This year, Glasgow formed indie poppers Belle and Sebastian are celebrating 30 years of ‘Tigermilk’ (released 6th June 1996) and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ (released 18th November 1996) by performing the iconic albums in full during a series of two-night stands at classic venues across the UK, Europe, US, Canada, and Mexico.
As part of the celebrations, they will be heading to the iconic De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea on Wednesday 16th December in order to play their ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ album in full. This will then be followed by a second set of everyone’s favourite Belle and Sebastian tunes.
First released in 1996, both records have long-since attained mythic status – “greatest of all time” list fixtures with songs that have spent decades populating mixtapes and playlists. Pitchfork called ‘Tigermilk’ “immaculate” and The Guardian praised ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ as “subtly poetic, wickedly funny, and gorgeously melodic.”
Each evening will focus on one record, followed by a second set of classic Belle and Sebastian tunes.
The band is named after Belle Et Sébastien, a French novel by Cécile Aubry about a boy (Sébastien) and his Pyrénées mountain dog (Belle). The novel became famous and a popular children’s television series in France in the late 1960s, and then internationally in the early 1970s.
In October 2014 the band reissued all 11 of their releases, up to that point, under the series heading ‘It Could Have Been A Brilliant Career’, taken from the song with the same name that appeared on ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’.
Last year, Stuart Murdoch released his debut novel, ‘Nobody’s Empire’, which the Guardian praised as, “Radiantly written.” In 2023, Belle and Sebastian released ‘Late Developers’, the second of two back-to-back albums following 2022’s ‘A Bit Of Previous’. It is a full-hearted embrace of the band’s brightest tendencies that is not only fresh and immediate, but possessing that B&S je ne sais quoi. “Like If You’re Feeling Sinister, this is a near-simultaneous follow-up that’s somehow even better than its acclaimed predecessor,” wrote Pitchfork.
It’s also worth noting that Belle and Sebastian have had their songs featured on numerous soundtracks, and their unique, lushly orchestrated chamber pop tunes have won them critical acclaim, including nominations for The Mercury Music Prize and Ivor Novello Award, alongside popular appeal.
Fan pre-sale tickets for the forthcoming tour will be available on Wednesday 17th June at 9am and general sale tickets go on sale on Friday 19th June at 9am – Details HERE.
Regarding the Bexhill ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ concert on Wednesday 16th December, members of the De La Warr Pavilion will be able to obtain their tickets from 9am on Thursday 18th June – Details HERE.
‘Tigermilk’ tracklisting:
‘The State I Am In’
‘Expectations’
‘She’s Losing It’
‘You’re Just A Baby’
‘Electronic Renaissance’
‘I Could Be Dreaming’
‘We Rule The School’
‘My Wandering Days Are Over’
‘I Don’t Love Anyone’
‘Mary Jo’
‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ tracklisting:
‘The Stars Of Track And Field’
‘Seeing Other People’
‘Me And The Major’
‘Like Dylan In The Movies’
‘The Fox In The Snow’
‘Get Me Away From Here, I’m Dying’
‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’
‘Mayfly’
‘The Boy Done Wrong Again’
‘Judy And The Dream Of Horses’
