Kate Bush - KRYS's piece

[Marcel F G Rijs <mfgr@bart.nl>]

Hello everyone,

Inspired by the lengthy piece written by Krys, published in yesterday's
Love-Hounds, I would like to share the following incoherent rant.

I joined the Internet in 1993, through an 'email-only' connection at the
University where I was studying at the time. This was brought on by things
I'd heard about mailing lists and newsgroups. One of the first groups I
joined was Love-Hounds, which was a friendly community of fellow Kate Bush
fans. 
The new CD "The red shoes" was about to be released - I still remember all
the excitement, all the reviews and the many days I played the newly born
disc on my walkman on the train from my hometown to Amsterdam, where the
University was.
I loved the new album, I was thrilled with this very personal, deeply
emotional album and amazed at the fact that not everyone shared my opinion.
Obviously I didn't realize that, like all humans, even KateFans are not
alike. We all have our own thoughts and opinions, we can be critical, even
cynical when something new is presented - especially when we'd waited for
something so long. 

I have become less vocal on the Internet since then. I do read some
digests, but a lot also goes right into the trash can in my mailprogram,
simply because reading from screen is too much a strain on my eyes to
justify doing it all evening. But I always feel I'm missing something, and
this is why I was glad to be reading the piece by Krys. 

The extremes are more extreme than I thought. Apparently there are people
so disappointed with their idols that they throw them away. And apparently
there are people who want to marry or kill their idols just to add them to
their collection. I am just so surprised at these extremes. And I realise,
while I'm writing this here now, that there's no real conclusion to what I
am writing. I am just surprised.

Another thing I'd like to point out.
The last convention was one I missed. Still I have a story.
I knew this woman, called Sandra. She came to know me through a mutual
friend, and I spent a few weeks with her. She was calling me virtually
every day, and talking for hours, mostly about Kate. Too obsessive for me,
anyway. 
But I was touched by one of the things she told me.
She'd been to that convention, and had managed - at least, that's what she
told me - to get to Kate while she was on stage, and give her a letter
(perhaps someone can confirm this). Now I wouldn't have had the nerve to do
this, but anyway.
A few weeks later, she received a signed photograph from Kate with a letter
saying she was touched by what Sandra had written her (Which was some
personal stuff I won't elaborate on). 

Now I don't know but this doesn't sound like someone who doesn't care for
her fans. I don't know what happened on that convention, but to have
someone come up to you and giving you a letter from out of the blue and to
answer it.... Wow, amazing.

I have always considered artists to be normal people and have always
treated them like that when I met them. Well, okay, the usual
autograph-question aside... but most artists really appreciate that. I
think it's important to remind yourself that she could be you. How would
_you_ feel to read things about yourself? How would _you_ feel to have to
release music every few years and to do all the stupid things most artists
are sometimes obligated to do? 
I imagine that it's just a job for them, and since I hate my job, I must
assume they do too.

Perhaps this is all too black and white, but nearer to the truth than some
things I hear sometimes in mailing lists. 

I just hope Kate will release one or two more albums. If not, well then I
hope she can find a good hubbie and marry him and perhaps have kids. She
deserves all the happiness she can get after all the BS she's been through
these past 20 years. I feel for her, and if I believed, I would pray for her.

Kind regards,




Marcel Rijs
"Conan the librarian"
Den Haag, Netherlands, EUROPE
Email: mfgr@bart.nl
WWW: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/marcel
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