Kate! Get Off the Jazz and On the Road

[cbullard@HiWAAY.net (Len Bullard)]

[Chris of Chris and Vickie]

>Well, I think that it's the songwriting that she finds, for lack of a
>better word, immature. Well, of *course* it is! She was 14 when she wrote
>most of the _Cathy Demos_.

And they were good for the time.  Fantastic chord progressions.
Consider that the Beatles at 22 were wowed by their first use
of a secondary dominant.  She was way out front.

>I feel strongly that the bad decisions are Kate's, fueled by her
>own insecurities.

Yeah, that is what I think too.  However, in some ways,
it makes no sense.  She has plenty of folks around her
who can tell her she's fine.  Del, Paddy, the EMI people,
whatever.  Everyone can't be a flake.  John Carder certainly
isn't.  This sounds a lot like a strong ego that squashes
all opposition.  Great for maintaining quality in production
but lousy for business which is always something of
a rolling compromise.

>Hillary Walker hasn't been her manager for years. The last time she
>was called an "advisor".

Bad sign indeed.  The Beatles history is a good lesson in the
madness of that.  It's one thing to manage it all when one
is a small act; but when one is a major, that doesn't work.
The details are overwhelming, the people are *not nice*,
and the drudgery of staying on a phone all day arguing with
the local promoter or lighting company is enough to make
one deaf. Not smart.  Maybe she thinks she needs "a number
one" to tour or she will be "stepping down".  Horse Feathers!
She proved it a long long time ago.

>>If the tours are that hard to set up, and the indecision is that pronounced,
>>it's Kate's doing and no one else.  She runs the show, period.
>> But if she is happy with the results, so am I.

>Sorry, but I'm not. I'm a fan, not a sychophant. What does a fan want?
>Music. And no, it is *not* unreasonable to desire to see that music performed
>live.

Ok, I deserved that one.  My tendancy is to say, if she isn't happy
about a tour, the performance will not be worth the effort.  But it
is definitely not unreasonable to want to see the music performed
live.  I know enough about studio production to know that her
voice is not a strong one.  A lot of work goes into making it
that crystalline pitched sound we get, but so what.  It can still
be done and done well.  If she doesn't get out and do it,
age won't make the situation better.  Two weeks of performance
with a well-rehearsed band is all it takes.  Yeah, they have to
cover the orchestral parts and rehearse.  Done all the time.  That is
what sequencers and samplers are for if one really thinks
they can't strip down the production.

>Oh, she is definitely "smart enough." But perfectly intelligent people
>can be irrational.

Been there.   In both of my careers.  Done it too.  ;-)

>It's possible that someone at Sony/CBS doesn't like her,
>and gave her that impression.

The American music industry is something less than nice.
....or honest.  There was more than a little truth in that
"Wiseguy" episode a few years back.  The money flow
is big so the Wiseguys are bigger.  If Kate tries to control
that aspect like she controls her music, there is little left
to say.  Consider the power of just six people sitting in
the MTV suite reviewing videos.  Six people who couldn't
hit two pie pans together in a 4/4 beat.  They get to choose.

>From what I've seen, she's *more* wanted here, than in England where the
>great unwashed seem to think of her as a relic of the '80s.

People who wonder why a lot artists stay independent shouldn't.
For some, just holding down a gig, raising a family, and making
records when they can is enough.  It isn't the competition;
it's the lack of it.  We got force fed Madonna.  The Brits have
Kate.  Any show of hands for who got the better deal?

>I wish more of the yonger people
>in gaffa could see the _Hammersmith_ in context. Kate *revolutionized*
>rock stage performaces, taking off in the direction that Bowie had gone
>and pushing it even more into theater.

ON THE MONEY!!!   You have to be old enough to know that when
she did that, it had never been done.  Read the reviews, kids.  It
shook the music world to its feet at the time except in America,
Home of the Malaise.  But she did it.  She doesn't have to do it
again.  She just has to sing and play.  If she wants to dance, fine.

>It's possible that the impossibility of topping what everyone has done
>in the wake of _The Tour Of Life_ is what's stopping her.

That was a 21 year old's performance.  She shouldn't try.  She's
37 for cryin; out loud.  She should do something that would touch
this part of life.  Forget the teenage wasteland bit.  The saddest
thing I experience personally is rockers I work with who just
can't accept that three chords and swiveling hips ain't what the
average 40 year old cares about.  Gotta go with it, experience
age, find the art and the meaning of it, and express it.  Otherwise,
it will be Hammersmith again.  Who the hell cares where Geordie
is now?  I wanta hear the voice of a woman my age singing to
me about what I know about this time of life, the summer of life.
This is much better than 21, but ya gotta be here to know it and
why.  Rock was invented by this generation.  No one has improved
on it.  It's ours.  It's worthless and silly to compete with Tori, the
Black Crowes or Hootie.  They aren't only in her age group,
they aren't in her class.  It's like expecting Frank Sinatra or
Tony Bennett to go out and do a rousing version of "Take
Another Little Piece of My Heart".  She should do her music.
It's hers.  No one else can even touch her versions.  Sheesh.
No brainer.

>Here's *one* place where Kate could take a page from Tori's book. All
>Kate needs is a piano.

Right on!  Or, just do the five piece band with a keyboard extra
and two backup singers.  $5000 in expenses a night for a gross
of over 100K or better a night if managed well.

>We love Peter, but it's probable that we will
>never bother to see him in concert again. Unfortuntly, the success of his
>hit songs has put a lot of buttheads in the seats. We had the BOTH Bevis
>and Butthead sitting behind us at the US tour. They were shouting for
>"Sledgehammer" all through the quiet songs.

Unfortunately, right.  These I know well.  They come to our shows
and yell "FREEEEEBIRD!" all night.  We would raise the middle finger
to give them one, but it goes with the terrain.

>She *is* a brilliant performer.

Agreed.

>She's a perfectionist. She has to learn to let go a little bit.

T'would be nice.  On the other hand, remember the Prince's
Trust Concert.  If she had let go, it would have been quite a show.

>She has indicated that she does want to, again and again.

Then she should get some professionals and get on the road.
What do we have to do to convince her, become roadies?
Sure whatever.  It won't be the first or last time I carried gear.

I guess that's what really frosts me.  I get in from work
every weekend, pack up the gear, suit up and hit the boards.
I rehearse two to three times a week and record.
I am better now than I was when I was twenty.  I can rock.
I'm not in her class, but I don't care.  It just takes gettin' up
off the old behind and doing it.  She should too.

COME TO AMERICA!!!! KATE!!! DAMMIT!  WE DESERVE IT!

>But I'll still buy the boots when I can.

>If Kate isn't getting the money, no one should. So, bootleg the
>bootlegs. Make copies of the bootlegs for all your friends.

Guerilla tactics.  I like it.

Len