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Category: Random musings

Unseen 1978 promo photos of Kate surface online…

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There are hundreds (if not thousands) of promotional photos of Kate floating about online from every aspect of her career, but apart from when a new album is released, it’s very unusual to see a whole bunch of them appear that most fans are not familiar with. Very recently, almost 30 shots of Kate, reportedly from her Spring 1978 trip to Holland, have surfaced (thanks to Asmoday on our site forum and to goldduststevie for sharing). See them here.

Very much of their time, they are nonetheless striking “new” images of a legendary artist just setting out on her journey…

[nggallery id=4]

A brief response to an article in today’s Daily Mail

While it would be nice to say it was surprising to read yet another tired old ‘article’ in The Daily Mail newspaper today claiming to offer evidence that Kate has “withdrawn herself from the world” among other inaccurate statements, it really isn’t a surprise. The only reason we’re briefly mentioning it here is that we’ve had a spike in visitor numbers and would suggest that any new visitors read the words that one fan posted as a comment on the Daily Mail website:

“Why do you appear to think that shunning a meaningless existence of celebrity and limelight, makes a person odd?…this woman should be the role model for all young ladies who instead, watching their celebrity obsessed idols, grow up behaving like Divas, falling down drunk, reading magazines about who has just broken up with who and literally aspiring to nothing other than money and fame.” Kyla Clay Fox

Update: Jan Moir, also writing in The Daily Mail, has reacted to the paper’s coverage here.

Kaitlin Moran in the 4th May Times says: “All kudos to the Daily Mail this week, whose ongoing mission to make all its female readers self-loathing, self-harming neurotics too scared to leave the house in case they get mugged by a gay Muslim continues apace.
Reporting on the South Bank Show Awards, held on Tuesday, the Mail online greeted a rare appearance from Kate Bush with a barrage of unflattering pictures and snide comments …This is, of course, the correct way to treat a shy genius …

Suzanne Moore in the 5th May Daily Mail says: “Adele outsells Michael Jackson, but people remain obsessed with her weight. The goddess that is Kate Bush reappears and snide comments are made about her. Bjork reveals her range of influences, which are called, of course, ‘obsessions’. Lily Allen takes some time out. Why do we not accept our great female artists as artists? Bush, having been hothoused, chose to stay out of the limelight and raise a son. Adele  did not sell herself as an emaciated sex machine. Bjork remains at the cutting-edge, forever interesting. Why do we have to pathologise these women as mad, bad or ‘unable to cope’ if they play the game on their own terms?  Actually they are all making, in their individual ways, eminently sensible choices.”

Of course, this all just momentarily distracts from the real story this week; the enormous appreciation and admiration which Kate’s work continues to attract. To that end, here’s a reminder of why Kate’s new album has generated so much critical acclaim: another look at Kate’s recent film, Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe. Seán, Dave, Peter & Krys.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKPHA3_cBus[/youtube]

Updates and emails…

Hi all, just to say I’m way behind on site emails so if anyone’s waiting on a reply, my sincere apologies. I’ll get to it very soon as well as a news-bit round-up on here – thanks for being patient! Seán

Something stirring soon? About all the album rumours!

The Internet is exploding right now with new album rumours and speculation. Rather than report on these we’ve decided to wait for official news before we get too excited and at the moment there is no word at all from Kate/Fish People or EMI in the UK. We totally understand that these rumours and reports are very exciting and seem to contain a lot of information, but we advise caution that we will only know what is really true when there is an official statement. When something official comes we will have it here for you and the party will begin. Till then, let’s enjoy the anticipation.

One week to go…

Here’s an impressive feat of re-mixing and video editing to add to the party mood as Kate’s new album gets ready to roll out to the world from next Friday…

[youtube width=”640″ height=”510″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWUqFJqelHU[/youtube]

How Do You Feel About Kate Bush?

Derek Erdman on The Stranger writes: “In 2002 I met a bunch of really tough guys. Not guys that were going around beating people up, they were more like ultra-crusties that ate garbage food and slept in boxes outside. They moved into an abandoned house near my house .. they burned newspaper logs in barrels for warmth and grilled pots of vegetables to eat. The pots were just full of vegetable slop that they kept adding garbage produce into, with hot sauce. .. One guy was called VV because he was from West Virginia .. He and I were the closest, we talked a lot about life and music because we both had similar childhoods and both worked in record stores .. He tried so hard to get me into Kate Bush, but for some reason I just never really liked her music. He’d play me records and tell me about her life and how she wrote her songs, he was totally obsessed with her. For some reason I never got it …”

Read the full article and comments here

Now *that’s* what we call a club poster…

Poster for Dublin club "Mother Nature"

Bits and bobs

Thanks for the feedback on the new site, I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it. The video section has been very popular, I find myself spending time there too! It’s nice that you’ve been using the site to check out bands like Syd Arthur and Beck Sian as well as those superior tribute shows currently touring the UK and Europe, and my site stats (another new toy) tell me you’ve been checking out the latest news on Paddy, John and Del too. See? It’s not all about Kate around here! We had a great response to the Audio Fidelity competition, and congratulations again to the five winners. The good news is that we will be arranging further giveaways with the impending release of The Sensual World in the same format, so keep an eye on the site. The gatefold vinyl edition of Hounds of Love which Kate authorised in time for the album’s 25th anniversary has been a big success, and I’m hoping more of Kate’s albums will get the same treatment. The site forum continues to be a never-ending source of interesting tidbits and hidden gems – if only for the rare photos threads – amazing. Just today we had the following incredible clip (Wuthering Heights, 800% slower!) linked on the forum and I thought I’d share it with you:

Wuthering Heights – 800% slower by gaffa

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 here.

Finally, since I already posted the eerily distorted version of Wuthering Heights above, here’s a video clip of a live club mix of Wuthering Heights you may enjoy, I got a kick out of it anyway!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAYNny00iPY[/youtube]

Running Up That Hill – released 25 years ago today!

Obviously we could celebrate each and every 25th (or 30th) anniversary milestone as it came along, but this is worth mentioning. On August 5th 1985 Kate released her new single Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God). In those days, the gap of three years since The Dreaming seemed enormous! Kate’s perceived lack of visibility meant that a lot of people had almost forgotten about her. Nothing could have prepared them for this extraordinary first taster from the Hounds of Love album. While it was as unique and powerful as her other work, this strong, beautiful and passionately urgent song went on to be her biggest international singles chart hit since Wuthering Heights. She performed the song on the Wogan BBC TV show on the day of release. It was her first significant US chart hit and her first 12″ single. I’m off to listen to the song now, LOUD! I’m also going to listen to probably Kate’s most popular b-side, Under the Ivy, taken from this single (in the full knowledge that I’m risking the wrath of You Want Alchemy fans there!). With thanks to Kestrel on the forum for the reminder, enjoy the classic video below which also features dancer Michael Hervieu, and also a clip of the famous Wogan “comeback” appearance.

p.s. on tonight’s Hoot radio show (www.powerfm.org) Thomas played FIVE different versions of Running Up That Hill! Also Coldplay’s “tribute” to the track ‘Speed of Sound’

[youtube width=”450″ height=”364″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuLlwUaEyr0[/youtube]

[youtube width=”450″ height=”364″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSF53bp6aC8[/youtube]

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