Re: Kate Tour in US

[chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (chris williams)]

>> Hi! I was wondering, is there any truth to the rumor that Kate will come to 
>> the US for a tour? I had heard that she WOULD come if the record sold enough 
>> to warrent that sort of thing...
>> 
>
>	Don't be silly. Sorry to be so blunt, but that really is silly.
>Your best chance of even seeing Kate in the flesh is to go to the Convention.
>
>	She hasn't toured in 15 years and she is never likely to repeat it.
>It's a combination of Bill Duffield's ghost and the fact that she is so subtle
>an artist that it would be very difficult to find venues of a suitable size 
>and nature to make a tour a worthwhile proposition (both creatively and
>artistically.) She wouldn't be likely to take product endorsement and she
>wouldn't be willing to undertake movement of her style in large venues, where
>the clever touches would go, for the most part, unnoticed.

   I don't think that suitable venues are really the problem, and Bill
Duffield died at the *begining* of her first and only tour. If she was
not going to go on, she would have canceled at the start. 

   It's more likely that Kate's fears about touring are due to how
groundbreaking the _Tour Of Life_ was. It's hard to realize just how
far the tour pushed the boundaries of the rock show now. Kate's
"invention" of the headset microphone, the addition of dancers,
jugglers, mimes, a magician and others. All these things have been
adopted by others, especially the dancers and the headset. If Kate
toured in the same way, clueless reviewers would claim that she was
imitating Madonna, rather than the truth which is that other way 
around.

  With the complexity of Kate's music, and how much time and how many
albums Kate has done since the last tour, the impossibilty of producing
a tour that will be as groundbreaking today as the _Tour Of Life_ was in
it's day, and her own, shall we say, "relaxed" work habits, make a tour
unlikely, but not impossible.

   _The Red Shoes_ was planned as a simplier album that could be played
on stage with a reasonably modest band. The idea *really was* to produce
a "tourable" album, and tour. She honestly thought that she could finish
the album in time to do a tour. One probable reason for her mentioning
the possibility of a tour at the 1990 Konvention was her mother's ill
health (mentioned on the _Wogan_ show). Hannah was a fan and one of the
few people who could push Kate to do the things that she didn't really
want to do. Kate probably wanted to tour for Hannah. When Hannah died,
Kates desire to tour probably died too.


>	For Kate, I believe, pleasing her fans is very important - unlike some
>artists. She would only unertake a tour if she felt that everyone who went to
>see her would go home happy and satisfied. If she couldn't find the venues 
>which met the above criteria, she'd be unwilling to tour. Simple as that.

   I have to take exception to this. Kate has never shown any real
understanding of the desires of her fans. She works to please herself,
and if we like it, fine. Examples abound. The Box Set, the never
touring, the living death of the Kate Bush Club.

   The _Tour Of Life_ played in music theatres, and practically every
city she would be likely to tour has a suitable venue. After _The
Sensual World_ was released, Kate's people contacted Chicago promoters
about a suitable venue, and the Chicago Theatre was discussed.


                          Chris Williams of
                             Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
                               chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu (his)
                                 vickie@njin.rutgers.edu      (hers)