The June issue (out now!) of Record Collector magazine, the bible for all serious UK record CD and music collectors, contains an enthusiastic review by Jason Draper, of Volume 1 of the the HomeGround Anthology.
“Ba-book-shka!
Missed out on tickets to see KB at Hammersmith in the autumn? Pick up this weighty tome and you’ll be so immersed in its world you might not even notice she’s there. For the first of two anthologies of dedicated Kate Bush fanzine HomeGround – published simultaneously – the editors have stripped out various articles, think pieces, fan reactions and readers’ letters from throughout the magazine’s history, matching them with a Kate Bush timeline.
Launching in 
1982, HomeGround had the benefit of looking at The Kick Inside with hindsight; seems it shared chart space with Elvis Costello, Blondie and Buzzcocks – yet, neither punk nor prog, it was something unique in the dying years of the 70s. Wuthering Heights may have entranced at least one contributor at the age of 15, but by Hounds Of Love the NME would hail Running Up That Hill as the best single ever recorded by a white British artist. Shame, then, that one fan’s reaction was “complete despair” at hearing “a dance song with a somewhat interesting but monotonous and overbearing drum machine beat”.
That’s this anthology’s masterstroke: with little 
self-editing, the HomeGround team have created a compendium faithful to the original publication. Opinion may vary throughout, but one thing’s for sure: everything written here is driven by love and passion for Kate Bush and her music. Repro illustrations and posters for video-party events capture the fanzine aesthetic, while fan poetry and short stories – though unlikely to vie for your attention in the face of more pertinent diversions such as a brief history of “cloudbuster” Wilhelm Reich – are testament to the ways in which Kate’s music touched her most loyal admirers. It’s every bit as valuable as an in-depth biography because it dares to go deeper into the fan psyche, offering a plethora of insights into this woman’s work.”
Our thanks to Jason and to Record Collector for actually understanding what we set out to do with the HomeGround Anthology, and our thanks for being supportive of the Magazine over the years right back to the 1980s.
The current edition of the bi-monthly magazine, Classic Pop, features Trevor Leighton’s beautiful new portrait of Kate on the cover along with the tagline: “Kate Bush – The making of a genius.” As well as exploring Kate’s early career and the 1979 tour in detail, the feature also recommends 10 “Essential Works” and offers a “Where are they now?” summary for all of the 1979 tour personnel.
Gay Times in the UK have been in touch to let us know that they have a nicely put together feature on Kate in their current issue (May 2013). From their press release: “Calling all Kate Bush fans! Gay Times, the world’s longest-running gay magazine has decided to celebrate 35 years of Kate Bush in our new issue with a unique timeline of her greatest hits. GT jump back 35 years to tell the story of each of her sensational tracks. Looking at her releases like this underlines how Bush’s career is full of surprises – invariably pleasant ones. She’s moved from quirky outsider in Wuthering Heights, to the creator of one of the definitive albums of the 1980s in the shape of Hounds of Love, before a relative critical lull with The Red Shoes in 1993. Simply celebrate the variety of songs that make up her outstanding discography in our new issue on sale in stores and available to 
Scott Heim, acclaimed author of “Mysterious Skin”, “We Disappear” and other novels has been editing a terrific series of e-books that focus on musicians telling about their “first time” hearing specific iconic artists. There are five in the initial series, including David Bowie, Cocteau Twins, Joy Division/New Order, The Smiths and of course Kate Bush. Scott says: “Some amazing people have written for the Kate book, including John Grant, Simon from Engineers, Anka from Clan of Xymox, Louise Rutkowski (This Mortal Coil), Paul from Trash Can Sinatras, and many other musicians & writers.”
The current edition of 
Other than that I keep coming across very positive reviews and mentions for Graeme Thomson’s new biography of Kate, “Under The Ivy”. Most recently Thomson gave a radio interview to Phantom FM here in Dublin, as they celebrated the 25th anniversary of Running Up That Hill (nice in-studio version of the song by the band Ham Sandwich too!) A book like this presents a slight dilemma for me. On the one hand, we know very well that Kate doesn’t approve of books like this about her and finds them intrusive, and as far as their veracity is concerned, anecdotal at best. As such, those closest to Kate and Kate herself have never co-operated with the writers of biographies. On the other hand, this is clearly the best written, most well researched and critically applauded biography of Kate yet released. There is nothing mean-spirited within its pages and the book respects and celebrates Kate’s work without losing perspective. I found it intelligent and very fair. As a teenager it was the “Visual Documentary” book by Kevin Cann and Sean Mayes that first opened my eyes to the story and influences behind Kate’s work. I lapped it up. I think that similarly, someone discovering Kate’s music for the first time or the casual music fan wanting to know more will be filled with nothing but admiration for Kate once they’ve read this book. Make up your own minds, and let me know what you think if you decide to read it. More at the author’s blog 