Belle and Sebastian have announced that they will be performing live this summer for the first time since 2008. Currently the Glasgow band are set to play in Japan, Korea, Norway and Finland. Details are below and, as always, the listing will be updated if and when more gigs are added.
The Q&A section of the Belle and Sebastian provides a wealth of information about the band and their songs, directly from the band members themselves. In the past few days, Stuart has responded to questions and given an insight into the themes that have infused the new record and into their decisions to play certain festivals. There is also the suggestion that US dates may be added to their summer festival schedule:
From: Andrew
Q.Oh what a day! So does the new album have a theme yet or has it not been decided?A. i’m looking at the list of songs here, in no particular order, and the themes are
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nostalgia
empathy/pedagogy
desire (non sexual)
anatomy of doomed love
lust/jealousy
anatomy of barely tasted love
empathy for a stranger
nostalgia/denial
shock of change/self assertion
desire and uncertainty
self assertion/ subtle kiss-off
spiritual desire
spiritual affirmation…
months ago, i started by trying to pick a theme, to perhaps inspire the group, and myself. these conceits slowly dissipate as you get your head into each song, one at a time.
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now the order of events will be;
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finish the songs
pick the songs to record
record the songs
mix the songs
sequence the songs
think about an image to accompany the songs
pick an lp title that suits the image
stand back and try and look for a cohesive theme!
Stuart – 21/03/10
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From: Anonymous
Q.Interested to know the machinations behind where and when you do live gigs.I mean I think it’s good that you are going to Korea but how does that happen?Does somebody say over coffee ‘hey let’s go to Korea!’ or do you get invited or sent?(as in an overseas posting!)A. it does usually start that way. we do take note of who’s asking for us, and then we go about seeing if we can make it work. ( we know where all the letters and emails are coming from. we may not respond very readily, but it does sink in)
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this year, however, we’re following the path of least resistence, doing mostly festivals that people ask us to do, and that dictates where we end up. but in the future, we know the places we want to get to, and we’re always trying to figure out how to get there! for instance, we’ve been desperate to get back to south america for years, but we up till this point we haven’t been able to make that happen.
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there is a financial aspect to that. we used to be able to do loss making tours; in fact most of them were (we did tend to bring rather a lot of people!) as mick and richard pointed out yesterday, we simply can’t do that anymore, especially as the income from record sales is on a permanent fade out!
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we’re all determined though, and it will be with great joy if we ever get to march into mexico or the balkans, malasyia, or even florida, to name but a few..
Stuart – 19/03/10
http://www.belleandsebastian.com/qa.php?about=tours&show=latest
Walking onstage with Belle and Sebastian, Coachella 2004
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbImwKRJ1IQ
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The Boy with the Arab Strap – Belle and Sebastian at Coachella
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECskjjpvLFc
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Photo Credit: Cadd