Re: say WHAT?!?

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Meredith scoffed:

>>Apparently, although it boggles the imagination, Kate and band played a
>>warm-up gig earlier that week at a club in downtown Manhattan, billed as
>>the KT Bush Band (as they had been known in their pub-rock days).
>
>?!?
>
>You mean I've been a love-hound for (exactly) seven years now, and I've
>never seen nor heard tell of this performance once???  Do you know someone
>who attended the show?  Where did it take place?
>
>Sorry Richard, but I find this *really* hard to believe.  Concrete evidence,
>please!

No concrete evidence, I'm afraid.  Believe me, if I had anything to back up
this claim, I would have shared it with everyone long ago!  I have been
looking for a very long time.  I first heard this story about fifteen years
ago and have heard it repeated several times since then.  My earlier
comment didn't make this clear (I blame lack of sleep, my permanent excuse)
so I should emphasize right now that I am every bit as skeptical of this
tale as you are.  I should have said "Kate and band are alleged to have
played" and I'd appreciate it if everyone could go back and paste those
words into the appropriate space.  :-)

The main reason I consider it even marginally plausible is that it was
alleged to have been a small and unpublicized warm-up prior to the SNL
broadcast, not intended as a real Kate Bush extravaganza such as she put on
the following year, and not as a proper live American debut performance.  I
dismissed the tale when I first heard of it, but my own experiences in
subsequent years with British performers arriving in the U.S. for the first
time have made me reconsider that it might be possible.  That sort of thing
does happen from time to time when the act is well established in Britain
but unknown over here.  (Plus the fact that the person who first told me
the story accurately referred to "The KT Bush Band" at a time when that
name was not widely known.  Which proves nothing, of course.)

On the other hand, it does seem pretty darned unlikely that it should have
gone unremarked by Kate or anyone else involved for all these years.  And
as I mentioned before, I remember searching through the Village Voice at 1
AM after SNL ended, trying to learn if Kate was going to be playing any
shows in the area, and finding nothing...

Obviously, if Kate or any member of the band were to confirm or dismiss
this story, the question would be answered.  But until then, it just now
occurs to me, if anyone has ready access to microfilm of the Village Voice
for the week prior to 9 December 1978 we should be able to establish
whether or not such a gig was listed.  Any takers?


RAB

_______________________________________

Richard Bensam Home Page
http://home.earthlink.net/~rabensam/

Gaffaweb: A Tribute To Kate Bush And Her Fans
http://www.gryphon.com/gaffa/