Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (03/09/87)
Really-From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu
KT Bad News:
This is a sad day for American and Canadian Kate Bush fans, and,
indeed, for Kate fans throughout the world. "Break-Through", the
long-running Kate fanzine begun by Dale Somerville of Hartney,
Manitoba in 1982, has folded after the publication of twelve
historic issues. After a hiatus of a little less than a year in
1984, the fanzine re-surfaced in a newsprint format under the
guidance of Dale's wife, Robyn Carstairs. Unfortunately, Robyn
has now left the marriage and disappeared into thin air, leaving
Dale completely disillusioned by his three erstwhile loves,
Robyn, Kate, and Jesus... (In the last two issues of the fanzine
Robyn and Dale infused the subject of Kate Bush with born-again
Christianity, a development much criticized by the publication's
readers. Dale's devotion to God seems to have gone the way
of his dedication to Robyn and to Kate: viz., to Hell.)
The unprofitability of "Break-Through" was not
a major factor in the publication's demise, since it had always
cost far more to produce than its subscription revenue brought in
(Dale is very wealthy). So, not only are Kate fans in the Western
hemisphere without a fanzine, but they have lost one of Kate's most
generous and hard-working fans. Whatever their peculiarities of
character (and these were considerable), the team of Robyn and Dale
was an asset to the KommuniTy which will be sorely missed by serious
followers of Kate's progress -- and that of her fans -- in America.
However, all is not lost! Allan Balliott, whom many Kate fans
in this country will associate with the name Intergalactic Garage,
a mail-order company which specializes in Kate Bush merchandise,
has definite plans to launch a new American Kate 'zine, to be
called "After the Party" (a title presumably paraphrased from
the line "Away from the party" in Kate's song "Under the Ivy").
For any L-H's who would like to contribute, there is still time: the
first issue will probably appear in the late spring. Allan can
be reached at:
Intergalactic Garage
P.O. Box 7323
Washington, D.C. 20044
(703) 241-0473
Other as-yet healthy Kate fora are listed below.
The Kate Bush Club
P.O. Box 120
Welling, Kent DA16 3DS
"Homeground" (note new address)
c/o Peter Fitzgerald-Morris, Krystina Fitzgerald-Morris
and Dave Cross
P.O. Box 176
Orpington, Kent BR5 3NA
"Under the Ivy"
55 Burnside Road
Dagenham, Essex RM8 1XH
"Dreamtime"
c/o Gaye Godfrey
46 Gladstone Avenue
South Perth 6151
Western Australia
Other KT News:
According to the latest issue of the Kate Bush Club Newsletter,
at least one fan has successfully deciphered the first six words
of the twelve-word message in the "backwards" track from "Watching
You Without Me". As he is certain that the perceptive party in
question is not himself, IED looks to the world Love-Hounds
community for further clues. Please make some effort to figure out
the solution, folks. The passage in question starts at 2:19 into
the track (using a CD), and lasts about thirty seconds. It begins
right after the Morse code passage, and is identifiable as a
message sung in octaves, with tambourine and an occasional "Yip!"
in the background. The first word of the twelve-word message is
"Don't". This is still not nearly enough to make the solution easy,
so please help out -- let's have an argument about something
truly important in Love-Hounds, for a change!
Now, the Convention Interview, Part Three
M: Do you get a lot of ideas from reading books, and from films?
KT: I think whenever I have the time to read I'm always inspired by it.
The problem is that I just shun it, I just think that there are more
important things to do with my time. It's rubbish really, but I do
always feel guilty when I sit down and read a book, because I think I
should be doing other things. It takes me such a long time to read, but
in a way there is no other experience like it, an intimate relationship
between yourself and a book. It's incredible, and it's very sad that
things like television and films, although encouraging books by using
their scripts for films, are taking something away from that whole
world of books. But particular films do inspire me. I've always had a
television, I always used to watch lots and lots of television when
I was a kid, and I really enjoy watching films.
M: Can I just take you back to your beginnings, when you started off in
the business? You were very young.
<Mild laughter from convention audience.>
KT: I was eighteen when I made the first album.
M: You'd been writing before that?
KT: Yes, I had.
M: When you first started writing songs, did you ever see yourself
being as famous as you are now?
KT: Absolutely not.
M: Was it something that you wanted?
KT: No...I don't think so. As a child the idea of being a star was
attractive, as I think it is to every child; they love things that are
larger than life, and dreams and fantasies, and most children never grow
out of it to the day they die. But I think I didn't even consider the
idea of being a famous so-called songwriter-singer. I think that as
a very young child, perhaps I aspired to becoming something like a
great actress. I think I was very enamoured by people like Judy Garland,
I thought she was incredible, so beautiful. But no, I never ever
thought this. But I did hope I would have involvement with music
and that one day I might be able to sing and write songs.
M: When you were writing the songs at that time, did you feel that
they were different in any way, or just your songs?
KT: It's very hard to remember how I felt at that time, but it was
something I enjoyed doing immensely. It was my release from
school, and if I couldn't go out and it was a wet day, or there
wasn't anything good on television, that would be my favourite
place to go: to the piano.
M: And start writing songs?
KT: It was a very important relationship and still is to me. I found
something that I think I've never really found since, when I first
started writing songs, that I could actually create something out
of nothing, and it was a very special discovery, especially if you
are lucky enough to make it at a young age, as I was.
M: Let's talk about "Cloudbusting". How did you get Donald Sutherland
to be part of your video?
KT: Well, I think I'm very lucky, really. He was the first choice. He
was perfect, he couldn't have been better, really, to play the part;
and it was a matter really of finding out how to contact him. And
through a very nice man called Barry Richardson I managed to make
contact with Donald, and asked him and then he said yes, he was
interested. And it all went from there, and it all happened very
quickly. I must have contacted him only ten days to two weeks before
we actually started shooting, and it just happened to co-incide
perfectly with a few days that he had off in a very busy schedule.
M: You'd never met him before?
KT: No, it was a complete privilege to work with him.
M: Why did you want him in particular? Was it because of the way he
looked, or because of the fact that he's a great actor?
KT: Yes, he is a great actor, and having watched actually how he
worked in our situation I just have to re-iterate that. He's just
incredible, so professional, so patient, and he helped me immensely.
But I'd never really acted as such, and I just had to RE-act to him.
He was wonderful.
M: You say Donald Sutherland helped you in making the video. You
mean acting advice?
KT: No, not even advice, his pure presence. He puts out such an energy
of sensitivity to the situation that I just had to re-act to him. As
far as I was concerned, whenever we were shooting, he WAS my dad. He's
wonderful.
M: It's almost like a short film, that video.
<Laughter from audience.>
KT: That's exactly what we wanted. I felt that it was based on the
song, which was inspired by a book, and it is a genuine sense of
magic emotion and sadness that came initially from that book. And
it was so important for us to do justice to it. We all worked very
hard to try and create that.
M: What was the book?
KT: It's called "A Book of Dreams", and it's written by Peter Reich.
Unfortunately it's out of print, and I suggest lots of people write
to the publishers and <imitating indignant MP> demand that it be
put back into print immediately!
M: What about the rain machine? Was it your idea, the way the video
actually turned out?
KT: It was very much my idea, but a lot of ideas came from Terry
Gilliam, and together we wrote the story board, and the director
Julian Doyle put an awful lot of work into it, and it was fantastic
to work with them. Everyone was just so inspired by the story really,
and everyone was moved by it, which in a way was the most important
thing for everyone involved with it. A great experience.
M: How long did it take to do it?
KT: To shoot it took four to five days, to prepare it took about
four weeks, and all in all including a lot of editing time that
Julian spent, I suppose about eight weeks, which is a very long time
for a video.
M: I'm not going to ask for a figure, but I know that videos cost an
awful lot of money to make nowadays. This must have been very
expensive?
KT: It was no more expensive than the first one we made.
M: Which leaves me totally in the dark!
KT: I think honestly if people knew how much it cost and what we
got out of that...it's phenomenal, what we got for the budget.
End of part three; conclusion to follow shortly.
-- Andrew Marvick