from Little Light

[Jeff Tucker <R3JMT%AKRONVM@vm1.cc.UAKRON.EDU>]

  The following appears in Little Light, Summer 1991,
published by The American Association of Them Heavy
People, PO Box 221, Cuyahoga Falls OH 44222-0221.
  Replies are welcome, as are letters to the editor
or other discussion.

FAN CONVENTION

 The first AATHP sponsored Kate Bush Fan Convention was an interesting,
informative, and enjoyable event, at least according to the people we
talked to there. While the convention was an unmitigated success among the
attendees, and our mailbag suffered from accolades, the convention was
also a success for AATHP, and perhaps a not-so-wise business move for CD
Connection, the fiscal sponsor.
     The event was loosely scheduled; we allowed everybody to pretty much
roam around as they pleased. One of the most interesting displays was Cappy
Petri's collection of Kate stuff. Cappy's collection spanned all periods of
Kate's career, and his table was very well received. The other main attraction
was Scott Shepard's vendor table. While most people merely browsed, many were
able to add to their Kate Bush collections. We also had displays from the
National Geographic Society (on Aborigines, but we weren't able to use the
display to its full effect) the Houdini Museum of Appleton, Wisconsin, and
a few other scattered items of interest (such as the video collection). The
Bronte Society wants to apologize for not making it to the convention, as
they had some thing come up that morning which prevented their attendance.
     One of the highlights of the convention was the auction, called by our
very own Scott Shepard. He had the interest of everybody with a funny
running dialogue about the incredible uses you could put the auction items
to, if only somebody would buy them. At one point everybody was in stitches
over his description of driving around town with a life-size Kate cardboard
cutout in the front seat, and the effect that would have on your image.
In the spirit of a fan convention, rather than a record convention,
everything went for incredibly low prices- in one case an autographed
Dreaming was let go for forty bucks. Much to our surprise, Marilyn Gardner,
the Sony Music representative placed bids on several items and won
bidding on the most expensive item on the block: a Kate stand-up promotional
display from the early EMI days.
     Also notable was Marilyn's ad lib presentation on the once and future
promotion of Kate by Sony, in which she clarified many of the actions
Sony took after the release of The Sensual World and expressed a desire
to do an even more thorough job on the next album. She took questions from
the attendees before leaving.
     Earlier in the day Marilyn met for an hour or so with Jeff Medkeff,
who was interested in doing some lobbying on behalf of Kate's American
fans. As a result of their meeting, Sony promised to support
AATHP and its local chapters in any way practical, most visibly
by providing decorations and special giveaways for AATHP sponsored events.
Sony will also be allowing us to put our members on their mailing list
of people and companies they send promotional mailers to.
     Video was an unexpected attraction at the convention, inspiring the
upcoming AATHP video party. Everyone was fascinated by the unedited
interviews and unusual TV performances, as most people hadn't had the
opportunity to see them before.We went through our tapes (representing,
foolishly, an incomplete collection) at least twice, and at one point Jeff
Medkeff made the mistake of asking for requests. Naturally the first five
were requests for things we didn't have.
     Throughout the day there was all kinds of speculation about what the
"Big Surprise" listed on the agenda was going to be. Attendees had to wait
until the closing ceremonies to find out. Messages were sent by several of
Kate's fan clubs and fanzines, as well as Rolling Stone, Nigel Kennedy, Roy
Harper, the Trio Bulgarka, David Gilmour, and Peter Gabriel,
(or their management or record company publicity departments on their behalf)
giving greetings and thanks to the convention attendees. The message from
Gabriel went over quite well, calling Kate a "great artist" and garnering a
partial standing ovation from the crowd. A last minute surprize call from a
publicist provided an unexpected message from Kate:

        I'm very pleased this is taking place here today. If some of you
        came from a long distance I hope you have found it worthwhile, and
        I want to say thank you to you all for being here. I'm in the studio
        starting to record my seventh album. It is due to be released later
        this year, but I cannot talk about it until it is properly recorded.
        I think this is wonderful and I'm very pleased you let me know
        about it. Love Kate Bush.

 After closing the convention, several AATHP staffers had dinner with
Richard and Melissa Caldwell, and Phil Smith and talked about everything
Kate related we could think of. Jeff Medkeff was unfortunatly suffering from
an acute lack of sleep by that time, and alas, it showed.
  The next day featured a special breakfast with Dave Schreck,
the farthest-traveled at tendee, and the long awaited Paddy Bush Impersonation
Contest, which was won by default by Jeff (nobody else participated, but
that's not to say Jeff's performance wasn't good for a laugh. For those
unfamiliar, this involved impersonating Paddy's performance in Experiment IV.)
   It was an enjoyable enough day that the staff was inclined to do it
again, so we have scheduled another convention for August 1 of next year.
   We'd like to thank everybody who attended for making our
day enjoyable and one of the real highlights of the year thus far. We look
forward to doing it again!