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From: rhill@pnet01.cts.com (Ronald Hill)
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 1991 23:04:45 -0700
Subject: THE Kate Bush Club
To: crash!wiretap.Spies.COM!Love-Hounds@nosc.mil
There's been some talk about the current state of the KBC. Following is the KBC entries from THE GARDEN'S fanzine list. I have added in the announcement from the latest issue of the KBC. Also included is the Homeground entry (with the price updated) and a list of all the KBCs produced so far. As far as I know, the leaflets mentioned in the RENEWALS announcement haven't been produced (though Homeground more or less takes up the slack there) and that issue was the last one anyone has gotten. While I am disappointed that the KBC hasn't produced more lately (an issue with a transcription and pictures of the con would have been nice), they have been up-front about the reasons why (in the announcement) and it seems to me to be quite unfair the comment made in the current Little Light, "Appearances are that the KBC is the 'corporate' Kate Bush Club, with no real function or direction except taking people's money and giving them nothing in return." Does anybody actually know anybody who has sent in money and not gotten anything in return, and if so does anybody believe that they won't, in Kate's slow fashion, eventually get something (presumably the next album issue)? And does anybody believe that Kate's best friend (who runs the club), and for that matter Kate and her family, are involved in "taking people's money and giving them nothing in return"? For newer fans who haven't seen any issue, I would very much recommend that you subscribe. You may have to wait a long time before getting anything, but when you do the issues are definately worth the wait and are clearly (to me) better than all the other fan mags that have come out between KBCs combined! This is mainly because most of the material comes straight from Kate and her family and Del. The Kate interviews/articles form the backbone of Cloudbusting and any attempt to examine Kate and her music. It is my hope that they will eventually go through with reprinting the back issues of the KBC, perhaps is some bound format, as I am still missing about half of them. :-( 1. The Kate Bush Club P.O. Box 120 Welling Kent DA16 3DS ENGLAND Subscriptions are no longer offered. An announcement in the 1990 issue of this official Kate Bush fan publication reads as follows: RENEWALS [the & represents the British Pound sign, I can't find it on my keyboard!] It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Club cannot continue to function in it current format. When Kate is busy writing for and creating an album, it is impossible to produce a regular magazine as there is nothing new to tell you about. Understandably she does not like to talk about her work before it is completed so we can only undertake to produce a magazine when an album or some other creative project emerges. For this reason we have tried to thing up a way of keeping the Club together without accepting the usual renewal money for magazines which will be very infrequent. The inland &4 joining fee only just covers the cost of your first magazine, photo, badge, and card when you take into account envelopes, postage, etc. so instead of increasing the subscription rates we intend to keep the inland rate the same and reduce the overseas rates to: - &5.30 for surface and &8.50 for Air Mail. From now on the amount you pay on joining covers only what you receive then, plus 1 or 2 interim swap/pen pal leaflets. In the event of an album magazine or whatever being produced we will send you a note to let you know it is nearly ready and if you want to receive it you will send us the relevant money. This way you can order as many copies as you want and we will know how many to have printed. In addition there would be a token renewal fee for the interim leaflets: - 50p for inland/ &1 for overseas surface/ &1.50 for Air (Air Mail is valid only for those OUTSIDE EUROPE - eg. Australia, Canada, U.S.A., Japan, etc.) These would probably not be more than a couple of pages and wouldn't promise to contain any information from Kate etc. but as many people have made very special friends via the swaps/pen pal is would be a shame to stop this service. We could also use it to transmit any other information available at the time and eventually maybe to offer some back-issue magazines. Please note that our bank now charges us %5 for all non-sterling cheques, so please add this to any US $ or other foreign currency cheque. We would ask anyone who has overpaid in the past and has received a Credit Note to send this when they renew, or if you do not wish to re-join we will refund the relevant amount. On joining, the back of you membership card is stamped with the expiry date. This is your reminder of when to renew so please keep your card in a safe place or write the date in your diary. We would prefer not to take up space in the leaflets with a lengthy renewal table. >From now on there will be 2 renewal dates to receive interim leaflets: - February and August. Anyone whose expiry date was between August 1988 and November 1989, your new renewal date is now February 1990. There is no desperate hurry for these (as long as they arrive by February), indeed we would rather you didn't all send them immediately as the album is bound to generate a lot of correspondence and the first renewal period will be massive! Would those whose renewal is due in May 1990, please amend your expiry date to August 1990. We have no wish to receive money for something we cannot promise to provide and we hope this provides an acceptable compromise. At least everyone knows where they stand and if they are not happy with the idea they can opt out. The new format will be stated on future application forms so that people can make the choice whether or not to join on that basis. 2. Homeground Peter and Krystyna FitzGerald-Morris and Dave Cross, editors Sharon May, Secretary P.O. Box 176 Orpington Kent BR5 3NA ENGLAND Airmail subscription to U.S., one year: 12 Pounds, 10 Pence. Note: The Kate Bush Club asks for payment in U.K. (Sterling) money. They prefer the money in the form of an International Sterling draft, but my experience with those is that they can now cost as much as twenty dollars extra, on top of the already extremely high conversion rate. My recommendation is that payment be made in U.K. cash, which you can get at airports, or at some banks and currency exchange offices. The commission is not much, and if your envelope is carefully sealed and can't be seen through, it'll stand a pretty good chance of getting there. U.S. dollars are frowned on by the KBC, but they might work if you are very careful to pay at the current exchange rate plus at least seven and a half percent extra to cover conversion costs. (As you know, the Dollar is worth less and less these days.) Homeground will accept foreign currency, but only at the going rate plus at least 7 1/2 percent. In strong contrast to the Kate Bush Club's publishing performance, Homeground puts out at least four issues a year, every year, plus a little update flier when there is some important news development. Homeground still has the feeling of a homemade publication, but it's now quite professionally printed in black and white on good paper. It's always interesting and has become an indispensible record of KT fandom. The KBC Newsletter, on the other hand, is very luxurious but, as explained above, far less frequent. Despite its slowness, it contains no more pages than an issue of Homeground, and of course the Newsletter's infrequency means that it can no longer be relied upon at all as a source of news. For all that, when the club does come out with an issue, it is filled with a lot of very fine and exclusive photography, most of it now in spectacular colour, much of it the work of Kate's brother John Carder Bush. The Newsletter usually features either an introductory letter, article or interview by/with Kate; articles by John and/or Paddy, Kate's two brothers; an occasional note from Del Palmer; a Pen Pals page and a Swaps page; Kate's own comic strip about the misadventures of her cats, Zoodle and Pyewacket (this was my favourite section, now sadly suspended, perhaps due to the sad news of Zoo's death; with luck perhaps a new strip featuring the new kittens will appear in future issues?); a puzzle/competitions page; news bits (usually out-of-date by the time they reach subscribers); and one-off articles, art and/or comic strips by fans. Lyrics of non-LP Kate Bush songs may appear first here, as well. For its part, Homeground features an exhaustive record of press, radio and television coverage of Kate during the quarter preceding each issue, called Medialogue; an immensely helpful ongoing series of facts, dates and biographical information from the co-editor Peter FitzGerald-Morris, called Five Years Ago; essays on Kate's music and related (and sometimes unrelated) matters, by fans and the editors; comic strips; poetry; and a spot for personal notices. Homeground, unlike the Newsletter, frequently publishes its readers' comments and contributions. This is a list of all the KBCs as of April 1991. This list first appeared in Carriad Kate. NUMBER DATE COVER PAGES ------ ---- ----- ----- 6 Mar 1979 Duplicated letter + signed photo 1. 26 Apr 1979 Hi Lionhearts 4 2. ? Aug 1979 Hello Everybody 4 3. ? Oct 1979 Tour Issue 8 4. 18 Dec 1979 Christmas Newsletter 12 5. 23 Apr 1980 With love from Kate 8 6. 11 Jul 1980 Convention was great 8 7. 26 Sep 1980 Them Bats and Doves 8 8. 22 Dec 1980 December will be Magic Again (cartoon) 12 9. 13 Apr 1981 Letter from Kate 8 10. 12 Sep 1981 On Videos And Tapes 8 11. 20 Dec 1981 Photo of Kate with snow in her hair 20 12. 15 Oct 1982 Photo of Kate & Dancers from Dreaming 20 13. 22 Apr 1983 Suspended in Gaffa Photo of Kate 20 14. 17 Oct 1983 Photo of Kate in a wooly hat 20 15. 23 Dec 1983 Photo of Kate by a stream and a swallow 24 16. 25 Jun 1984 Photo of Kate wearing a white jumper 20 17. 20 Dec 1984 Photo of Kate singing into a microphone 28 18. 30 Sep 1985 Hounds of Love album issue 24 19. 16 Apr 1986 Hounds of Love single sleeve cover 28 20. ? Sep 1986 Photo of Kate from The Big Sky video 28 21. 4 Mar 1987 Photo of Kate from the Experiment IV 32 22. 23 Dec 1987 Photo of Kate with cropped hair & vest 28 23. Sensual World Album Issue. 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