4/23/04 — West Coast dates start next week



Don't miss Belle and Sebastian on their West Coast run starting next week, including the Coachella Festival (where you can also catch Dizzee Rascal, Mogwai and Pretty Girls Make Graves).

Fri, Apr 30 - San Francisco, CA - Warfield
Sun, May 2 - Indio, CA - Coachella Festival
Mon, May 3 - San Diego, CA - Spreckels Theatre
Wed, May 5 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
Fri, May 7 - Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium

11/26/03 — What exactly is on the DVD?
The DVD is over 2 hours long and mainly consists of a feature-length documentary that stitches together pieces of interview footage, all the promo videos, live performances, interviews, outtakes, TV appearances, early documentary footage, exclusive material and behind-the-scenes insights into the evolution of the band.

It is possible to access the various bits and pieces directly by using the "scene selection" feature. In addition, there are several "extras" beyond the documentary itself, featuring, for example, the press release that the band held in London in 2000 to announce the release of 'Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like A Peasant.'

Although the back of the DVD lists 16 tracks, this is purely for aesthetic reasons. In fact over 75 songs are featured on the disc. Some are fragmentary, but some of these fragments are unreleased songs or covers not available elsewhere. Some of the unreleased songs actually play in the background during menus or scene selections.

The live footage comes from Glastonbury, Bowlie Weekender at Cambersands, the Coachella festival and many other sources.
The TV appearances include live performances and interviews on British, French, American and Brazilian TV, as well as a 1996 Scottish TV program about the band entitled "Don't Look Down".

The band can be heard performing covers of "Darlin'" by the Beach Boys, "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell, "The Kids Are Alright" by The Who, "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by Serge Gainsbourg, "A Minha, Menina" by Jorge Ben and "Baby" by Caetano Veloso.

11/12/03 — Preorder discount on the DVD!
Preorder the "Fans Only" DVD now from the Matador Store, and get a buck off our already low price.

10/23/03 — B&S "Fans Only" DVD out on Matador this winter
We are pleased to confirm that Belle and Sebastian's retrospective DVD compilation will be released by Matador Records under license from Jeepster Recordings in Winter 2003, exact release date to be confirmed shortly. The title of the compilation is 'Fans Only', and the catalogue number will be OLE-587.

The DVD is a record of the development of Belle & Sebastian during their time with Jeepster, from '...Sinister' to 'Storytelling'. Featuring all the videos, live performances, interviews, out-takes, tv appearances, early documentary footage, exclusive material and behind the scenes insights into the evolution of the band.

It was compiled by Glasgow-based film maker Blair Young and the band over the last 8 months.

The Matador edition of the DVD will be regionally encoded for region 1 and NTSC. The Jeepster edition will be region 2 and PAL. Toshiba EMI will release the DVD in Japan, encoded for region 2 and NTSC.

07/16/02
We regret to announce that Matador Records will not be releasing the next album by Belle & Sebastian. Recently, the band informed us of their decision to begin a new relationship with Rough Trade Records.

While we are very disappointed it should be said that we have throughly enjoyed our time working with Belle & Sebastian, and our respect and admiration for them as musicians and individuals has own grown during that tenure. We wish them nothing but the best in their future endeavors.

06/07/02
Belle and Sebastian announce the departure from the band of cellist and singer Isobel Campbell. Isobel, who has been a member since 1996, returned home mid-way through the band's recent US tour after deciding that Belle and Sebastian wasn't the life for her anymore. The split was amicable, and it is true to say Isobel will be missed. None of the band's current commitments will be affected, and there are no immediate plans to replace Isobel.

Belle and Sebastian's new album "Storytelling", which features Isobel's last contributions to the band, was released June 4th on Matador. Isobel has recorded a new album, which she plans to release under her own name later this year.

"Ghosts of Yesterday", the new mini-album by Bill Wells and Isobel Campbell, will be released on June 17th on Creeping Bent.

05/10/02
POST-MODern, Atlanta's weekly Britpop and Indie music video club event will be hosting an "official" Belle and Sebastian after show party on Monday, May 13th immediately following the band's set at the Tabernacle. The party begins around 12am and will feature the screening of every Belle and Sebastian music video ever made and also include loads of Belle and Sebatian give-a-ways courtesy of Matador Records.

POST-MODern @ The Fountainhead Lounge
485 Flat Shoals Ave, SE Atlanta, GA 30316
404.522.7841
Multimedia Bar featuring Britpop + Indie music videos. Mondays 10pm - 3am. 21+, NO COVER

04/26/02
Catch Belle and Sebastian in their US Network TV debut when they appear on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” this Friday, April 26.

03/28/02
Win a pair of Belle and Sebastian tickets to one of their upcoming US & Canada shows. We’re giving away 12 pairs.

03/21/02
The group will commence their 12-show tour by performing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on April 26. For those keeping count, that’s 22 international flights for both band and crew. If you didn’t get a chance to buy B&S tickets before they sold out, we are putting together a contest where you can win a pair of tickets to one of the shows (excluding Coachella). This is going to take a little creative effort (no heavy lifting, however) the contest will launch the last week of March so check back with us then.

02/14/02
Belle and Sebastian return to the US for a brief tour, including stops in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin and Indio, CA. Tickets for most of the shows go on sale this weekend. For more detailed information, choose the date you want to see.

02/12/02
Belle and Sebastian have completed their new album ‘Storytelling,’ music inspired by director Todd Solondz’s (“Happiness,” “Welcome to the Dollhouse”) mind blowing film of the same name (or at the very least, inspired by the circumstances of being commissioned to write and record a soundtrack album.) As you may have seen and heard, there’s quite a lot of press/tv coverage for “Storytelling,” so we encourage you to see the film and form your own intelligent opinions. (That said, if you didn’t like the movie please tell someone else; we’re tired of hearing the same complaints over and over again. If the popcorn was stale and the guy sitting behind you wouldn’t shut up, Matador does not owe you a refund.) “Storytelling” opens nationwide this week.

As for the soundtrack, there isn’t an official street date yet, but we’re shooting for around the same time as the next Belle and Sebastian US tour, hopefully next May.

You might be wondering what exactly “music inspired by the film” really means, because that’s the sort of thing a record company would say about a Prince album featuring one stinking song from the Batman movie and nothing else heard in the cinema. To that, all we can say is, inspiration is very hard to quantify (as Prince has shown time and time again).

In the meantime, Belle and Sebastian have confirmed a series of UK dates in March and April. The following news item proves once again that this isn’t just another bunch of rock shows in smoky auditoriums.

And we’ve just learned that Belle and Sebastian will be performing at this year’s Coachella Fetival in Indio, CA. Coachella, for those blissfully unaware, is kind of like Lollapalooza squeezed into one big show instead of one big tour. Other artists confirmed for this year’s event are Oasis (are they still together?), Blonde Redhead (you won’t catch any Matador artists doing commercials for jeans companies. ...oh, yeah, sorry about that. You won’t catch more than half the artists on Matador doing jeans commercials), the Prodigy and Bjork. At this writing, Skid Row have not been added to the bill, but perhaps there is a petition you can circulate.

In television news, the February 12 plot of “The Gilmore Girls” centers around the struggle to get Belle and Sebastian’s latest EP while grounded. “Legal Man” will hopefully play in the episode as well. This coming Tuesday on the WB, 8:00 PM EST.

10/16/01 — We Stand Corrected
Contrary to prior reports, the forthcoming Belle & Sebastian single (in stores November 27) is entitled “I’m Waking Up To Us” not “The Season Has Arrived.” We now return you to Game 5 of American League Divisional Series between Cleveland and Seattle.

03/28/02
Win a pair of Belle and Sebastian tickets to one of their upcoming US & Canada shows. We’re giving away 12 pairs.

03/21/02
The group will commence their 12-show tour by performing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on April 26. For those keeping count, that’s 22 international flights for both band and crew. If you didn’t get a chance to buy B&S tickets before they sold out, we are putting together a contest where you can win a pair of tickets to one of the shows (excluding Coachella). This is going to take a little creative effort (no heavy lifting, however) the contest will launch the last week of March so check back with us then.

02/14/02
Belle and Sebastian return to the US for a brief tour, including stops in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Austin and Indio, CA. Tickets for most of the shows go on sale this weekend. For more detailed information, choose the date you want to see.

02/12/02
Belle and Sebastian have completed their new album ‘Storytelling,’ music inspired by director Todd Solondz’s (“Happiness,” “Welcome to the Dollhouse”) mind blowing film of the same name (or at the very least, inspired by the circumstances of being commissioned to write and record a soundtrack album.) As you may have seen and heard, there’s quite a lot of press/tv coverage for “Storytelling,” so we encourage you to see the film and form your own intelligent opinions. (That said, if you didn’t like the movie please tell someone else; we’re tired of hearing the same complaints over and over again. If the popcorn was stale and the guy sitting behind you wouldn’t shut up, Matador does not owe you a refund.) “Storytelling” opens nationwide this week.

As for the soundtrack, there isn’t an official street date yet, but we’re shooting for around the same time as the next Belle and Sebastian US tour, hopefully next May.

You might be wondering what exactly “music inspired by the film” really means, because that’s the sort of thing a record company would say about a Prince album featuring one stinking song from the Batman movie and nothing else heard in the cinema. To that, all we can say is, inspiration is very hard to quantify (as Prince has shown time and time again).

In the meantime, Belle and Sebastian have confirmed a series of UK dates in March and April. The following news item proves once again that this isn’t just another bunch of rock shows in smoky auditoriums.

And we’ve just learned that Belle and Sebastian will be performing at this year’s Coachella Fetival in Indio, CA. Coachella, for those blissfully unaware, is kind of like Lollapalooza squeezed into one big show instead of one big tour. Other artists confirmed for this year’s event are Oasis (are they still together?), Blonde Redhead (you won’t catch any Matador artists doing commercials for jeans companies. ...oh, yeah, sorry about that. You won’t catch more than half the artists on Matador doing jeans commercials), the Prodigy and Bjork. At this writing, Skid Row have not been added to the bill, but perhaps there is a petition you can circulate.

In television news, the February 12 plot of “The Gilmore Girls” centers around the struggle to get Belle and Sebastian’s latest EP while grounded. “Legal Man” will hopefully play in the episode as well. This coming Tuesday on the WB, 8:00 PM EST.

10/16/01 — We Stand Corrected
Contrary to prior reports, the forthcoming Belle & Sebastian single (in stores November 27) is entitled “I’m Waking Up To Us” not “The Season Has Arrived.” We now return you to Game 5 of American League Divisional Series between Cleveland and Seattle.

09/07/01 — Tour News Updated / New Single
Matador will be releasing the new Belle & Sebastian single, “The Season Has Arrived” on November 13, followed shorty afterwards by the soundtrack CD to the forthcoming Todd Solodz film ‘Storytelling.’

Jonathan Richman, a national treasure no matter what nation you’re from, will be opening each show on Belle & Sebastian’s current West Coast tour.

We love to reward you almost as much as we love to disappoint you. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Belle & Sebastian contest where we gave away a pair of tickets in each market to those who wrote us a song. It was kind of like “Star Search” except a) it won’t launch your career and b) Ed McMahon won’t drool on you.

Please note that the September 13 show in Vancouver has changed venues to to the Orpheum Theater, 865 Seymour Street (604) 665-3035.

Tickets are on sale at the following outlets:
Online & in person at Zulu Records
1972 West 4th Ave Vancouver BC (604) 738-3232

Or in person at the following:
Scratch Records (604) 687-6355
Black Swan Records (604) 734-2828
Highlife Records (604) 251-6964
Noize ! Records (604) 681-7007
and Ditch Records in Victoria, BC (250) 386-5874

The venue for the September 14 Seattle show has also been changed to the Paramount Theatre, 901 Pine St. (206) 467-5510. You’ll note that these gigs have been moved to larger rooms to accommodate the huge demand for tickets. Kind of like the opposite of what happens on a Stone Temple Pilots tour.


08/28/01 — Win tickets to see Belle & Sebastian!
We’re giving away a pair of tickets for each city on the tour. All you have to do is write us a song.

08/28/01 — Belle & Sebastian tour the US West Coast in September; Tickets on sale now
This is the final show listing. The Seattle and Vancouver shows have been moved to larger venues. Tickets for the former venues will be honored. Additional tickets for the new venues will go on sale 8/29. Also: Jonathan Richman will be opening for the entire tour.

07/15/01
Belle & Sebastian become an 8 piece again
Belle & Sebastian have welcomed another into their fold as 'Belfast' Bobby Kildea joined the band yesterday. Bobby - who is also a member of Glasgow gangsters V-Twin and part of The Reindeer Section - has been working with the band as a session guitarist & bassist following the departure of founding member and bassist Stuart David.  Bobby, one of the 'Jonathan David' cover stars, is said to be relaxing at home with a fat one following a traumatic initiation ceremony.

Following the successful 13 date UK tour which included a spectacular sell-out date at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Belle & Sebastian are appearing at the Benicassim Festival in Spain on August 4th and will announce dates for a West Coast U.S.A. tour next week.

They have also been approached to play the Free Jazz Festival 2001 in Brazil and can now confirm the following two gigs, their first ever outside Europe and the U.S.A.:

October 26 Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art
October 27 Sao Paulo Jockey Club of Sao Paulo

They go back into CaVa studios next week to complete work on their soundtrack record to Todd Solondz's new film "Storytelling" — which has its UK Premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival on August 18th.  The record is expected to be released along with the film in the autumn.

05/10/01
New single, new live dates
As you probably read in our last update, Matador will be releasing a new Belle & Sebastian single on CD, 7" and 12" on June 19, featuring the following songs: 'Jonathan David', 'Take Your Carriage Clock And Shove It' and 'The Loneliness Of The Middle Distance Runner". The soundtrack to the previously announced Todd Soldonz motion picture, now officially titled "Storytelling," will be available this autumn.

In addition, the band have confirmed a Scottish tour:

Dunoon Queens Hall (June 9)
Perth City Hall (10)
Dunfermline Carnegie Hall (11)
Aberdeen Music Hall (14)
Glasgow Barrowlands (15-16)

04/10/01
Belle & Sebastian — Just when you thought we’d never tell you anything.
Massive news from the Belle & Sebastian camp (which is actually more like an office or a personal computer. They don’t really have a “camp” per se and with the exception of certain survivalist groups we don’t know anyone who does). There’s a new single coming in June, “Jonathan and David,” backed with “Take Your Carriage Clock” and “The Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner” on 7", 12" and CD5. If that wasn’t thrilling enough, the band are currently putting the finishing touches on a soundtrack album for the forthcoming, the-title-is-top-secret motion picture from director Todd Solondz (‘Happiness,’ ‘Welcome To The Dollhouse’). Matador will be releasing this album in Autumn 2001, and we’ll have more information to share with you once we’re allowed to release it, but since this movie features the man already acclaimed by one of us as “The Christ of Character Actors,” Paul Giamatti, its place in filmic history would be assured even if it sucked. Which it most assuredly doesn’t.

01/22/01
New Recordings
According to our friends at NME.com, Belle & Sebastian are about to commence new recordings with producer Mike Hurst, best known for his supervision of Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” More news as we learn about it (ie. read it about it somewhere else).

11/10/00
We’re just trying to keep track
“Fox In The Snow” can be heard in the upcoming motion picture ‘A Room For Romeo Brass.’ The band also have a song on the upcoming Jeepster Xmas album (we released an Xmas record once, but it was the Frogs, so never mind). Isobel Campbell’s other acclaimed band, The Gentle Waves, have a new album coming from Jeepster very soon.

07/21/00
Belle & Sebastian — hell no, they won’t go
On tour, that is. According to the always-right / never-wrong NME, Belle & Sebastian aren’t gonna be touring the U.S. or anywhere else in the year 2000. We’d like to confirm or deny this report, but that would require a series of expensive phone calls.

06/21/00
Belle & Sebastian — Cha-ching
When you’ve got lots of people in the band, you need to sell a ton of records to pay for all the dry cleaning. Good thing then, that the glorious new Belle & Sebastian album is off to such a hot start, entering the U.S. charts at #80, the U.K. at #10, Norway at #17, etc. Without sounding too smug about it, we’d like to remind everyone that the United States is a much bigger country than almost anywhere else, save for places where they haven’t gotten round to villifying Napster yet, so we think #80 here is pretty damn good. You might say that sales are not the only thing and it’s just a popularity contest, and that’s what we say most of the time as well.

06/06/00
Belle & Sebastian — Televised Mayhem
The new multi-format smasheroo “Legal Man” entered the U.S. singles chart at No. 47 (No. 15 in the U.K.), which is a very triumphant moment for those of us who believe that quality music is more important than silly charts (which is why we’re bragging about the chart numbers). To commemorate these achievments, Belle & Sebastian appeared on the BBC’s venerable ‘Top Of The Pops’ television program this past friday evening. For those of you who haven’t seen the show before, try to imagine ‘American Bandstand’ with a lot less dancing. Tabloid rag The Mirror are reporting that the band snuck into the set of the top-rated soap opera ‘East Enders’ and were hauled away by the police. It reminds me of the time GG Allin was booked to appear on ‘The Morten Downey Jr. Show,’ but had to hide on the set of ‘People Are Talking’ during a cooking segment, because the police were looking for him. Don’t these “peace officers” have anything better to do than harrass musicians?

05/12/00
With the “Legal Man” single and the incredible new album ‘Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant’ almost upon us, Belle & Sebastian recently held a press conference in London. Unlike press conference held by R. Budd Dwyer, Rudolph Guiliani or Vince Coleman, this one was relatively calm and informative. You can read a biased version of events at NME.

03/27/00
The new Belle & Sebastian album, ‘Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant’ (OLE 429-1,2) is coming out on Matador in North America on the 6th of June. The track listing is as follows:

I Fought In A War / The Model / Beyond The Sunrise / Waiting For The Moon To Rise / Don’t Leave The Light On, Baby / The Wrong Girl / The Chalet Lines / Nice Day For A Sulk / Woman’s Realm / Family Tree / There’s Too Much Love

The band will be visiting the West Coast for the first time in late August, with a few possible additional North American dates planned for the autumn. There will be a pre-album single in June consisting of “Legal Man” backed with “Judy Is A Dick Slap” and “Winter Wooskie.”

You’ve probably read elsewhere that Stuart David is no longer playing bass for Belle & Sebastian, and that’s true. No denials from us. Stuart will be concentrating on his writing, Looper and other interesting things.

02/25/00
Perhaps by hiding this in the middle of a news update, we'll find out who is really paying attention. Belle & Sebastian are almost finished with work on their new studio recording. We're very hopeful this album will be done in time for an early summer release. In the meantime, we have boxes upon boxes filled with the Lazy Line Painter Jane EP triple-pack (i.e. boxes) that we're dying to hand over to you, our closest friends.

01/07/00
No, it isn't. Belle & Sebastian are slogging their way through the much anticipated follow-up to 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' and whenever they are finished you will be the 4th or 5th person(s) to find about it. We'll be 3rd or 4th. Archivists, collector-types and lovers of beautiful music will have to amuse themselves with the forthcoming box set of Belle & Sebastian EP's; "Dog On Wheels," "Lazy Line Painter Jane" and "3,6,9 Seconds Of Light" collected on 3 separate 3 CD's with a specially designed wallet, hitting record shops on March 7.

08/06/99
Belle & Sebastian and Arab Strap are on the soundtrack to the new Irvine Welsh movie "The Acid House" (author, also of "Trainspotting") along with many other of your favorite British artists. Most of the songs on the album are unreleased.

04/09/99
Have we mentioned that we're reissuing Belle & Sebastian's Tigermilk in North America yet? June 8 is when. This is the record Stuart Murdoch et. al recorded as a college class project. Limited to 1,000 originally, and long since bootlegged, ours will be remastered and available for the first time on the popular CD format, as well as vinyl.

02/12/99
Cheers to Belle & Sebastian for winning "Best British Newcomer" in the Brit Awards, England's equivalent to the Grammys. And thanks to you people for weighing in.

In other B&S news, somehow they've found the time during the recording of their new album to organize a holiday for their fans, the Bowlie Weekender. It's April 23-25 at Camber Sands Holiday Center UK. and stars Belle & Sebastian, Mercury Rev, The Divine Comedy, Cornelius, The Delgados, Broadcast, Sleater-Kinney, The Pastels, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Looper, Vic Godard, Cinema, V-Twin, Camera Obscura. Pavement is listed as playing but is actually not. Further details are on the B&S site (gotta scroll down to get it).... also of note: Stuart David does some spoken word stuff on the forthcoming Looper CD (Looper = Stuart + his wife and brother) on Sub Pop. "Not bad," says house Bunnyman fan John Gazley.

02/05/99
What else.... Belle & Sebastain have been nominated "best newcomers" for the Brit Awards (a BBC thing). I'm not exactly sure how this works, but fans can help them win by going to the BBC Radio 1 website and casting their Vote for Belle and Sebastian. You can only vote once, although, for all practical purposes, voting is anonymous.



For more past news, look through the news archive.