HOMEGROUND

[P D Fitzgerald-Morris <s0pdfm@exnet.co.uk>]

Hello all,
 
I may have missed some of the recent posts that touched upon HOMEGROUND,
as Exnet's feed crashed and stayed down for a few days. However, I think
I saw the essence in the quotes in other articles.
 
HOMEGROUND started life as a response to the way the KBC operated. It was
clear I think, from the beginning that Kate was not awfully keen on a Fan 
Club, and I suspect she started the KBC to pre-empt anyone else starting
an unofficial club. From the beginning however, the KBC operated more as
an official information service, infrequently appearing, and containing
little input from fans (although some articles of mine did appear!).
 
HOMEGROUND was started as a clearing house for bits of information, and to
carry fans input. It was never intended to be a fan club or an official
information service. It grewed! It got to a point where we could offer
to the Bushs to organise conventions (mainly due to Dave's professional
expertise), and it got to a point where the Bushs could use us (to 
organise fans for the "Big Sky" video). This depended on a matter of
trust. We never sought permission to start HOMEGROUND, but we always
sought to conduct the magazine in a way we hoped Kate would approve, or
at least not take exception to. For years there was very little official
contact between us, although we saw Kate's parents on visits to East 
Wickham Farm, and Hannah was our biggest fan. It was probably down to her
that we got to a point where official contact could begin, to our mutual
convenience.
 
I agree that the weakest points of HOMEGROUND are the presentation and the 
lack of recent photographs. On the former point I think our recent issue
(47) is a great improvement. We are not financed enough to go for 
typesetting, or to bring a full DTP system. The latter is our medium term 
aim. 
 
With regard to photos, when Kate is active on the release front, JCB is
usually quite happy to let us have his "official" shots. In between times
there are no new "official" shots, and so we have to make do with what
we can find, and otherwise use our imagination.
 
For years we have discussed the pros and cons of a HOMEGROUND/KBC merger.
Even if Kate would contemplate such a move, we have always seen some
difficulties. HOMEGROUND at the moment is an independent magazine, though
it does operate, as I said above, within certain constraints. Were it
to be an official part of Kate Inc. I think it would be more constrained,
and not neccesarily to its advantage. You all know that Kate insists on
full control. It would not be sensible to allow HOMEGROUND to become so
constrained that it defeated the original purpose of the magazine.
 
So at the moment we carry on, in our humble home-ground way. We think we
fulfil a purpose, and we're certainly still here after 11 years, sometimes
to our surprise!
 
All comments and suggestions, and especially articles and news are welcome.
Thanks to you all for your interest.
 
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H  Peter FitzGerald-Morris       H     H   GGGGGGG     "Have       H
H  direct from                   H     H   G            the walls  H
H  HOMEGROUND TOWERS             HHHHHHH   G    GG      got        H
H  now via                       H     H   G     G      ears       H
H  s0pdfm@exnet.co.uk            H     H   GGGGGGG      here...?"  H
H                                                                  H
H         HOMEGROUND - THE INTERNATIONAL KATE BUSH FANZINE         H
H            PO Box 176 Orpington BR5 3NA Kent England             H
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