Average Age, etc.

[Mike H <mikeh@bj-clark.demon.co.uk>]

Greetings Kate worshippers,

(As someone quite rightly pointed out that's godDESS, please try to get
the gender right chaps, though I know what you're trying to say.)

I have been lurking on and off for a bit since my more recent messages
seemed to fail to get through (they did work once upon a time. Suspect
my software has forgotten how to do it properly) So this is also a test
of sorts.

<SNIPPET>
This year Kate's birthday falls on a Wednesday, at which point she will
be 39 (eek!), although you can be sure she'll still look at least 8
years younger & sexier than ever. (No chauvinism intended.)
</SNIPPET>

<MAIN>
In response to the recent comparing of people's ages, it's worthy of
note that where the KBC newsletter often carries new pen-pal
announcements/introductions, the age of these persons (quoted in
brackets) is invariably in the range of 17 - 25, while 30+ is
comparatively rare.

Myself being of an age where I had already started my second job when
Kate first burst upon the scene I find this all quite pleasantly
surprising. Gosh, I mean to say there must be loads of you to have
completely missed out on that initial experience, almost 20 years ago
when we first quickly & out of nowhere became saturated with KB (all
down to EMI of course).

I've been trying to remember who else was around at the time - Gary
Neumann, The Pretenders certainly, and Blondie of course (i.e. Debbie
Harry), Gary Glitter was possibly still hanging on, and we'd just seen
the last of The Bay City Rollers. Punk was starting up. At this point
however the UK charts were dominated by ABBA. ABBA were always in the
top 10 and seemed to have something new every other week. They were
never off the BBC's Top Of The Pops (a long-running programme that was
starting to show its age even then).

THEN, late one dark and dismal British Autumn, Capital Radio (serving
Greater London & surrounds, & still a very new station at that time)
began playing Wuthering Heights (this was nearly 3 months before the
actual release of the single in January '78). It was - baffling. Bizarre
& quirky. Certainly got all our attention though. I never really took to
it immediately, mainly because Capital were playing rather too often. In
fact they were playing it to death. To be perfectly honest it was
getting on our nerves.

Eventually of course we got to see it performed on TOTP. Baffled again.
Personally I found the choreography embarrasing to watch at the time,
although I had to admire her courage for doing it. (I'm older & wiser
now & have learned to appreciate it more.) Best of all though she had
finally knocked ABBA off their perch with this thing, which was
generally appreciated by all.

The one that did it for me though was The Man With The Child In His
Eyes. I came home from work one evening & turned on Capital as usual. It
came up and my jaw hit the floor. Rushed out for the album - the rest,
as they say, is history...

One lasting memory is watching her live on BBC's Saturday Night At The
Mill - she did 3 songs from TKI, one of which was Rolling The Ball -
captivating stuff. It would be nice to have kept a video of that, except
of course in those days you couldn't get a VCR for less than 600 (>
2mths salary before taxes for the poor civil servant that I was then).

I felt there was something of a hiccup in '83 with The Dreaming, which I
didn't like at all, it was too different. Much later though I made a
determined effort to get into it more & now it's one of my favourites,
although it still helps if I'm in the right mood for it.

<SNIPPET>
I'm glad I turned it around like that because it was a few years later
when I found out that she had made herself quite ill while doing that
album. She was doing it all by herself, except she hadn't got her own
studio yet. Studio fees were anything up to 90 per hour (English pounds
that is), and it was taking so long that she kept running out of the
time booked for each one. At one point she could only get the use of one
in the South of France. It must have been all very stressful. Each night
she'd finally be thrown out of the studio at something like 11:30pm, but
snatching the tapes first to take them home and fiddle with them some
more until 3 or 4 in the morning, if not later. At the same time she was
trying to survive on a diet of little more than chocolate. She is quoted
as saying that it got to the point where she would wake up the next day
and simply not be able to move. (I could be completely wrong but I get a
strong feeling that something of this particular experience is hinted at
in Walk Straight Down The Middle.)

She finally went to see daddy, who used to be a doctor, & who was
horrified to see the state she was in. He diagnosed nervous exhaustion.
The album had long been finished but was not received well, & she also
found she couldn't stand the noise & bustle of London any more & had to
move out. Not least because EMI were also after her saying (about TD)
"This isn't quite what we were expecting (i.e. it's crap); what else
have you got?" (unfeeling swine!).

Unfortunately for them she was in no fit state to do anything else for
at least 6 months. EMI were forced to change their minds in the end
though - the Americans loved TD. You still do, don't you?
</SNIPPET>

I have been working on a short series of Windows desktop pictures if
anyone is interested. More details shortly (give me about 2 weeks).

I am attempting to send this message 2 different ways so if you see 2
copies then ignore 1 of them.
</MAIN>

-- 
Mike H..
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