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Why 'Belle Lettres'? Simple question, simple answer: Because of Love.

Because no other pop group this side of the decade has made me feel this way. Because I still have a heart. Because that heart still beats with a rhythm that goes in time with classic pop songs. Songs you just get an instinctive feeling about their Specialness. Is that a word? MS Word tells me no, but what does that know about Pop Music? I rest my case.

I wrote a friend called Kate who is 17 and told her that Belle & Sebastian were the only pop group worth obsessing over in these days, and she seemed to agree up to a point. I told her there were tangible reasons for my claim and listed a range of musical and other artists that I could claim a linkage to. I shan't list them here. They've had too many listed in comparison, something which I always think is conclusive proof of an artists' ability to elude easy compartmentalisation. Belle & Sebastian, to paraphrase Paul Morley on the incomparable Magazine, may not be new, but they are most certainly New. Which is saying too much already.

'Belle Lettres' is not intended as a fact finding mission on the myth that is Belle & Sebastian. There are no record reviews, no listings of performances and tales of the band. There are only linked tales of personal obsessions; obsessions rooted on three factors, one being peple (in general, in particular), another being an idea on the nature of existence, the third on a Pop Group. I suspect that the first and third are the most important and lasting.

Some 'facts' you may wish to know before continuing: Isabel is not Isobel and Jo is not Jo. As is the case in much art that reflects 'realities', these characters are amalgams of reality. More or less. I think. The words are also effectively notes for a novel, a notion which tries to put into effect Stuart Murdoch's entreaty to turn an active imagination to good use. I'm trying, I'm trying...

[i don't love anyone]Alistair Fitchett. 1997.