‘This is the first time we’ve ever played outside’
Belle & Sebastian provide the soundtrack to a hazy Californian sunset at Coachella 2002.
The YouTube Gems series covers some of my favourite 5-10 minute online music videos.
I’ve never really delved in to Belle & Sebastian’s discography and can only name a handful of their songs, yet their performance of ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’ at Coachella 2002 is one of my favourite live videos. Maybe I need to pull my socks up and get stuck in to their back catalogue – but not yet, not yet…
Before we get to footage of the actual performance, we see someone lighting a hot-air balloon as it prepares to take flight over Coachella Valley and a woman dancing in the crowd with rhythmic gymnastic ribbons – admittedly slightly more graciously than Will Ferrell in Old School, released just a year after this gig. Maybe he was in the crowd and witnessed this, taking inspiration for the climactic scene of his next film? That aside, colourful hot air balloons and interpretive dance are definitely the kind of thing I’d expect to find at a Belle and Sebastian gig, living up to their reputation as twee indie darlings.
As the song begins, it appears as though Stuart Murdoch messes up the first line, semi-mumbling his delivery for a few bars until he manages to sing actual words. We are witnessing the excitement and unpredictability of live performance in front of our very eyes! But wait – Murdoch’s delivery of the opening line of the song is the same in the studio version of the song. He’s tricked us – it was all part of the plan. Those pesky indie darlings.
Murdoch, sporting The World’s Tightest Fred Perry Polo Shirt, has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand throughout the song. He interrupts his own vocal delivery to ask some of the women standing at the side of stage to come and dance with the band’s recorder player. One volunteer obliges and they both adopt a sort of side-to-side steam train motion. Who is this girl? Is this planned? Those pesky indie darlings.
“What do you make of the sound of the Foo Fighters? Floating across the polo pitch on a summer’s day”
During the breakdown of the song, the sound of Foo Fighters’ hard-rocking performance drifts across the valley to the stage that Belle and Sebastian are performing on and Murdoch quickly improvises to ask the crowd what they make of Dave Grohl’s impromptu gate-crashing of their summer’s day sunset soirée. Festival management appear to be in his ear as he quickly corrects himself – ‘well it’s not quite summer but it seems like summer to us’. Phew – riot averted. Those pesky indie darlings.
It would be remiss not to mention guitarist Stevie Jackson, who spends most of the song with his face absolutely tripping him. It’s as if he hasn’t spotted the lilac sunset, the adoring crowd and the palm trees that flank the stage. We can only assume that the reason for his mood is that Stuart Murdoch has stolen The World’s Tightest Fred Perry Polo Shirt from Jackson’s young child to wear on stage that night. To be fair, that would be upsetting. That pesky indie darling.
Fortunately, Jackson appears to get over the case of the stolen polo shirt and returns to the stage, having swapped his acoustic guitar for a Telecaster. He pulls some serious Pete Townshend-esque power poses as he blasts a few tasty blues licks across the Coachella Valley. Maybe he wasn’t in a mood after all? Maybe it was part of the plan, like the dancers? Those pesky indie darlings.
The last thing that catches my eye is one fella in the front row, clutching a Belle and Sebastian vinyl sleeve and screaming Stuart’s name. He looks like he’s easily their number 1 fan and it’s hard to think of a better setting to see a band from Glasgow perform – the sun setting over a valley in California. I hope the band made a point of signing that album of his. Those pesky indie darlings.
Clockwise: The World’s Tightest Polo Shirt; The volunteering dancer; “you stole my child’s polo shirt”; Pete Townshend; the number 1 fan; The World’s Angriest Acoustic Guitarist