In the All-Night Café: A Memoir of Belle and Sebastian's Formative Year

by Stuart David

“One afternoon in 1994, I had an idea.” So begins Stuart David’s charming, evocative memoir about the indie pop band Belle and Sebastian.
 
Determined to make his living writing stories and songs, Stuart had spent several years scraping by on the dole in his small, industrial hometown. Then he had the fateful idea to learn bass guitar, and to head for Glasgow in search of likeminded artists.
 
In the All-Night Café describes his fortuitous meeting with the group’s cofounder Stuart Murdoch in a course for unemployed musicians. It tells of their adventures in two early incarnations of Belle and Sebastian and culminates in the recording of their celebrated debut album, Tigermilk .
 
This portrait of the group and its origins will resonate with anyone who has put together—or thought of putting together—a band. It is a story of a group of friends who wanted to create a different kind of music, and how—against all expectations—they succeeded.
 
Written with wit, affection, and a novelist’s observant eye, In the All-Night Café brings to life the early days of this most enigmatic and intriguing of bands.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, Biography, Biography Memoir, Rock N Roll

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

Stuart David is the co-founder of the bands Belle & Sebastian, and Looper. He has published two novels, "Nalda Said" and "The Peacock Manifesto".

Reviews

[Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I got into Belle & Sebastian, circa 1998, the band were a total mystery. Live dates were a rarity, publicity photos often didn't actually feature members of the band, and the band's origins were shrouded in myth. Fast forward almost two decades, and B&S are a fairly conventional indie band. They tour, they do interviews, they put out records which garner good reviews from the mainstream music press. There's still something compelling about the band's backstory though ... a bunch of strangers coalescing around frontman Stuart Murdoch, beavering away at a mismanaged music school and then recording their debut album in three days and releasing it via a tertiary music industry course. (My favourite story is still the one where guitarist Stevie Jackson couldn't meet Sire Records' Seymour Stein because he couldn't get out of his shift washing dishes that night.)

This is not the first book on the early years of Belle & Sebastian, having been preceded by Paul Whitelaw's (at the time) tell-all Belle and Sebastian: Just a Modern Rock Story and Scott Plagenhoef's excellent 33 1/3 book on If You're Feeling Sinister. Plus, of course, the once reclusive frontman Stuart Murdoch published his own diaries, The Celestial Café a few years ago, which also add insight into the later years of the band. As the first person to "join" Belle & Sebastian, and as a fellow student of the ineptly run Beatbox "school of rock", Stuart David was there from the beginning. His version of the story doesn't had a whole bunch of new information to what fans already know, but his descriptions of the minutiae of these mundane beginnings are fantastic. The cast of ne'er-do-wells inhabiting the halls of Beatbox would make for a great TV series.

David has already published a couple of excellent novels, Nalda Said and The Peacock Manifesto, so there's no question of his literary chops. The tone of this book really fits with the Belle & Sebastian ethos. Confident but never cocky, relishing in the small details that lesser authors would gloss over.

In the All-Night Cafe is an essential read for fans of the band. It's unlikely to convert the unbelievers, but if you're a fan of the band's first few albums you'll love it.

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was able to totally breeze through this book, as it was so comforting to read. I love reading books set in Glasgow, and if it's non-fiction it's a total plus. Add to that this being a memoir of the genesis of one of my favourite bands, and you've got a good time. That being said, this was just a little too simply written and limited in its scope for me to give it anything higher than a 'I just liked this' rating. I also wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless they really like Belle and Sebastian. But it's such an easy read that I had a great time with it.

[Kate Dansette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is worth reading even if you are not a fan of Belle and Sebastian. Really! Still reeling (in fact my body is shakin') from B&S's unexpected connection with 90s boyband 911.

[nel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by and far the best account of Belle & Sebastian's formation, with the added perk of it not being dryly described by a second or third party.

Stuart David, an original-original band member, starts off with his own take of being a somewhat lonely 20-something with no idea what to do with his life and ends the story a couple of years later at the launch party for the band's debut album, Tigermilk. And he really tells it like a story; fascinating characters float in and out of the narrative, some so weird and specific that they can't possibly be made up, there's a certain structure to the timeline that makes the memoir feel like fiction, and there are multiple key moments that drive the story forward and act as forces for Stuart's personal growth, as well as the growth of his developing relationships with his friends and bandmates.

It's actually a fun read too. Stuart is an entertaining writer, keeping things very simple but with curious details that kept me eager to keep reading. Even as a huge B&S fan who was already fairly familiar with their origins, I was constantly thinking, "lol what!? I wonder where this is going", and those events that are well-established in B&S canon are told in greater detail here and with less whimsy than anywhere else.

Of course, it's more than just a fun story. There's also plenty of more "technical" details sprinkled through for the fans; Stuart Murdoch's journey as a songwriter is woven into it, the recording process for Tigermilk is beautifully described, awkward early gigs are painfully relived, and many other easter eggs to find. It's especially fun to read through as the other bandmembers are introduced organically with little fanfare, but eventually developing into key characters in Stuart's tale and fleshed out as the cast of the band that fans are so familiar with. If Stuart David wrote one of these memoirs for every album he recorded with B&S before his departure after their 4th, I absolutely would eat them up.

In the All-Night Café is simple, heartfelt, funny. It is absolutely a must-read for any Belle & Sebastian fan. But I would also recommend this to anyone that might find catharsis in an odd, happy-ending story of a lost 20-something artist.

[shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

i started reading this book on a wednesday morning after calling into work "sick" (depressed) and i read most of the morning and took a nap in a sunny room with this next to me and had a beautiful dream: one that seemed to ease, at least for a moment, my anxious heart.

what a lovely behind the scenes telling of a very serendipitous time in stuart david's life. one day you're living in your parents' attic and trying to learn to play bass and the next, you're part of a major moment in time for the trajectory of indie music. seems what they say is true: life may surprise you yet.

[Jonathan Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Belle & Sebastian were a blanket I could wrap myself up in during my later teenage years and into university. Their music was a revelation to me. The effect the band had on me is out of all proportion to anything that might be considered reasonable.
I am definitely biased.
This is definitely the finest book about starting a band that I have read or can imagine.

[Mariana]

This had all the understandable weaknesses a memoir can have. But in the end I mostly got what I was looking for in this book, I think it frames Belle and Sebastian and Stuart Murdoch in a whimsical, amusing, sort of strange way befitting to their music and persona.
Also I can't believe how much basic information on Belle and Sebastian in published articles is blatantly incorrect.
*** updated:
Post concert I am so pleased to have read this book. This story focuses on the origins and bizarre very beginnings of Belle and Sebastian. It is written by Stuart David, who has long since left the band, but met lead Stuart Murdoch via a mutual at this strange government funded unemployed musicians hub in Glasgow. Beatbox, said hub, housed crowds of “inmates” (unemployed musicians) under the pretense of music courses and access to related resources. The inmates were to be clear voluntarily there and received tiny income support allowances, but the music courses and resources were limited if not nonexistent. Nonetheless after much wait both Stuarts were able to use Beatbox’s recording room and record their own music (each of them had their own projects). Stuart Murdoch’s music got chosen by a student class at nearby Stowe College to be the artist they as a class would produce for as a project. Their project included producing a few songs or EP for their artist, Stuart Murdoch insisted they record an entire album despite the extreme time constraints. A consistent theme: when Stuart Murdoch has a vision, his vision must fulfilled. So Belle and Sebastian records and mixes their first album, Tigermilk, in five days. Can you call them Belle and Sebastian at that point? Well before Tigermilk, barely. After Tigermilk, yes. Prior to Tigermilk, the six person group had only performed together twice. First at a party hosted in Stuart David’s flat and second at a public gig miserably planned by the students with essentially no audience. The band was put together fully by Stuart Murdoch, as was all the music. Interestingly, at the start Stuart Murdoch often rehearsed with the members individually to begin with and then only at the show would they come together. Stuart David does a fantastic job conveying the artistic drive and talent and particularity of Stuart Murdoch. He describes Stuart Murdoch’s mission to put together a band, a band with very certain members. A mission that almost brought him to move to SF. He describes how natural song and melody writing came to Stuart Murdoch, how his songs existed in his own defined “imaginary landscape”. How Stuart Murdoch was unflinching in unconventional musical and technical choices. From Stuart David, a clear image of Stuart Murdoch, an excessively talented and certain creative, that is silly whimsical sort of dorky was built in my head. That conceptual vision was perfectly embodied by Stuart Murdoch in the flesh in concert. It was emotional almost to watch this band perform 30 years later from the beginnings I read about. Since then they have gained recognition fan cult following and released eleven more albums. I just love that they totally made it. Belle and Sebastian and Stuart Murdoch have so much to offer and their music and stories and lyrical eccentricity are not for everyone and they know it, so its heartwarming that so many people that can appreciate it and love it and can see the cleverness have found them.

These are some quotes from the book
“After a quick tune-up we started to play our delicate songs, about school kids and disenchanted ponies”
Quote of Stuart David describing Stuart Murdoch in a letter to a friend
“He’s always talking about Kerplunk, and Aqua Boy, and Parma Violet-type sweets, and Catcher in the Rye. And he sings songs like The Pastels and all that. And he looks like that too”
“Most of the people I knew at that point who wrote songs or were in bands were fully focused on finding a record deal, myself included. That was considered to be the ultimate validation that what you were doing was worthwhile. But for Stuart [Murdoch], all that mattered was finding a group of people who believed in his songs enough to want to be in his band…One of his favorite groups at that time was Tindersticks, and he often spoke of how lucky Stuart Staples (the singer and song writer) was to have all those people wanting to play on his songs. The number seems to matter. Having a big band like that, of the right-minded people, who were desperate to play your songs seemed to be the only approval stuart [Murdoch] was interested in”
And now Stuart Murdoch has his seven piece band! With multiple other musicians that join them with additional instrumental accompaniments!
“[Stuart Murdoch] was often writing three new songs a day, and an unreasonable percentage of them were good songs. He said that the songs often started as jokes, and then developed into something real. That seemed to perplex him, even made him sad. But he continued to think up the jokes, and the jokes continued to turn into songs and sometimes he was writing them too fast for me to learn before he’d discarded them again”
For a time Stuart Murdoch was a caretaker and lived in a church, they would rehearse often in the church hall.
“Every sound reverberated around the same wooden surfaces, and became coated in the same honey-rich tones at the light. Stuart [Murdoch] loved the sound of the piano in the church hall. He loved the sound of his acoustic guitar in there too, And because he wanted to hear everything coated with that same golden echo, we began to rehearse in there”

These quotes aren’t from this book, but where else to put them? Some quotes that I think perfectly and beautifully describe Belle and Sebastian’s music:
"For me, B&S capture a very specific experience of existential bewilderment in the modern world, combined with the right amount of romance, comedy, storytelling and a healthy streak of cynicism" "Murdoch has a gift not only for whimsy and surrealism, but also for odd, unsettling lyrical detail which keeps the songs grounded in a tangible reality"
"These albums felt like a pure sonic distillation of the hazy zone between extended adolescence and early adulthood, when your days might be laced with romance and improvised adventure, or just as easily boring and shapeless, saturated with vague longing in search of suitable objects"
"Like a sweet, familiar honey, their music just sticks to you, whether you wanna spread it on your toast or not. Sure, they get a lot of hate: their songs are cloying, the singing a bit too saccharine at times, the lyrics silly, the sound the same on each album. I’ve heard them being called ‘beige’ music…For me, Belle & Sebastian make pastel coloured music"

[Jo Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book about being a twenty-something and trying to figure out what you want to do and how on earth to get started with it, which also happens to be about the beginning of Belle and Sebastian.

[Peter Colclasure · Rating 4 out of 5]

About once every two years I'll go through an intense Belle and Sebastian phase where I listen to nothing else for a week, while my wife complains about "that guy with the awful voice" whose songs all sound like "the intro to a '70s sitcom."

Stuart David was the original bass player for Belle and Sebastian, the first member besides singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch, and for a lengthy while the band consisted of just the two of them attempting unsuccessfully to recruit other musicians. Stuart David had vague plans to make it as a novelist or songwriter in his own right, but once he fell into the orbit of Belle and Sebastian, he found he couldn't escape the band's momentum.

In this memoir, Stuart recounts the band's first year in straight-forward, highly readable fashion. It's hard to make it as a band, and the miracle success story of Belle and Sebastian reads like a Hollywood script. In the space of one year, Stuart Murdoch went from playing his songs at open mics for disinterested drunks, to:

-recruiting a ragtag band of local musicians to play with him

-recording a demo

-having that demo gain some minor airplay on local radio

-having that radio airplay spark the interest of a local school's music business course

-having that business course choose him for their yearly project where they record and promote a single for an unsigned band

-convincing the school to let him record an album instead of a single

-making Tigermilk

-getting signed to Jeepster

-recording If You're Feeling Sinister only a few months later

This is the kind of thing that every band thinks is going to happen to them when they start out and it never does. It was a perfect storm of circumstances: the Beatbox program that Murdoch and Stuart were enrolled in, the local music business course, the fact that the British government in the late 1990s was willing to pay unemployed musicians a weekly stipend for studying music (go socialism!), the fact that there still existed a radio industry where DJs had enough autonomy to play great local music that they had discovered themselves (boo Clear Channel!), and of course the songwriting genius and prolific output of Stuart Murdoch himself.

Stuart Murdoch wrote, rehearsed, and recorded two classic albums in the space of 12 months. That's insane. And the talents of the musicians he surrounded himself with should not be underestimated in contributing to the success of the band. The keyboard parts, guitar lines, and rhythm section all gave Belle and Sebastian that timeless, retro sound that won the twee hearts of hipsters worldwide.

One interesting thing that I learned from reading this book was how uncompromising Stuart Murdoch was about his music. When you listen to Belle and Sebastian songs, and hear his voice, you get the impression of a rather meek, fey, unassertive lad. You hear about Murdoch's seven year stint with chronic fatigue syndrome, where he could barely get out of bed other than to eat a sandwich and play a few bars of piano each day, and you think, "Yep, that makes sense."

So there's an incongruity between the impression you get from the songs, and the reality of Murdoch's steely ambition. He had total confidence in his artistic vision. He talks about going to open mics at the time to watch other bands and walking out because "my songs were so much better than theirs." He had no qualms in bossing seasoned recording engineers around, demanding that they use only two overhead mics for the drums, or in firing a guitar player for taking too many solos. Or demanding that the music school which had just chosen him as the winner of their recording project allow him to record a full album instead of a single. Or telling legendary A&R man Seymour Stein that they would be signing with Jeepster instead of him. He stipulated that the band would not appear in their own press photos, that they would not give interviews or do publicity, and that they would release singles on vinyl and that the singles wouldn't be included on the albums, because that was how they did it in 1963. They turned down an offer to open for Radiohead on their Ok Computer tour. Any one of these things would have killed the career of another band, and the cumulative portrait borders on arrogance. And yet, for Belle and Sebastian, it only added to the mystique.

My history with Belle and Sebastian:

My brother-in-law put The Boy with the Arab Stap on a mix tape for me in high school and I fell in love with it. It remains my favorite album of theirs. One time I put it on at a party and it was playing away in the background when my friend Andy suddenly noticed it and asked, “What is this crap?" And went over and replaced it with Marcy Playground.

From Arab Strap I worked backwards. To me, their first four albums, plus the EPs complied on Push Barman . . . are perfect and indispensable. After Stuart David and Isobel Campbell left, I felt the quality became a bit uneven. There's not a single song they recorded before 2002 that I don't love unequivocally. But from Dear Catastrophe Waitress going forward, I only really like four or five songs on each album. And try as I might, I just couldn't get into Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. They're a band that benefits from being a little loose around the edges, a little lo-fi and out of tune. Once they got all tight and polished, I think they lost a little bit of the magic. But I can't hear those early albums without feeling like I'm cavorting through a Scottish meadow at the height of July, with a group of friends wearing cardigans and oxford shoes.

[Bernard Laugen · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.50. A great short memoir on the first year in the now almost 30 year career of the Scottish band, belle and sebastian. The story is told from the point of view of Stuart David, the bass player, who at the same time was trying to start his own musical career. As he experiences the rise, and ultimately the success of belle and sebastian, which he is very much a part of, he must also come to terms with his personal disappointments as his own music fails to connect with others.
A great story told well, I’d recommend this to all fans of belle and sebastian, but also to anyone who enjoys music books in general.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet.

[Jill Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

charming, self effacing tale of Belle and Sebastian's formative year.
read in Glasgow during celtic connections whilst frequenting the places in the book. magic!

[Jack Knorps · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book by an early member of the group Belle & Sebastian, which details its formation and their growth up to their first career highlight of TIGERMILK. They then sign to a major label and presumably that is when David left the band, and so we do not get anything about IF YOU'RE FEELING SINISTER or the different direction B&S took starting with DEAR CATASTROPHE WAITRESS and settled into with THE LIFE PURSUIT. They are a quirky band, and this memoir is interesting to contrast with Morrissey's, Carrie Brownstein's, Kim Gordon's, Dean Wareham's, Bob Mould's, and OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE. Certainly, they all fall into the same genre, but this is more about the band than Stuart David himself, and so this more closely approximates a chapter from OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE--just four times as long, and a much deeper dive.

A friend (my first fan) recommended this to me, even though he didn't really like the band all that much. I do like them, but I am not a deep head. He said something about it reminding him of my writing, maybe that's just because it's necessarily from a smaller press and a smaller book. But B&S are a pretty big band, generally speaking, and so I was surprised that I had not heard of this book. Perhaps its existence is also a kind of revelation. It's perfectly enjoyable even if you don't listen to B&S, but certainly, serious fans may consider this a masterpiece, because it is all done very well.

The confluence of events that created B&S may be very unlikely in this day and age, but we can look to the social programs of Scotland as ways to better support our emerging and ambitious artists going forward. Certainly, it is very nice to qualify for unemployment and also be given a space to work on art. Ideally in the future, everyone will be able to follow their passion into a real career, and this book is proof that such programs worked, at least for a few people. The cover art is also pitch perfect.

http://flyinghouses.blogspot.com/2017...

[Joanne Mallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. Whilst I was aware of Belle & Sebastian as a band, I don't know their music and couldn't pick any of the members out of a line up. So I'm no doubt coming at this book from a different angle to most other readers, and a lot of the details were probably lost on me. That being said, I did enjoy it very much and thought it was a well-written portrait of a life-changing year for all involved. I love to read about creative people getting their shit together and making stuff happen, and believing in themselves before anyone else does. Stuart David writes with warmth and has an excellent eye for detail. It's fascinating to see how the band picks up momentum and progresses. Hopefully the story will continue in a future volume.

[Gummi Joh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a founding member of my favorite band. Stuart David which I knew was a good writer tells the story about how Belle & Sebastian came to be. Full of tidbits one did not know and easily ranks as one of my favorite books in 2015.

This book is not for everybody, but if you like Belle & Sebastian this surely is a book for you.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice quick easy read
well written book of the beginning of one of my favorite bands.
Stuart has done a fantastic jobs.
My only wish was that it was longer and included his whole time in the band.
A sequel perhaps?

[Tristan Alaba · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly enjoyable book for me! I'm a musician beginning an indie band and career, so it's perfectly timed and highly informative, however it's a lovely story written in a straight-forward but charming way, so it could be enjoyed by more than a niche audience.

I've known and loved some Belle and Sebastian songs since I was in my early teens, including "I Don't Love Anyone", which was on the debut album documented here - I might call myself a fan now that I feel connected with their youthful phase via this book, but I knew from the first page that I was going to love this story even without knowing the few songs mentioned.

Getting to know Stuart Murdoch's band - the members, the production process, the loose and quirky artistic vision - through Stuart David's memoir, it all becomes brilliantly interrelated. There's clarity of vision and control up to a point, then fate intervenes and opportunities arise, and the art has to come to life in it's environment and begin to speak for itself - the result is lovely organic indie art pop and the origins of a band that continues to grow.

I'm from Sydney, but spent time in Edinburgh and the Scottish highlands, and visited Glasgow, so I can feel the Scottish character Stuart David describes. I'm also a songwriter, a regular performer at open mics, I've studied on a music course and been in a dodgy music studio or two, so the formative year story has a lot in common with my past year or two.

It's beautiful to focus on the dynamic, uncertain year of formation, the make or break moments that are taken for granted once a label signs a band and they're safely on their way into a career. Quite a few lessons can be gleaned from this book for musicians starting a band; on the process of writing; meeting and rehearsing with bandmates; setting up shows and hosting events; finding an audience; getting a record together; signing to a label; it's all touched upon in here and available for anyone keen to listen and learn.

I found this in a library, but would buy a copy to loan to bandmates and collaborators, to be on the same page. It's an enjoyable read that is at once a reality check and an inspiration. Belle and Sebastian's formative year is a great reference for songwriters whose songs lead to a record, which leads to forming a band, which forms a career - something I'd love to do myself.

Thank you Stuart David, and thank you too Stuart Murdoch, for sharing the wonderful story of a wonderful year forming a wonderful band!

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was one of those saps for whom the early Belle and Sebastian records and EPs meant absolutely everything. I'm still of the mind that Belfast Bob is a newcomer and haven't quite processed Mick Cooke having left, let alone remembered that the bloke from Teenage Fanclub is now also in the band. For me it all began to go pear shaped with the novelty afro ironic ding dong nonsense that was Legal Man, which felt like Belle and Sebastian no longer reaching for the stars but larking about in the gutter. Dear Catastrophe Waitress - and some of the later EPs - aside, everything else has ranged from bad (Fold Your Hands) to forgettable/ fine (The Life Pursuit; Write About Love) or just nightmarishly terrible (who knew that the answer to Stuart Murdoch's question in Slow Graffiti was "a twat in a silly hat?"; dicking about on elitist cruise festivals; the dizzying atrocity exhibition that is the film of God Help The Girl). Stuart David left before the mostly awful Fold Your Hands, so his part of the B&S story is really very small but his part in those strange, joyous, ramshackle early stages is vital. Ink Polaroids? That's him, and in fact this whole book is that approach writ large.

Because at the heart of In The All Night Cafe is a story about two very different people with the same name: Stuart David, frustrated novelist and songwriter, and Stuart Murdoch, similarly frustrated with songwriting but obviously incredibly gifted and deeply driven to fulfil his dreamlike vision of the perfect band. The irony of the book, in retrospect, is while David realises his songwriting is never going to quite match the brilliance of Murdoch's songs, he manages to capture those extraordinary early records in prose with far more skill than anything Murdoch or his band have done in the last decade or so. It's got all the hallmarks of the band at their very best: homemade, wide eyed, full of a keen eye for strange detail, full of charm, maybe a bit too precious at times and absolutely able to conjure a worldview in a few sentences. It's given me that shimmer of delight that Belle and Sebastian probably haven't done since, ooh, Marx and Engels? Glorious

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quietly compelling memoir of the early days of Belle and Sebastian (one of my favorite bands in its heyday). David traces the genesis of the band from his entry into a poorly-managed, chaotic music school in '90s Glasgow, and his friendship with Stuart Murdoch, who would become the group’s frontman. It then charts the group's meandering path from late-night conversations to tentative musical collaborations that would eventually crystallize into one of indie pop's most beloved acts.

It's not so much a rags-to-riches narrative as something subtler: a meditation on determination, creative chemistry, happenstance, and the fragile architecture of artistic beginnings. There's a kind of subdued grace to the book that mirrors the early Belle and Sebastian records themselves: introspective, gently melancholic, slightly out of time. David writes with a measured clarity, avoiding both sentimentality and self-aggrandizement. His prose is clean and quietly lyrical, imbued with that particular Glaswegian mixture of self-deprecation and dry wit. What makes the book so readable isn't any drama (though it comes close with Murdoch’s dismissal of David’s songwriting efforts), but the sense of becoming: the tentative confidence of youth, the romanticism of artistic formation, the slow, uncertain process of finding a voice. He’s particularly good at describing the ordinary moments that turn out, in retrospect, to be formative: the awkward gigs, the quiet conversations that plant the seed of something enduring. That said, readers seeking the inner mythology of Belle and Sebastian, a grand story of fame, success, or creative tension, may find the narrative disappointingly underpowered. David seems allergic to flash; his prose lingers on the sidelines, much as he does in the band. The result is a book that sometimes feels elusive, as if its author were reluctant to impose too much meaning on the past, or to express any justified resentment. Overall, though, it's a modest, low-lit portrait of creative beginnings, sketched with care and intelligence.

[Silas Lang · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly enjoyable book about a great band. I wouldn’t call it a must-read, but I would recommend it to fans of Belle and Sebastian who just cant get enough. The writing was stately and punctual, and the plot entertaining and romantic, but the book as a whole lack any serious depth. Serious escapades like ill-fated France gig are glossed over like any boring tuesday, and Stuarts social circle as well as his own self are portrayed so shallowly, only really possessing cartoonish Flanderisms. They are wonderful and memorable and dance around my mind - especially while listening to the songs - but they don’t live and breath to me. Stuart David especially is written as almost a blank slate, meant for the reader to take control of and project upon, which is strange, as he is a real person. For Pete’s sake I had to learn Karn was his wife from a google search. He wrote about her with such passivity it was impossible to tell if he had any sort of feelings for her or not. Stuart Murdoch is the only one written with any sort of reverence, even if it is laced with self-aware envy. David’s style does work in one regard though, it keeps the mystery of Murdoch and his artistry around him, so if you’re looking to crack into that, don’t look here. I did also appreciate the lack of follow-up. There is really no reference to anything that happens in anyone involveds future. In a way it keeps the story as a time capsule. A year in a beautiful, nostalgic city with wonderful friends and wonderful musicians. In other ways it’s a great reminder of the artistic struggle with recognition and opportunity. Keep trying, keep an open mind and heart, and keep believing in yourself. You never know when it could happen for you. With all that said, if David decided to write a book for every album, I’d read every single one.

[Jonathan Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curiously detached and diffident book, seemingly by someone who still can't make up his mind about whether he's really happy about having been in Belle and Sebastian. Though the author is also a novelist, there's very little figurative or evocative language, or even much in the way of detailed description. The appropriate comparison here would be to something like Robert Forster's memoir about The Go-Betweens, in which he's still enthralled by his old friend. By contrast, everything here is flat and matter-of-fact. The author compliments Murdoch's songwriting on several occasions, but without any real sense of excitement about being involved in the creation of those early records. There's information on the creative process and rehearsal, and some interesting biographical information about the band, as well as numerous references to 90s Glasgow institutions (the Grosvenor cafe, etc.). But it all feels a bit underwhelming.

[Mike Newman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about music are always a little troublesome to me. I love books and I love music, but somehow attempts to mix the two are fraught with disappointment. As I've discovered and developed what I think is fairly respectable and eclectic musical taste over the years, I've often dabbled with the surrounding biographies and histories, but they've never quite filled the mysterious gaps for me. To be entirely fair, the reverse is often true too - music written around literature can feel awfully forced at times. I've often wondered though, why I'd develop such an aversion to the typical musical biography - and I think I can finally isolate my distaste: there are only two modes available to the musical biographer - building the mystery or knocking it down. Either drawing ethereal shrouds around a personality or a band, or promising to peel away the layers and leaving them - sometimes unfairly - exposed. Neither seems particularly satisfying to me, and neither produces much in the way of great writing.

However, Stuart David's account of the first year of Belle and Sebastian's stuttering, uncertain existence does neither of these things, and as such, it's an unusually charming and readable account of a band's formative steps. That said, the band doesn't really exist for a good part of the story, at least not outside of the unusually specific vision of David's former bandmate Stuart Murdoch, who is presented as a quietly eccentric but determined bandleader, bringing together a disparate and unlikely bunch of musicians around him to realise his plans. In any other setting, this would sound uncomfortably like the planned assembly of a manufactured band, but set against the backdrop of early 1990s Glasgow with its damp, foggy streets and crumbling bedsits it becomes a much more inspiring tale. Not least because it all seems so incredibly unlikely. As Murdoch's vision solidifies and the strength of his songwriting is slowly recognised, the rest of the band circle in the ever-complicated Glasgow music scene. David himself spends much of the book hedging his bets on a couple of other bands he's playing in finally 'making it' before finding to his surprise that Belle and Sebastian have attracted the attention of the outside world. Indeed almost accidentally the band have achieved what he's been struggling to pull off for years - which isn't always an entirely comfortable feeling for him it seems. As the band's seminal "Tigermilk" is released, the book ends with David wondering how he can have succeeded but failed all at the same time? This sense of quiet bemusement and surprise pervades his writing about the period, with the supporting characters from the government sponsored Beatbox scheme - along with a couple of veteran Glasgow musical luminaries - drawn as itinerant but amusing judges of the band's earliest missteps.

My own entrance to this odd world came a while after the book ends, but the descriptions of Glasgow in the fading years of the last century accord with my own happy, slightly awestruck memories of early visits to the city. Indeed, In The All-Night Café stirred recollections which I didn't realise had become memories just yet: picking up the album in a Birmingham record shop in 1997, buying it on a whim after a good few years of being utterly disillusioned with music, and stepping off the train at Glasgow Central a little later that summer feeling a little nervous and excited to be in the city. David's book is a celebration of these tiny memories - the small, at the time insignificant events which rarely enter musical folklore but seem awfully important to how Belle and Sebastian began. Key to this story is the tension between the two Stuarts - David clearly hugely impressed by Murdoch's innate grasp of melody and songcraft, but equally aware he is compromising his own creative endeavours to be part of the band. The clarity of Murdoch's vision and his urge to be heard by the right people in the right places occasionally jars with David's more traditional time-serving approach to finding recognition. Murdoch is presented as knowing his audience from the outset - understanding the bowlies and their tastes and expectations, and persistently seeking their ears. This utterly does away with the claims of 'wilful obscurity' or 'tweeness' which were sometimes levelled in the press of the day. Murdoch - and ultimately the band which coalesced around him - wanted to be heard and understood despite the prevailing view of how bands ought to form, slog tirelessly away and gradually earn their slice of success in 'rock music'.

Stopping as it does on the very brink of the band's early successes, just before the national recognition which would propel them towards creating two of the finest records of the late 90s, this book feels tantalisingly incomplete. Ultimately, Stuart David's road would soon diverge from the band and his own creative urges would see fruition in his novel 'Nalda Said' and in Looper. So, it's very likely that the next chapter won't be written - or if it is, will be written by a different voice, from a very different viewpoint. So this sits, rather like David's contemporary 'ink polaroids' - tiny chapbooks filled with snippets of descriptive prose - as a charmingly downbeat but amusingly drawn permanent record of fast-moving times, prone to shifting and reshaping to fit history. As he states at the end of the book, the inscription on the reverse of "Tigermilk" stating that the band formed over the course of three days in an all-night café had already begun to collapse into the myth of "one night". It will always be tempting to mythologise a band which, for a brief period during those late years of the last century seemed almost perfect.

But then weren't the Glasgow summers always sunnier back then too?

[Andrew Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting much from this book when I picked it up due to being a huge B&S fan, I thought I knew it all and this might just be a rehash, but also, because often times band memoirs are either overly exploitative or dry. Stuart David fell into none of these traps. What I thought I knew about the band's formation was incredibly inaccurate - and I'm glad because the reality was much more enjoyable. The storytelling behind this was not far removed from the storytelling found within the breadth of B&S songs, and what I love so much about the music is what I found so enjoyable about this book. David tells the story full of several unexpected twists without over dramatizing, allowing life to be as life is. If you love B&S and want to know more about how they came to be, I definitely recommend picking this book up.

[Jim Dunedin · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘In the All-Night Caf��’, Stuart David. An anti-rock band of subtlety and nuance, Scottish band Belle and Sebastian have always been an enigma to me as a listener. So, it was a delight to discover this book by their first bass player and early collaborator with band leader and songwriter Stuart Murdoch. The small-town beginnings, student accommodation, early shows to small audiences, a few false starts, it is all laid out with a writer’s ear and eye here. No surprise he now writes novels. From my Medium review see: https://medium.com/music-voices/the-r...

[Harry Burnside · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joy from start to finish. Very interesting how Stuart Murdoch fulfilled his dream with a little help from his friends and it would appear with little effort. A fun history of a great wee Glasgow band.

Stuart David has a light touch in his writing and gets the feelings of all band members in the story but it is definite that everyone else is in thrall to Stuart Murdoch but enjoying the trip he is taking them on.

Loved it.

Love you Glasgow too.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the All-night café is an affectionate account of the formation of Glasgow band Belle and Sebastian.

The writer, Stuart David, was the band's original bassist, as well as being an accomplished writer. He writes with humility, honesty and humour, and paints an evocative picture of '90s Glasgow and the scene for struggling musos.

An essential read for big fans of B and S, and probably worth a read for others interested in music.

[Stevie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book covering the year leading up to Belle & Sebastian's first record being released; interesting read and not just for die hard fans. It gives good insight into how the band came about and how the songs were written; nothing too in depth but it kept me interested throughout and is well worth picking up if you're a fan of the band or Glasgow's music scene in general.

[Bradley Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story of the group told from the bassist's perspective. For me, it tied together and clarified all those half-rumours and misunderstood facts. Charm exudes from every page, but never gets too saccharine. David spins a yarn where I found myself panting in anticipation for an ending that's well, well known. I'd love to have a pint with this master storyteller.

[Guy Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a real Belle & Sebastian fan I was really looking forward to getting my teeth into this book. It was good, but not the book of revelations I was hoping for. I learnt some things but as a core member of B & S from the very offset I was hoping the author would give us more depth.
I guess we need to wait until a priest with a photographic memory releases his pocket novel.

[N K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful recounting of the formation of Belle and Sebastian, by Stuart David, the original bass player. Carries you through the recording of "Tigermilk" and up to the release party where songs meant for the second album "If You're Feeling Sinister" are played.