Convention Report

[nbc@inf.rl.ac.uk]

I will add my impressions of the Kate Convention last Sunday to those
already posted.

Being a Sunday I was late to get up and spent the usual slow breakfast
with the family. Hence, it was much later than I had planned before I
left the house and I did not get to the Hippodrome until 1.30. I therefore
missed the chance to meet other Lovehounds in the queue and the start
of the programme.

Anyway, when I did get in they were in the middle of showing some video
clips. In the darkness the place looked absolutely packed and when the
lights did come on later I discovered it was indeed jam full. I think the
venue must have been smaller than last year as the only space to move around
seemed to be right at the back behind the bar. I looked around but could
see no one I recognised nor any banners of posters suggesting there was
a lovehounds gathering. I began to despair of finding anyone.

While it was not very busy I took time to visit the merchandise shop
where they were selling Red Shoes t-shirts, poster and badges. There was
also a "fruit" t-shirt, and the last 2 KBC mags on sale. Near the foyer
they were also selling copies of Paddy Bush's new CD "Skyscraping" (which
he and Andy Tucker were lating signing).

There then followed some more excellent selections of Kate video clips
most of which I had never seen before and looked as though they were
taken from a number of TV performances from various places. There
were some spot prizes given to people whose ticket number was drawn out
and could answer a simple question posed by Dave. Questions were:
who played didgeridoo on The Dreaming; who produced The Kick Inside; what
profession is Kate's father in; name one of Kate's brothers. Unfortunately,
the main quiz later was a tad hardy than that.

During one of the spots for live music (others have described the acts)
there was enough light for me to try and spot other lovehounds. From my
vantage point I finally recognised the top of IED's head (sorry Andy but
it stood out). I could also see a group of people with labels stuck
to their chests. I assumed this must be lovehounds or a group of evacuees
from Bosnia.

There then followed an announcement that the food had run out, and a bit later
there was the first of the breaks from the Convention schedule. I took this
opportunity to wander over and see who I could find. I said hello to IED
or at least I tried. However, during the breaks they continued to play
Kate tracks extremely loud so we had to communicate mostly by hand
signals. This would be my main gripe about both this and the previous
Convention. Much as I love Kate's music it would have been really nice
to have a few moments of quiet so a few of us could actually have
talked without shouting at each other. Maybe then we would all have been
able to meet each other.

I managed to find Vickie who very kindly gave me a copy of a Happy Rhodes
sampler tape (thanks Vickie - I have not had a chance to listen to it
yet but will get back to you with impressions). Then I saw the "legendary"
|>oug Allen and had a short chat with him and Cherryl, and was able
to say a brief hello to Mark Semich. I saw others around like Peter
Manchester and Meredith Tarr but did not have a chance to speak to
them as at that moment the Homeground and KBC people started to hand
out freebies and there was a lot of commotion down the front. They
were handing out old posters, flyers, magazines, badges etc. So
where were all the other lovehounds - well I guess they I must have been
standing close to people like David and Scott without knowing it. I
assumed the little group were all Americans.

Round about that time Andy Semple came over to say hi and to say he
had met up with Steve Thomas and were positioned dead central.
I then went off to buy some raffle tickets which were in aid of the
Great Ormond Street children's hospital, hoping to emulate my
success in winning a signed video last year. After that the programme
resumed with a showing of the TV show Kate made for the BBC (the one
featuring the duet with Peter Gabriel).

There was then a short break while they handed out forms for the quiz
and asked people to get into teams. I tagged myself onto the team
of Andy, Steve and Andy's friend from Coventry. Shortly after, Peter
read out 20 questions. These were tough. Although, I got more than last
year I was still hopeless compared to Andy and Steve. Even though
there were a couple none of us could even guess at I thought the
total effort was not bad. I cannot remember the questions now but
Homeground promised to list them and the answers in the next issue.

There was then a run down of the Kate top 50 as voted for by people
when writing in for their tickets. The top 20 were accompanied by
a specially constructed video sequence. Again, Homeground promised
to put the full list in a future magazine. Number 1 was Wuthering
Heights. My no. 1 - Cloudbusting also featured highly, as did Eat the Music
- much to Andy's surprise and my delight.

Other people have mentioned "The Red Mules" - one of the massive number
of 3 videos that people had sent in. The other 2 were apparently too
serious to show at the Convention. However, "Mules" - made by three
long standing KBC members was an affectionate pastiche on Kate's
Red Shoes movie. Very funny - spoilt a bit by poor sound quality.

Paddy Bush appeared and played several weird and wonderful instruments
before being joined by his partner from BushTucker for a track
from Skyscraping.

There was then an auction of Kate goodies conducted by Del and Dave
Cross. The stuff they had was amazingly rare and included a white
label copy of The Red Shoes, CD-R's of some of the recent singles,
and a CD-R of The Red Shoes which had slightly different levels
on the master and slightly different art work. The latter went for
600 pounds as two people were bidding against each other. Although
most things went for over 100 pounds, on reflection the prices
were much less than any dealer would charge considering they were
nearly all unique.

The raffle winner was drawn but no one appeared to claim the prize
which was a gold disc from Japan for Lionheart. Runners up got
goodie bags filled with photos, singles etc. I don't think any
lovehound won anything - unlike last time where we had two winners.
The quiz prizes (red shoe box sets) were awarded to the Norfolk Alchemists
(who alos won last time).

Del then introduced two new pieces of music - Sexual Healing from
the Davy Spillane album, and The Man I Love from the Gershwin tribute
album. Both very good.

There was a showing of a Canadian filmed interview with Kate talking
mostly about the film and the album. It ended with a showing of
the US video for Rubberband Girl. It ended with Kate appearing from
beneath the floor on the rising stage platform. (Surely she should
have come down from the sky!). She looked rather uncomfortable
with about 1000 flashbulbs going off and had to squint for most
of the time. She thanked everyone for coming and raising so much
money for charity. Talked a bit about the film and asked people
not to be too harsh as it was her first attempt. Told us she thought
we were all marvellous and thanked us for all the letters of support
etc.

She then drew another raffle winner as the first ticket was declared
void, presented the prize and then disappeared to wherever godesses
spend their nights.

A showing of the film then followed but as I had already seen it
at the film festival and my bum was aching and my tum was empty
I decided to head for home since I had to get up early the next
day for a meeting at work.

The programme had been so packed there had been no further chances
to meet other Lovehounds. I probably have missed something important
but I have gone on far too long and there will be other reports
coming up I am sure.

So a good day - many thanks to Peter, Krys, Dave and Lisa for all
the work they put in. My suggestion for next time is have a few more
breaks and turn the music down real low so people can meet and talk.



Neil
--
Neil Calton                          UUCP:   ..!mcsun!ukc!rlinf!nbc
Informatics Department,              NSFNET:
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Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,      BITNET: nbc%inf.rl.ac.uk@ukacrl
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