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[The following "letter" appeared in the ninth issue of the Newsletter, (spring 1981).]
Dear Everyone,
Hope you are all well after all the eruptions of the New Year. What with the news being so heavy at the moment, I think some sunshine could brighten it up a lot for all of us.
Mind you, I've been having a great time getting back into writing. I'd forgotten how frustrating it gets. I seem to have accumulated a lot of songs in the last few months, and am hoping to go into the studio and record two or three with the hope that one will be a single. I feel--as far as an album goes--that I still have a lot more to write. In many ways my recent writing has been on an experimental basis. I've felt it so important to change my attitudes to writing. I've been working much more with rhythmic ideas, and at last I feel I am changing direction, slightly more towards the way I wish it to go. It's difficult to explain, but sometimes the song will write me instead of vice versa, so I don't always feel I've accomplished what I set out to; and I'm trying to control this a little more. The addition of new toys to my work has been invaluable. It's sad to say that I was reaching the point where I was becoming bored with my "patterns". I think any writer sits in riffs that become hard to move away from, and my new toys--such as rhythm box, analogue delay system, CS-80 synthesiser--put some new magic back into it for me.
Apart from my writing, I've been doing the occasional interview (and have been haunted by domestic failures such as duff pancakes!). I very much enjoyed doing the Radio 1 programmes with Gamba. [Paul Gambaccini, who invited Kate to co-host two programmes on December 30 and 31, 1980, during which she played many of her favourite pieces of music by other artists.] He is a very funny man, and it was wonderful for me to have the freedom of choice in music. I felt it very important to concentrate on music and artists that I felt were either very underestimated or relatively unknown, and that were very special to me. We all know how hard it is to get airplay if you're not happening "at the moment." If you happened to hear it, and there were any that you particularly liked, there is a detailed list further on. In fact, I'll be looking up a couple myself, as some of my copies are worn out.
It's great to hear some really good music coming back. Wasn't Phil Collins's In the Air a masterpiece? [Kate had been present at the sessions for Peter Gabriels' third solo album, during which the distinctive and now ubiquitous drum sound heard on In the Air was developed by Collins, Hugh Padgham and Gabriel. The influence of this drum sound is clear in Kate's next album, The Dreaming. ] Well, while I'm trying to organise some tracks to record, I hope you will be having a positive March forward.
Lots of love,
Kate xxx
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Andy Marvick