British Music Industry Awards and Kate

[nessus (Doug Alan)]

I caught the British Music Industry Awards on TV last Friday. (See, I
didn't miss it, Tim!  "England's newest pop star"????  "England's newest
pop star"???  "England's newest..."??? ...)  In any case, for those who
missed it, you didn't miss much.  Most of it was a complete farce.  The
highlight of the night came when the award for "Best International
Group" was presented.  Among those nominated were The Talking Heads and
Hewey, Dewey, Lewey, and The News.  Needless to say Hewey, baby, won.
And later this beautiful human being came out to give this wonderful
speech about how the music industry is so competitive these days, and
how this is such a wonderful thing for everyone.  Sign me up on the
ideology!  I wanna be a record company executive now.

In any kase, Kate was nominated for three awards, Best Album, Best
Single, and Best Female Artist.  She lost all three.  Best Album was won
by Fill Colon for "Faith Valueless".  Best Single was won by Spears for
Queers for "Everybody Wants To Rule The Whirlpool Refrigerator".  And
Best Female Artist was won by Annie Eunuchs.

There were pseudo-live (lip-synched) performances by Fill Colon, Spears
for Queers, Hewey, and Kate Bush, among others, who I've probably
forgotten.  It's good to see Kate thrown in among so much talent in
front of 100 million viewers.

Kate performed "Dogs of Lust".  The lighting and the eclecticness of the
band and the clothes the band members wore were quite impressive.  There
were Kate, two cello players (one of them Paddy), a keyboardist (Del
Palmer), and three (yes, that's right -- *three*) drummers.  The drummer
in the middle played sampled electronic drums (he was dressed rather
formally and acted very mechanical and precise, as if playing the part
of a human drum machine) and the other two drummers played normal
acoustic drum sets.

Still, it was a bit disappointing because Kate basically just stood
there and sang (or pretended to sing, rather).  I've also seen live
appearances for RuTH and Cloudbusting, and in neither of these did Kate
do the strange dancing she is famous for.  Kate's dancing and
choreography ability for live appearances reached a peak after "The
Dreaming".  Once she appeared on the Italian equivalent of "Solid Gold"
and had to perform the song "The Dreaming" on a transparent disco stage
with rotating and flashing lights -- but the stunning power and quality
of her bizzare dance for this song is so amazing that the video clip is
a classic just for the superposition of such class and such tackiness.
And the dance routine she did for live appearances of "Suspended In
Gaffa" is bizzare, cute, and wonderfully charming.

In videos, her dance skills reached a peak in the video for "Running Up
That Hill", which is beautiful and wrenchingly poignant.  But the
dancing disappeared for "Cloudbusting" and in her recent live
appearances.  It's almost as if she's saying "I achieved my goals in
dancing -- my live appearances for 'The Dreaming' and the video for RuTH
are the conclusion of what I have to say in that area, and now it's time
for me to go on to something different."  On the other hand, maybe in
her old age, she's just become more self-conscious about appearing
foolish with dancing, because she's not a professional dancer, and wants
to appear more in total control and be the target of less ridicule for
her "poncy" dancing.  She certainly appears more "impressive" and mature
recently, but it this necessarily a good thing?  What happened to the
youthful spunk and naivity?  Is this what three years can do to you?
Don't grow old too quick, Kate!  ("Stay young.  And keep in touch.")

Then again, Kate risking appearing silly by playing a little boy in the
"Cloudbusting" video helps restore my faith.  (Hear that Hofmann!)

			"Moving stranger, does it really matter?
			 As long as you're not afraid to feel"

			 Doug


P.S. Newsflash: The U.S. 7" single for "Hounds Of Love" appeared in the
record stores around here today.  And the British single for "Hounds Of
Love" was released on Monday.  Unlike in the U.S., release dates in
England are when you can actually buy the record in the stores, so
better import record stores should be getting the import by Friday.

The British single has a new song on it -- an a cappella cover of "The
Handsome Cabin Boy".  (Wasn't this done by Bert Loyd and Ewan MacColl?
Or am I totally off the wall?)  The 12" single will also have "Jig Of
Life" on it.  The U.S. single has "Burning Bridge" on it.