Kate Biography, more Kate, and not only but also ...

[sco!scol!craig@uunet.UU.NET]

[Apologies if this is a repeat appearance - there's been no sign of my
 first posting after more than a week]

I've been reading rec.music.gaffa with interest for six months or so now,
and have been hesitant to enter the fray, given the forceful and informed
opinions here already; however, I hope I now have something of interest
to contribute.

I finally succumbed to buying "Kate Bush: The Whole Story" (the biography,
not the LP, cassette, CD, video or sheet music) by Kerry Juby (who he?),
after seeing it temptingly arrayed on the shelves of four different
bookshops in the course of a week.  The delay was caused by my objection
in principle to buying hardback books - it costs 12 pounds 95.

So, was it worth it?  Well, all in all, I was a little disappointed; the
trouble with being a Kate fan is that one comes to expect perfection from
all that is Kate-related, and perfect this book is not.

Firstly, there are several typos (presumably these would be fixed in a
paperback edition - yet another reason not to buy hardbacks:-), and the
facts are in some cases a little suspect, ranging from the misleading
"Roy Harper was another of EMI's aspiring musicians" (in 1980), to the
downright wrong "Kate had recorded 'Warm and Soothing', which was also
never released" (it's on the B-side of 'December Will Be Magic Again').

The major irritant is Mr. Juby's attitude - it is quite obvious that
he started the project with the intention of scooping the dirt on Kate
(he admits as much in the prologue), and the tone of the book is a rather
grudging confession that there isn't any.  The most scandal he can come
up with (which he makes quite a meal of) is an anonymous "artist" who
states that Kate has been known to smoke dope (-:shocking!:-).  He
doesn't seem to like her music that much - listening to the Dreaming LP
(my personal favourite) gives him a headache, poor lamb!

These objections aside, I _did_ read the book straight through from cover
to cover, which must be some sort of recommendation, and I was pleased to
discover that the nearly all of the photos (half of which are in colour)
were new to me.  I was particularly intrigued by a couple of pics showing
Del Palmer - a rather sinister looking chap if you ask me, though I'm sure
that has no bearing on his character!  There's lots of trivia, if you're
into that, and plenty of quotes from Kate herself (although I suspect many
of them may be second hand).

I'm left wondering how much involvement EMI had in the book - from the
title I expected an officially sanctioned "product", and it includes the
Discography taken word-for-word from "Kate Bush Complete" the EMI song
book; however, the photos don't seem to be the standard EMI publicity
shots, and the presentation is less "positive" than I imagine EMI would
like.

Summary: Caveat Emptor, but I don't regret the purchase.

While I'm here, let me throw in my two-penn'orth on a few(!) other topics:

Since there's nothing like flogging a dead horse, my views on the meaning
of SiG: (Captain Scarlet - now there's an avenue we haven't explored yet:-)
Kate herself has stated (at least twice) that the subject is metaphysical -
to do with seeing God, and so on.  This is underscored by the biblical
references (planks, camels), and by the "feel" of the music in the chorus -
sort of floating and ethereal.  _I_ think that "Gaffa" (yes, I know it's
duct tape) is a metaphorical place, a "limbo" between earth and heaven that
the protagonist is "stuck" in, and she has to prove herself worthy to move
on to Nirvana, or whatever.  That's the chorus and second verse, which are
clearly allegorical; the first verse is the clue to what they're allegories
of, which is the contentious bit.  I like Lizooshka's suggestion, of the
adulterous romance - the waltz time is evocative (to me, anyway) of
turn-of-the-century melodrama, much more romantic than record deals and
home studios.

I'm surprised that IED, in his review of Homeground 32, didn't mention
their quashing of the rumours that KBVI will be based on Dr. Who, that
it will be called "An Unearthly Child", and that Kate will be appearing
in the series (I should hope not, considering the travesty it's become
lately).  Now, it's my impression that those rumours were started right
here by our very own |>oug in his April Fool posting, so it was a bit mean
of them not to credit the source! (loved the idea, by the way - I even
believed it until about halfway through the article!).  On Debi Bowes'
artwork: yes, they are traced from photos, but the centre spread is a very
good "collage" of various images around the theme of Lionheart - I liked
it a lot.

To the person (humble apologies for forgetting your name) who asked if
anyone else thought Ne T'Enfuis Pas was Kate's greatest work: sorry, I
like it, but it has no "depth" - the tracks I love are those in which
you can constantly discover something new in the lyrics, music or mix
(roll on the day I buy a CD player so I don't have to crank my car stereo
right up to hear the little nuances!).

How come I haven't seen any comment about Tanita Tikaram here?  I can only
presume that she hasn't made it in the States as yet.  She surfaced over
here a month or so ago with a successful single "Good Tradition" with
"serious" lyrics and a very jaunty Irish jig type arrangement.  The
parallels with Kate's beginnings are interesting - reclusive London
schoolgirl discovered by established "progressive" rock artist (Rod Argent
in TT's case).  Being very keen on the single, I bought the album, only
to be very disappointed.  Without exception, all the other tracks were
what I think of as "Suzanne Vega" style - self-centred, negative, with
very "downbeat" musical backing.  I gave the album away, but the chap I
gave it to likes it, so you might too!

Finally, I have a few requests:  I keep coming across references to Kate
and Terry Gilliam's excellent film "Brazil" - what exactly was Kate's
involvement in this?  (I nearly bought the video in an effort to find out,
but I managed to resist laying out 15 pounds just to satisfy my
curiosity!).  I also keep hearing about the rare and fabulously expensive
Canadian interview disc - since this is so difficult to obtain, would it
be legal to get a cassette recording of it?  Does anyone here have it
anyway?  Lastly, anyone know if it's possible to get a video of the
December 1979 BBC TV special "Kate"?

              "Hello Earth",

                        - Craig.
---
 O__ ....	Craig R.P. Heath	    Europe:
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