The Secret History of Kate Bush <Vermorel Books>

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

> Really-From: vecvax!ken@Sun.COM (Ken Stuart)
> 
> Really-Really-From: ...sun!rtech!vecvax!ken (Ken Stuart)
> 
> Hello,
> 	Can anyone summarize the origin and availability of books on 
> Kate Bush [fans] by the Vermorels?  I saw a posting here recently about
> one, but have been unable to find any reference at all to them in the
> USA (are they UK only, perhaps?).
> PS e-mail to really-really address, not the really one.  posting is 
> more reliable, though, and it lets everyone know.
> PPS post reviews of the books, too, if you like.

I bought a copy of the "The Secret History of Kate Bush (& the Strange
Art of Pop)" by Fred Vermorel back when I didn't know any better.  (The 
title is from memory since I don't have the book right now but I think 
that's right.)  Originally I thought this was a sort of biography of 
Kate who I knew very little about at the time.  Vermorel didn't do much 
to change that.

Vermorel attempts to trace Kate's ancestry back several hundred
years, keeping an eye out the entire time for anything even remotely
seamy.  The result is a book that is half bizarre tabloid genealogy 
and half Vermorel's pompous ramblings about his ideas on the nature 
of pop as art and pop stardom.  In short: it's rubbish.

I believe that this was published in the U.K. and is probably available
as an import.  I don't know if it's still in print or not.  If you're
still interested I can check and see who the publisher was.

The only thing I know about other Vermorel books is that in "The
Secret History..." he seems almost apologetic about some of the
things he said in his previous book ("Princess of Suburbia"?) about
Kate.  Vermorel strikes me as a pompous jerk and I wouldn't recommend
buying any of his books.  He seems to have some sort of obsession with
Kate that his (apparently) tremendous ego won't permit him to deal
with.

I'm sure that there are folks that know a lot more about this than I
but for some reason the Love-Hounds gurus are being quiet right now.
Maybe someone can find something in the archives about these books and
repost it.


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