$$$$$ MONTHLY FAQ FOR KATE GURU WANNABEES $$$$$$$$$$

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

NEWSGROUPS

Rec.music.gaffa is a 7-year-old newsgroup dedicated to the sublime, 
peerless artistic genius of Kate Bush, her fans, and other artists.  
"Gaffa" comes from her song "Suspended in Gaffa" (on _The_Dreaming_), 
and (according to Kate) refers to gaffer's tape, or duct tape, used to 
keep people from tripping over electrical cabling, and metaphorically, 
apparently, to a frustrating sort of limbo-dimension ("the idea of 
seeing something incredibly beautiful, having a religious experience... 
but not being able to get back there"): 
 
"Suddenly my feet are feet of mud/ It all goes slo-mo 
I don't know why I'm crying/ Am I suspended In Gaffa?" 
 
Submissions to Rec.music.gaffa are forwarded to an extensive mailing 
list of people without netnews access.  This means that anyone with the 
ability to send and receive mail can take part.  The mailing list was 
r.m.g's original format, when started by |>oug /\lan so many years ago. 
 Together, the mailing list and r.m.g. form an informal fan club called 
"Love-Hounds."  You can mail submissions, without fear of censorship, 
to: 
 
love-hounds@uunet.UU.NET 
 
Especially rabid Hounds subscribe to the list as well as reading 
r.m.g.,  because glitches can cause you to miss messages [hopefully 
fixed with the new system]. To subscribe to the mailing list, send a 
friendly message to the
"moderator", Bill Wisner (who's actually in California), via: 
 
love-hounds-request@uunet.UU.NET 
 
It is possible to subscribe via various other email services: 
Compuserve, MCI-Mail, FidoNet, SprintMail, Peacenet, Bix, Envoy-100, 
Connect, and others.  For example, Compuserve users can use the above 
addresses with ">INTERNET:" in front of them.  Right now, GEnie, 
Prodigy, and America OnLine are NOT possible gateways to Usenet.  
Love-Hound Richard Caldwell offers access for the price of your 
long-distance call via the Big Sky BBS, 24 hours a day at 614-864-1198 
(1200 or 2400 baud). 

An entirely separate group called WarmRoom has been formed, as both 
mailing list and digest, though lately it has been rather slow.  The 
people who formed this group felt that the flaming on Love-Hounds had 
grown so bad that it was stiffling Kate discussion, so they formed a 
group of their own, with the simple rule that no flames were allowed.  
To subscribe send a message to: warmroom-request@ils.nwu.edu.

There is also "Kate-talk", a process that allows fans to talk to each 
other in real time.  For more info contact Jessica at 
jessica@cs.rutgers.edu, who provides the following information: You 
need a unix machine or a vms machine, connected directly to the 
internet. It compiles fairly easily on most unix machines. If you have 
trouble with yours, I'm willing to help get it running. Client programs 
can be ftped from hardees.rutgers.edu in ~ftp/pub/icb-client.tar.Z for 
the unix client and in the pub/icb directory for the vms client.  I 
know nothing about vms, and do not have a vms account, so I can't help 
much for vms people, and I don't have a clue what to do with the files 
that are there. I'd appreciate someone on a vms system trying it out 
for me :) 
 
Topics of interest to Love-Hounds include other alternative female 
artists, and Kate-related others like Peter Gabriel and Roy Harper, 
and, for that matter, anything sproingy, or not-so-sproingy.  Many new 
discoveries have been brought to our attention by Vickie Mapes (of 
Vickie'n'Chris), whose definitively sproingy radio show "Suspended in 
Gaffa" focuses on alternative female artists, airing Wednesdays from 7 
to 8pm on WZRD in Chicago (88.3 FM), and Saturdays from 10 to 12pm on 
KKFI (90.1 FM) in Kansas City.  Vickie is especially big on Jane 
Siberry, the soon-to-be-superstar from Albany Happy Tyler Rhodes, and 
Victoria Williams. 
 
A less-frequent visitor these days is the numinous curmudgeon "IED", 
Andy Marvick's self-parody as the ultimate "true believer" Katefan.  
IED used to act as the flame-wielding bouncer of the group, but seems 
to have mellowed of late into the more natural role of encyclopedic 
demigod.  Come back soon, IED!
 
Katefans are generally the nicest people you could hope to meet, but 
r.m.g. does erupt fairly regularly into classic Usenet flamewar- 
behavior.  **We're les concierges, chez-nous, honey, and we let the 
weirdness in.**  This tender agreement sometimes gets abused, and we 
try to do the best we can to uphold our ideals in the face of mindless 
astral violence, as Kate would surely want.  (If you consider that what 
you write here may one day be read by her... be kind to everybody's 
mistakes, huh?)  Newcomers can rest assured that you are welcome to 
participate, and if you feel ignored or incinerated you can be pretty 
sure it's nothing personal, and persist until you feel accepted... for 
if your interest is genuine, you certainly will be.  The best way to 
deal with rude and/or uninteresting posts is to ignore then and post 
something positive and interesting.

(One flamewar centered on the question of whether Katenews was being 
unfairly swamped by discussion of Happy Rhodes, whose CD "Warpaint" has 
spawned a #1 hit on Philadelphia's NPR station.  HR traffic has been 
moved to a mailing-list that grows more and more active and now 
includes many other female artists, shadowing the gaffa-flow.  You can 
send a request to subscribe to Jessica via: 
ecto-request@cs.ns1.rutgers.edu, to post a message 
ecto@cs.ns1.rutgers.edu.  Ordering info for Happy's tapes: Aural 
Gratification, POB 8658 Academy Station, Albany NY 12208. Tapes are 
$9.99 plus $2.00 s&h ($0.35 each add'l tape or CD): Vol 1, Vol 2, 
Rearmament, Ecto, and Warpaint.  CDs are $13.99 and $2 shipping. UK: 
#8/tape, #11/CD, incl. s&h.) 

Still another spin-off is the Tori Amos mailing list: 
Really-Deep-Thoughts.
The address to subscribe to the mailing list is: 
rdt-request@gradient.cis.upenn.edu.
The address to post to the mailing list is:
rdt@gradient.cis.upenn.edu.
The purpose of the list is to discuss and disseminate information
about Tori Amos and her music, and anything else that seems relevant.
  
There is also a Roy Harper mailing list. The subscription address is 
stormcock-request@dcs.qmw.ac.uk. Stormcock is the name of his "classic" 
album. 

Abbreviations commonly used on Love-Hounds include sideways faces, such 
as :-), IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), ROFL (Rolling on the floor) and 
the initials of Kate's songs, such as RUTH for Running Up That Hill.
 
Love-Hounds celebrate Kate's birthday (Katemas) each year around July 
30, with parties all over the world.  1991 saw parties in Boston, 
Washington DC, Cleveland, San Jose, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Iowa City, 
Chapel Hill, Chicago, Ipswich UK, Sweden, and two sites in Australia.  
1992 saw parties in Boston, San Fransisco, Chicago, Australia, Israel, 
and San Diego.


KATE INFO 
 
At a fan club convention in November 1990, Kate announced that she 
hoped to have a new album finished by the end of 1991, and that she was 
planning to "play some dates" at the end of 1991, her first 'tour' 
since her only tour 
in 1979.  Del Palmer told a fan it might include some in the US.  In 
her latest interview (December '91) Kate said her album might be out 
the "middle to later part" of 1992, though now we're hearing we can 
expect it in 1993.  :-(  The tour is as far as anyone knows still in 
the works, but of course the album must be finished first.  Latest news 
is that Eric Clapton plays on several of the tracks.
        Kate's buoyant cover of Rocket Man finally arrived October 22, 
on the Elton John tribute album "Two Rooms", and a CDsingle with Kate's 
cover of "Candle in the Wind" as B-sid' is out in the UK.  Kate also 
made a video for "Rocket Man" (not commonly seen yet in America) and 
performed the song on Britain's Wogan program.  

Fans of Kate were saddened by the news of the passing of her mother on 
Valentine's day, 1992. 
 
Kate's earliest band was called the KT Bush Band, (KT being readable as 
Katie), and all her albums have had a KT emblem hidden somewhere on the 
cover.  It can also be seen in the _Army_Dreamers_ and _The_Big_Sky_ 
videos.  (The initials KT can also be seen in the _Army_Dreamers_ 
video.)  With the release of the This Woman's Work boxed set in the UK, 
Japan and Canada, she introduced a new version of the symbol, 
integrating the astrological 
symbol for Venus (ie, the                 _O_ 
biological symbol for woman).              |< 
 
FAQS AND MOST COMMON ANSWERS: No, she's not married, but she has a 
longstanding Significant Other: Del Palmer, her bassist.  Yes, she 
smokes, and we all hope she'll stop.  Yes, she's a vegetarian, though 
she now eats fish.  5'3", no middle name.  She has two brothers, John 
Carter Bush (Jay), born 1944-- he takes many of the photos of Kate that 
appear on her albums-- and Paddy Bush, b. 1952, who plays many of the 
exotic instruments found on Kate's albums.
        No, she doesn't hate to tour, just can't find the time between 
making albums and videos.  Yes, she appeared on Saturday Night Live in 
1978, but the tape you can purchase of that show has her edited out!  
Yes, that's Donald Sutherland in the Cloudbusting video.  No, we don't 
have her home address!

Albums: 
        The Cathy Demos (Twenty three bootleg gems ca. 1975-1977??)  
Five of these are demos of songs that later albums.  Available on 
various bootlegs.  (Anybody have an early 80's album called THE EARLY 
YEARS?)  There are also six "Kick Inside demos", which include an 
unreleased song "Scares Me Silly".  Also there are two Babooshka demos 
and various other songs on boots. 
        The Kick Inside (TKI: passionate and girlish, includes her 
British megahit Wuthering Heights, 1978)  
        Lionheart (LH: rushed, rewarmed TKI is still absolute genius, 
1978)  Now in special $80 "Lioness At Heart" edition, which includes 
t-shirt and album sized photo-book.
        Never For Ever (NfE: Kate begins producing, ascends into the 
sixth level of enlightenment, 1980) 
        The Dreaming (TD: The Seventh Level of Enlightenment. Too naked 
for more timid souls.  Play it... LOUDER! 1982) 
        The Single File (Boxset of 45's, *tres* collectible. 1983) 
        Hounds of Love (HoL: One side delectably bright, one side 
deliciously shadowy.  The shadowy side is a never-filmed movie of a 
drowning woman's last hours in the sea.  Does she survive?  Kate says 
so, your mileage may vary. 1985) 
        The Whole Story (TWS: compilation-cum-video, 1986) 
        The Sensual World (TSW: Her "most feminine" album, whatever 
that means. Noisily engineered.  Some love it, some don't quite love 
it, especially "Reaching Out".  1989) 
        This Woman's Work Boxed Set (TWW).  Not released in the U.S.A.  
 Awefully pricey, and no lryics or credits on the extra disks.  
Includes extra disks I and II: 
        Almost all B-sides, dance-mixes, and other incidentals are 
collected on the extra disks, but not all.  Major songs missing are: 
Dreamtime (The Dreaming instrumental/remix), Running Up That Hill 
(instrumental), The Sensual World (instrumental), Be Kind to My 
Mistakes (original soundtrack album version, much longer than and very 
different from the single re-mix, most like it better), The 
Confrontation (instrumental from the Comic Strip film, GLC)
        Doesn't included any previously unreleased material or session 
work with other artists.  Great music though, yeah! 1990)  

        The Japanese version of this boxset has: 
--no stickers (umpteen almost-identical KTfems symbols - tell us if you 
think of something to do with em?), 
--more/bigger books in Japanese with non-canonical lyrics in English, 
--the Japanese album-covers for TKI and NfE, and 
--the mythical "better-sounding CDs" (tell us if you believe this). 


---
rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA