re: Dr. marcEL rIjs's LaudAble Notes About totp wh; &hg52

[IED0DXM@aol.com]

 > In the continuing "Wuthering heights" TOTP mystery, I think
 > it is necessary to say the following to IED and everyone
 > else interested:
 > 
 > I have on my videotape 2 recordings of Kate Bush
 > performing"WH" on TOTP. I showed these recordings to Uli
 > during the recent ToriFest in Darmstadt (You should've been
 > there; it was great) and we agreed on this.
 > 
 > Both recordings are from a week when she was on no. 1 with
 > the song. Both were recently (at the beginning of this year)
 > re-shown on "UK Gold" and presenters say "No. 1" and "The
 >  nation's no. 1" respectively. The red slacks performance
 >  PDFM is continually claiming to exist can actually exist
 > when she performed WH _before_ she came to no. 1 on TOTP
 > (Which, as stated in KB Complete, should be true). In the
 > Garden it's stated she only performed WH twice on TOTP
 > though - so that would be a mistake. It should be at least 3
 > times if what PDFM claims is true.
 >
 > -- Marcel Rijs


IED must apologize to Marcel.  He received from Peter FitzGerald-Morris via
e-mail more or less the same useful information that Marcel offered above,
and Peter's information was confirmed by Uli Grepel, also via e-mail.
  Unfortunately IED did not think to update the issue in rec.music.gaffa.
  As this is important Kate Bushological history, however,  a more thorough
review of the facts as they are currently understood by this fan is, he
ventures to say, not entirely out of place here.

The obvious explanation of the problem Marcel has so deftly put before the
philocanine community is that IED's entries in The Garden for TotP
performances of WH are, indeed, *wrong*.  (There are, alas! many other such
inaccuracies in that nevertheless worthy text.)  Not just two TotP
appearances were made by Kate Bush in early 1978 -- there were at least four,
and it seems probable that there were five!

Peter's description of a red-trousers version is certainly accurate, although
as far as IED knows there is no available video-recording of this first
appearance.  As Marcel correctly supposes, this version dates from before the
single had reached No. 1 on the charts.

There are probably four more TotP appearances (in addition to airings of the
official video).  Of these, IED has seen two, one of which (possibly
appearance No. 4) shows Kate standing in a long, more or less plain black
dress.  The other (perhaps appearance No. 2, only part of which is known to
IED) has Kate in a white dressing-gown, and looks a good deal like the
official (post-Rockflix) video.  This is the version of which an excerpt was
later shown on the 1978 Ask Aspel appearance.

Of the two remaining TotP appearances, IED hopes and believes that one or
both of these were among the two versions that were recently aired in a
re-run of TotP (referred to by Marcel above).  One (perhaps TotP appearance
No. 3?) features Kate seated at the piano while singing the song.  IED has no
definite information about the fifth appearance, if, as seems likely, it
occurred.

IED would greatly appreciate from Marcel a detailed description of the two
TotP versions which were recently shown again on TV in Europe.  

There are also television performances of Wuthering Heights from Top Pop,
Magpie, Scene '78 and Pop-Rock (aka Bio's Bahnhof); and of course there are
four "official"  versions on video:  one is the outdoor film featuring Kate
in a red dress (the Rockflix production), another is the Keef-produced studio
promo, the third is the Wuthering Heights segment of the Efteling collection,
and the fourth is the live finale of the Hammersmith Odeon film.  Also, a
clip of a performance of the song from either the April 28 Hamburg concert or
the May 8 Mannheim concert was included in the German special, "Kate Bush in
Concert".   Still another live clip of this song from the 13/14 May 1979
(Hammersmith) concerts may have been shown in June 1979 in a Dutch television
film  called Countdown Special, although as this programme has still not been
seen or heard by IED, he cannot say whether the song was included.  And,
finally, as far as IED knows, Kate may have performed the song during her (as
yet untraced) appearances on Voor de Vuist Weg and the 1978 San Remo music
festival (televised in Italy).  Btw, what does Voor de Vuist Weg mean?

Thus, in total, certainly thirteen, probably at least fourteen, and possibly
as many as sixteen different performances of Wuthering Heights have been
committed to video-tape.      

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
     P.S.:  IED blushes at being so kindly flattered by Dr.
FitzGerald-Morris, the Dean of the Universitatis Homegroundis,
in his invaluable continuing biography of Kate Bush, "Five Years Ago".  It is
not, IED assures his patient readers, because of PDFM's generous comments
about IED that he now hastens to applaud and recommend Homeground's 52nd
issue to all Kate Bush fans, for this excellent document is unquestionably a
testament to the care, skill and professionalism of its editors and an
invaluable souvenir of their magnificent convention of May 8th last.
        P.P.S.:  SRI