For those who have followed the progress of 'God Help The Girl' since the call for singers on iMeem in 2007 - here is some information about the first release from the record:

‘Come Monday Night,’ an orchestrated pop song from the pen of Stuart Murdoch, is the first single release from the ‘God Help The Girl’ album, to be released on 22nd June 2009.

‘God Help The Girl’ is a story set to music, which Murdoch has been working on intermittently for the last five years and his first new music since Belle and Sebastian’s seventh album, ‘The Life Pursuit’ in 2006.

"I was out for a run and I got this tune in my head,” says Stuart of the album. “It occurred to me that it wasn't a Belle & Sebastian song. I could hear female voices and strings, I could hear the whole thing, but I just couldn’t envisage myself singing it with the group.”

Both of these elements feature on what is one of the standout tracks on the album. The singer is Catherine Ireton, a native of Limerick who now lives in Edinburgh, discovered via a friend of a friend, and who has also previously appeared on Belle and Sebastian record sleeves.

After auditioning early in the process, she ended up taking the majority of lead vocals on the album. In Catherine, Stuart has found a rare talent - her clear, lilting vocals bringing to life the characters in Stuart’s head and making for an ambitious and engrossing musical journey.

‘Come Monday Night’ also features an orchestra conducted by Rick Wentworth as well as Stuart, Stevie, Bob and Richard from Belle and Sebastian. The b-side is the sublimely titled ‘Howard Jones Is My Mozart.’

So this morning I reached as far as I am going to reach in my attempt to become organised. The ‘free world’ has a new leader, and I have a new sock drawer.

My socks haven’t been paired for about 6 years. Consequently, I just keep buying socks, making the problem worse. This is my last task on the road to domestication, so I go at it blindly, almost drunkenly.

I invent a mythology for myself to makes things go easier. A sock mythology. As I try to pair, and I find many socks bereft of a partner, I come up with a union which I call The Single Sock Alliance. They plead for socks fallen on hard times, and try to save them from destruction as a single sock. One of the lines I hear used in a sock’s defense is

“He’s basically a Good Sock!”

It’s when I hear this line in my head, I realise that domestication isn’t everything. I have to get out. Lewis and Tolkein got a lot of mileage from anthropomorphic trees and animals, but socks ain’t gonna do it.

How about I get back to records and stuff.


Records and Stuff

Matthew
Question
god help the girl. an update of progress please stuart?

Ok, Matthew, glad you asked. The record’s going to come out in late spring. That’s the LP God Help The Girl. 12 Songs, unless I get annoyed with one of them and boot them off. Very late spring, shall we say?

Before that I think we’ll have a single or two. No queing up in Woolie’s anymore! No, you’ll have to look even harder!.. To your local independent stockist (at least for the vinyl). Or you could just download with the flick of a digit.

I think the first single is going to called Come Monday Night. It’s sung by Eve with a bit of Cass. It’s basically a lullaby for an overworked boy. My notes for the relevent scene say

Cass and Eve annoy James at work. They borrow his keys, and promise to have a song written by the time he’s finished work. When he gets home, they have rifled his stuff and are watching a porn vid.

James retreats to the pub. Eve and Cass drink James’s booze and talk about lactating and laundry. When James comes home the worse for drink, they sit him down and surprise him with their song, “Come Monday Night”. He is quietly enraptured.

I need to make a video for this track. I’m looking for an attic bedsit in Glasgow to film it in, preferably one with a sink and slopey ceilings. Bad carpets, a lumpy bed, and an alcove with cuttings depicting your favourite recording star. Serious, if you’ve got a place, or if you know of a place, get in touch and we’ll come and have a look. It’ll save us decorating. (The alcove is optional..)

Listen..

Right now I’m listening to The Woodentops, to Sandy Posey and to Jimmy Cliff ‘The Harder They Come’. I know because I just checked my ‘recently played’. But I also been digging some new stuff. I got a copy of the upcoming Butcher Boy long player, ‘React or Die’, and it’s a great listen, a real classy record from start to finish. I’ve been listening also to my two favourite tracks from last year. They are ‘Brand New Start’ by Little Joy, and ‘Hitten’ by Those Dancing Days. In fact, the Dancing Days one is a bootleg from their concert; it starts real slow and then winds up to hit single speed. Very nice.

Marisa and I went to see Dancing Days when they played in Glasgow at the end of last year. I had arranged to meet the group because I had a track that I thought they might want to record.

As you might imagine it was a bit akward at first, believe me. I’ve been there, I’ve been in the group when some music biz type comes in with a proposition... If it was Belle and Sebastian, we’d be sitting there in our little gang, waiting to be impressed, but ready to dismiss..

So there they were, gathered round a cosy bar table. I was one box of chalk short of feeling like a school teacher. Marisa and I had anticipated the awkwardness. We decided that the best way to combat awkwardness was to make it more awkward. I don’t know how we figured that one out.

The idea was, that if my words were met with stony silence, then I was to awkwardly mention an ‘achievement’ of mine, then Marisa would respond with a chorus of ‘Hercules! Hercules!’

For example
Me: “I have a Brit Award, you know.”
Marisa: “Hercules! Hercules!”

Me: “I’ve met Prince Charles, you know.”
Marisa: “Hercules! Hercules!”

We were sitting in a bar called The Captain’s Rest. There was an ugly statue of an old sea captain above our heads. Another facet to our plan was that any time I mentioned the name of the bar, Marisa would stand up, salute, and shout

“Aye Aye Sir!”

It’s almost a pity that we never got to try that one out.. The girls were very nice and accommodating. Our conversation was quite constructive; we decided we would get together sometime in the New Year to try something out.

hey kiddos

just hanging out here in glasgow. it's overcast and autumnal. i'm listening to status quo and jackson browne and the beat, but just as a short break from listening to you.

i'm feeling you, I'm feeling your online presence. we're not deliberately taking a long time, but we are deliberating. the consultation process made it's way south of the river this afternoon, when I was in the presence of Judge Jackson and QC Bob Kildea.

I’m sorry if I have left the guys rather on their own over this one. I’ve been concentrating on the ladies. Your due time is creeping up, fellahs! (and the numbers of you who are entering.)

I’m still going to need a bit of time, I hope you don’t mind. I may have to do a ‘tiny’ bit more setting of tasks, but not much.

In the meantime, hope you are feeling good, whoever you are, wherever you are...

stuart

hi folks, specifically the ladies

today is the last day for entries to the singing competition. we will retire for a while and consider all you have done.

i must say that I've come to enjoy the process, and the spirit in which it has taken place has been very homely. to me it felt like the beginning of the book 'charlie and the chocolate factory', with people checking in from all round the world. if i'd been any good i would have had a huge map of the world with little flags to show where you all posted from.

we will have a good think, and further listens, and we may ask some of you to sing the song you didn't already sing, so that we may hear more of your range and style. (this may take a little while, before we get some of you over to Glasgow!)

A couple of other things...

Be assured that we have been listening to the entries sent by email, even though correspondence may not have been entered into.

Also, that those in faraway time zones were allowed to post during October 1st, their time!

Also, please note, that although the 'media' record for the 'God Help The Girl' group might show that our listening habits were sporadic, we were in fact scouring the entries through a series of pseudonyms! Nothing was missed...

If we contact you it will only be from 'God Help The Girl' though, or a 'banchory.net' email address.

In the meantime, thank you for taking part, and thank you for reading!

stuart

Hi folks,

Just in case you thought we had abandoned you, we are still pouring over your efforts keenly! The standard has reached quite a shocking level - consistently high! I am amazed and surprised. I can only guess at how hard this is to do, coming cold to a track, having no say in the pitch or arrangement or tempo. But you really are doing a great job.

We are enjoying the videos also. It may have taken extra balls to get on camera, but it does help us pick up on your personalities, so the extra effort is worth it. It’s a friendly little move!

Don’t be perturbed if you think your track doesn’t reach ‘hi-fi’ quality. We can pretty much tell what kind of job you’re doing whatever you are recording on, though it’s been pleasant listening to the array of ‘smooth production jobs’ that have been presented so far. It is flattering that you have gone to the trouble of making such a nice noise!

There have been some technical, and otherwise, questions asked. In the forum, John will go through some of the most common ones - but may I answer one first?

Ok fellahs, we’re hearing you. We were going to leave this till later, but your interest has inspired us. We have a work in progress version of one of the songs, called ‘Perfection as a Hipster’. Gary Olson, from Brooklyn’s Ladybug Transistor is this week’s guest professional.

Gary has very kindly laid down a vocal on the track, along with our own Catherine Ireton. Have a listen on the audio player, and if you’re up for it, download the instrumental here and plug yourself in. The lyrics can be found here.

I know you’re only getting one track to work at, but somehow I think you’ll manage o.k..

If you’re wondering about your motivation for singing (and hey, this is musical drama after all!) you are the custodian of a a charity clothes shop. You are leaning on the counter on a sleepy Tuesday when in walks Girl 1.

A little unkempt, but still obviously something pretty special, you watch her move round the isles of clothing in a catlike way. Not only do you get to dress her up in the best things your boutique can offer, but you have to scrape her off the ground and revive her when she passes out in the changing room; the hero momentarily; her adventures that morning must have proved too much.

She recovers, leaving as quickly as she arrived, though better dressed. She’s off down the street, while you desperately try to negotiate the morning off with your old-lady co-workers. They just don’t understand your hurry!

You have until October 12th, men. Good luck.

Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian is looking for performers /singers to participate in a project called 'God Help The Girl' which he is currently developing.

He is making an album of songs based around different voices, which will subsequently be put together to form the backbone of a musical film which he is writing. Go here to read Stuart's full introduction to the project.

At present, he is looking for female singers to record the songs. They will represent the main characters in the film, but he is also looking for other singers to sing in supporting roles.

Members of Belle and Sebastian will be involved as the studio band for some of the recording, which will hopefully take place later this year.

By following the links around this site - you will be able to listen to and record your own version of one of two songs which have been recorded so far. Have a look around and go here for full instructions on how to put yourself forward for one of the parts. Thanks for your interest & Good luck!