God Help The Girl
Encyclopedia
God Help the Girl is a musical project authored by Stuart Murdoch
, leader of the Scottish indie pop
group Belle & Sebastian
, featuring a group of female vocalists, including Catherine Ireton, with Belle & Sebastian as the accompanying band. So far, the records released as part of the project include the singles
Come Monday Night, Funny Little Frog (2009) and Baby, You're Blind (2010), the main album
of the project, also entitled God Help the Girl, and the EP
Stills (both published in 2009). In 2012, Stuart Murdoch plans to start shooting a musical film
, which will feature the songs published in the singles and albums.
The songs of the project God Help the Girl belong to the genre of indie pop and resemble the other output of Belle & Sebastian in tone – two songs (Funny Little Frog and Act of the Apostle) were taken directly from the earlier repertory of this group. However, contrary to the earlier work of Belle & Sebastian (a group dominated by male performers), female vocalists (who are not members of the group) play the main role in the project. The songs themselves also tell about the problems of young girls entering adult life.
-based Scottish indie pop group Belle & Sebastian
. In 2004, during a tour promoting their album Dear Catastrophe Waitress
, he came up with the idea of writing a series of songs telling about the life of girls and young women which could be sung not by his group but female vocalists. Thinking about this project, he started writing new songs which were shelved for the time being; after some time the idea of arranging them in a logical whole and making a film occurred to him.
Looking for performers for his songs, Murdoch placed an advertisement in a local magazine in Glasgow in 2004. The first vocalists who joined the project were Celia Garcia from Edinburgh
, Scotland, who responded to the advertisement placed in the magazine, and Alex Klobouk from Germany
, who met Stuart Murdoch on the Dear Catastrophe Waitress tour. Stuart Murdoch also held an open audition on the imeem
community portal – the candidates who wanted to work with the group were to send in their demos
of two Belle & Sebastian songs: Funny Little Frog
and The Psychiatrist Is In. Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole from the US were chosen out of about 400 applications; in February 2008 they were invited to a trial recording session in Glasgow. Eventually Funny Little Frog was sung in the project by Brittany Stallings, with Dina Bankole performing some of the other pieces.
In 2008 and 2009, some other vocalists joined the project, including Asya from the Seattle-based group Smoosh
, Linnea Jönsson from the Swedish band Those Dancing Days
; there was also one man in this group: Neil Hannon
from The Divine Comedy
.
in Ireland
, she was studying Drama and Theatre Studies at University College Cork between 2002 and 2005. There she was the vocalist in the pop-jazz group elephant, with whom she published the album In the Moon in 2004. The band broke up in July 2005, but before that the songwriter and guitarist of elephant, Michael John McCarthy, moved to Glasgow to do a post-graduate course and passed the album In the Moon to his friend who showed it to Stuart Murdoch. When Stuart Murdoch heard the album of elephant, he invited Catherine Ireton, who was in her final year at university and both directed and played in theatre performances in Ireland at that time, to Glasgow in March 2005, held a trial recording session for her and afterwards asked her if she wanted to work with Belle & Sebastian. The singer agreed and moved to Scotland in the same year. She joined the project along with other vocalists, singing and recording demos of nearly all the songs.
Catherine Ireton appeared on the sleeve of the EP
The White Collar Boy as early as 2006 even though she did not perform any songs on it. Finally she appeared as the vocalist in the single Come Monday Night and then in the main album God Help the Girl, both released in 2009. Out of 14 pieces on the album, Catherine Ireton performs (solo or with other singers) in 10 songs.
Come Monday Night – single, released on 11 May 2009:
God Help the Girl – the main album of the project, whose recording began in CaVa Studios
in Glasgow and which was released on 22 June 2009:
Funny Little Frog – single, released on 31 July 2009:
Stills – EP, released on 3 November 2009:
Baby, You're Blind – single, released on 24 May 2010:
All the records were published by Belle & Sebastian's home record companies: Rough Trade Records
in the UK and Matador Records
in the US.
The album was promoted in concerts on a short tour which was held in November 2009: during the Crossing Borders Festival in The Hague
in the Netherlands
(20/11), in the 100 Club
in London
(21/11), and the Usher Hall
in Edinburgh (29/11). The latter featured the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
The above pieces include only part of the music material which has been recorded within the project so far. The project God Help the Girl is not completed yet, according to Stuart Murdoch, its crowning should be a musical film due to be shot in 2012.
The invitation of female vocalists to take part in the project resulted from the subject matter of the songs and the planned film: their main character is a girl named Eve (who is to be played by Catherine Ireton), who dropped out of college (where she was not a very good student), starts work, but wants to change her life – she would like to become a singer or a songwriter. She also has many love and other personal problems – she has just absconded from the psychiatric ward. The problems, however, do not look dramatic in the songs in the form as they were written by Murdoch and are performed by the vocalists. Most of the pieces are cheerful in tone, with elements of irony and self-irony; even the more reflective songs, like Come Monday Night, have a cheerful and catchy tune. In the musical aspect, God Help the Girl is a reference to, or even pastiche
of British girl bands performing in the 1960s, with a rich orchestral arrangement.
Stuart Murdoch (musician)
Stuart Lee Murdoch is a Scottish musician, and the lead singer and songwriter for the indie pop band Belle & Sebastian. The majority of his childhood was spent a stone's throw from the birthplace of Robert Burns in Alloway, Ayr until he left school and attended university in...
, leader of the Scottish indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
group Belle & Sebastian
Belle & Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Belle and Sebastian are often compared with influential indie bands such as The Smiths, as well as classic acts such as Love, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The name Belle & Sebastian comes from Belle et Sébastien, a 1965...
, featuring a group of female vocalists, including Catherine Ireton, with Belle & Sebastian as the accompanying band. So far, the records released as part of the project include the singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
Come Monday Night, Funny Little Frog (2009) and Baby, You're Blind (2010), the main album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
of the project, also entitled God Help the Girl, and the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Stills (both published in 2009). In 2012, Stuart Murdoch plans to start shooting a musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
, which will feature the songs published in the singles and albums.
The songs of the project God Help the Girl belong to the genre of indie pop and resemble the other output of Belle & Sebastian in tone – two songs (Funny Little Frog and Act of the Apostle) were taken directly from the earlier repertory of this group. However, contrary to the earlier work of Belle & Sebastian (a group dominated by male performers), female vocalists (who are not members of the group) play the main role in the project. The songs themselves also tell about the problems of young girls entering adult life.
Origin of the project
The author of the project God Help the Girl is Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of the GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
-based Scottish indie pop group Belle & Sebastian
Belle & Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Belle and Sebastian are often compared with influential indie bands such as The Smiths, as well as classic acts such as Love, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The name Belle & Sebastian comes from Belle et Sébastien, a 1965...
. In 2004, during a tour promoting their album Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Dear Catastrophe Waitress is an album by Belle & Sebastian, a Scottish indie pop group, released in 2003 on Rough Trade Records. Producer Trevor Horn, former member of The Buggles and producer of groups like Yes and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, oversaw the production of the album, and gave it a more...
, he came up with the idea of writing a series of songs telling about the life of girls and young women which could be sung not by his group but female vocalists. Thinking about this project, he started writing new songs which were shelved for the time being; after some time the idea of arranging them in a logical whole and making a film occurred to him.
Looking for performers for his songs, Murdoch placed an advertisement in a local magazine in Glasgow in 2004. The first vocalists who joined the project were Celia Garcia from Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland, who responded to the advertisement placed in the magazine, and Alex Klobouk from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, who met Stuart Murdoch on the Dear Catastrophe Waitress tour. Stuart Murdoch also held an open audition on the imeem
Imeem
The online service imeem was a social media web site where users interacted with each other by streaming, uploading and sharing music and music videos...
community portal – the candidates who wanted to work with the group were to send in their demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
of two Belle & Sebastian songs: Funny Little Frog
Funny Little Frog
"Funny Little Frog" was the first single lifted from Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit. The track was released in January 2006 on Rough Trade Records, and is produced by Tony Hoffer. The single became the band's highest-charting single in the UK so far, reaching #13...
and The Psychiatrist Is In. Brittany Stallings and Dina Bankole from the US were chosen out of about 400 applications; in February 2008 they were invited to a trial recording session in Glasgow. Eventually Funny Little Frog was sung in the project by Brittany Stallings, with Dina Bankole performing some of the other pieces.
In 2008 and 2009, some other vocalists joined the project, including Asya from the Seattle-based group Smoosh
Smoosh
Smoosh is an American indie pop band from Seattle, Washington. They have released three albums, She Like Electric, Free to Stay and Withershins, all of which were written and performed by singer/keyboardist Asya and her sister, drummer Chloe...
, Linnea Jönsson from the Swedish band Those Dancing Days
Those Dancing Days
Those Dancing Days are an indie pop band from Nacka, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Most frequently compared to Northern Soul and 1960s era girl-groups, the band formed in 2005 while the members were all still in school. They are currently signed to Wichita Recordings. The band consists of five...
; there was also one man in this group: Neil Hannon
Neil Hannon
Neil Hannon is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter, best known as the creator and frontman of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy. The band's official website even goes so far as to say, "The Divine Comedy is Neil Hannon," and Hannon is quoted in an interview as saying, "The Divine Comedy...
from The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature...
.
Work with Catherine Ireton
The main discovery of the project turned out to be Catherine Ireton, with whom Murdoch had established contact by chance in 2005. Catherine Ireton comes from LimerickLimerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, she was studying Drama and Theatre Studies at University College Cork between 2002 and 2005. There she was the vocalist in the pop-jazz group elephant, with whom she published the album In the Moon in 2004. The band broke up in July 2005, but before that the songwriter and guitarist of elephant, Michael John McCarthy, moved to Glasgow to do a post-graduate course and passed the album In the Moon to his friend who showed it to Stuart Murdoch. When Stuart Murdoch heard the album of elephant, he invited Catherine Ireton, who was in her final year at university and both directed and played in theatre performances in Ireland at that time, to Glasgow in March 2005, held a trial recording session for her and afterwards asked her if she wanted to work with Belle & Sebastian. The singer agreed and moved to Scotland in the same year. She joined the project along with other vocalists, singing and recording demos of nearly all the songs.
Catherine Ireton appeared on the sleeve of the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
The White Collar Boy as early as 2006 even though she did not perform any songs on it. Finally she appeared as the vocalist in the single Come Monday Night and then in the main album God Help the Girl, both released in 2009. Out of 14 pieces on the album, Catherine Ireton performs (solo or with other singers) in 10 songs.
Records released within the project
The records released within the project include so far three singles, one EP (Stills) and the album God Help the Girl with the following pieces:Come Monday Night – single, released on 11 May 2009:
- Come Monday Night (Catherine Ireton)
- Howard Jones Is My Mozart –(Kim Moore)
God Help the Girl – the main album of the project, whose recording began in CaVa Studios
CaVa Studios
Ca Va Studios or Ca Va Sound is a professional recording studio at 30 Bentinck Street, Kelvingrove in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland.Situated in the former Kelvingrove Church, the studios began in 1974 and since then have recorded some of the biggest names on the UK and international music scene...
in Glasgow and which was released on 22 June 2009:
- Act of the Apostle (Catherine Ireton) – 2:43
- God Help The Girl (Catherine Ireton) – 3:25
- Pretty Eve in the Tub (Stuart Murdoch and Catherine Ireton) – 2:46
- A Unified Theory (instrumental) – 1:15
- Hiding Neath My Umbrella (Catherine Ireton and Stuart Murdoch) – 3:44
- Funny Little Frog (Brittany Stallings) 4:04
- If You Could Speak (Catherine Ireton and Anna Miles) – 2:47
- Musician Please Take Heed (Catherine Ireton) – 3:58
- Perfection as a Hipster (Neil Hannon and Catherine Ireton) – 3:26
- Come Monday Night (Catherine Ireton) – 3:28
- Music Room Window (instrumental) – 1:00
- I Just Want Your Jeans (Asya) – 3:24
- I'll Have to Dance with Cassie (Catherine Ireton) – 3:47
- A Down and Dusky Blonde (Dina Bankole, Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia, Brittany Stallings, Asya) – 4:49
Funny Little Frog – single, released on 31 July 2009:
- Funny Little Frog (Brittany Stallings)
- Mary's Market (Stuart Murdoch)
Stills – EP, released on 3 November 2009:
- I'm in Love with the City (Catherine Ireton)
- He's a Loving Kind of Boy (Stuart Murdoch)
- Stills (Alex Klobouk)
- Baby's Just Waiting (Celia Garcia)
- The Psychiatrist Is In (Catherine Ireton)
Baby, You're Blind – single, released on 24 May 2010:
- Baby, You're Blind (Linnea Jönsson)
- A Down and Dusky Blonde (Dina Bankole, new version)
All the records were published by Belle & Sebastian's home record companies: Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
in the UK and Matador Records
Matador Records
Matador Records is an independent record label, with a roster of indie rock artists and bands.-History:Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment. The following year, Lombardi was joined by former Homestead Records manager Gerard Cosloy, and the two of them have...
in the US.
The album was promoted in concerts on a short tour which was held in November 2009: during the Crossing Borders Festival in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
(20/11), in the 100 Club
100 Club
The 100 Club is a music venue in London situated at 100 Oxford Street, W1, originally called The Feldman Swing Club.The 100 Club attained legendary status in modern British music, having played host to live music since 24 October 1942....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(21/11), and the Usher Hall
Usher Hall
Usher Hall is a concert hall, situated on Lothian Road, in the west end of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has hosted concerts and events since its construction in 1914 and can hold approximately 2,900 people in its recently restored auditorium, which is well loved by performers due to its acoustics...
in Edinburgh (29/11). The latter featured the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
The above pieces include only part of the music material which has been recorded within the project so far. The project God Help the Girl is not completed yet, according to Stuart Murdoch, its crowning should be a musical film due to be shot in 2012.
Character and themes of the songs
Owing to Stuart Murdoch's authorship and the accompaniment of the group Belle & Sebastian, the songs from the project God Help the Girl much resemble in their musical aspect the other work of Stuart Murdoch and Belle & Sebastian band. These similarities are all the more visible that some of the songs (Funny Little Frog, Act of the Apostle) were taken directly from the band's repertory and were performed earlier by Murdoch himself. In the project God Help the Girl, however, the band limited itself to the accompaniment, the main roles are played by the vocalist – Catherine Ireton and others; which means that the released singles and albums cannot be regarded, strictly speaking, as part of the output of Belle & Sebastian.The invitation of female vocalists to take part in the project resulted from the subject matter of the songs and the planned film: their main character is a girl named Eve (who is to be played by Catherine Ireton), who dropped out of college (where she was not a very good student), starts work, but wants to change her life – she would like to become a singer or a songwriter. She also has many love and other personal problems – she has just absconded from the psychiatric ward. The problems, however, do not look dramatic in the songs in the form as they were written by Murdoch and are performed by the vocalists. Most of the pieces are cheerful in tone, with elements of irony and self-irony; even the more reflective songs, like Come Monday Night, have a cheerful and catchy tune. In the musical aspect, God Help the Girl is a reference to, or even pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of British girl bands performing in the 1960s, with a rich orchestral arrangement.
External links
- Official site of the project God Help the Girl
- Stuart Murdoch: There is no glamour in being a pop band The Guardian blog
- Stuart Murdoch: How I found the ultimate girl group The Guardian blog
- Stuart Murdoch's God Help the Girl: Part III The Guardian blog
- Stuart Murdoch: The joys of marketing a concept The Guardian blog
- Liam McIllvanney, A story set to music The Guardian article
- Nick Marino: Scotland Bard: Stuart Murdoch Finds Inspiration in Glasgow, Girl Groups and God Paste Magazine article
- Paul Morley's Showing Off ... Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian The Guardian – audio interview with Stuart Murdoch