Re: First Encounter

[vickie@pilot.njin.net (Vickie Mapes)]

Hi Jill, welcome to the group! You're the first person I've heard of
who got into Kate through _The Chocolate Wars_! Great!

'Twas way back in 1981, and I was corresponding with a fellow Peter
Gabriel/Genesis fan from Valparaiso, Indiana (I lived alone in Kansas
City, MO). She asked me what female artists I liked and I looked in
my record collection, because I honestly didn't know how to answer her.
No one came to mind. I saw a couple of Fleetwood Mac albums and a lone
Jefferson Airplane, a Melanie album and a Leslie Gore single. Yikes!
I told her what I had and she sent a letter back saying "I'll get back
to you..." and soon after she sent me a tape with a few artists I'd
never heard of. Sally Oldfield was on there, and I thought her voice 
was beautiful. I liked it fine, but it wasn't anything to get excited
about. Lene Lovich was next and I couldn't *believe* my ears! I'd never
heard anything like her before, and I played her over and over again.

The other person on the tape was unknown to me, but the name, for some
reason, was vaguely familiar. I was so enamoured of Lene that I didn't
want to turn the tape over and hear this Kate person. Finally, I decided
I'd give each song a quick listen (liberally using the fast-forward, I
was sure) before going back to Lene. The first song was...

Wuthering Heights

and Lene and Sally were forgotten for weeks. Within the first 10 seconds,
I was in love. Halfway through the song I knew that I'd begun a love
affair that would last me the rest of my life. By the end of the tape,
which included songs such as "Breathing" and "The Man With The Child...",
my life had been changed. (Little did I know just *how* much my life
would be changed though.)

(I finally did figure out that I'd seen Kate's name on Peter Gabriel's
3 album. That's why it was somewhat familiar.)

Desperate for more information about Kate, I wrote a letter to Diana
asking for MORE MORE MORE! I hunted and hunted and finally found TKI
and Lionheart. Diana sent me a tape of NFE, and a cover article about
Kate in one of the English music papers, Record Mirror, I think. I
wrote a letter to the paper begging for even more information, and
included my address. They printed it! The first letter was from a 
non-fan who was interested in trading, but the second letter was from
my friend and yours, Peter Morris. After that I was flooded with letters
from Kate fans in Great Britian. A little over a year later, in December
1982, I met Chris Williams, another Kate fan, and that was when my life
*really* changed.

If I hadn't become a Peter Gabriel/Genesis fan, and hadn't been sent the
Kate tape, and hadn't met Chris because of Kate, I wouldn't have: 

gone to England for the fan convention (a highlight of my life)
a radio show (features female vocals and airs in 2 cities)
the record collection I have now (hundreds of CDs, LPs & cassettes)
moved to Chicago (great city! Go Bulls! :-))
ever heard of Happy Rhodes (what would I do without her?)
become part of the net (what would I do without it?)
Ecto (my lifeline)
my cats (what would they do without me? They were strays...) 
met all the wonderful artists I have (Kate,Happy,Tori,Muses,Victoria,Sarah...)
heard all the wonderful music I have (vast, huge amounts)
gotten to know so many fantastic people all over the worlds (so many friends!)
my support system (long story, personal)
a life (seriously)

and all kinds of other things.

Kate's been very, very good for me. She really *IS*!!

Vickie

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Vickie                "Fight for your right     "My ears are lucky to hear
vickie@pilot.njin.net   to have a monster" TA     these glorious songs" HR
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"Imagination sets in, then     |_  _ | _   The Happy Rhodes mailing list
 all the voices begin" KB      |__|_ ||_|  ecto-request@ns1.rutgers.edu
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