Convention/Trip to Peter's house [LONG, but worth it!]

[ed@das.llnl.gov (Edward Suranyi)]

Hi!  I'll try not to repeat too much of what's already been said,
as the major news has already been posted.

Larry Hernandez, Chris'n'Vickie, and I had arranged to meet at 
Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning, as we were all supposed to
arrive within an hour of each other.  Despite the fact that we were
all coming on different airlines, and connecting in differnt cities, we
managed to meet pretty much as we had planned.  We went straight to
our hotel, where we stopped just long enough to meet Jorn Barger and
some other people staying with him, including Ron from San Diego.  (At
this point I should mention that I have a terrible memory for names.  If
I say something that someone does something without mentioning a name,
I've forgotten it, and I apologize.  If you want to send me e-mail telling
me who you are, I'd appreciate it.)

We dropped off our stuff and cleaned up a little, then headed over to
Hammersmith.  I was surprised at the length of the line, but with over
1200 people attending I should have expected it.  In line I met Andy
Marvick, Meredith Tarr, and some others.

Other posts have described the room.  We Love-Hounds set up a meeting
place near a couch, and we all signed the card that Andy got for the
flowers we planned to give Kate.  

In the following, I'll use the legend:

K: Kate
Q: Questioner from the audience
A: Shouts from the audience
WAC:  wild applause and cheering.  I have to use this one a lot!

At the beginning, the people from Homeground introduced themselves.
David Cross (I think that's his last name -- I don't remember for sure!)
said,  "There are people all over the world here today.  We
have lots of Americans."  A big cheer went up among the Americans.
"I thought that would get a reaction from the Americans," he said.
He described the program, then said, "And, yes, Kate will be here."

WAC.

"And she's not going to just say hello and leave.  She's going to be here
for quite awhile, answering questions from the audience.  So don't worry."

Others have described the video presentation.  Nobody yet has said that
some of the things shown were stuff that I didn't imagine existed:  
especially, "Coffee Homeground" from the Hammersmith Odeon concert!  As
you know, this isn't on the officially released video.  I was
awestruck; it was incredible.  I'll also just say that in the Rapido
interview, Kate talks about her fans, and says, "I think they must be
completely mad, and thank you very much!"  This brought some cheers from 
the audience.

I was part of a quiz team consisting of Andy, Meredith, Graham from 
Australia, and me.  Unfortunately, we didn't win.  Also, it turns out
that we were all wrong about the stumper question.  The next day, Peter
Fitzgerald-Morris of Homeground told us that the one question that only
the winner got right was "What was the full name of the Roy Harper song
that Kate sang backing vocals for."  It turns out that "You (The Game,
Part II)" is NOT the complete title!  I'll tell more about my trip
to Peter's house in Kent below.

We met Lisa, who runs the K.B.C.  Chris asked her if Kate planned to
perform at all, and she said, "Well, you know, Kate would really love
to, but the problem is that it would be bootlegged."  As you know, she
sang a little anyway.

Most of the rest of the program has been discussed by others, so I'll just
skip to the question and answer section.  I will be paraphrasing here,
and posting only what I remember, but I believe that some people managed
to get this on tape.  I think and hope that they will post the whole thing
real soon!

David anounced Kate with the words, "And here's Kate!"  Immediately there
was a mad rush to the front.  David said, "Sit down!  Sit down, so
everybody can see!"  With Kate on stage, nobody wanted to disobey, so 
everyone sat down in short order.  I was especially happy, since, as one
other poster has discovered, I'm pretty short.

K:  Hello!  How are you?  Are you having a good time?
A:  Hello!  Yes!, etc.
K:  I just have a couple of things to say first of all.  I want to thank
you all for coming.  I've started writing songs for the next album.

Immensely WAC.

K:  Well, that's certainly an encouraging reaction!  I've gone back
to a simpler style, I think.  I'm composing mostly on piano nowadays.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

K:  What a lovely accent.  Is it Irish?
Q:  No, actually, it's Californian, though some people think it's
Canadian.

_____________________________________________________________________

Q:  How does it feel, knowing that no matter how hard your work seems,
we'll always love you?

WAC.

K:  Well, it's really encouraging.  Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of
an album, I don't think it'll ever be finished, and I get so frustrated.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Kate had been asked about her first recording sessions with David
Gilmour.]
K:  One of the songs I recorded then was "Passing Through Air", which
I think became a B-side later.
A:  "Army Dreamers."
K:  No, I didn't record "Army Dreamers" then.
A:  No, we mean it was a B-side for "Army Dreamers."
K:  Was it?  Well, you would know!

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Q: [unfurls a huge flag of Brazil]  I'm too emotional.

With prodding from the audience and Kate, he says,

Q:  Have you ever been to Brazil?
K:  No.  I've heard it's really a lovely place, though.
Q:  Can I ask you one other thing?
K:  Um, Yes.

Unfortunately, I've forgotten what the second question was, although I
seem to remember that it was kind of neat.  If anyone remembers, please
post.

--------------------------------------------------------------

K:  I thought I'd be really nervous, answering questions in front
of a large crowd, but I'm actually quite relaxed now!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

K:  [looking at a question she just took out of the box]  Hmm, I
think I'll save this one till last.

Of course, we know what that last question was now!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten most of the question and
answer session.  Kate was onstage for between 45 minutes an an hour,
so lots of other questions were asked.  I hope that within a couple 
of weeks someone will post a complete transcript.  Failing that,
could others post questions and answers that I didn't?

I do, of course, remember the LAST question:

K:  And here's the last question, that I set aside earlier.  [Reads name]
Q:  Since it's been so long since your last tour, do you have any plans
at all to tour in the foreseable future?
K:  Well, actually, we've discussed this and now plan to have some live
shows towards the end of next year.

Incredibly WAC, lasting several minutes!

K:  A final decision will be made in January.  I just wanted you to be the
first to know.

Andy got a large bunch of roses.  As the questioning went on, it appeared
that he might have been forgotten.  So Andy slowly made his way to the
side of the stage.  David saw him, and took the flowers.  "These are from
the Love-Hounds, the American fans," he said as he gave them to Kate. 
[Yes, I know it's not just Americans, but that's what he said.]  "Oh,
how lovely," she said.

Others have described how Kate pulled a piece of paper out of her sock,
and sang My Lagan Love with new lyrics.  Peter told us later that she
hadn't decided whether to sing that until the very end, when she would see
how she felt.  That's why it was hidden until she pulled it out.  Peter
said she left feeling ecstatic -- which is kind of how we felt, too!

Riding the underground back to our hotel, I mentioned that when Kate
announced the live shows, I really wanted to shout, "Please come to
America this time!"  Someone who I didn't know, who was standing near
us and who had also just come from the convention, said, "I asked Del
Palmer about that just now, and he said they definitely are planning to
come to America, at least the major cities:  New York, Los Angeles, San
Francisco . . ."

Pinch me, I must be dreaming!

About twenty of us went out for dinner to an Italian restaurant.
Afterwards, we stared to break up.

The next day Chris'n'Vickie had been invited to Peter and Krys
Fitzgerald-Morris' place in Kent.  They were allowed to bring a few
friends.  I was lucky enough to be one.  [Thanks, Vickie!  If there's
only one thing that you've done for me that I will never forget, this
is it!]  Others were Larry Hernandez, Jorn Barger, and Ron from San
Diego (whose last name I've forgotten).  Later, Graham from Australia
showed up.  Ron had given Del a t-shirt describing the many attractions
of San Diego, hoping to convince Kate to go there.

It was about an hour's train ride from Victoria station to Rochester.
We called Peter up, and he and David Cross showed up in two cars a few
minutes later, and drove us to his house.

There, we met Krys, and a couple from Liverpool, Paul and Pammy.
Chris'n'Vickie had brought a small 8mm video deck, which we set up
so Peter et al could see some of the Japanese videos which hadn't
made it to them yet.  In return, Peter showed us some extremely rare
video.

We asked how the question and answer session worked, and David said that
Kate and Lisa went through all the submitted questions, and chose the ones
that she would answer.  As there were over 90 questions submitted, she
couldn't possibly have time to answer them all.  Anyway, about 30 of them
were, "Are you going to go on tour?"  Someone asked, "Would you come over
to my house for some tea sometime?"  So those questions had to be weeded
out.  He said that Kate definitely wanted to call on the guy from Brazil,
because she wanted to speak to the person who had come such a long way.

David had to leave early in the evening.  Later, some people went to bring
back fish and chips for dinner.  (Vickie really wanted to experience this
English dish.)  

We planned to go back by the very last train, so Peter called up British
Rail and they told him there was a train at 23:54.  When the time came,
Paul and Peter drove us in two cars to the train station.  Paul and Pammy
had to go back to Liverpool, so they left us there.  One of us looked at
the schedule, and said, "Uh, oh".  There was no 23:54 train listed on
Sunday!  We waited there twenty minutes until it was obvious that no such
train existed.  It was decided that we should go back to Peter's house to
decide what to do.  The only problem was, with Paul gone there was only
one car!  For awhile we tried to fit all eight of us in Peter's tiny
European car.  This led to some hilarious contortions (Ron took a picture;
it should be interesting) until we decided that it was simply impossible.

Fortunately, there was a taxi at the train station, so half of us took
that, and the others went in Peter's car.

Back at Peter's place it was decided that he would drive those of us
who had to leave the next day all the way back to London; the others would
spend the night there.  As my plane left Monday afternoon, I went back to
London with Peter.

The drive back was lots of fun, although we almost got lost a couple of
times.  We went right through Lewisham, and Peter said, "I don't think
the pub that the KT Bush Band played at for the first time is on our
route, but it's in this town and if we pass it I'll tell you."

Another time he said, "If you look between the buildings on the right side
of the road, you'll see the area where Kate lives nowadays.  It's about
200 yards away."

I guess I've gone on long enough.  If I think of anything else to say
later, I'll post it.  I was very happy to meet everybody there --
especially Graham, Meredith, Neil, Ron, and everybody else whose names
have just slipped my mind.

Ed
ed@das.llnl.gov