Book review: Kerry Juby, _Kate_Bush:_The_Whole_Story_

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

     To make as clear as possible the extent of his reconsideration of
the Kerry Juby biography of Kate, IED herewith posts his final, more
detailed evaluation.


                    Kate Bush: The Whole Story,

       by Kerry Juby with the assistance of Karen Sullivan.
                 (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1988.)

     The second of three new books about Kate Bush to emerge in the
latter half of 1988 is Kerry Juby's _Kate_Bush:_The_Whole_Story_
(available from Sidgwick Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd., 1 Tavistock
Chambers, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2SG; price: 12 Pounds 95 Pence),
which was written with the assistance of Karen Sullivan. (The other
books are the anonymously written and published _Kate_Bush_With_Love_,
a scapbook comprising facsimiles of old magazine cuttings, and
_Kate_Bush:_A_ _Visual_Documentary_, which had not been released at
the time of this writing.)
     IED's initial reaction to Juby's book was naively positive: it is
nicely bound in hardcover, with a simple and elegant dustjacket that
features a familiar black-and-white photograph of Kate. It is a
legitimate publication, which makes a nice change.  It must be said at
the outset, however, that this book is _not_ an "authorised"
biography. There is, in fact, no evidence that IED could find in the
text that Kate had even consented to an interview with the authors.
Juby does not admit this, but tries to indicate that his connection
with the Bush family was closer than it apparently was: he lists Kate
on the acknowledgements page along with other sources who actually
were consulted firsthand, apparently in a deliberate attempt to
mislead the reader.  Yet as far as IED was able to determine, all
quotations of Kate herself derive from earlier published or recorded
interviews--none of which is cited, either in footnotes or a
bibliography.
     Nevertheless, IED was reasonably pleased by the first few
chapters of this book. At the outset Juby seems to be genuinely
interested in "setting the record straight", perhaps in an attempt to
offset any negative effects which earlier books (mainly the two
Vermorel publications) may have had on Kate's reputation. This
intention was conveyed by Juby's insistence--stated and repeated no
fewer than five times within the first five pages--that Kate's
character and background are "normal", whatever that may mean.
Although the facts scarcely support such a vague and sweeping claim,
IED can sympathise with Juby's motives in making it, in light of the
tone set by the "biographers" who have preceded him.
     Unfortunately, by page 70 this reader was forced to reassess his
feelings feelings toward the new book. Shocked by the growing number
of mistakes in the text, IED began to keep a tally of factual errors.
The final results were disheartening: 111 errors of fact appear in a
text of 161 pages--a disquieting average of more than two errors for
every three pages. These range from false statements about the meaning
of lyrics ("B.V.s" in "Violin" are explained (p. 61) as references to
"'Beata Virgo', the blessed Virgin", rather than as a simple term for
"backing vocals"--a mystery which Kate herself has explained on more
than one occasion)--to outright falsehoods about Kate"s videos (as,
for example, when on pp. 31-32 the settings of the Rockflix and Keef
videos for "Wuthering Heights", respectively, are confused with each
other).
     Here are just a small additional sampling of the variety of
errors you can find littering Juby's book: Kate is said to have worked
with Roy Harper on "a number of albums" (p. 62). As far as IED has
ever heard, Kate worked on only one track for Roy Harper's
_Unknown_Soldier_ album, and Harper returned the favour by singing on
_The_Dreaming_ LP. Kate is said to read "a great deal" (p. 75),
despite her own frequent admission that she reads relatively slowly
and little. Kate is several times said to be "afraid of flying,"
despite her own explanation--included in the book!--that she is _not_
particularly "afraid", but simply prefers other forms of travel when
possible.  Kate's family are described (p. 88) as being "able to
control...any publications concerning Kate and ensure that her career
is recorded with complete integrity"--an obviously, tragically untrue
remark which can only have been made for self-serving reasons.  "Warm
and Soothing" is described (p. 96) as a song that was "never
released"! And at one point Kate's words are actually _changed_ in
order so that they might fit the mistaken view of the author: On page
126 Juby _misquotes_ Kate from the 1985 Tony Myatt interview as
saying: "The concept <of "Hello Earth"'s choir section> had been in my
head for a couple of months and I watched this film called called
_Nos_Feratu_ <sic>, directed by Friedrich Murnau and it was
beautiful." Kate's actual words, otherwise identical, included _no_
reference to Murnau, mainly because the choir in question is heard in
_Werner_Herzog's_re-make_ Obviously, Juby failed to learn the truth,
and rather than search for an explanation, he simply altered Kate's
statement.  (For the record, here are Kate's precise words, as IED
transcribed them from a tape recording: "I'd already been writing the
concept--I suppose it had been in my head for a couple of months.
And, uh...I watched this film called _Nosferatu_, directed by, um...
Herzog. And it's beautiful! And there was this one piece of music...")
     There are many signs that Juby relied heavily on information
gleaned from the annals of _Homeground_ either through Peter's
original _Five_Years_Ago_ series, or through their re-presentation in
the chronology part of _K.B._Complete_. Unfortunately, even with this
authoritative research aid, mistakes are made, as for example when, on
page 101, Juby claims that Kate undertook the _Profiles_in_Rock_
interview with Doug Pringle in late 1981 (rather than December 1980,
as was the real case)--a mistake which originally appeared in
_K.B._Complete_ and which was immediately acknowledged as an error by
_HG_ in its next issue. No such care was taken by Juby.  In fact, on
two or three occasions Peter's very words are reproduced from the
chronology, as for example on page 41, where Juby makes almost
verbatim use of Peter's observation about Kate's unexpected choice of
_Kashka_From_Baghdad_ for a performance on the children's programme
_Ask_Aspel_.
     And all this is to say nothing of the large number of unnecessary
redundancies (otherwise known as padding), unwarranted speculation
(a.k.a. idle gossip) and ill-considered opinion which fill the book
out to its present marketable bulk. And of course myriad typographical
and editorial errors riddle the text, including a tendency to misspell
sources"s names in a variety of ways (Antony/Anthony Van Laast,
Dian/Dyane/Diana Gray/Grey, Stuart/Simon Elliot, and Terry
Gilliam/Guillia are examples).  In the end, so many old errors are
preserved and so many new ones introduced in Juby's book, that IED has
found it difficult to choose which errors to reproduce as most
representative of Juby's habits. Unfortunately, this pervasive
carelessness will likely do more harm to Kate's reputation than
good--a result which IED admits is probably the opposite of what Juby,
however casually, intended.
     IED remembers Kate's brother John Carder Bush warning the Romford
Conventioneers that the Vermorels's books would be neither the last
nor the worst of the unauthorised Kate Bush "biographies" He predicted
then that a great many more such books would appear in future years.
At the time IED was skeptical that the market would bear such a
rampant industry of eKsploiTation. How naive IED was! For in the three
years since that meeting we have had a flood of unapproved and
outright illegal Kate Bush merchandise the likes of which had not been
seen even in the first years of Kate's popularity.
     The last thing the world needed was another addition to the long
list of misinformational resources on the subject of Kate Bush.
Unfortunately, Kerry Juby's book is likely to be with us for some time
to come. We should expect a paperback edition to begin flooding the
market within another year. Let's just hope that the publishers take a
little time to rectify some of the more glaring mistakes before they
commit to a second pressing.

-- Andrew Marvick