Live review: Malcolm Middleton @ Mono, Glasgow

"If I knew it was going to be this sunny I wouldn't have brought the album out this week." You can always rely on MALCOLM MIDDLETON to waste little time in playing the miserable card, even at a free gig to mark the launch of his fifth record Waxing Gibbous.

The one-time Arab Strap guitarist has already announced that he intends to take a break from his solo career as he feels pigeonholed, but he really doesn't have anyone but himself to blame for that. If you expect a Malcolm Middleton set to have some dour but humorous banter, unnecessary singing of the c-word and an ironic mainstream cover then you'd be spot-on tonight.

The strange thing is that the reputation of the man does a disservice to his songs. OK, so he's not exactly a bundle of joy and his vocals are laden with world-weariness, but there's more than enough on Waxing Gibbous to take the listener to a happy place.

Lead single Red Travellin' Socks is fast and crazily catchy, Kiss At The Station is similarly perky guitar-pop with some gratifying cymbal use, while Shadows treads awful close to Chelsea Dagger territory as Middleton himself acknowledges ("I wake up every day sweating it sounds like The Fratellis"). You can also add the terrific Strokes-esque Subset Of The World to the list of upbeat songs from the new album, although that doesn't get an airing at Mono.

The set ends with We're All Going To Die - famously (in indie circles anyway) denied the Christmas No.1 spot by a mere 30 other songs - which, given that it is the only old tune he plays, seems like a wasted opportunity to show off the quality of his now-weighty back catalogue.

As appreciative applause from the crowd (or "freeloading music lovers" as the Falkirk man brands them) fills the muggy air of the busy venue, a punter cries out "one more song", to which Middleton instantly quips: "One? I was going to play five". And it's one we get - a cover of Run To You by Bryan Adams of course.

4 Malcolm Middleton - Red Travellin' Socks (album version)

4 Malcolm Middleton - New Heart
b June 26, Tolbooth, Stirling (tickets)
b June 27, The Tunnels, Aberdeen (tickets)
b June 28, King Tut's, Glasgow (tickets)
b August 22, Sounds In The Grounds, Stornoway

Summer in the city

Not that you'd know it by sticking your head out of the window, but it is in fact summer in Scotland right now so that means walking not just to get somewhere, taking an interest in sports other than football, attending hastily-arranged barbeques and spotting beautiful people coming out of hibernation.

It goes without saying that suitable music is needed to match that new-found bounce in your step, so to that end we've picked out one gig in every city in the country to whet the appetite and given you a suitably summer-soaked tune to get you buzzing. Don't get too mental now.

DUNDEE
General Fiasco, June 1, Doghouse (tickets)
(also playing Inverness, Stornoway, Ullapool, Fort William, Glasgow)
4 General Fiasco - Rebel Get By

ABERDEEN
Jamie T, June 17, Moshulu (tickets)
(also playing Edinburgh, Balado)
4 Jamie T - Sticks And Stones

GLASGOW
Acrylic Iqon, June 18, Oran Mor (free tickets)
4 Acrylic Iqon - Gentlemen, We Can Rebuild Him

EDINBURGH
Snap!, June 19, Corn Exchange (tickets)
4 Snap! - Rhythm Is A Dancer

INVERNESS
Jocasta Sleeps, June 25, Hootananny
(also playing Edinburgh, Glasgow, Montrose, Fife, Aberdeen, Dundee, Bathgate)
4 Jocasta Sleeps - Crayfish Cocktail

STIRLING
Malcolm Middleton, June 26, Tolbooth (tickets)
(also playing Aberdeen, Glasgow, Stornoway)
4 Malcolm Middleton - Subset Of The World

PERTH
The Xcerts, July 5, Ice Factory
(also playing Edinburgh, Dundee, Arbroath, Montrose, Dundrennan)
4 The Xcerts - Just Go Home

"I want to make this really clear, I did not beat up Amy Macdonald"

Interview subject: Stina Tweeddale, Boycotts
Location: Beanscene, Glasgow
Time: 12.30
Background info: Boycotts are a punk-pop band based in Glasgow and all the members have nicknames. There's singer and lyricist Stina Tweeddale (Stina Twee), guitarist Joe Gillies (Josef K), bassist Graham Young (Dragon) and drummer David Dunsmore (Hardcore Dave). Stina and Joe are high school friends from Edinburgh, while Graham and David are Hamilton boys.

Stina Tweeddale, 20, used to play solo acoustic sets at open-mic nights in Edinburgh, but she headed west to study economic and social history at Glasgow University, where she is just about to complete her third year, and did what all proud parents hope their child will do... she started a band.

BOYCOTTS may only have been around for a year but they already stand out from the pack thanks to some absorbing three-minute alternative pop tunes like Beat On The Dancefloor (the Music Alliance Pact choice for May) and Luella And Lies, not to mention a glamorous frontwoman which, let's face it, is a bit of a rarity these days.

THE POP COP: Is image important to you?
Stina: “I know people pay attention to us because I’m a girl in a band but it doesn’t bother me. I suppose there are a lot of groups of four boys with side-fringes. I’ve always thought of myself as one of the lads anyway. I don’t need straighteners, unlike the rest of the band. Joe has more cleansing products than me.”

What inspires your lyrics?
“I used to write a lot of ‘nobody understands me’ stuff but it gets really tedious. Most of the songs are about relationships with people, not just love interests, except Scarper which is about Virginia Woolf. It’s the only one that’s fictitious.”

What is Luella And Lies about?
“It’s about when someone you know, say in a past relationship, has not been a nice person. They’ve broken up with you and they’ve started seeing this other person. It might be going really well just now but they can’t hide the fact that they're a dick. Luella is the designer Luella Bartley. It’s about buying nice things for someone and then treating them badly. People seem to like that one.”
Stina's idols are Morrissey, PJ Harvey, Tom Waits and Jenny Lewis, but her father has been the biggest influence on her music path. Sandy Tweeddale has made a living as a full-time musician since he was a teenager and plays in Blues'n'Trouble, a well-respected band on the blues circuit, as well as Blue Hyenas.

Is it safe to assume your dad taught you how to play guitar?
“No. My mum forbade him! She would say, ‘Music ruins lives’. She was so scared I was going to take up music and not go to uni. But when I was in first year at school, we were offered free music tuition and I chose guitar. All I wanted to do was be able to walk into the room when my dad was there, pick up his guitar and play a G chord then an A chord and say, ‘Look what I can do.’ I kept it a secret for about a year. Then one day I went home and played a wee song for him. And he said, ‘I knew you were doing this’. My mum had told him months ago but he didn’t let on. It totally ruined my surprise. I had worked so hard as well.”

Is your mum OK with you being in a band now?
"It’s fine now, she’s got over the fear. My mum always cries when I sing. The first Boycotts gig my parents came to was in January at Limbo in Edinburgh. As soon as mum saw me, she was like [exaggerated shriek] ‘Oh, you’re going to be famous’."

Why did you not stay in Edinburgh?
“It’s so boring. It’s beautiful but it’s not a good place to grow up and everything’s really expensive. When I came to Glasgow I couldn’t believe that anywhere you go is as cheap as chips. You can buy a vodka for 70p. For me, that was a total revelation! I do love Edinburgh but Glasgow is definitely where I call home. I was always coming through here to see gigs and that was one of the reasons I decided to go to Glasgow Uni.”

How do you juggle your studies and your band?
“It’s hard work. I do enjoy my degree - if I didn’t, I would have given up by now. But if anything was to happen to the band it would be dropped at a hat. I know that’s really bad and I should be grateful that I’m at uni but the band comes first. Don’t tell my mum that, she’d go mental! I never pay attention in class - all I do is daydream about my band even though it’s the most unstable thing I’ve ever done. I also work part-time at Firewater."

Someone told me that Amy Macdonald got beaten up by some girls in Firewater a couple of years ago? Did you heard that one?
“Really? That’s hilarious. It might have been me. No, really, it wasn’t. I want to make this really clear, I did not beat up Amy Macdonald. I might have paid someone to do it but I didn’t lay a finger on her. I think she’s alright, actually. I’m just jealous. Honestly, pure jealousy. [laughs] Why didn’t I get it instead of her? I could play the main stage of T in the Park.”

4 Boycotts - Luella And Lies
4 Boycotts - Locked Out (live)

b May 23, Nice 'n' Sleazy, Glasgow (Stag & Dagger) (tickets)
b May 30, Busby's, Montrose (Montrose Music Festival) (free)
b June 25, Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
b June 26, Hootenanny’s, Inverness,
b June 27, The Waterfront, Wick
b June 28, The Greenside Hotel, Glenrothes
b June 29, The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow
b July 3, The Doghouse, Dundee,
b July 18, Harley’s Bar, Bathgate
b August 7, Harley’s Bar, Bathgate
b August 8, QMU, Glasgow (supporting Carl Barat)
b August 14, The GRV, Edinburgh
b August 15, ABC 2, Glasgow (EP launch) (tickets)
b August 20, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh (The Mill) (free)
b August 21, The Doghouse, Dundee
b August 22, The Greenside Hotel, Glenrothes
b August 24, Snafu, Aberdeen
b September 19, The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow

p.s. The winner of the Stag & Dagger competition was Catherine Lamont from Glasgow

Step Away From The Computer #4: Stag & Dagger

Stag night: [noun] A party or weekend away held for a bachelor shortly before he gets married. May involve he and his party dressing up in weird or outlandish costumes, drinking to excess, gambling, stripper(s) and pranks.

OK, so take away the gambling, strippers and pranks, allow the ladies in and add some of the hippest bands around and you've got yourself STAG & DAGGER, a new entry on the Scottish festival calendar, and another 'one ticket = many venues in one night' affair.

Better still, we've got a pair of tickets to give away to one reader of The Pop Cop. To be in with a chance of winning, just answer this question: Apart from Glasgow, which other two cities are part of the Stag & Dagger festival?

Now email thepopcop@gmail.com with the subject 'Stag & Dagger Comp' and include your name, address and answer. Over-18s only. All correct entries will go into a metaphorical hat and one winner will be drawn after the closing date on Wednesday, May 20 at 10am.

Location:
Half a dozen venues in Glasgow – ABC 1, Art School, Nice 'n' Sleazy, Captain’s Rest, Stereo, Classic Grand.

Fascinating fact:
Frightened Rabbit brothers Scott and Grant Hutchison will be playing as a two-piece for the first time since 2005.

Date:
Saturday, May 23.

Weather forecast:


Festival history:
This is its first year in Scotland.

Total number of acts:
31 (not including DJs)

Cost of a ticket:
£17.50

So each act is worth:
56p

Big-hitters:
Cold War Kids, Frightened Rabbit, The Twilight Sad, The Aliens, BMX Bandits, Cursive, Dananananaykroyd, Boycotts, Meursault, The Phantom Band.

Organiser's propaganda:
"It promises to be bigger and better than anything... ever!"

Must-hear:
4 Cold War Kids - Well Well Well (John Lennon cover), ABC 1
4 Frightened Rabbit - Last Tango In Brooklyn, ABC 1
4 Over The Wall - Glasgow, Captain's Rest
4 The Aliens - Setting Sun, Stereo
4 The Joy Formidable - Whirring, Art School (Vic Bar)
4 The Twilight Sad - Reflection Of The Television, ABC 1
4 Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers - Draw A Line, Stereo

Music Alliance Pact - May 2009

Xenophobia; cheese; campness; political voting; broken English; fake smiles; gimmicks, backstabbing. Yes, Eurovision Song Contest weekend is here and it's so bad it's good.

Perhaps, in some subconscious level, Eurovision inspired our decision to launch the Music Alliance Pact, the monthly multinational inter-blogging extravaganza. Scary thought.

As ever, we've rounded up the world's most clued-up music bloggers and persuaded them to share their favourite song from their homeland and write a few words about it. Then post the entire list on their own websites. We start with a band called BOYCOTTS, the selection of the Scottish jury. Douze points!

SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
4 Boycotts – Beat On The Dancefloor
Boycotts have been in existence for barely a year but it's still no surprise they've got people in Scotland very excited indeed. The Glasgow-based quartet's edgy guitar-pop pushes all the right buttons, but the ace in the pack is their enchanting frontlady, Stina Twee, all youthful exuberance and 'don't screw with me' lyrics.

AMERICA: I Guess I'm Floating
4 Lands & Peoples – Awake
Baltimore-based Lands & Peoples seem to have a knack for hypnotherapy. With a commanding ethereal ambience and gorgeous catatonic tensions throughout, Awake is an eye-opener from start to finish. You'll ask, "How have I not heard of them?" and "I can't believe they aren't signed!" Well, believe it. There's an album in the works coming out later this year (perhaps self-released), but for now you can listen to more gems at their MySpace page.

ARGENTINA: Zonaindie
4 Les Mentettes Orchestra – Hold On
Les Mentettes is a psychedelic pop band who just released a five-song EP with orchestral arrangements conducted by former Orquesta de Salón member Manuloop. It's a free release so if you like Hold On you can legally download the other tracks as well. They are currently playing this record live with a full orchestra in several venues around Buenos Aires.

AUSTRALIA: Who The Bloody Hell Are They?
4 Jonathan Boulet – A Community Service Announcement
I only recently discovered the very talented Jonathan Boulet's music online, and upon hearing this song immediately purchased his album from iTunes. It is simply amazing that the 20-year-old produced and recorded everything himself in his garage. Big future for this guy.

BRAZIL: Meio Desligado
4 A Banda de Joseph Tourton – #3
A Banda de Joseph Tourton only have a few songs on the internet and released a digital EP last year, but they are already one of the most interesting of the new generation of alternative groups in Brazil. They create instrumental songs full of groove, emotion and originality, making the next step in mangue beat's (a musical movement from Brazil's northeast) history, going through post-rock, jazz and their regional culture influences.

CANADA: I(Heart)Music
4 Green Go – Brains For Breakfast
For a year or two now, my friends in Toronto have been raving about Green Go to me and now that their debut album, Borders, is out, it's easy to see why. As songs like Brains For Breakfast show, the band create infectiously catchy pop with shouted group vocals and bouncy riffs that sound like they'd make for a big, sweaty blast of fun in concert.

CHILE: Super 45
4 Mutrone – Bristol
A mix of experimentation, psychedelia and improvisation are the foundation elements from which Mutrone build solid sound walls comprising samples, effects and a dynamic reminiscent of the machine-like structures of krautrock. With two albums, Oscillatore and Centinela, both released under a Creative Commons licence, the four guys in Mutrone have discovered an exciting way to bring the real sounds of the city into the machine.

DENMARK: All Scandinavian
4 Sinusstøv – Who Am I?
The translation of their name is "Sinus Dust" but there's nothing at all dusty about Claus Pedersen and Søren Friis Dam's musical output. Who Am I? is lush, sweeping and crackling electro, showered in the melancholy Scandinavians have to live with and everybody else finds moving. Another grand testament to the incredibly healthy state of Danish electronica.

ENGLAND: The Daily Growl
4 Blue Roses – Doubtful Comforts
Another month and I'm sticking with all thinks folky, although we're leaving London for Shipley in Yorkshire which is the home of Laura Groves. She has recently rebranded herself as Blue Roses and released an amazing self-titled album (on XL). Of all the young folky female artists I've enthused about here and on my blog, she's possibly the best.

FINLAND: Glue
4 Delay Trees – Desert Island Song
Indie-pop quartet Delay Trees have just self-released their seven-song debut CD, Soft Construction EP. Desert Island Song is the opening track and the beginning of a dreamy trip through tender pop melodies and bits of psychedelia. It is a very promising start for these guys.

FRANCE: ZikNation
4 Walter – Le Dernier Bastion
In the beginning, they were two, playing in parks, festivals and concert halls. Six years and three musicians later, Walter keeps riding French roads offering a tasty blend of reggae, blues and folk, spreading messages of love, respect and peace. They'll be back in studio by the end of the year to record their next album.

GERMANY: Blogpartei
4 Schlachthofbronx – Good To Go
Schlachthofbronx defined a whole new genre called Munich bass. This bastard relies heavily on Kuduro, baile funk, dub and dancehall but also likes to play with elements of Bavarian folk and synthpop. Good To Go has never been released officially but turned on the crowd at their sweaty gigs all over central Europe.

ICELAND: I Love Icelandic Music
4 Retro Stefson – Papa Paulo III (Re-edit version)
Retro Stefson was founded in late 2006 by a group of eight teenagers, school friends from Austurbæjarskóli. They write catchy, semi-pop/semi-rock crossover songs and give great live performances. Last year the band released their debut album Montaña on the Icelandic Kimi Records label. The band’s principal songwriter is Unnsteinn Manual Stefánsson. The lyrics are in English, Spanish and Icelandic.

IRELAND: Nialler9
4 Super Extra Bonus Party – Radar
The first single from Super Extra Bonus Party's second album Night Horses sees them joined by Cadence Weapon on a stomping live band/electro-hop crossover. It's a good indication of a band who don't like to stick to genres for too long. Night Horses also features pop, acoustic folk, instrumental rock and electronic goodness with guest vocals from Mr. Lif, R.S.A.G., May Kay of Fight Like Apes, Ann Scott and Heathers.

ITALY: Polaroid
4 Buzz Aldrin – Small Bad Talk With Koala Friends
Obsessive rhythms, nagging guitars, alienated voices, dirty synths and strangely beautiful songs that are greater than the sum of their parts. Think of Liars, think of Wire, think of Pere Ubu, or don't think: just dance. This young trio show a driving strength when on stage and they are improving with every gig.

MEXICO: Club Fonograma
4 Mr. Racoon – Ferry 3
Mr. Racoon is one of several projects by Roberto Polo, among them 60 Tigres and Fuck Her, Or The Terrorists Win. This is by far his most charming moment yet. His music unfolds the very best of a prolific songwriter that, as opposed to what his music may sound like, is a maximalist taking the lo-fi production and his shimmering voice to heroic amplitudes. Ferry 3 is a cut from his third album Katy, released earlier this year through the free storage music website Delhotel Records.

NEW ZEALAND: Counting The Beat
4 The Sing Songs – Pamphlet Baby
The Sing Songs sing songs, saccharine sweet pop songs. What gives them their staying power are the lyrics. Where you might expect girl loves boy, boy loves girl, instead you get the story of a woman dealing with the death of her baby by walking the streets with a pram, delivering pamphlets. To date the band don't have any releases but this song has been included on a compilation issued by Real Groove magazine to celebrate New Zealand music month.

NORWAY: Eardrums
4 Maribel – Flesh & Blood
Oslo-based Maribel released their long-awaited and brilliant debut Aesthetics only a few days ago, and the Norwegian critics gave them full scores in the reviews. The band play dreamy, noise-drenched, multi-layered shoegaze with almost psychedelic elements. There are obvious references in their sound to bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Spacemen 3, Pale Saints and even The Velvet Underground, but Maribel definitely do their own thing and they do it their own way. Maribel and Aesthetics is highly recommended, and will be this Norwegian blogger's soundtrack to the spring of 2009.

PERU: SoTB
4 Diablos Azules – Porno Music
It is time for a classic night: trumpets, breaks, ska and contagious melodies that immerse people in the most insane of their intentions. It is perhaps no surprise the band are called Diablos Azules ("Blue Devils"). Porno Music is the best legacy of their existence – an old song which is still fresh and gets revived every time someone goes to a party in Lima.

PORTUGAL: Posso Ouvir Um Disco?
4 The TiMaria – Pretty Girls Are Pretty High
Last year, a man was organizing a gig with a three-band bill but had just two booked. When he was creating the poster, he made up the name TiMaria and included this fictitious group as the third act of the night. (Un)fortunately, he didn't erase the name before the posters went to press and ended up with a stock of paper to throw away. However, he persuaded his friends, André Moinho and Nuno Rancho, who live in small villages around the city of Leiria, to form a band in 15 days so that he could use the posters and save the planet. And so, with the addition of Nuno's younger brother, Luis Jerónimo, The TiMaria ("Aunt Maria") was born. Their debut record will be released in September or October.

ROMANIA: Babylon Noise
4 Semiosis – Recovery
Semiosis is the post-rock/ambient/electronic project of Seidiu Alexandru and Serban Ilicevici, two young guys from Craiova. They have just released their debut album, Pictural, and it has received a lot of positive feedback. Pictural is considered the first Romanian post-rock album and is available for free download here – it's a must if you enjoy listening to this preview.

SINGAPORE: I'm Waking Up To...
4 The Fire Fight – Fires At Night
The Fire Fight are an indie-rock band that have set the local scene on fire with their firebranded musicality and heartfelt lyrics. Fires At Night is the first track from their demo, The Green EP. Brandishing straight-up indie guitar rock that combines the intensity of Bloc Party and the poetic ebb and flow of The One AM Radio, Fires At Night draws the listener into its warmth and, like a slow burning furnace, purifies the experience. Perhaps the best thing about The Fire Fight is their lyrical optimism in a world spiraling into nihilism, as singer Josh Tan pleads that music is for "the hope that burns in your eyes".

SOUTH KOREA: Indieful ROK
4 Stretching Journey – 060
Post-punk band Stretching Journey put out a self-titled album on its own last month. The band is not afraid to blend a plethora of genres into their music and as a consequence of the lo-fi production, several of their songs ended up with a slight psychedelic edge. The album opens with 060, which has a progression and a beat influenced by Los Bunkers, whereas the style of the chorus is inspired by Korean dance-pop act Koyote.

SPAIN: La Página De La Nadadora
4 Sundae – Arte y Ensayo
The Field Mice, My Bloody Valentine, The Radio Dept. and The Cure are four good references for this band who have even been namechecked by the famous label Shelflife with their second demo. Sundae are like the best shoegaze pop inherited from Sarah Records, but this time from Seville.

SWEDEN: Swedesplease
4 Robert Svensson – I Was Summer, You Were
I can't tell you one quaint biographical detail about Robert Svensson – he's a mystery to me. But I am now an instant fan on the strength of I Was Summer, You Were. The song exists to share these two sets of lyrics: "I was summer and you were November" and "I was architecture and you were the wrecking ball".

To download all 25 songs in one file click here.

"We just had to stand there taking envelopes of money. It was like The Godfather. If you marry a Sicilian, you do OK"

Date: May 3, 2009
Time: 14.00
Location: The Left Bank, Glasgow
Interview subject: Stuart Murdoch, Belle & Sebastian/God Help The Girl
Background info: Let’s go back nine years. It’s a late afternoon in spring and I’m a passenger in a car. We’ve rolled up to a set of red lights at a pedestrian crossing on Gibson Street in the West End of Glasgow. After a couple of seconds the lights change to flashing amber. There’s not a soul around but the car doesn’t move. Still they flash, on and off, on and off. Why won’t he drive on? It feels like minutes have passed. Nobody says a word. I glance nervously at the rear-view mirror, another vehicle approaches from behind. I crack. “Stuart, I think it’s OK to drive thr-”. The lights turn green. Stuart hits the accelerator.

The last time I met Stuart Murdoch, most of the interview was conducted while he drove around town in his 1973 Ford Granada. Nine years later, I’ve somehow ended up a passenger in his car again, only now it’s a decidedly more modern black Astra, stuffed with Fruit Pastilles and Polo wrappers. Stuart was running late and didn’t want to leave me waiting at our pre-arranged Hillhead Underground meeting place, so he picked me up and we head, with terrifying inevitability, towards Gibson Street. This time the lights stay green.

Stuart takes a right and executes a textbook reverse park. As I open the door to get out, I ask him if I need to push down the button. He shakes his head. We start walking away from the car. “But it’s not locked,” I insist. Stuart doesn’t reply. Without breaking stride, he puts his hand in his left pocket, clicks the key, and the reassuring clunk of the central locking does its job. Smooth.

We head into The Left Bank and the waitress ushers us to a table smack bang in the middle of the cafe. It’s not the most discreet spot for an interview, so Stuart folds his arms over my dictaphone to make this look more like an everyday conversation in a coffee house. The man is clearly clued up in tape recorder camouflage techniques.
“I’ve got a little Toshiba one," he says. "I quite often get song ideas when I’m walking along, so I turn the thing upside down and pretend I’m on the phone and sing into it. Nobody would know.”

Stuart’s new project is called God Help The Girl. It is a film that the 40-year-old is still in the process of writing, but the soundtrack that accompanies it can’t wait. Fourteen tracks have made it on to the album, which is released on Rough Trade in June, with four leftovers earmarked for a future EP.

Catherine Ireton is predominantly the lead singer, but there are cameos from several others including The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon, while two guest vocalists – American pair Britanny Stallings and Dina Bankole – were found through an online competition set up by Stuart.

Did you feel like Simon Cowell sifting through all those wannabes?
“A little bit. But I must admit, I’ve never watched any of those programmes. I am aware that there is a phenomenon called... is it called X Factor? [I nod] This is my little thing and it would have happened regardless of the latest fads. At first I thought I was going to have a girl group, three singers together. They would move into the same house and be a force, but that never happened. We had about 380 audio auditions and 50 videos on top of that. [Stuart sighs] By the end, I didn’t listen to some of them all the way through but I pretty much knew.”

Stuart submitted the first draft of the God Help The Girl film to the producer last October (“he politely suggested I needed to write some more”) and is working on another version.

What’s the concept of the movie?
“The main protagonist is Eve, the girl who sings most of the songs on the record. She starts off in a mental hospital, at her lowest ebb. She’s not too crazy but she’s crazy enough. She’s in there for a long time and she discovers that she can write songs and she sees that as her way of getting out of the trouble she’s in. She makes it out of hospital eventually and runs into James and Cassie and the three of them make music over the course of a summer and become really close.”
If you are familiar with the Belle & Sebastian biography, you might recognise that Eve’s predicament bears uncanny parallels with Stuart’s own life story. Before forming Belle & Sebastian, Stuart spent seven years saddled with ME, a condition that sapped his energy and often left him housebound, crippling him for most of his twenties.

The film is biographical, isn’t it?
[Stuart takes a gulp of coffee] “There are biographical strands with Eve being in such a poor way. But I had to make Eve’s condition more dramatic because I would challenge anybody to write a good drama about ME. It’s like watching paint dry. Maybe one day somebody will make a good film about ME... it would be a sleeper hit [laughs]. Sorry.”

How did you ultimately get better?
“I tried lots of different therapies and doctors and eventually – and this happens to Eve in the story – I went to a healer. She was a Christian healer and I wasn’t a signed-up Christian at the time but the woman said, ‘You don’t have to be to benefit from this so don’t worry about it’. She charged me nothing. She just put her hands over me and said I might feel a bit warm. I was just lying there and felt very relaxed. She spent a whole hour, just moving around. I went away and thought that was the end of it. About a week and a half later I had what could only be described as a nervous breakdown and had the worst six months of my life, mentally as well as physically. But my physical condition got better from that point and I spent the next three of four years slowly recovering from ME. It might sound like a crazy story but she really helped me.”

Do you regard that as the turning point?
“Absolutely. Absolutely! [Stuart gets visibly animated] The turning point of my LIFE. I’ve tried to track that woman down since but she moved from Mosspark and her neighbours don’t know where she went. I think she cut hair in hospitals and while she did that she gave the old ladies healing, although they didn’t know it. I’m not going to name her but I do wonder where she is.”

It was through ME that Stuart met his best friend Ciara MacLaverty, a fellow sufferer who has campaigned vigorously to raise awareness for an illness that she had for 20 years. Her ‘miracle’ fix was a treatment programme, developed by a Scottish doctor, called Mickel Therapy which, incidentally, has also cured two other chronic-fatigue sufferers I know personally. Like Stuart’s healer, Mickel Therapy is unavailable on the National Health Service despite a 92% success rate.
“Back in the day, and probably still to this day, ME was a network because there’s not the support through the NHS," he says. "So you have to find out things from people around you. Ciara and I formed our own ME club in the West End of Glasgow for like-minded sufferers and we used to hang out. The funny thing is, when I was feeling a lot better and Ciara was feeling really low, I used to try healing on her, just for half an hour. I don’t know whether it did any good but I tried [Stuart laughs]. I think you’ll find what’s for you if you go looking for it.”

Stuart has become more open about the subject of religion as he has grown older. After our 2000 interview, he sent an additional quote by email which I segued into the published article. It read: “My favourite book is the Bible, and my favourite book in the Bible is St John, and I’ve lifted freely and happily from that since I read it.” Similarly, religious references have become commonplace in Belle & Sebastian’s songs. If You Find Yourself Caught In Love is a paean to “the man above”, while the band’s last album, The Life Pursuit, opens with the lyrics “morning prayers”. His recent online diary entries are also peppered with religious content: “May 3, 2009: What I meant to talk about tonight was hymns. The greatest hits of God! I’m going to write hymns one day.” And, it’s so blatant you might have overlooked it, his new project is called God Help The Girl.

Do you feel a duty to spread the Word?
“If you’re a Christian, there’s meant to be a feeling of mission. But I think it’s mission enough just to act in a certain way. People will be drawn into stuff if it appeals to them. I would never chase somebody up the street with a club trying to get them to convert.”

Does it concern you that society as a whole, certainly in Britain, seems to be becoming less religious?
“Organised religion has fallen away for many reasons over the past 20 or 30 years. It doesn’t bother me at all. Come on, it’s not like I’ve got shares in the Church of Scotland. People might turn away from the Church but a lot will end up finding spirituality elsewhere. You can’t really expect in this day and age when we’re a world culture for us to simply accept Christianity when we’re a “Christian country”. The areas where other faiths and religions cross over are much greater than many people would imagine. But I can see people’s problems with organised religion, I’ve got no argument with that. I’m not into tribes. I wouldn’t go to war on anybody’s behalf.”

Do you think about death?
“Not so much, but I do have a constant notion about another life, another place. I think about spirituality. It lives with me like another dimension all the time. It guides me along. I hope that doesn’t make me sound like a Holy Joe or pious but I like to lean on that stuff. It makes life so much more interesting. Maybe this developed out of my ME years of nothingness. I wasn’t able to work and live as much as other people. Sometimes you’re only on 30%. You’ve got to fill in the other 70% yourself and that can be when spirituality jumps in, so maybe some people just don’t need it or their lives are full enough.”
Stuart officially joined the Church last month, along with his wife of two years, Marisa Privitera. An American born to Italian-Cuban parents, she appeared on the cover of The Life Pursuit and was pictured topless on the front of Belle & Sebastian’s Fans Only DVD, with her modesty preserved by a carefully-position book.

How did you meet Marisa?
“I met her briefly in Boston and then we met again at the Benicassim music festival in Spain. I think it was 2002. We met at the go-karts and she’d had a couple of gins and I told her to be careful. [He pauses] She’s phoning just now!”
Stuart digs into his pocket and plucks out his vibrating mobile - the kind you’d describe as a ‘brick’ - and has a brief, predominantly one-way, conversation (“Yeah... oh yeah... I’ll do that”) before he takes up the story again.
“She always hates that bit when I say that she’d had a couple of drinks. So she went on the go-karts and smashed it straight into the bales of hay and broke her foot. I was going to Barcelona and she had a couple of days before she went back to the States, so I had to carry her around the city. You get to know someone pretty well that way.”

Marisa moved to Scotland to do a Masters degree in film. They got married in New York and spent their honeymoon in Sicily, where they were invited to a typically Italian celebratory dinner with the extended Privitera family.
“We just had to stand there taking envelopes of money," he says. "It was like The Godfather. I’m telling you, if you marry a Sicilian, you do OK.”

How did you propose?
[Nervous laugh] “I didn’t exactly get down on one knee but we talked around it for a while. So I said, ‘Look, I’ll get hitched if we go to New York and do it in the public office and we don’t tell anyone’. So that’s what we did. That’s as magic as it gets! She always feels ripped off. She says, ‘I can’t believe I’ve got the most unromantic guy. You write all those songs and you can’t even say such-and-such. If only they knew the truth.’ I can’t imagine being married to any other person because she’s so tolerant of my entrenched ways. I’m a pain in the arse.”
Stuart’s relationship with Marisa and the way his eyes light up when he talks about her couldn’t be more different from his affair with former bandmate Isobel Campbell, which was largely kept hidden until she quit the band in 2002.
“If it wasn’t common knowledge then it was probably my fault," he admits. "I was a little bit ‘one foot in, one foot out’ with that and I put my hand up and say that’s not an ideal way to run a relationship. It’s definitely not an ideal way to run a band. It had, shall we say, an interesting dynamic that really wasn’t very positive. In saying that, for a couple of years the static between us was like an engine that ran the band for good or bad. I hear from Isobel less than it’s possible to hear from a person who lives in the same town as you. I’ve maybe bumped into her twice since she left, which is quite a feat. Just shows you how much we had in common.”

Is Morrissey still an idol for you?
“Yeah, a little bit. But I wouldn’t really want to meet him. I don’t think he’d be that nice. I’d rather keep him as an idol of the 80s - The Smiths, the first solo album. Whenever Morrissey plays the same festival as us he cancels. Up until a few years ago I would have really liked to have met him and hung out, had a coffee, but like I say, he just kept cancelling when we played. I figured he didn’t want to meet us.”

Do you have any other idols?
“I think Andy Murray is pretty great. Who would have seen that coming? A Scottish tennis player in the top three. It will be a great psychological weight lifted from the country if and when he finally wins a major. I think that would have happened if Colin Montgomerie had ever won a major.”

On April 23, exactly two months ahead of its release date, the full God Help The Girl album leaked onto the internet. However, Stuart isn’t too troubled.
“The hard fact is, we’re going to make a lot less money," he acknowledges. "Our sales will go like that [arrows hand done], they have done. But up until the point where I’ve having to seriously think about getting another job to get by, I can’t really complain. What’s the point in getting mad? The internet is a sort of approximation of what Belle & Sebastian was all about when we started. It’s a democratisation. It’s not so much them and us anymore. When we started we felt we weren’t different from the audience and they got that feeling from us, and that has been carried on with the internet. You maybe lose a bit of glamour on the way but it’s good for music.”

4 God Help The Girl - Perfection As A Hipster (Gary Olson vocal)
4 God Help The Girl - The Psychiatrist Is In (Catherine Ireton vocal)

Live review: Hockey @ ABC 1, Glasgow

Expectation can be a curse. At the turn of the year we would have put good money on HOCKEY following in the riff-stream of The Strokes and The Killers to become the great new heroes of glammed-up American alternative rock.

While there's still every chance the Portland boys will turn into the darlings of the media (they snagged a spot on Jools Holland last week despite only having one UK single to their name), watching them perform in the flesh for the first time last night exposed their limitations.
They look the part (i.e. they'd get a sound whipping if they weren't in a band) with Hockey members sporting such preposterous features as a hairband, a semi-handlebar moustache, sunshine yellow jeans, indoor shades and a white-man afro - but they quite simply don't have enough songs of real quality to fill a set.

During their final gig as tour support to Friendly Fires, singer Benjamin Grubin tries his hardest to rouse an attentive but whelmed Glasgow audience, flailing his arms around like a chimp during the new wave pop of Too Fake and making a possibly ill-thought-out remark about the Edinburgh crowd being "crazy" on the previous night.

Make no mistake, Song Away is as perfect as a pop song can get, and assuming the make-Hockey-famous mission goes to plan, it should be on the radios just in time to become the 'surprise' hit of the festival season. But as dazzling as Song Away is, don't get carried away.

4 Hockey - Song Away
4 Hockey - Too Fake
b July 12, T in the Park, Balado (tickets)
b September 19, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh (tickets)
b September 20, King Tut's, Glasgow (tickets)

Why politicians telling radio stations what to play is a good thing

Scotland's most listened to commercial radio station, Clyde 1, has a list of artists which they call their "Top 50". It is an exclusive club that contains only the rich and famous, from which their daily playlist is chosen, and it reads like Q magazine's contents page:

Amy Macdonald, Amy Winehouse, Beyonce, Bryan Adams, Coldplay, David Gray, Duffy, The Feeling, Franz Ferdinand, The Fratellis, Girls Aloud, James Morrison, Kaiser Chiefs, Katy Perry, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, The Killers, Kings of Leon, The Kooks, KT Tunstall, Kylie, Lily Allen, Madonna, Maroon 5, Mika, Natalie Imbruglia, Nickleback, Oasis, Orson, Paolo Nutini, Paul Weller, Pink, Pussycat Dolls, Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Robbie Williams, Scissor Sisters, Scouting For Girls, The Script, Sharleen Spiteri / Texas, Simple Minds, Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Sugababes, Take That, The Proclaimers, Travis, U2, The Verve.

As you can see, 10 of the 50 acts are from Scotland (and we're generously including Snow Patrol - three parts Northern Irish to two parts Scottish), but if one man gets his way things could soon change.

Culture Minister Mike Russell wants to force radio stations to play a quota of Scottish music - much higher than the 20% currently wheeled out by the likes of Clyde 1 - to increase exposure to native musicians and boost the country's music industry. The difficulties standing in his way are twofold:

1. Since broadcasting powers are not devolved to Scotland, Russell would not have the authority to legislate a quota regime, so the best he can hope for is to introduce it as a voluntary code.

2. Opposition MSPs will do anything and everything to ensure the scheme (voluntary or otherwise) never becomes a reality - not because they think it is bad for the Scottish music industry, but because they represent opposition parties and, as such, have to be seen to be hindering the SNP at every turn. This is one of the many reasons why the pettiness of politics leaves most people feeling disaffected or, at best, indifferent.

Russell got the idea from a recent visit to Canada, where the system is in operation under an agreement known as Cancon ('Canadian content'), which guarantees that 35% of music played on commercial radio is Canadian, so the likelihood is that a similar figure will be sought here.

Predictably, Radio Clyde, which attracts 600,000 listeners in and around the Glasgow area, are far from happy at the prospect of their precious Top 50 list being tampered with. In response to the proposal, programme director Paul Saunders said: "If Scottish artists are good enough they will get support from radio stations here anyway. Playing them just because they are Scottish would not be fair to them and would also be a disservice to listeners."

They key phrase to take from his statement is “good enough”. What Saunders meant to say was "famous enough". Commercial radio stations such as Clyde 1 will refuse to touch any song (Scottish or otherwise) if it doesn’t already have a high profile or, at the very least, a London-based PR company plugging it. The best an unestablished artist can hope for is to get a cursory play on one of the graveyard shows.

The reason this has got us so worked up is because we come across dozens of fantastic new Scottish bands and musicians, but they don't get the support they need and deserve because people in influential positions aren't willing to give them a shot. Why? Because they fear that playing songs made by non-household names will make their audience switch off.

We couldn't disagree more, and we're offering up four mp3s to prove it. Two of the artists, DOTJR and RODDY HART, are unsigned, while MALCOLM MIDDLETON and CAMERA OBSCURA are probably familiar to most readers of The Pop Cop yet still ignored by commercial radio in their own country, the latter having just played the 1,900-capacity Barrowlands venue and reached a very respectable No.32 in the UK charts with their new album My Maudlin Career.

4 Dotjr - This Is My Life
4 Roddy Hart - Dead Of The Night
4 Malcolm Middleton - Red Travellin' Socks
4 Camera Obscura - French Navy

The four tracks have one thing in common - they're all bona fide pop songs made by Scottish artists that wouldn't sound out of place next to any other artist in that hallowed Top 50.

Speaking of which, one of that list, Razorlight, stepped back in time last weekend by playing to just 300 punters at King Tut's in Glasgow in what could only be described as a frenzied atmosphere.

A friend of ours who knows the band well once told us that, yes, Johnny Burrell is every bit the egotistical, big-headed control freak he comes across as, but apparently that's no bad thing when your primary goal in life is to be a rock star.

And judging by the way his fans hung on his every word (and to each other in a gross display of sweat-soaked manpanionship) at King Tut's, he's clearly a hero to some, although not the kind we can readily identify with.

Then again, if it wasn't for hearing the Razorlight song America, this post wouldn't have been half as interesting. Perhaps Johnny was on to something when he wrote "there's nothing on the radio that means that much to me".

Hinterland 2009 review

A 7pm start time is asking a lot of your seasoned gig-goer. The Thursday evening sun is still burning bright and the mince 'n' tatties have been barely digested but this is the inaugural HINTERLAND and our festival schedule tells us that CASSIDY are due on in the bowels of Pivo Pivo, a basement bar more famous for its pizza offers than its pedigree as a live music venue.

Cassidy may be relative newcomers on the Glasgow circuit but folk in the know tell us there's a real industry buzz surrounding them. It doesn't take long to see why. When the four shaggy-haired young guys start strumming in unison and each member sings an alternate line of Americanised blues-rock, you can almost see a thought bubble of "Kings of Leon meets Take That" floating above the head of the A&R man perched next to us. All of which counts for zero if you haven't got the songs but Cassidy score highly here too, with some delicious harmonies and melodies that you'll be whistling on your way home.

But this is no time for home. Next on the agenda is a five-minute power walk to the Classic Grand to catch ORPHANS & VANDALS, who are completely new to us. Dressed all in black except for the quite wonderfully unhinged drummer throwing Karen O-esque facial expressions from the back, the English band seem to have a dark magic about them.

They have a song that sounds like Mercury Rev, one like Nick Cave and another like Sons And Daughters, but they hit their peak early into the set and Al Joshua's limited singing voice becomes a noticeable weak link that dulls any long-term appeal.

BEERJACKET has drawn the short straw of the 15 venues, his quiet acoustic songs lost among the spit 'n' sawdust surroundings of MacSorley's and a room full of pub chatter. He wisely ups the tempo with Tongue from his forthcoming album Animosity and even DJ Jim Gellatly is moved to shove a camera phone in singer Peter Kelly's face from three feet away. The Radio Scotland man later persuaded Beerjacket to record an impromptu song in the pub stairwell, which you can download at the end of this post.

Back at the Classic Grand, young pups BRIGADE are making a deafening racket to a hardy bunch of followers. Their best song, Stunning, is drowned out by a screaming mush of feedback and squalling amps but they're playing with smiles on their faces, so we get into the spirit of the chaos it until the ringing in our ears gets too much.

Upstairs, the beautiful orchestral indie sounds of FANFARLO are cruelly played out in front of barely 50 people. To their credit, the Londoners don't let it dampen their enthusiasm, with songs such as Luna and Fire Escape perfectly showcasing bow-tied singer Simon Balthazar's fondness of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

Across town, TOMMY REILLY initially looks uneasy in his role as headliner at King Tut's and he's not helped by his new guitar "misbehaving" and constant heckling from a group of morons in the front row. But they were counted as minor blips with the Glasgow singer-songwriter, much to his credit, taking both annoyances in his stride and his angst-fuelled pop songs go down a treat with the packed crowd.

On to Friday, and Sheffield duo SLOW CLUB are the perfect accidental find that makes this random band-watching business totally worthwhile. With Charles Watson on guitar and Rebecca Taylor predominantly on standing-up drumming duties, the 'rowing couple' interplay between the pair at The Arches is almost as entertaining as their music, which is pitched somewhere between Mates Of State, The White Stripes and The Moldy Peaches.

Some unexpected reverb sets Rebecca off on the giggles and when more gremlins strike her acoustic guitar during Wild Blue Milk, they both walk down to the pit in front of the stage and deliver the song unplugged, endearing themselves even further to an already smitten audience.

The same room hosts SONS AND DAUGHTERS, who seem like household names in amongst a blizzard of newcomers and wannabes at Hinterland. Perhaps it's this over-familiarity which makes their performance a bit of a non-event. There's no denying they have a heap of killer pop tunes to call on - Taste The Last Girl being a standout tonight - but even though they draw one of the biggest crowds of the two days, most people seem apathetic about it all.

Round the corner at the Classic Grand, Edinburgh seven-piece BROKEN RECORDS are on their relentless drive to win the hearts and minds of Glasgow. Oddly, it seems like half the audience have decided to take up amateur photography, with the front two rows flooded with lenses and flashes. Honestly, you'd think Barack Obama was on stage.

But no worries. When opener Nearly Home kicks in (really kicks in), it's impossible not to immerse yourself utterly in the grandiosity of the marching drums and swaying strings. Unfortunately the snappers didn't capture the moment my previously skeptical gig buddy's jaw lowered in awe. Seeing Broken Records live for the first time tends to have that effect.

However, with the venue filling up nicely with latecomers, disaster strikes when Jamie Sutherland loses his voice. "Does anyone know these songs? Does anyone want to sing them?" he asks. It's heartbreaking to watch. Despite the obvious discomfort as he strains to hit his notes, he soldiers on heroically, even responding to his manager's suggestion he call it a night by telling the audience: "We've never quit a show... we're not about to start now." They make it to the end, finishing with the divine Slow Parade. Even a Broken Records with half of their powers is better than anyone else.

Our Hinterland experience is wrapped up by local heroes WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS, who are in fine form at the ABC2, smiling insanely from the outset as they take epic to a new level with Conductor, all crescendos and instrumental bliss before it turns into an indie-disco stomp thanks to Darren Lackie's famed "party drums". Quiet Little Voices is just as raucous, with much of the crowd singing back every word - proof that the people of Glasgow are ready to back these boys all the way to the top.

All photos © The Pop Cop

4 Beerjacket - Drum (live at Hinterland)
b May 18, King Tut's, Glasgow (supporting Kristin Hersh) (tickets)
b June 17, Oran Mor, Glasgow (tickets)
4 Cassidy - Stray Cat
b May 5, King Tut's, Glasgow (tickets)
b May 29, The Loft, Dunoon
b June 11, The Admiral, Glasgow
b June 25, Captains Rest, Glasgow (tickets)
4 Orphans & Robbers - Strays
4 Slow Club - Christmas TV