The Belles of Christmas

Belle & Sebastian return this Christmas with their sixth studio album and first ever international release for Rough Trade. It’s one of their strongest efforts yet, sitting comfortably beside records of the calibre of If You’re Feeling Sinister and The Boy With The Arab Strap.
Dear Catastrophe Waitress is also the band’s poppiest and most immediate LP to date, not surprising, perhaps, when you learn that it was produced by ’80s maestro Trevor Horn (Buggles, Yes, ABC, TATU, Frankie Goes To Hollywood).
“We worked with a pool of songs which were put together differently,” Richard Colburn reveals. “In the past, individuals came in with individual complete songs. There is a lot of collaboration going on here and little ideas that have grown into songs.”
“Bob (new member Bobby Kildea from Bangor and also of the Reindeer Section) being in the band makes a difference,” Chris Geddes continues. “He just wants to rock! We’ve also being trying to inject a lot of energy into our live shows in the last couple of years so that comes across in recording.”
“Also, in doing the record in Glasgow and having the chance to go somewhere else made it a bit different,” Richard believes. “The facilities that were around us were pretty amazing. We were also privileged to have Trevor Horn and everything that goes with him.”
B&S have had their fair share of line up changes in the intervening years, with Stuart David deflecting to Looper and, more recently, Isobel Campbell leaving the fold.
“Obviously, it changes things musically quite a lot because there was a time when Isobel’s cello playing was a massive part of our sound,” Chris reflects. “I don’t want to sound too nasty but there are certain things that are easier with Isobel not being in the band as much as I miss her.
“I really miss both Bel and Stuart because there was definitely a point when they were my best friends in the band. I kind of find it disappointing that sometimes the band weren’t ambitious enough or open-minded enough to be able to take in everything that they both wanted to do.”
Are such tensions and changes an occupational hazard of being in such a large band?
“Oh aye,” Richard agrees. “It comes up every so often whether it’s a musical or a business decision or whatever. That’s what makes it good and interesting to have so many people involved and it can make it interesting but there is a flipside to that as well.”
Richard also makes his acting debut in the video for the first single to be lifted from the album, ‘Step Into My Office Baby’, is directed by former hotpress scribe and Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan.
“It’s based on Confessions Of A Window Cleaner, so it’s an early ’70s soft porn vibe,” Richard reveals. “It wasn’t too difficult ’cos I’ve watched that kind of thing many times.”
Aside from being a great album, the cover star of Dear Catastrophe Waitress also happens to be rather tasty.
“Her name is Chantalle and I think she is a real waitress,” Chris says. “Stuart saw her and thought, ‘That’s a face that’s going to shift a few records!’”

Dear Catastrophe Waitress is out now on Rough Trade. A DVD called For Fans Only is also available through Jeepster. We’ve been told to expect some Irish dates in the New Year.