prior to joining belle & sebastian, jackson was a member of the now-defunct the moondials, a band that released a single on electric honey, a label that would later issue belle & sebastian's first album, "tigermilk". the moondials experience was a pleasant one for jackson, and it took a great deal of work for nominal belle & sebastian frontman stuart murdoch to convince him to join his group. at the time, murdoch was playing the open mic circuit in glasgow as a solo act, and it was at one of these performances, at the halt bar, that jackson first saw murdoch play.