Mailbag

[Andrew B Marvick <abm4@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>]

"They said they were very ill" is not correct, alas. Try listening to
it forwards instead of backwards--even though it may sound backwards
that way...
   Yes, _The_Kick_Inside_ is Kate's first album. She has released 
a total of seven albums to date, including _The_Whole_Story_, which
is actually just a greatest-hits package. Six studio LPs total.
However, with the release of the 8-CD _This_Woman's_Work_ boxed set,
one may more accurately say that there are a total of _nine_ official
KT albums--the seven LPs (_The_Kick_Inside_, _Lionheart_,
_Never_For_Ever_, _The_Dreaming_, _Hounds_of_Love_, _The_Whole_Story_,
and _The_Sensual_World_), but also the two CDs (_This_Woman's_Work_
Vols. I and II) found in the boxed set (three LPs in the vinyl box)
which contain nearly all of her hitherto-uncollected rarities and 
b-sides. 
   This is without mentioning the thirty-two known demo recordings 
which may be found through various semi-legal and illegal sources;
the soundtrack of the _Live_at_Hammersmith_Odeon_ video; various 
unique bits of music found only on oft-dubbed video-clips; and the
many unofficial recordings of some of the Tour of Life performances 
of 1979; as well as the small collection of Kate guest-appearances 
on other artists' albums, most of which are available on compact disk.
   Who is IED, you ask. IED represents, in this space (and there
only), Andrew Marvick, a longtime, devoted Kate Bush fan who hails
originally from Los Angeles, and whose increasingly occasional 
contributions to this group are only arguably informative enough
to merit your tolerance of his annoying insistence on referring to
himself in the third person singular. As for the implicit corollary
question, "What does IED stand for?", IED will paraphrase Kate's reply
to a perhaps not unrelated question about the identity of the "model"
for Houdini on the cover of _The_Dreaming_: "That's for him to know
and you to find out.
   Ken asks whether this group allows for discussion of subjects other
than KT. The answer is yes, of course. There is no actual moderator,
only a (very fine) Pseudo-Moderator. But please try to remember that
the predominant focus of this particular discussion group is and (IED
hopes) will remain Kate.
   IED appreciated the reference to the Vermolors book. Yes, that is
the correct spelling!
   The text of the _Visual_Documentary_ book _is_ good, and _not_ 
riddled with factual errors, unlike all other unofficial biographies 
of Kate. 
   IED doesn't see why everyone is so willing to give away the precise
locations of the "KT" signs on Kate's albums! It should be enough that
the seeker is assured that they do indeed appear somewhere on each of
Kate's nine albums (see above for list). As for the symbol on the
cover of _The_Sensual_World_: you may find it, in more or less
accurate form, in a variety of spots, including the flower itself,
Kate's hair and her collar-bone. But there is only _one_ spot where
it _definitely_ appears, and where with proper lighting and preferably
a maginfying glass the telltale signs of manual alteration of the
image can be detected. Look in the background on the front, on the
right side--and for the best results, use the original UK vinyl-LP
cover as your source. It really can't be seen at all on the CD
booklet, and it's not very clear even on the US LP cover. 
   The KT sign also appears on _The_Whole_Story_, but again, only
in the original UK vinyl edition: it's found only on the vinyl disk
itself...
   As for its appearance on _Never_For_Ever_, try looking at the stem
of the rose.  
   Finally, you really shouldn't need coordinates to find the KT sign
on the back outer-sleeve cover of _Hounds_of_Love_. But remember that
nobody said it had to be exactly right side up.
   As for the Iron Maiden cover: is it not possible that the KT sign
was intended by the group to refer to the Knights Templar, whose claim
to the symbol pre-dates Kate's by several centuries?
   Until solid evidence can be produced to the contrary, IED will
dismiss as nonsense the assertions that Kate asked her brother to 
stop "evangelizing" about Gurdjieff and that her father is a serious
student of Gurdjieff's principles. 
   Neither the old yellow interview-CD LP-size boxed "set", nor the 
new, white, seven-inch-single-size interview-CD boxed "set", contains
the "Abbey Road" interview (which, attentive Love-Hounds will
remember, is actually the Capital Radio interview of November 1985
which was originally conducted by Tony Myatt for the Romford KT
convention). 
   
-- Andrew Marvick, revving the engine of the ol' 22-wheeler...