Re: Forwarded from Mike H <mikeh@bj-clark.demon.co.uk>

[Robb McCaffree <nsrjm@mednet.ucla.edu>]

Mike H. wrote:

> >
> >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?
> >

Well...*I* do, but I don't think The Dreaming was much of a 
commercial success here -- at least not to the degree that would 
make EMI eat their words.

It's possible that -- since it is such a huge market here, and 
since TD was only the second album released (behind TKI) -- that 
EMI did make more money from American than from UK sales. I 
think TD sold in the tens of thousands (60,000?) in the UK. An 
album could very well sell that many copies here without even 
appearing in the charts.

I do think TD was reviewed well here. I do remember Kate herself 
noting that. In some interview or other, she mentioned the harsh 
reviews in the UK and being surprised that the American reaction 
was much kinder. She was surprised because, musically,
Americans are not big on the experimental and different.

I also remember one great review (wish I'd saved it) in "Song 
Hits" magazine which described TD as "not exactly rock music" 
but hastily added that audiences "should check this out!"

TD was my first Kate album. I was dismayed to hear its weird 
textures upon my first listen (when I'd chanced a whole $8 on 
it!). "How could someone so obviously talented vocally be so 
misguided musically?" I thought. That "hackles on the cat 
STANDING" line was as powerful a belt as anything my then 
favorite, Pat Benatar could offer. But the rest of it...yech!

But then it grew on me...and grew and grew! I listen to Kate so 
often now, that it leaves the hackles on some of my friends 
STANDING!

And, BTW, it wasn't the review which prompted me to buy the 
album. It was Benatar's cover version of WH, written by some K. 
Bush, that made me want to investigate. I wonder if I would've 
ever run across Kate otherwise.

Robb