KT Quest

[nrc@cbema.att.com (Neal R Caldwell, Ii)]

After having read of the good luck that other Love-Hounds had 
enjoyed in finding various Kate relics at record shows my wife,
Melissa and I thought we'd give it a try.  

Before we got half way through the room Missy declared that we
weren't going to find anything.  At about that time I found the first
of the singles.  :-)

We bought four original UK singles, Moving, Cloudbusting, RUTH and
Big Sky (the last two with picture sleeves).  I notice that these have
a normal (album style) small hole in the middle.  I wonder where we
Americans got the silly notion that 45s needed a BIG hole in the
middle?  Must have been jukeboxes.  (The "Moving" single is made to 
have the center knocked out to provide a big hole, evidently for those 
with 45 adapters permanently welded onto their turntable :-) )

We also got an American release of the _Hounds of Love_ single with
picture sleeve.  The picture sleeve indicates _Burning Bridge_ as the
B side but the record itself (complete with a nice big hole in the
middle) has _Hounds of Love (Extended Version)_ as the B side and
indicates that it is a "Stereo Promo/Not For Sale".  I wonder if the
idea of "Mono Promo" had occurred to them.

The "extended" version of _HoL_ is 3:44 long, an extension produced by
repeating the entire first verse after the second chorus (which is
actually a repeat of the first chorus with the second chorus now
becoming the third).  

The next item located was the "Tell Tales" interview picture disk with
a picture of Kate in red with a cello.  I've seen this mentioned on
the net but I've yet to listen to it so I don't know if the interviews
are of any particular interest.

By the time I'd parted with that cash Missy was knee deep in
promotional photos and....back stage passes.  We bought only one of
the photos, a side shot of the Babooshka costume that reveals more
detail (_of_the_costume,_folks!_) then most.  Missy enjoys making
costumes so the Babooshka outfit is of as much interest to her as me.
Has Kate ever mentioned just what inspired this costume? 

We also bought an alleged back stage pass to the "Tour of Life" from
this fellow, more on that later.

At the next booth we hit the jackpot, the marbleized vinyl version of
_Hounds of Love_ and a second edition of _The Kick Inside_ picture
disk, "quick, run to the ATM!"  :-)  We had to pass on several other 
items from this same dealer including the original Cloudbusting CD
single for which they were asking $90 :-/  The other items were in
line with the prices I'd seen mentioned here (eg $75 for the TKI
picture disk), is this CD single so terribly rare and valuable?  

At this point everyone was packing up and all the needles were in the
red on our budget indicater anyway so we made a vain attempt to sneak
past a poster display before a giant reproduction of the _The Sensual
World_ cover snared us (ok, lets see you say no to those _eyes_!). 

Finally we made it out of there, poorer but with our KT-relic lust
sated - at least for now.

Now about this backstage pass.  At first I was extremely skeptical of
it's authenticity.  I know that a lot of the passes this guy was
selling are legit, the newest ones are sometimes extremely elaborate
for the express purpose of preventing duplication.  Some of them go so
far as to use holograms (al a Mastercard or Visa).

The Kate Bush pass, however, appeared easy enough to duplicate that I
was skeptical.  After I bought the thing (real or not, it was only $8
and just the thing to complete any Katemas ensemble) and had a closer
look at it I became a bit less skeptical.

At first I thought it was just printed in a single color, black on 
yellow card stock, but looking at it more closely it's clearly printed 
in two colors, black and red, with the red providing some very fine 
shading for the background of the picture. The red shading is so fine 
that someone who just wanted to make a fast buck probably wouldn't 
bother to duplicate it.  Also it's printed with a trivial pattern 
on the back, something else a bootlegger seems unlikely to bother 
duplicating.

The pass says "Kate Bush" at the top over a picture of Kate wearing a
top hat as in "Strange Phenomena" with the afforemention red shaded
background.  In the picture, off to one side is the word "Staff".
At the bottom in the middle it reads "In aid of Bill
Duffield".  The back has just a solid black square over a line that
appears intended for a name or something.  The whole thing is
laminated with a slot at the top for a clip.

So is it is or is it isn't real?  :-)

A comment about the recent poor excuse for a flame war: Hey, folks  
I don't really think any one meant any harm, ok?  The tone of
Love_Hounds has been much improved this year, I'd hate to see hard
feelings over what seems to be a misunderstanding.  

Coming soon: In an attempt to generate greater interest Richard adds
references to masturbation, drugs, appearance, age and, yes, the
meaning of "gaffa" to the annotations to _Saxophone Song_.     :-)


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"Don't drive too slowly."                 Richard Caldwell
                                          nrc@cbnews
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