MisK.

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: MisK.

     IED received a complimentary issue (#2) of _The_Big_Sky_Forum_,
another U.S.-based Kate Bush fanzine yesterday. This one is published
(on nice paper with a very pretty and clean desktop-publishing layout)
by Scott Marcy of Massachusetts. Like _Watching_Storms_, the Rhode
Island-based KT 'zine, _TBSF_ has ambitions of becoming "the" voice of
Kate's U.S. fans. (As for Alan Baliott's _After_the_Party_, it
seems to have pretty much disappeared without ever really developing
into anything more than a two-page flier, although perhaps it
will eventually coalesce; and Gillian Gaar's Seattle-based
_For_the_Love_of_Kate_, which had a fourth issue a few months
back, is still a very paste-and-crayon-style joke-sheet.)
     _The_Big_Sky_Forum_ is for the up-and-coming American Kate fan,
in that it covers pretty basic aspects of her music and career.
For all that, the new fanzine contains some cute little precis on such
subjects as Frederick Delius, Paddy's ethnic instruments, and
--in the one really new asset of issue #2--a good interview with
a former apprentice to Houdini, covering all angles of the Houdini
story that are directly relevant to Kate's song.
     On the down side, however, the second issue, which is only
twelve pages long, contains a 3-1/2-page _advertisement_ by
Steve French, a U.K. rip-off KT merchandiser who charges outrageously
inflated prices for records, posters, t-shirts, etc., most of
which are not particularly rare or remarkable anyway. (One glaring
example: he charges 25 POUNDS for the seven-minute-long "interview"
CD that came out recently in a twelve-inch box--that comes to
more than $6 per minute. The same interview is available on
a different CD which also includes a second interview of over twenty
minutes.)
     If it weren't for that ad, IED would recommend _The_Big_Sky_Forum_
to those who are starting on the ground floor of Katedom, so to speak.
Unfortunately, because he cannot stand the idea that another group
of innocent new fans might be taken advantage of by a slimewad like
French, IED must recommend _against_ any involvement with _TBSF_ until
such time as changes are made in the ratio of commercial space to
editorial space.

-- Andrew Marvick