From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V10 #345 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, December 17 2004 Volume 10 : Number 345 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? [heidi maier ] Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? [dmw ] Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? ["Jeffrey Burka" ] Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? [meredith ] Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? [Greg Bossert ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 20:04:33 +1000 From: heidi maier Subject: Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? i apologise for the length of this, but thought it would be of interest to others. the article appeared in the age newspaper [melbourne] here in australia this past saturday, december 11th. it can be accessed online, but you need to register to be able to enter the website etc. http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/08/1102182351816.html heidi. - --- A Life Invisible By Michael Dwyer Miracles happen at Abbey Road Studios. The first time I visited, in 1993, renowned rock recluse George Harrison strolled unexpectedly into a press conference waving incense. So an appearance by Kate Bush was almost certain, I reckoned, when I returned weeks later to hear her freshly minted album, The Red Shoes. The atmosphere was expectant to the point of reverence. A few dozen media types sat in Studio 2, whispering over carefully policed sheaves of lyrics. Someone somewhere pressed a button and the first Kate Bush album in four years all but suspended breath for the next hour. The Red Shoes was a mixed bag: something brilliant, something ludicrous and overreaching, something insane, something achingly moving, all recorded with an immaculate attention to detail that partly explained its long gestation. Business as usual, then. And true to that brief, Bush didn't show. Eleven years on, there's no follow-up to The Red Shoes. Aside from the ill or dysfunctional likes of Syd Barrett and Guns N' Roses, the length of this hiatus is otherwise unknown at the megastar end of the pop business. But Bush has been wuthering coyly around that spotlight since her overnight success with The Kick Inside in 1978. We know that the Bexley-born doctor's daughter is alive, at 46, and living comfortably near Reading in the UK with her partner, guitarist Danny McIntosh, and their six-year-old boy, Bertie. She's gone public a few times in recent years, to collect lifetime achievement awards from a (mainly) adoring British music biz, although she turned down an honorary Brit award, allegedly, because they insisted she perform to receive it. In 2001 she gave her first interview since her meagre Red Shoes press schedule in '93. "I don't think of myself as a personality," she told Q. "To do an interview when I have no work out doesn't make any sense." She made allusions to an album in progress but none to a release date. Shortly after, she made her first live appearance in 15 years, singing Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb with her old benefactor Dave Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall. Since then, zip. Those who await an eighth album from her farmhouse studio retreat do so with waning confidence, accompanied in extreme cases by a bitter sense of abandonment that may be unique, even in the obsessive realm of pop fandom. Such extreme cases are the dramatis personae of John Mendelssohn's new novel, Waiting For Kate Bush. Part pop biography, mostly a brutal indictment of the celebrity age, it's a comedy of the blackest hue, set in a boarding house for Bush fans in London. Mendelssohn - not a Kate Bush fan - has a succinct reason for using her slim body of work as the common lifeline for his cast of desperately sad and damaged characters. "Because she's disappeared," he says. "Having absolutely no visibility in the press or in the public eye and making no new work, people can imagine what they want about her. So I thought she would be a good candidate for someone like Mr Herskovits." Lesley Herskovits is the novel's tragic anti-hero. Suicidal, bulimic, delusional, crippled by self-loathing over a failed relationship with his daughter, he spends much of his time listening to Kate Bush's (later) albums, sending her countless emails and gifts, and conducting the critical inner monologue about her life and work that comprises the books biographical thread. "He's totally made up," Mendelssohn insists. So is the Irish landlady who named her children Cathy and Gilmour. Also imaginary is the downstairs boarder, Mr Chumaraswamy, who listens to Bush's Never For Ever LP daily, and a thug-for-hire named Cyril who faces down his quarry while meditating on the extensive thankyou notes on the inner sleeve of The Dreaming. Still, give or take eating disorders, low self-esteem, emotional transference issues, and violent and suicidal tendencies, such people exist. They celebrate Bush's birthday; they call it Katemas - every July 30, high on the suitably myth-encrusted Glastonbury Tor, as well as in fan enclaves in Australia. They offer interpretations of her baffling lyrics, itemise and discuss her every move - and non-move - on websites such as children.ofthenight.org. Mendelssohn admits to contact with Bush fans who are "reasonably obsessive", not least Andrew Marvick, who he describes as a "pre-eminent Kate scholar". "I asked him if he would read the factual parts of the book and call my attention to any mistakes," the author says. "He wrote me this incredibly long letter, it must have been 10,000 words, telling me how irresponsible I was and how I'd shirked my duty by not writing about her more seriously. His point of view is that Kate Bush deserves serious musical scholarship no less than Brahms does." Fred Vermorel is another fan with an unnerving passion. His 1983 book, The Secret History of Kate Bush (& the Strange Art of Pop), is a mystical tome indeed, deeply enthralled with her Saxon ancestry in "witch county, Essex" and her colourful family history. Its spellbound passages read more like incantations than biography. "From the bump of B to the shush of Babooshka, Bush Baby, Bush me. Bush girl, I'm Bush crazy, lush Bush and I'll gush Bush. And take Kate, Kate conjugate, Kate fashionplate . . ." and so on, till his hysterical page 94 conclusion, "Kate Bush is a profoundly SUBVERSIVE artist." On that, Mendelssohn agrees. "I can't think of anyone other than Captain Beefheart who is less MOR (middle of the road) than she is," he says. "Some of her stuff absolutely defies you to listen to it. The screeching, the voice, like someone who just inhaled a great deal of helium." THE idea that Bush's work resides beyond sanity has been accepted for 26 years, dismissively by detractors, with pride and joy by fans. Who, of a certain age, can forget the shock of first sight: a shrill, apparently barmy wood sprite in a blood-red leotard, swaying and tip-toeing out on the windy, windy moors of the Wuthering Heights video? Of course, boys like me and Fred Vermorel fell for her - it was the melody, the voice, the passion, the wildness, the fragility, the mystery of her, and the breathtaking vulnerability of an artist who would let all of that flail so freely in the breeze. This wide-open quality is the one, Mendelssohn imagines, that makes his otherwise terminally isolated characters feel they have a friend in Kate. "And also the fact that in a fairly large amount of her work, it's close to impossible to ascertain what she's on about," he says. "So it becomes a blank canvas again. You can hear whatever you want to in the work." My personal communion with Kate Bush intensified in my 20s, when I came to believe that I, alone, had side two of The Hounds of Love sussed. The Ninth Wave is a continuous, eight-song suite invoking drowning, witch burning and the afterlife. I gradually made every impenetrable lyric and every creepy, subliminal sound-effect fit into a perfectly meaningful jigsaw puzzle of my own fanciful design. It was years later again that she finally spoke directly to me in a song called Moments of Pleasure. There I was, sitting in a chair at Abbey Road Studios when track four of The Red Shoes tinkled towards its first heartbreaking surge of strings: "Hey there Teddy/ Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road/ Hey there Michael/Do you really love me?" I read the lyrics again and again as a bolt of electricity crept up my back and out the hairs of my crown. Somehow, Kate Bush had discovered my middle name is Edward. When I try to explain all this to Mendelssohn, it comes out sounding crazy, convoluted and embarrassing, like any expression of intimacy would to an uninvolved third party. "That must be a wonderful feeling," he answers at last. Yes, it really is. Kate could totally screw it up by reappearing now. Waiting For Kate Bush is published this month through Omnibus. Michael Dwyer is a Melbourne writer. What Katy did: 1958: Born in Bexleyheath, Kent. 1971: First songs include The Man With the Child in His Eyes. 1972-75: Family friend Dave Gilmour (Pink Floyd) finds her talent "criminal to ignore", produces demos. 1976: Signs deal with EMI. 1978: First single Wuthering Heights bumps Abba from UK No. 1, follows suit in Australia. The Kick Inside and Lionheart albums released. 1979: Elaborate, exhausting UK/European tour is her first and last. 1980: Never For Ever (Babooshka, Army Dreamers) recorded in five months. 1981-82: Over 16 months, self-produces deeply strange fourth album The Dreaming (Sat In Your Lap). Invisible years begin. 1983: Builds 48-track home studio. 1984-85: Overdubs take 12 months for Hounds of Love (Running Up That Hill), considered her masterpiece. 1986: Don't Give Up, duet with Peter Gabriel. 1987-89: The Sensual World takes most of three years. 1993: The Red Shoes has Prince, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck. "I blew it," she says of her film directing debut, The Line, the Cross and The Curve. 1994-98: Erm ... 1999: A son, Bertie, is born. 2001: First interview in eight years amid a slew of lifetime achievement awards: "People are incredibly patient with me," she observes. 2002: First live appearance in 15 years, as guest to Gilmour. 2003: Mojo magazine manages to pose the obvious query. Her e-mailed reply: "How long is a piece of string?" - - Michael Dwyer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:44:19 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? On Thu, 16 Dec 2004, heidi maier wrote: > Eleven years on, there's no follow-up to The Red Shoes. Aside from the ill or > dysfunctional likes of Syd Barrett and Guns N' Roses, the length of this > hiatus is otherwise unknown at the megastar end of the pop business. But Bush The article was interesting, and I thank Heidi for passing it along. But I find this a curious sentiment -- I've always thought of Kate Bush (and My Bloody Valentine) as the most extreme examples of what's becoming standard practice for artists who create records that are awarded enormous critical acclaim -- consider the lengthening gaps between Peter Gabriel's albums, or the five solid years that the previously-prolific Eagles took to follow up "Hotel California." Not all of the hiatuses in Miles Davis' career would seem attributable to "ill" and even the span between Sarah McLachlan's "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy" and "Surfacing" might qualify as a lesser example. Dwyer says it's "otherwise unknown," but I think it's becoming the rule. My personal surmise is that there's a lot of "Oh, God, how am I going to top that?" in the mix, with perhaps some financial insulation as well -- in the crassest terms, folks like Gabriel and Bush clearly don't need to flog new product in order to live comfortably. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 09:51:15 -0500 From: "Jeffrey Burka" Subject: Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? dmw sez: > Dwyer says [long breaks between albums are] "otherwise unknown," but I think it's becoming the rule. Is this where I point out the obvious question? WHERE O WHERE IS THE FOLLOW-UP TO MWABT?!!! For a long time, one of the best things about being a Happy Rhodes fan was that we could laugh about KaTe's delays because we knew that there'd be another release from Happy just down the road. Well, it's been over 6 years now, and, well, that kinda makes me want to cry. Now, suddenly, there's the prospect that the next KaTe album could beat Happy's latest -- from which we've been hearing her perform songs now for several years -- to our stereos. Oh well. I guess I don't really have anything to complain about...at least there are more Happy albums than KaTe albums. This morning on the subway in to work, my ipod shuffled both versions of "Ra is a Busy God" with KaTe's "Lord of the Reedy River" to separate them. Truly wonderful. jeff n.p. _Life on a String_, Laurie Anderson ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:37:48 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? Hi, heidi forwarded: >i apologise for the length of this, but thought it would be of interest to >others. the article appeared in the age newspaper [melbourne] here in >australia this past saturday, december 11th. Thanks so much for forwarding this on!!! It's refreshing to read an article written by an actual fan who also has a clue. I think it's hilarious that the book's author tried to consult with Andy Marvick, and got a reply back from IED. (love-hounds in-joke, sorry) I fear my completist self is going to win out over my sensible self, and I'm going to end up buying this book. Hell, Vermorel's piece of shite didn't kill me, and this can't possibly be any worse. :} Besides, the concept of a boarding house for KaTe fans is an intriguing one. I've been wanting to start an ecto commune somewhere, so is that really that much different? dmw commented: >Not all of the hiatuses in Miles >Davis' career would seem attributable to "ill" and even the span >between Sarah McLachlan's "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy" and >"Surfacing" might qualify as a lesser example. Dwyer says it's >"otherwise unknown," but I think it's becoming the rule. Yes, but *eleven* years?! That's extreme by almost any measure. Usually when artists release albums five years on, the resulting work is described as a "comeback". =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 09:50:41 -0800 From: Greg Bossert Subject: Re: Waiting for Kate Bush? On Dec 16, 2004, at 8:37 AM, meredith wrote: > I think it's hilarious that the book's author tried to consult with > Andy Marvick, and got a reply back from IED. (love-hounds in-joke, > sorry) heh, i haven't kept up with love-hounds for, hmm, eight years. when i was hosting ecto here it sort of nudged the other lists out of the way. is love-hounds/gaffa still there? is it still the same? strange, fond, frustrating memories... > dmw commented: >> Not all of the hiatuses in Miles >> Davis' career would seem attributable to "ill" and even the span >> between Sarah McLachlan's "Fumbling Toward Ecstasy" and >> "Surfacing" might qualify as a lesser example. Dwyer says it's >> "otherwise unknown," but I think it's becoming the rule. > > Yes, but *eleven* years?! That's extreme by almost any measure. > Usually when artists release albums five years on, the resulting work > is described as a "comeback". i think it's not so much KaTe's delays in producing music as it is her rejection of celebrity; it's the Greta Garbo thing, with a bit of Howard Hughes... Davis, Gabriel, even ms. McLachlan haven't disappeared so thoroughly while on hiatus. and unlike Garbo, ms. Bush never made it clear that she wanted to be left alone, nor was there a sense that she had despaired of her talents. the public and press is used to having more control over, or at least recognition from, public figures. in a way, her silence is a radical as her music has been... i didn't like "Surfacing", and i while i do listen to "Up", it sometimes feels more like leftovers more than a new serving. some times things just move on. which is not to say that i wouldn't buy a new Kate Bush album -- every time i've gone out of the way for her music something wacky has happened (e.g. standing on a London street corner while Vickie insists we all listen to a tape by some Rhodes person...) - -g - -- "i've never been afraid to change the circumstances of the world" - -- Happy Rhodes - -- "except for bunnies..." - -- Anya [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type application/pkcs7-signature which had a name of smime.p7s] ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V10 #345 ***************************