Boxbitching revisited

[katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago)]

Vickie here. My 2pence worth:
Chris wrote:

>>   I'm in the process of writing a nice little note of apology, as was
>> suggested by David Cross. Our feelings are not stopping us from buying
>> _two_ box sets, though. 

Richard replied:

> <sigh> Why do I have trouble mustering sympathy when you buy two of
> something and then complain that it's a rip-off?

We're not that bad really. We're not asking for sympathy either. There
have been complaints (Peter Manchester's recent post for example) and 
Chris went a little bit overboard passing on some of them (we had our
own complaints too). Maybe Kate needs to hear complaints every now and
then. I'm against her hearing complaints about her music because that's
not in the same category. Music is subjective. One person's Worst is 
another person't Best. All Kate does is put out the music that she's
spent much time, effort and sweat on. For someone to go and tear down
a song because it's not the way THEY want it to be is silly. Kate doesn't
need to hear that garbage. However, the Box Set is a different story.
She let it be released the way it was and there are just too many problems
with it to just not say anything at all. Just a few:

1) The CD booklet should have been the same size as the LP booklet. The
   CD buyers are losers. The LP buyers also get an extra full size color
   photo of the Ninth Wave session. The CD buyers are losers. It's not
   fair.

2) The songs she left off, such as Dreamtime and the instrumental versions
   of RUTH and TSW, are wonderful and SHOULD have been included. There's
   just no excuse. 

3) No lyrics for the B-sides? She did it for The Single File. Why not
   here? Did she, or someone else just assume that most buyers of TWW
   would already have TSF? Or did she or they just not think about it
   or think it was not important? Either way-it's a shame, especially for
   new fans who will have a hard time getting hold of all the lyrics.
   They would have to find and buy a copy of Kate Bush Complete to get
   the bulk of them. Why no biography? Of any sort. Did She or They
   decide that either everyone buying the set already knows everything
   about her or wouldn't care or if they did they'd just have to seek out 
   and find articles, interviews, reviews...to find out any info?
   The fan club address isn't even included. 

4) It's been hideously overpriced. Those who bought the set out of the
   starting gate are probably fuming to hear some of these low prices
   that are starting to show up. Here on the net I'm seeing the CDs
   priced LESS than we paid for our LP set! That's not the way to
   promote goodwill. I don't think that's Kate's fault at all but she
   should have been aware of pricing policies, AND considered the
   overseas fans who would be sure to want Box Sets too. Maybe she 
   could have done something had she thought about or been told about
   these things in advance.

Those are just a few of the many problems we have with the BxSt but we
personally don't let them bother us enough to keep from...yes...buying
two of them. We still haven't gotten the CDs yet but we will...for as
low a price as we can possibly find them. We consider the LP set to be the
real treasure so we spent our money on that.
We do love the Box Set but that doesn't mean that we don't have, or can't
pass on, legitimate gripes about it.

Yes, we're buying two sets and as someone (I can't remember who) pointed
out, we now know that at least some of the money will go toward the
upcoming tour so there's good cause to shell out no matter what.

Vickie (one of...)
katefans@world.std.com