I first heard The state that I am in on Mark and lards Radio 1 show in 96 and its still amongst my favourite Belle & Sebastian tracks. Great tune, wonderful lyrics (Got married in a rush, to save a girl from being deported, now shes in love) deadpan delivery..a template that theyve run with ever since.
Ive only managed to see them once before, 2002 at Glastonbury (the first year of the fence there) and to be honest, wasnt that bothered about seeing them this time round when I found out tickets were £25 but Lees work colleague Dave insisted that we should and so Lee got us ticketshow right you were Dave!
As we arrived Admiral Farrow the support were on. A pleasant indie/folkie sound also from Glasgow.
B+S were just fabulous. There was a dozen of them on stage and they all changed instruments at some stage from strings to trumpet to melodica to keyboards..etc. Stuart Murdoch is a great front man. He knows theres a lot of love in the room for B+S and he’s probably the main reason for it.
He got someone at the front to apply some eye-liner to him, others to get up and have a dance (well done Harriet Hey) and disappeared at one stage mid-song to appear up on the balcony, shaking hands and taking time out to watch the band. This is the last night of the tour and I wanted to see what they looked like before we dont see each other again for ages..you all look much younger from up there
The audience really responded to them, clapping along and being quiet when needed – with a bit of shushing at times (it still mystifies me why people pay to go to gigs them chat throughout the performance). Stuart was very complimentary about Leeds We love your big municipal buildings.not like Leicester where we weve just been I couldnt agree more my brother Ste, who lives in Leicester, once said If god wanted to give the world an enima, hed choose Leiceter as the entry point!. A great night from one of the most consistently great bands of the last 15 years long may they continue!
Bob the Chiropodist