Kate Tour Joke

[vickie@chinet.chi.il.us (Vickie Ann Mapes)]

Vickie here.

Vishal says:

> So, what is this I hear about Kate performing live in Australia
> and knocking Fairlights off the stage as she danced to TSW.
> Fact ?  Rumor ?  You "Ecto" people are keeping things to 
> yourselves!!  Ooo, I hate that!!

It's a wonderfully elaborate joke. Here's what appeared in Ecto:

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Well, now the cat's finally out of the bag I guess I can let you
all in the fact that Kate had an impromptu set of 3 "Dreaming" concerts
in York back during August this year.  York is about 90 minutes
drive from Perth, where I live... so I went and stayed over for
the weekend and saw the last two concerts on Saturday night and
Sunday afternoon.

Apparently Friday was fraught with technical difficulties anyhow,
according to a friend of mine who saw it... Kate's negligee
was nearly ripped off by a falling mike stand and her Fairlight actually
fell off the stage at one point when she knocked it during the dancing
bit for "Sensual World".  The music of course was superb,
a really good selection from all her albums - even the Ninth Wave, 
which I found surprising. The male choir in "Hello Earth" were 
particularly good. 

The audience of about 600 each night had mostly driven up from
Perth as I had, but there quite a few locals, too.  A lot of them
hadn't really heard much Kate before but got enthusiastic when
she did a "Dreaming" medley incorporating the Australian national
anthem and a few old Slim Dusty numbers. The local hotel owner
featured on digeridu and the whole effect was nearly awesome.

It was not extensively advertised even in Perth... just a simple 
splash panel in The West Australian gig guide and a mention on our
public radio station.  The result was I didn't find out about it 
until the Thursday of that week, so I didn't have time to get any
decent recording equipment together to make a bootleg.  All I managed
to get was most of the first half using my dad's portable dictaphone.

It was good to see her chatting with the audience between songs... 
She seemed to enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of the place and at
one point even said as much, something about how she loved to
perform live but hated all the work involved in creating concerts
for hard-core fans.  Apparently, she and Del were holidaying 
anonymously down here when some equipment became available after
the annual Jazz Festival and they thought, what the hell...why not.

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The original author may or may not choose to come forward. I had a great
laugh at this myself.

Vickie
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us

"If you lived here you'd be home by now" FT