No Subject

[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.

    This article is a less-edited version of what was printed in Little
Light.


    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 is suffered from accolades, the convention also
had far reaching consequences for AATHP, and was perhaps an unwise business
move for CD Connection, our 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, representing memorabilia from every
period of Kate's career. Cappy dropped by the morning of the convention to
set his stuff up before any of us but Scott had even met him. Another
display that attracted a lot of attention was Scott's vendor table. Many
people looked and browsed, other people bought Kate-goodies to make their
collections more complete, and everybody agreed the display was
fascinating. We also had displays from the National Geographic Society (on
aboriginal culture, this display went unused), the Houdini Museum of
Appleton, Wisconsin, and a few other scattered items of interest (such as
the video collection).  The Bronte Society wanted to apologize for not
making it to the convention.
    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
at the prospect of driving around town with a life-size Kate Bush cut out
in the front seat of your car so you could impress your friends. 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, of Sony Music,
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 Columbia, in which she clarified many of the actions
Columbia took after the release of The Sensual World and expressed her
desire to do an even more thorough job on the next album. She took
questions from the attendees before she left.
    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,
served Sony. As a result of their meeting, Sony hopes to support AATHP and
its local chapters in any way practical. AATHP has attempted to spread the
wealth among other fan organizations as well. Columbia 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. Everybody was fascinated at the unedited
interviews that were played, as many fans hadn't had the opportunity to see
Kate in interview very much. 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, but finally someone asked to see
some rare TV performances and we were able to oblige.
    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 call from a publicist made
the day when she forwarded the following message from Kate:

    It's an honor that this convention is happening here today. I hope that
    if some of you came a long way you won't think your efforts were
    wasted. I want to say thank you to all of you for coming. I am in the
    studio working on my seventh album. It is due to be released later this
    year but I can't talk about it until it is properly recorded and
    finished. I think it is wonderful that you are all here and I'm very
    glad you let me know about it. Love, Kate.

    After closing the convention, several AATHP staffers had dinner with
Richard and Melissa Caldwell, and another Love-Hound (we are terribly
sorry, but we forgot your name. You had the November 17 convention T-Shirt
on and brought your pictures of that convention, and we had a great time,
but we thought your name was Chris Abel for some reason. Richard told me
over the phone who you really were but I didn't have a pen to write it
down, and we haven't been able to get it since. Please accept my apologies
and do post so that we know who you are, and can run a correction in Little
Light.) We talked about everything Kate related we could think of, even
though by that time Jeff Medkeff and Bill Barwick hadn't slept for quite a
while, and we are afraid it showed.
    The next day featured a special breakfast with Dave Schreck, the
farthest-traveled at attendee, and the long awaited Paddy Bush
Impersonation Contest, which was won by default by Jeff (nobody else
participated, but for those unfamiliar with the contest it involved
impersonating Paddy's straitjacket 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 next year. We are sure
the people attending the next will be as outgoing as the ones who attended
the last, and look forward to a repeat performance.
    In closing, we'd like to thank everybody who attended for making our
day enjoyable and one of the real highlights of the year thus far.