Wednesday 12th July 2023
Like many people I originally got into Belle and Sebastian through the Channel 4 comedy Teachers (their seminal hit ‘I’m a Cuckoo’ is the theme song) and I was also partial to Googling ‘depressing songs’ during the Napster/Limewire era which brought me to ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’. Somehow, despite years of attending gigs and festivals I have never encountered Belle and Sebastian as a live act before. Indeed, this very gig was cancelled twice before it finally took place on a balmy summer night in Sheffield…
While I have quietly respected Belle and Sebastian’s later work, it is their earlier albums that are my true love and so I am quietly thrilled when they begin with Tigermilk favourite ‘Expectations’ before bursting into the aforementioned ‘I’m a Cuckoo’. The Glasgow band currently have seven official members but there are various session muscians and techs knocking about which gives the whole gig a pleasingly chaotic air. Bandleader Stuart Murdoch wonders aloud about whether their old songs will get them cancelled before launching into a triumphant runthrough of early single ‘She’s Losing It’. The gentle lyrics and the presence of a trumpet solo serve as a reminder of just how different this band were during their ’90s and ’00s heydey to everything else that was on offer at the time, and if anything, their early stuff has only got better with age.
‘Piazza, New York Catcher’ has always been one of the band’s prettiest songs and Murdoch delivers a tender and ethereal rendition of it here before guitarist and sometime vocalist Stevie Jackson takes centre stage for a heartfelt version of ‘Seymour Stein’ – one of Belle and Sebastian’s essential album tracks. That song is the epitome of the band itself – a diamond in the rough. A rarity. Something that feels like it’s ours.
The Glasgow heroes improvise a take on ‘Dress Up in You’ following a request from a fan who had travelled all the way from Romania before ‘The Boy With the Arab Strap’ properly brings the house down. Murdoch’s sense of community is in full swing as he invites the entire front row up on the stage to dance around in the background and the song feels like a celebration of something. Of being a little weird perhaps? An oddball’s anthem? Whatever it is, it’s a powerful tonic, and the stage invaders stick around for a triumphant run through of ‘The Blues are Still Blue’. It’s all bracing, life-affirming stuff.
The first part of the set is closed out by a lovely rendtion of ‘Judy and the Dream of Horses’ before Murdoch introduces ‘Your Cover’s Blown’ as ‘the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ of indie rock’. The crowd go suitably wild. A quick onstage discussion ends with ‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’ – one of the songs that made me fall in love with the band in the first place. And it sounds incredible. The kind of song that can soundtrack a whole lifetime. It’s always been there for me.
Murdoch is effusive for his praise for the Sheffield audience and crucially you can tell he really means it. He’s delighted to be there. So are the crowd. An evening to warm the cockles and spread a smile.