produKT news

[IED0DXM@UCLAMVS]

Along with the new CD of The Dreaming
(of which more below),
a new Kate Bush picture-disc has started
showing up in Los Angeles-area import record
shops. It is a British import, priced from
between $7.98 and $10.99.
 
This record is reasonably well made, as such things
go. It is NOT, repeat NOT an official EMI release,
but an attempt has been made to make it APPEAR to
be official (a pseudo-HoL type-style and EMI-like catalogue
number). The two photos are in colour, and are
relatively rare shots, one from an old publicity
session, the other a candid from (IED believes)
the German TV appearance for "Running Up That Hill"
and "The Big Sky". The record appears to have been
made by the same people who put out a series of
SEVEN-inch interview picture-discs of David Sylvian
and Siouxsie Sioux about a year ago. Apparently they're
getting more ambitious, branching out to twelve-inch.
 
This one contains an interview done with
Kate in her studio by a British fan who apparently
obtained Kate's participation by associating himself
with an Australian group (probably the Aussie fanzine
Dreamtime, who did send a couple of writers over to
visit the UK KT community early last year). Kate obviously
had no idea at the time of the interview that the tape
would be used as yet another exploitive bootleg product.
However, this is definitely not the same as the infamous
"D. Cross" interview which Homeground exposed as a fraud
perpetrated by upstart rival Under the Ivy, as this is
definitely a real one-on-one interview, whereas the
other was just a fake using Kate's pre-recorded answers from
the Canadian HoL interview record and a voice-over of the cue-sheet
questions. Nevertheless, in the picture-disc's "real" interview,
both the interviewer and Kate are extremely nervous and
ill-at-ease, especially at the beginning and end of the
interview; and the questions range from the utterly
banal (things like "What's 'Running Up That Hill' about?")
to the completely weird and meaningless ("The cloudbuster
that Ken Hill made -- What's become of it?" Answer: It's
in storage in a garage, of course!). At the very end
the interviewer throws in one of the questions Kate particularly
dislikes getting, namely, "Do you follow current affairs
and politics, Kate?". This time it was especially unwelcome
because Kate thought the interview was finished, and then
had to stay and answer this last question. She gives her
usual non-committal answer, but this time it's also clearly
intended to stop the conversation -- the closest IED has
ever heard Kate get to open annoyance.
 
The CD of The Dreaming is (at least so far)
a British import, not a domestic product. As
someone has already said, it has exceptionally
good sound, especially for an AAD CD; tape hiss
is extremely low, and the tone is bright without
being what audiophiles like to call "brittle".
 
Expect to see the CD of Never For Ever within a couple of
weeks!
 
-- Andrew Marvick (IED0DXM)