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[SSUD3%UK.AC.SUSSEX.VAX2@AC.UK]

 "SOUNDS" Does a total Hatchet Job on Kate - newsflash from Britain....

I just picked up the latest copy of "Sounds" (June 7 issue) which
just came out today (Wednesday, June 4).  At first, I was really
excited when I saw that Kate was on the cover, although I was
puzzled by the use of one of the most commonly available record
company promo-photo of her (the one with her head resting with her
palms on her temples). Then my heart sank when I saw who wrote the
"article" - the Infamous Richard Cook, who interviewed her after
the release of "The Dreaming" in '82, and filled the article with
sarcastic and petty sniping at her (then why bother to interview her?).

Anyway, despite the "front cover status", this "article" is nothing
more than an enxtended forum for his criticisms of Kate, with no
input whatsoever from her. Although it is too long to completely
transcribe (and I have a paper due tomorrow) here are the low-lights...


"Kate Bush, a teenager from a wealthy middle-class family, had art-rock
waiting for her like a gift from the tooth fairy. The dinosaurs of her
listening youth weren't monsters for her. Pink Floyd, the most miserable group
that ever existed (Doug's gonna LOVE this!) and the skeleton in many a
pioneer's closet, provided her first archangel in the form of David Gilmour,
who produced that first studio work. She would later admit her fascination
with `The Wall.' It's not hard to perceive the echoes of Floyd's weary
symphonies in the Bush catalogue."

On "The Kick Inside":

"The tunes sounded like the fussy little melodies one associates with musical
sewing boxes. The record is a folly..."

"One can toil through Bush's work making flip comparisons all the time, but
it's a search that turns over no personal vision on all these bits and
pieces."

"This grain-by-grain pursuit, a quintessence of art-rock, reached overload
with `The Dreaming.'  IT'S A THUNDEROUSLY AWFUL LP. AFTER THE OPENING `SAT IN
YOUR LAP', AN ENERGETIC HOWL ABOUT THE GETTING OF WISDOM, THE RECORD COLLAPSES
INTO A SLUGGISH, ELEPHANTINE BLOW-OUT OF WORDS AND MUSIC IN SEARCH OF MEANING
AND STRUCTURE. EVEN BUSH'S FAITHFUL WERE FOXED BY IT." !!!!!!

"The second side (of Hounds of Love) is a dream sequence that's about as
substantial as cotton wool"

"Bush can't create anything more than a mood, a nostalgia for the resonance of
art. She's like someone who flicks through the pages of a book, impatient for
the pictures to come up. It has always been the way of art-rock" "Bush, like
Peter Gabriel and Jim Kerr, is a mere translator. A simple soul. A show woman.
She is really NO MORE PROFOUND THAN SHEENA EASTON, and you can't imagine Bush
making a record that's as much fun (or vapid -ed) as "SUGAR WALLS" (this is
getting funny...) or "Like a Virgin". When asked if she might be a bit
strange, she says yes, she might be. I think not."

"After all, we all know `Kate', don't we? She's not strange, or barmy, or
anything that's very far out of line. She just passes on her dreams; she sets
art to rock.

"And somehow, we find it all fascinating. Then we knock; but she does not let
us in-a-her window."



Well, that's "it" - anyone who wants to send letters, the address is

Sounds - Letters dept.
Greater London House
Hampstead Road
London, NW1 7QZ
ENGLAND      tel:  01-387 6611

(Once again, the article was by Richard Cook, in the June 7 issue of Sounds.
(And the article was called "The Girl [sic] With the Stars in Her Eyes")

Happy Writing!

Hugh Maher

Brighton, England