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[Neil Calton <seismo!mcvax!vd.rl.ac.uk!nbc>]

Thanks for adding me to the Love-Hounds mailing list.

Perhaps the following news and reviews may be of interest.

Mixed fortunes for Kate Bush in this week's LP and single  charts
(GB).   The  single  'Experiment  IV'  has  dropped from 23 to 35
(after entering at 40 the week before). 'Don't Give Up' featuring
Kate  with  Peter Gabriel remains at number 9 for the second week
running.

Better news of her LP 'The Whole Story' which came in at number 3
in the LP charts - one place ahead of the new Springstein box-set
( the Police are at 2 and a compilation of various hits is 1). In
terms  of  displays  in shops Kate's album seems to being playing
second fiddle to Bruce's magnum opus but I expect  that  as  Xmas
approaches  this  may change. I have not seen any TV ads. yet but
again perhaps the record company are holding  back  for  the  De-
cember shopping boom.

Here are the opinions of a few critics on the new album.
_________________________________________________________________

Sounds November 15th 1986 (weekly pop paper).

Kate Bush 'The Whole Story' (EMI Records KBTV1) ***** (Sounds top
rating!)

Over the last nine years and five albums,  Kate  Bush,  the  most
beautiful  woman-child  in  Kent, has matured into quite the most
sensual, expressive and creative  artist  this  country  can  now
boast.  And this 12 track compilatin of hits and near misses more
than adequately documents her evolution, from  the  often  clumsy
and  overreaching  ambition  which  marred her early works to the
stunning and immaculate conception of her more recent 'Hounds  of
Love' material.

Though there were great gaping flaws within  the  fabric  of  the
perhaps  over-adventurous  Bush  albums, up to and including 'The
Dreaming', she at least had the sense always to release the  best
and  most  important  cuts as singles.  And although I would have
liked to see both 'December Will Be Magic Again' and  the  glori-
ously  sweeping  'The  Big Sky' included here, it's hard to argue
against a selection which spans from the quite  overt  sensuality
of  'Hounds of Love' to the harsh rhythms and intense delivery of
'Sat In Your Lap', and from the cautionary tale  of  'Army  Drea-
mers' to her best work to date, 'Cloudbusting'.

That she felt the need to  restructure  her  greatest  commercial
success  surely  reveals that Kate Bush is only too well aware of
her own  ever-improving  abilities.  Though  the  new  'Wuthering
Heights' is the same at base as the original, her new vocal soars
far above the comparatively pedestrian if novel squealing of  the
old.  So much so that to balance the added hunger and bite of her
own performance, the guitar which counterpoints her at climax has
been pushed forwards most emphatically in the mix.

All we can do now is hope that Kate Bush will continue to grow in
the  way that her past career suggests she might. And give thanks
that her new single, the subtle yet  insistent  'Experiment  IV',
also featured here, implies that she will.

                                                    Roger Holland

Published by Spotlight Publications Ltd.
_________________________________________________________________

Q - December 1986, Vol. 1 Issue 3 (monthly glossy  mag  -  pop  +
other media)

Somewhere up in the polar wastes of Lapland, we may be sure  that
Santa's elfish underlings are, even as we speak, hefting gigantic
boxes of Kate Bush greatest hits albums, ready for Xmas despatch.
Their labours will not go unappreciated.

Despite Kate's fondness for lyrics that unkinder commentators are
apt  to  describe  as whimsical hippie tripe, her gift for melody
(Army Dreamers, Man With The Child In His Eyes)  and  ingeniously
arranged melodramas (Running Up That Hill) are enough to rank her
as a supreme talent in English pop.  What's often overlooked,  as
well,  is  her readiness to take greater risks than most stars in
her position - even where the results come rather unstuck (Sat in
Your Lap, The Dreaming).

Latest single Experiment IV, and a new and more powerful  version
of  Wuthering Heights, sit along with Wow, Babooshka and so on to
render The Whole Story an essential collection for anyone who can
forgive  a line like "I pine a lot/ I find the lot/ Falls through
without you" when it comes in a gorgeous tune.   ****  (=  excel-
lent)
                                                    Paul Du Noyer

Q is published monthly by EMAP Metro.
_________________________________________________________________

The Observer (Newspaper) 16/11/86

An Intelligent, concise compilation  which  draws  out  the  con-
sistency  behind  Bush's  aparent flights of fancy. Nine years of
hit-making  show  her  progressive  spiritual  and   philosphical
dissertations  to  be rooted both in a strong pop sense and music
that is extraordinarily fundamental.  It includes the  obvious  -
'Wuthering  Heights', 'Running Up That Hill', 'Babooshka' - and a
surprise: 'The Dreaming', an aural equivalent of Nic Roeg's 'Wal-
kabout.'
                                                       Jon Savage
_________________________________________________________________
(Neil Calton 20/11/86)