Found and shared by Our Lady of the Boards, Hannah. Thank you H, it's very much appreciated ;)
Sometimes in social transactions, politeness is the best currency you have. This is especially true if your partner in conversation is someone who really admires what you do. I've brought this up before, but being in a band must be extremely surreal sometimes. You have regular encounters with people who know a lot of information about you and your life, sometimes intimate details, and yet they all that knowledge is weighted on their side. You, on the other hand may be meeting this person for the first time and, just like in most exchanges with those you haven't yet become acquainted with, their life is total mystery to you. It must be an act of mental gymnastics to balance flattery and awkwardness when this happens, and Russell has clearly refined his technique to black-belt level mastery.
Belgium is still very much in love with Editors, as they should be (they're clearly a country with good taste in music). So the setup for this was King Leetch being called by Studio Brussel to congratulate him on the breaking news about Black Gold and all the upcoming activity in its orbit. Over the many years I've been following Editors and their promotional skirmishes, StuBru have proven themselves to be the kind of friend you absolutely want to have around you. They take the time to contact you for no other reason than to wish you well on your successes, without using it as a cheap excuse to then go off on a tangent about their recent breakup with their girlfriend/boyfriend/farmyard animal (I'm not judging). Their enthusiasm has always seemed genuine.
This time around, they brought a fan called Karen with them who also wanted to pass on some positive vibes to Russell and the result is a lady dissolving into fangirl geekery within a few seconds of speaking, and it's fantastic. For his part, Russell handles it like a man who may have been in this position once or twice before. Karen, you're wonderful. Enjoy the encounter ;)
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
