Even more tour memories

[violet@slip.net]

> And though I
>got close, I never got Kate's autograph.  That's the year she was dating
>one of the Ramones and he wouldn't let anyone near her.

That's too bad!  Fortunately, I was able to get her autograph once,
although I actually managed to get really close to her once before that,
too.  It was just a freaky fluke.  It was when she was accompanying her
then beau, David Bowie, on his Serious Moonlight tour (and was right before
they broke up because she became so much more famous than he was and he
couldn't deal with it).  None of us knew that she was with him, and as
Bowie's limo was leaving from the Oakland Coliseum and the crowd thronged
around it, they realised that Kate was in the back with him.  David was
visibly upset when the crowd saw Kate began chanting her name.  I was close
enough to see that he screamed something at her.  It looked like he was
throwing a tantrum.  I couldn't hear what he was saying, but she was
crying, and I'll never forget that or forgive him.  I lost all respect for
him after that, but I still like his early music.

But I was finally able to get her autograph when she was travelling with
Tom Waits.  God! That girl really has a thing for going on the road with
her fellas.  Of course, if she didn't, she'd be able to finish her own
albums more quickly, because it's never been any secret that she amazes all
the industry people with her ability to get all the tracks down in one
take.  But she just can't stand to be away from her current amours, can
she?  I didn't know what she saw in Tom, but I think she must have been
drawn to his sense of humor.  He did, after all, write the instrumental
"Bride of Rain Dog" for her as an appendice to her own "Wedding List."
During his performance at Slim's (where Kate would surprise us herself with
a secret concert four and a half years later), he said that he had thought
that all the gal in the "Wedding List" really needed was a few pints of
"really good stout," which I guessed was some kind of alcohol(?).  So he
said he wrote the song to express how she'd feel after that, and said he
envisioned her "careening down the middle of a scuzzy street, laughing her
ass off and yelling about how Rudy had only ever wanted someone just to
wash his dirty shorts anyway."   It was really funny, but mostly because of
the way he said it.  Kate was watching the show from the stage door over to
the side, and I enjoyed watching her expressions as he played.  She was so
obviously in love and laughed a lot that night.  It was easy to get her
autograph, being that there's really only one way out from backstage there,
and there were only three of us waiting.  (I guessed most of the Tom's fans
weren't much into her, but they sure were sweating to see her in concert a
year later!)  So, she hung out and talked to the three of us and shared
some ideas that she had for her upcoming album.  She said the whole thing
was going to be a concept album and she wanted to call it "The Curl of the
Wave."  (But since then we know that she only chose to do one side as a
concept and to have the other side balance the story out and she named the
album after one of those songs.  Doing the WHOLE thing as a concept WOULD
have been way too dark, so I think it came out perfectly in the end.)  She
signed the back of one of the flyers for Tom's show that I took off of a
wall.  I was so upset that I didn't know she was going to be there!  I
would have brought all of her albums for her to sign.  But at least I have
a real Kate autograph!  I don't want to share what she wrote, because it is
very personal to me, but she signed it "Your soul sister, Kate!"  (I had
told her that I thought she and I had been sisters in a previous life, and
she had agreed, so it meant a lot to me that she signed it that way.)  She
stayed there talking for an hour and a half while all the equipment was
taken off the stage and loaded up.  We finally had to let her go back to
her hotel with Tom to get some sleep.  (Darn!) They had to go be at the
airport to fly to Iceland at 6:15 in the morning(!).   I wish that time
with Tom had lasted for her.  She really was so happy.  But of course a few
months later she was in the studio recording the album because the record
company refused to wait any longer, and two weeks later, with "Hounds of
Love" in the can and being pressed, she started the heavy promo for it.  If
only she hadn't had to tour for two years solid with that album, I know she
and Tom would still be together.  The strain of separation was just too
much for them, I think.  But she wanted to please her public, and with
"Hounds of Love" at #1 on the charts for 107 weeks, more and more tour
dates kept getting added.  I don't know if she'll ever tour like that
again.  It really took a lot out of her.  But I notice it didn't wear her
out too much keep her from having that torrid, less-than-discreet affair
with then-married Peter Gabriel during the three-month UK leg of the tour!
God!, what a scandal that was!  But let's not open that can of worms again.

Violet <hugging precious Tom Waits flyer to her closely>