Kate-echism VIII.5.xxv

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu]

About Homeground (#26), Jon: Two of the photos of Kate at her Fairlight
were published in colour in the U.S. magazine Keyboard last
year. IED's article on HoL is actually being published in installments
by HG, so keep eyes peeled (or sealed). IED doesn't mind admitting
that it was a thrill to see his own article available in Tower Records
(Sherman Oaks) the other day: Kate and her infatuated minions are
rapidly being embraced by the main stream... The latest issue of
Goldmine included a list of the most collectible recording artists,
and Kate ranked number 13 (up from number 14 last year). This is pretty
amazing for an American publication, no? Also re "IED, Published Author",
look out for (or to avoid) the June issue of the UK magazine
Record Collector, for possible rebuttal of their April Kate article.

About the Hammersmith show, Jon: It all depends on your point
of view whether they were a bad idea or not, of course, but just for
the record the violin costumes were Paddy's doing.
Regarding the debate over the relative artistic integrity of some
aspects of Kate's live performances, see
the discussion on this exact subject in Love-Hounds
archives of about four or five months ago (?).
The way IED now sees it, part of the success of that show was its
nearly constant flirtation with the edge of bad taste -- its
excruciating intimacy and uninhibited childishness. All of Kate's work
from 1975 to 1979 was, in IED's opinion, an immense investigation
into the mind of the child -- an epic and deliberate indulgence in
pre-adolescent and early pubescent feeling and thought. As such,
the Tour of Life represented the apex of that kind of
OTT emotionalism in the history of civilization. The fact that
it's frequently very hard for an adult to sit through it without
wincing and squirming in his/her seat supports this theory.

-- Andrew