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Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 22:52 MET DST
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich
Grepel)
Subject: Attention European MTV watchers!
Hiya,
just flipping channels I caught Paul King announcing 'Kate Bush'. Normally Paul does 'Greatest Hits', but no, this time it's for First Look! So it has to be something new! Watch it now (in about 8 minutes...) or tomorrow at 13:30 CET / 12:30 GMT. Actually they had First Look today afternoon, but of course I missed it then...
Bye, Uli
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 93 23:44 MET DST
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich
Grepel)
Subject: MTV Europe GRRRRRRRR, or well, half of GRRR and WHEW!
Hi
48 seconds... that's all Paul King showed of the new Rubberband Girl video on MTV First Look. Why didn't they show the complete thing? Why? WHY?!??? Well, then 48 seconds have to suffice for the moment!
First a statement I think I have to make: Rubberband Girl in fact sounds much better in hifi than it did in 8kHz 8bit mono soundfile. So much better that I think I'll start liking the song. Better: loving the song. Kate - your voice is as beautiful as ever, that really was the low-fi.
Now to the video:
Kate looks great, she's dancing with some male dancer who moves more or less exactly the way she does. Some of the movements Kate puts her feet onto the feet of the dancer and so they move synchronously. Looks funny. Looks great. Did I say that Kate looks great too? Yes I did. But it's true. No. It's not enough: She looks gorgeous! In the background a lot of musicians play a various mixture of instruments, as far as I could see Prince was not inbetween them, even if he was audible on BVs and guitar in the 48 seconds they showed. Well, probably Prince was too busy with his tour to appear in the video. Have I said before that I think the video is great? Yes? Doesn't matter, it can be said repeatedly...
[rewind, play again...] Aaaahhhhh!!! finally!
Ah yes, Paul King still thinks that the album will be released on October 4th, but he was wrong last time too... Let's just hope it will stay October 4th! At least in the UK.
[rewind, play again...] Aaaaahhhhhh!!!! FINALLY!
Actually the male dancer behind her leads her arms and legs through the dance. Almost like if Kate were a GIRL puppet fixed with some RUBBERBAND to him.
[rewind, play again...] AAAAHHHHH!!! FINALLY!!!
HEY! Wouldn't that be my first song interpretation! And one that's not questionable!
[rewind, play again...] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!
Well, come to think of it, her body is also stripped to the male dancer's body.
[rewind, play again...] turning up volume
[rewind, play again...] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...
KATE! Why don't you tour? Looking good and feeling fit for dancing through a tour? [rewind, play again...]
From: Scott Telford <s.telford@ed.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993
12:31:38 GMT
Subject: Re: MTV Europe GRRRRRRRR, or well, half of GRRR and
WHEW!
Ulrich Grepel writes:
> 48 seconds... that's all Paul King showed of the new Rubberband Girl video on MTV First Look. Why didn't they show the complete thing? Why? WHY?!???
The first 3 mins were shown on The ITV Chart Show in the UK on Saturday.
> Now to the video: Kate looks great, she's dancing with some male dancer
Stewart Arnold, I think - he's supposed to be in the film, and the video is part of the film.
The musicians: there's a brass section of four, three guitarists, a bassist and a drummer (mostly out of shot). I didn't recognise any of them.
I don't think Prince had any direct involvment with this track -still sounds as if he influenced it though. I think all the bvs could actually be KaTe.
> Actually the male dancer behind her leads her arms and legs through the dance. Almost like if Kate were a GIRL puppet fixed with some RUBBERBAND to him.
Yes, for the first verse or so, Stewart (assuming it is he) is holding KaTe's arms and they perform the same steps in unison. Then, when KaTe sings "When I step out...", he collapses on the floor and she steps over his arm. Then they do a more physical sequence involving a bit of falling over and rolling on the floor. The choreography is remininscent of the RutH video, with maybe a little of the Them Heavy People vid too.
Starting from the beginning, the whole video seems to be set in the dance studio shown in the RbG cover art.The musicians are standing around at the sides of the studio, and KaTe and the male dancer walk in to shot in front of them as the camera pans and wheels above the studio. KaTe is wearing a grey top, baggy dark blue sweat pants (I think that's what you call 'em), a black cardigan and something else tied round her waist (must be a cold studio 8-). No straightjackets to be seen! Her hair looks as if she's just washed it. She never looks directly at the camera (this is supposed to be a proper movie after all), nor does she smile much.
During the instrumental break, there is a slow-motion sequence of KaTe boucning on an out-of-shot trampoline. Then all the guitarists parade in front of the camera, one of them pretends to do the solo bit....and then we cut to the next video.....
Anybody seen the Eat the Music video yet? (I presume there is one?)
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 93 01:47 MET DST
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich
Grepel)
Subject: Re: MTV Europe GRRRRRRRR, or well, half of GRRR and WHEW!
Scott Telford spoils my description by taking away almost everything by describing it himself:
> tied round her waist (must be a cold studio 8-). No straightjackets to be seen! Her hair looks as if she's just washed it. She never looks directly at the camera (this is supposed to be a proper movie after all), nor does she smile much.
The straitjacket was just cut off by ITV I think. That was what I called the surprise with respect to clothing. The last minute Kate is throwing the super long arms around her...
> in front of the camera, one of them pretends to do the solo bit....and then we cut to the next video.....
And then the straitjacket is presented...
BTW: I think the studio might actually be a dance studio - these are the only ones with the big mirrors in there. And there is one: It can be seen once for a short time, where only the legs and feet of Kate and Stewart can be seen... Where have they hidden the mirror for the rest of the video? Oh, there's another scene where you see the mirror. Again only with Kate's and Stuart's legs. And with the boyzs with guitarz in the background - they are all left-handed suddenly ;-).
Ciao, Uli
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 93 20:48:49 BST
From: Scott Telford <st@epcc.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: RbG video - again
...was shown again on the ITV Chart Show this Saturday. They didn't show any more of it - somehow I don't think we're going to see the whole thing on terrestrial UK tv.
While looking at the vid in slow motion I've noticed a couple of things:
- I *do* recognise the drummer - it's Stuart Elliot (I think - the one who was at the Secret Policeman's Third Ball)
- There seem to be a couple of people visible throughout the video, standing nonchalantly right at the back of the dance studio, behind the musicians, one of whom is holding a paper cup. They're pretty much out-of-focus all the time, but I have a sneaking suspicion they're actually Krys and Dave from Homeground, and that Peter's been keeping stumm about their latest acting exploits 8-)
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 93 19:58:43 EDT
From: Les <WADD@VM1.YorkU.CA>
Subject: MuchKate 2
Well, the Spotlight just ended and they showed "Rubberband Girl" !! Other than that, there was an assortment of Kate videos including Wuthering Heights, Them Heavy People, Breathing, The Dreaming, Sat In Your Lap, Cloudbusting, Experiment 4 and This Woman's Work. As usual, there were mini Kate interview clips spliced in between the videos. All of them were taken from interviews conducted by MuchMusic VJ's from 1985-1989. Some text mentioned the release of The Red Shoes as being in early November.
Thats about it! (Good video for RBG!)
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1993 08:20:20 +119304328 (ADT)
From: Fiona McQuarrie <fmcquarr@upei.ca>
Subject: Rubberband Girl on Muchmusic
Hooray! Muchmusic played the Rubberband Girl video at the end of their "Spotlight" on Kate B. last night (as no doubt, 500 other Canucks will post - but hey, I'm in the second earliest time zone here so *I* get to be one of the first :) ) This was a surprise because the "spotlight" is usually old videos intercut with video of old interviews.
What can I say? WOW! I love this song! Although I have a great weakness for girly dance pop like Bananarama, and I suspect that many people like Kate B. precisely because she does not do this sort of music... But doesn't it show how talented she is that she can do a song of this sort and do it so well?
As for the mystery guitarist - geez, he looked to me kind of like Phil Collen of Def Leppard (who is a vegetarian too!).
Incidentally, one of the "old" interview clips was from when TSW came out. I don't know where or when it was shot but, ahem, Kate looked really bad. She appeared to be a little chubby and had this horrible hairdo with about 5,000 tons of hairspray and gel to make it all curly. Whoever did her up did a terrible job. She looked like Ann Wilson in the Heart videos where they try to make her appear like she is not overweight! Sigh...
Rubberband girl, me...
Cheers, Fiona
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 93 01:42 MET
From: uli@zoodle.robin.de (Ulrich
Grepel)
Subject: Kate Bush on MTV Most Wanted with Ray Cokes on October
22, 1993
... ...
[The NEW version of the Rubberband Girl video is played.]
Description of the new video:
This is much more a promo video than the film excerpt that the earlier video was. Kate is wearing sunglasses about half the time, she's dancing a lot, alone and together with her male partner, no band can be seen, quite a lot of solarizing effects are used, many more locations are filmed than in the first video, several film excerpts from The Line, The Cross And The Curve are shown, together with the vocal parts of these pieces.
I'm not good in describing videos, so I'll give the rest of this task to someone else ;-).
Bye, Uli
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 93 00:29 CST
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: New Kate video on eMpTyVee
The new Kate video was played at 12:00 AM CST, so those on the west coast can catch it in an hour or so. A warning...Kate was obviously told by record weasels to make a video for the "American market" and she is obviously poking fun at that. The new "American" bits have Kate wearing *sunglasses* (we only have one photo and one bit of video of Kate in sunglasses, and both times she was outdoors) and carrying and prop microphone and stand around in perfect "rock star" form.
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 07:27:46 -0700
From: Alex Gibbs <arg@kilimanjaro.opt-sci.arizona.EDU>
Subject: RbG US Video Coments
I like to make my own initial observations about art, if it's not very difficult to do so, before reading someone elses. Having said that, here are some of my own observations and/or ponderings:
In making the RbG US video she is being a rubberband girl and not resisting the "wind". The existence of the video fits the song.
The video is rather MTVish; she met the request/challenge to make it and directed it *herself*. How many artists can say that about any of their videos? It's cool to see that she can kick some ass (IMHO) even if she's not totally on her turf; that's a greater test of ones strength. It sounded like she enjoyed making it and made it pretty fast (is that right?) so I can imagine her thinking, "So you want an American video, huh? *chuckle* *poof* with a twist.... now on to something really challenging...". If she didn't enjoy it at all then I wish she hadn't made it though. I enjoyed watching it, which doesn't necessarily mean I want all of her videos to be like this one.
From a different view, clips from the movie are shown, with phrases like "You are under the spell of the red shoes," and then immediately "It's really happened to ya." Is this video an example of the spell? Or is it a break from the spell? This video is different for her.
Right after singing "Here I go..." she is dancing in a straight jacket with the rubberband man *but* the jacket is untied and the long sleeves are flapping about while she makes the rubberband noises. Is she being freed by not resisting the "wind" or is she showing the restrictions in making this video. Perhaps it's both: having as much freedom as she can, given a limitation. No one ever has total freedom. Maybe it means nothing. Art also depends on the eye of the beholder and I've eyed enough; my eyes are tired.
Is she sort of making a female sign at the end??
I think the album may do rather well here, for better or worse. I just hope that a large number of new KT fans will enjoy the depths of all her work and that this won't be like Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" where everyone now says "Isn't he that don't worry be happy guy?" (direct quote) and don't realize his talent. "Isn't she that rubberband girl?" Eeeeeeek!
From: Markku Kolkka <mk59200@cs.tut.FI>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1993
12:24:14 GMT
Subject: Lily on RBG
The U.S. version of the RbG video shows an old woman saying something like "she's under the spell of the red shoes", and I think she sounds a lot like "Lily". Anyone agree?
From: nessus@mit.edu (Douglas Alan)
Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 01:43:11 GMT
Subject: Lip-synching
The reason why MTV spurned the original "Rubberband Girl" video *is* obvious after seeing the movie, though: It just doesn't make any sense taken out of the context of the movie. It doesn't even make sense in the movie until after the scene is over. For the whole song we see Kate doing a dance routine with a male dancer, but Kate looks weary and tired through the whole thing. We find out in a little bit that Kate's dissatisfaction with her performance is integral to the plot of the movie, but if this section of the film were just clipped into a video, viewers would just wonder why anyone had bothered to make a video of a singer looking tired and weary. Also, this is a flaw in the movie, since on first viewing, this scene isn't very enjoyable --you just start thinking, "well Kate isn't the performer she used to be." You don't have any indication that this is what you are supposed to be thinking.
From: yjc@po.cwru.edu (Jerome Chan)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 00:34:17
-0500
Subject: MTV: 120 Minutes: Eat the Music Video
Er... What's it all about?
The Video starts with KaTe kneeling while twirling (?) her head (Great Hair! Yum) in time to the music. Then it switches to KaTe swaying to the rythm with a cast of Caribbean (?) people dancing around her. There is a huge pile of fruit in front of them. The music floats along and the scene switches in between people breaking fruits, a pair of Red Shoes dancing (crushing more like it) on the fruits and KaTe swaying to the music. Finally, it switches to KaTe twirling her head (like the start of the video) with red stripes painted on her face and it ends with KaTe collapsing from exhaustion.
Throughout the video, KaTe has a very sombre/down expression on here face. She only smiled once throughout the entire video.
What?!
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 03:07:38 -0700
From: Alex Gibbs <arg@kilimanjaro.opt-sci.arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: "Eat the Music" video on 120 minutes
I personally like to hear or see things for myself before reading what others think but here's what I think:
I agree! The video really shows that. People start out dancing calmly with almost somber expressions but then "eat the music" more and more and let go and Kate smiles more and waves her hair around (enough to "rip my heart out") and people close their eyes and dance freely and fruit is split open and they start to fall down in the fruit from exhaustion and so does Kate.
My very first, and short-lived, reaction was "that's all?", probably because she doesn't move around much, just does the same moves over and over in the same place but it works, it really does. I wonder if the main male dancer is the same one from the UK single... the rubberband support man?
From: johnz@eaglet.rain.com (Irgendwo in der Tiefe)
Date: Mon, 18 Oct
1993 12:29:57 GMT
Subject: Re: Kate on MTV
...and as we now know, it was "Eat the Music", and it was... interesting. Having watched it a couple times now (once on tape), I've got a couple of questions: a) are those Kate's tootsies we see in the red ballet shoes stomping all that fruit? and, b) is this clip also taken from The Line, The Cross, The Curve ? If so, then this promises to be one intriguing film (but then, we knew that already).
John Zimmer
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 04:01:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Peter Byrne
Manchester <PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu>
Subject: "Eat the
Music" video
Those who taped, or had friends who taped the premier of the video for "Eat the Music" on 120 Minutes last Sunday, have now had time to look at it a little. Supposing those who don't have access to it are curious, I thought I might edit together some of my efforts to describe it this week for Andy Marvick, who wasn't able to catch the broadcast and was not just curious but "expiring from the pain" of missing it.
It is totally glorious, of course <message from IED>, and let me start with the color. One sign that it is shot on film rather than video is the somewhat uncertain translation for video display of the lusciousness of the colors, which have been perfected to make the natural ripeness of the fruit come through. Kate is wearing a long fitted fruit-print dress, some sort of flowing fabric, perhaps silk. The skirt is ample, draped to the ankles, the top fitted, the neckline deep enough that a little decolletage is flashed when she wheels herself from the waist, extending the gesture with her head so that her hair is whipped around in circles. On her left shoulder is a big green fabric bow; the dress is mostly oranges and reds and greens on a calm, rich, light golden buff.
The video begins as suddenly and in-the-midst-of-things as the track, initially (the first 10 seconds) with Kate squatting in the midst of the fruit and swinging her head and hair about in the visual theme with which the video will end. But the actual start has Kate dressed as described, standing in the foreground of a small crowd who are dancing before a huge cornucopia of tropical fruits, spilling out of baskets into a mass that fills the bottom half of the screen. She is swinging and swaying to the music, and we see her mostly in head-and-torso shots, with only a couple of brief pairs of full body takes. She is featured, but not to the exclusion of a whole little crowd of fellow party-goers who are all in the moment with her: blacks of a variety of shades and body types that to me spells Caribbean rather than South American. Someone here on lh said she looks gloomy; totally false. She is smiling all along, except that most of the time it is the interior smile of someone who has attained true sensuous abandon. This is the most erotic Kate I have seen since "Hammer Horror" in performance, or "James and the Cold Gun," except now she has brought it a hell of a lot closer to herself. She is not erotic as a sex object (as indeed she has never been), but as an sensuous subject, with whom anybody human can identify.
Early on (1:15) our eye is drawn to one particular black fellow, a couple of rows behind her in the crowd, who seems to be in as much of a transport as she is. A symmetry in the construction of the video frames his initial appearance as a soloist: the two pairs of full-length shots of Kate lie on either side of his introduction. But in the early going, the main thing thrown before us is the cut to some feet, in red ballet shoes and semi-opaque tights riddled with runs, shot from just at the edge of a long skirt much like Kate is wearing, that are tredding on the fruit and plainly making sloppy landings and a general mess. I couldn't tell whether the print on the skirt marked this dancer as the same Kate featured in the video, but it doesn't matter, because at no point in the video overall is Kate standing or dancing in the midst of the fruit. She is just behind it while she is swaying erect, and she is only in the midst of it when she is kneeling in the last half of the video. So this image of red-shod dancer's feet comes from outside the video. It doesn't seem to have a narrative connection to anything else however, only a thematic one (like the lighted candles in MoP and the RM video).
Anyway, insofar as anything 'happens' in the video, it is a powerful evocation of Dionysian frenzy. After the preview of the head swinging, and the first theme of Kate swaying to the music and the introduction of the rest of the crowd, the first big shift (2:25) has Kate kneeling in the midst of the fruit, her dress flowing into it in both color and liquidity to such a degree that she almost looks like a special effect, swaying from the hips with arms extended in gestures that harken back to "Moving," and with two red stripes painted onto each cheek. Now the black man we noticed earlier comes to stand directly behind her, and he swings his right arm in a great circle above her head, 'stirring' her into the circling motion that continues to the end of the video. It is a very athletic move on her part, and at its best moments (that are not consistently achieved throughout--there is some editing out of lack of synchronization) the effect of her fluency and the black man's stirring lead is quite uncanny. Just for the shoot itself, nevermind the editing, Kate had to protract this move to an amazing degree. She pivots from her waist, in a kneeling position, settled on her heels thigh deep in fruit, and rotates her torso through 360 degrees in a way that itself would make you a cripple without a warmup. But then she amplifies the swing with her head, rolling it around from her chest and shoulders to whip the hair, with an amplitude that would make anybody untrained into a paraplegic.
Now the black dancer, who is clearly present as a soloist, not just a member of the corps de ballet, enters into duet with Kate with respect to technical abandon. He starts jerking his head around its circle with a violence that at first made me assume that some kind of video strobe processing was involved, because what he was doing would surely turn one's brain to jello. But I think not; this is just his technical gift. Kate just keepings wheeling herself around with the music, but he, and the others in the crowd, grow progressively more frantic and extreme. At 3:30 Kate is shown continuing her wheeling along with two women on either side of her, and the black man is back in the crowd. But at 4:05 he is behind her again, as serious frenzy starts to break out. In a shot that goes by fast, a guy with a loose tropical yellow shirt on grabs it at its bosom spots and pulls it out to mimic two huge breasts. One by one, people start falling into the fruit pile. The other soloist goes down before Kate, and the video ends when she keels over--but she is not the last of the revelers to lapse. There are still others in the frenzy as the fade arrives.
The knock on this video that was heard this past week is that "it's boring" and "there is no story." Perhaps the most revealing complaint was that that Kate looks "really down" in this video, flashes only one smile. As to looking 'down'; yes, indeed, in the standing-swaying passage, she alternately looks out at us, then down. But this is no sign that she is downcast! Au contraire, she is withdrawing into the interior of the sensuality of her movements with the music, the liquidity of the long skirt. When she looks up again it is in bold acknowledgement of how she is inviting us to regard her, so that far from being gloomy her expression is the serious gaze of a woman for her lover. Finally, her "one smile" (unobservant; there are two or three takes of an extended and developing expression) signals an abandonment to the interior so intense that she can no longer come out of it to meet our gaze.
Everything about this video serves to help us move INTO it, to find our way into what Andy Marvick deftly calls "the moment": the moment that wants to be eternal but falls in with the fruit. This is why the extended version of EtM is more perfect than the single itself. It can only be endured if you stop waiting for something and enter INTO it.
For me, "The Big Sky" was a parallel experience. I found the album track boring. The extended remix began to redirect my attention, and the video finally had me giddy with joy.
Have I told you that I 'like' this video? I don't even know that for myself yet. I'm still working on simply seeing it as a Kate Bush work. This involves looking for the craft involved: the stagecraft; the choreography; the dancing and the mime (with Kate, the eyes especially); the visual production (colors above all else); the opportunity for the second soloist and the collaboration involved there; and finally, via the squooshing red dance shoes, the connection to the still unmanifested album "The Red Shoes."
Kate Bush remains decidedly impatient with efforts to trivialize and patronize her work by personalizing her as a 'pop star'. Everything I have said to this point has tried to be description, not judgment or personal opinion. Let's try our best to discern what she is doing before we make up our minds about whether we are happy about it.
From: "Karen L. Newcombe" <kln@crl.com>
Date: Fri, 22
Oct 1993 11:45:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: EtM video
Although I have not yet seen the ETM video, I have a theory that this land of fruit may be someplace the cursed shoes take the dancer after she has put them on. From Peter and Andy's description I am foaming at the mouth to see it.
From: robh@cyberspace.org (Robert Henderson)
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 1993
21:48:18 GMT
Subject: Re: "Eat the Music" video
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the similarity between what happened in the video, and a Voudon ritual. (aka Voodoo, for those who don't know French.) I'm no expert - can anyone else out there shed some light on this? Was Kate being ridden by a loa?
From: dsr@lns598.lns.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley)
Date: 26 Oct 1993
00:22:29 GMT
Subject: Re: "Eat the Music" video
Peter Byrne Manchester writes:
> One sign that it is shot on film rather than video is the somewhat uncertain translation for video display of the lusciousness of the colors [...]
Hmm...one thing I noticed stepping through the video is that every sixth frame is an overlay of two frames--which looks to me like a 5-into-6 PAL to NTSC conversion, not a 2-into-5 film to NTSC conversion. Not that I know anything about the subject of film or video, but I'm curious what any experts might have to say on the subject...
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 93 00:05 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: "Eat the Music" video
There has been a movement in the UK and other 25-fps areas to shift from 24-fps to 25-fps for film production. Modern cameras and projectors are quite capable of the slight shift in speed, and the benefits outweigh the slight increase in amount of film used. The main benefit is the total eliminiation of the need for *any* frame interpolation. This is a very good thing; 24 to 25 produced more annoying artifacts than 24 to 30. I can hardly wait to see this film in PAL.
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 00:11:42 +1000
From:
GRAHAM.G.R.DOMBKINS@BHPMELMSM.BHP.bhpmel04.telememo.au
Subject: EMI
Australia Promo video
Now to the VIDEO! 8-) It reads on the spine:
EMI Australia
Kate Bush - Red Shoe Introduction
Promotional
Video
Here comes the blow-by-blow of what was on it...
It starts with TRS logo rolling into picture from the right and then the title TRS/KT appearing around it with TRS to the top like the UK/Oz album cover. The background music swells into ASiL and then we fade into a beautiful still of KT. After about 5 seconds of this the TRS logo rolls past and this sweeps us into RBG (the original version) This video is pretty much the standard original RBG -but- I believe the colour is much brighter then all the versions I've seen on TV. We get about 3 mins of that and then just before the 'Ninja KaTe' bit we sweep into MoP from the Aspel & Co. appearance. There is a disclaimer as this starts 'Television Appearance'. We get all of MoP (a beautiful clip BTW IMHO) and then sweep into EtM. This one is NOT the US EtM video (which I've never seen :-( ) but a series of wonderful stills which last about 10 seconds and then we sweep into the "MTV" RBG clip. What a scream that clip is :-) I quite like it in a perverse sort of way. Anyway, we get the WHOLE clip this time and to the end we also get various flashes of 'The Line, the Cross, the Curve".
Now I think this is where what I've got is different from what everyone else has seen. I gather from all the postings that the US love-hounds get the same video BUT don't get any voice over. I get full sound and voice for these small clips from the video (TRS soundtrack is sort of muted to the background) So I can hear Lily say 'She's under the spell of The Red Shoes', etc. If you want I'll transcribe all that is said for gaffa(?) From here we sweep back to the TRS logo which bounces away like rubber. End video. Total play time about 13 minutes.
From: ronald@tdsb-s.mais.hydro.qc.ca (Ronald Girardin (7876))
Date:
Fri, 25 Feb 1994 17:31:31 GMT
Subject: Re: Next Single (ASIL video)
I saw last night the video for 'And So Is Love'...not bad...Kate shows alot of emotions...a black bird flies into the room where Kate is...it is trying to find the way out...but can't...the black bird dies...Kate kisses the bird...very touching!!!!
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 05:00:19 -0700
From: Alex Gibbs <arg@kilimanjaro.opt-sci.Arizona.EDU>
Subject: Re: The Dead Bird
To perhaps increase information, in the "video" for ASiL there isn't a single shot where a moving bird becomes lifeless. A bird does hit a dingy window and flutters downward, off camera. This seems to be the main shot where a bird could have been injured. The camera was fixed on a couple panes of a huge, wall-sized window, like of a studio, and the bird hit there. It certainly looks real but it would seem rather difficult to get this shot without some sort of preparation or tricks.
After that there are shots of a dead bird, almost certainly a real one. It's probably stuffed since I doubt they would make a fake one when there are already stuffed ones anyway and it seems rather stiff too. A bird is never shown actually dying or obviously injured anyway. Hope this helps.
From memory I had thought there was a shot of the bird moving after hiting the window but I re-watched it and was wrong. (Earlier on Kate picks up and is holding a live bird though.)
[See also the "Film" Section for this topic ! --WIE]
Date: 17 Nov 94 15:03:59 EST
From: Marcel Rijs <100276.2176@compuserve.com>
Subject: KT on TOTP Thoughts
Well, I just saw Kate Bush on Top of the Pops tonight. I have waited for this since last Saturday, when I first heard she'd appear in the show. But I'm sorry, I just felt it was disappointing.
Some things were still the same: just like in 1978, there was a group of people standing around the stage, gazing at Kate in awe, as they should, and the program was still Top of the Pops, and she was still Kate.
My first disappointment was her not singing live, while other very "talented" artists like Suede and Sheryl Crow did. I had expected Kate to sing live, since it would be pretty futile to come on the TV for a lipsynch. She did synch last year at Aspel, but at least there she also did an interview.
The second was the rather uneventful stage choreography. Kate was accompanied by two female backing singers, dressed in black. She stood near motionless, also dressed in black. The leather jacket she wore over an undoubtedly beautiful black garment made her look rather pompous, FMFSS. Her face did express great fatigue. It seems to me Kate is very bored with the public side of her career, and so I keep wondering what tempted her to appear on TOTP at all.
On the up side: she did sing the song professionally and conveyed the sad emotion of the song very well. But I was probably not waiting for professionalism.
Before I have a big verbal fight with some avid fans on this list I will say this:
I have long, and probably will always be, a Big Fan of Kate. There's nothing and no-one who can change that. I just feel she has thrown away one important part of her career, that being her PR. She does, besides making and releasing her wonderful music and films, absolutely nothing to please her fans anymore. This appearance on TOTP was like saying: "So, here I am, look at me, I will be gone for three years now, and I don't want to make an effort in singing live or do anything extra. Don't ask me to do more, this is all you're gonna get. I think it's enough."
I know, where fans are concerned nothing is ever enough, but only the cynical jokes about her tour in the FAQ say something about the way we perceive Kate these days. It makes me sad to think those questions will also apply to all of her public appearances.
"Kate, are you in there?"
- "Yes. Go away."
From: Scott Telford <s.telford@ed.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994
17:21:59 GMT
Subject: Kate On Top of the Pops
I'm almost certain both Kate and the BVs were lip-syncing. Sounded identical to the album/single recording. I guess "legends" (as the presenter described her) are allowed to break the rules....
PS. Anybody else notice Kate giving the thumbs-up (at least I think that's what it was 8-) to the audience right at the end?
On
to Moments 3.2. - The Red Shoes - Story and Film
Written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland Willker
August 1995