The Illustrated Collectors Guide to Kate Bush

[nbc@inf.rl.ac.uk]

I received a copy of "The Illustrated Collectors Guide to Kate Bush"
by Robert Goodwin in the post yesterday. I ordered this from the shop
Scott Telford mentioned (Digest #7.389). I have mixed opinions about
it though overall find it quite a nice thing to have (though not cheap
at #10-00).

The most useful things about the book are the photos of the items such
as different pic sleeves and promo items. Since it is almost impossible
to include every pressing of a Kate disc the book is of necessity just
a snapshot of the Kate Bush genre. As it says in the introduction, Tom
Richards provide 90% of the rare stuff included. Hence, the book reflects
the items Tom has obtained and tends to cover mostly US, Canadian, Japanese,
German, French stuff etc. and there is less from more inaccessible
countries.

I found the layout of the book a bit confusing at first as the text and
photos are intermixed so that it is not immediately obvious what goes
together. However, it does cover practically every medium - tapes, vinyl,
CD, video, books, magazines etc. It includes catalogue numbers for
practically everything. There is no attempt to put a value on any of
the collectible items and only the occasional attempt to indicate
the rarity of something. There is a small section on fanzines but no
mention of Lovehounds :-(

Despite the reservations I do not regret buying it and it would be
useful for anyone with the time and money who intends to build up a
Kate Bush collection.

Neil

--
Neil Calton                          UUCP:   ..!mcsun!ukc!rlinf!nbc
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