Belle & Sebastian

Belle and Sebastian
Left to right: Mick Cooke, Richard Colburn, Bobby Kildea, Chris Geddes, Stevie Jackson, Sarah Martin, Stuart Murdoch
Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genres	Indie pop,folk rock,chamber pop
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Rough Trade, Jeepster, Matador, Arts & Crafts México
Associated acts	God Help The Girl, Looper, Norah Jones, The Gentle Waves, The Reindeer Section, The Vaselines, Tired Pony
Website	www.belleandsebastian.com
Members	Stuart Murdoch Stevie Jackson Chris Geddes Richard Colburn Sarah Martin Bobby Kildea Dave McGowan
Past members	Isobel Campbell Stuart David Mick Cooke

Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released 9 albums to date. Much of their work had been released on Jeepster Records, but they are now signed to Rough Trade Records in the United Kingdom and Matador Records in the United States. Though often praised by critics, Belle and Sebastian have enjoyed only limited commercial success.

Belle and Sebastian were formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1996 by Stuart Murdoch and Stuart David. Together, with Stow College music professor Alan Rankine, they recorded some demos; these demos were picked up by the college's Music Business course that produces and releases one single each year on the college's label, Electric Honey. As the band had a number of songs already and the label was extremely impressed with the demos, Belle and Sebastian were allowed to record a full-length album, which was titled Tigermilk. Murdoch once described the band as a "product of botched capitalism". The band took their name from the television adaptation of the French novel Belle et Sébastien.

Tigermilk was recorded in three days and originally only one thousand copies were pressed on vinyl. These original copies now sell for up to £400. The warm reception the album received inspired Murdoch and David to turn the band into a full-time project, recruiting Stevie Jackson (guitar and vocals), Isobel Campbell (cello/vocals), Chris Geddes (keys) and Richard Colburn (drums) to fill out the group.