Richard:" "Just Clapping." "Jo:" "And you blue eyes." "Mick:" "I normally play the trumpet." "Jo:" "I was talking to her not to you." "I'm not going to call a man blue eyes!" "what do you think?" "You play what?" "The trumpet?" "Sarah:" "I sing." "Jo:" "And you, tell me?" "You play?" "Mick:" "Me, I'm playing bass today..." "Bass guitar." "Jo:" "Bass today?" "I've never heard of that." "Bass today?" "Richard:" "It's new." "And you can't play it tomorrow for instance?" "You always play the bass?" "You always play the bass?" "Sometimes. I play trumpet as well." "Let's hear it, come on." "Belle  Sebastian!" "Thank you!" "Who do you turn into if you rehearse too much?" "Steve Vai." "Yeah, you turn into Steve Vai" "Stuart: you can enjoy actually playing, you can enjoy the sound of the music that you're making and the camaraderie between the band and you can look at each other and you think... come on let's make a fabulous sounding record this time." "Let's make a record that's as good as y'know..." "'Make Me Smile' by Cockney Rebel or 'Marquee Moon' by Television." "OK we'll probably fail but Jesus we've got to have a go." "When you wake up in the morning you try to organise your day around sort of avoiding what you really must do and doing what you wanna do." "Which are two different things." "In this song, I can assure you that when I mention my brother it was in a dream."