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Kate announces Hounds of Love vinyl and special presentation boxes!

Detail of the Hounds of Love (Baskerville Edition) illustrated inner gatefold sleeve

As was promised earlier this year when Kate moved her distribution to The State51 Conspiracy, special presentations of Hounds of Love have just been announced on Kate’s newly re-launched official Fish People site. And they are quite extraordinary. They include an “illustrated vinyl” 12″ edition (known as the Baskerville Edition) as well as the album being presented on two boxes (called The Boxes of Lost at Sea). Additionally, the coloured vinyl we reported on last month is available to pre-order. Elsewhere, the new site features new notes and specially chosen footage by Kate on all of her albums as she reissues her full album catalogue.

Hounds of Love – The Baskerville Edition 12″ vinyl

The 12″ vinyl Baskerville edition (available from December 1st, pre-order here) features new illustrations by Timorous Beasties on the front (shown above – two hounds!), centre gatefold (Kate, being hoisted by sea creatures, in her life jacket with flashing solar powered red LED light!) and back (including a solar panel to charge the light battery in daylight!). The inner sleeve features the Cloudbusting silhouette. The Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love is intended to be the first in a series of illustrated editions of Kate’s albums. The Dreaming will be the second in the series of illustrated editions, also illustrated by Timorous Beasties. This will be released in time for Valentine’s Day, 2024. More details will be available nearer the time.

The illustrated centre of the vinyl gatefold sleeve with Solar Powered flashing LED

The site says that “the best way to charge this solar panel is in bright sunlight (but not with the vinyl LP, it might warp!) In that situation it will charge really quickly, within ten minutes. Smoked glass doesn’t work well at all and neither does a very cloudy day. LED indoor lightning won’t work at all, but halogen lightning should be good. Do not put the solar panel closer then 10 cm from an artificial light source as this could cause heat damage to the solar panel. We hope you will experiment and please be patient if it’s a little temperamental. This is an innovative idea and designed to be environmentally friendly.”

The back of the vinyl sleeve with solar panel and ‘little light’ charging instructions and an illustrated scroll lyric excerpt from ‘And Dream of Sheep’

The Baskerville Edition is accompanied by a beautiful new Cloudbusting-themed video which depicts a young Peter Reich (actor Gus Turner) receiving the record and telling his story. Extremely touching! See it below.

The Baskerville Edition Unboxing Video

On the official press release for the reissues Kate says:

It’s been great fun putting together these new versions, including coloured vinyls for independent record stores. They’ve been designed as a ‘set’. It’s very exciting to see the resurgence of appreciation for the physical presence of albums released on vinyl. It’s how it’s always been for me, especially when I was a teenager. The whole buzz of the record store was part of the experience. Buying an album was an event. There’s a special emotional connection that happens between the possessor of an album, the music and the artwork, when it exists in the real world. It’s something we can treasure in a unique way.

Kate Bush, November 2023
Uncropped Timorous Beasties illustration for the Ninth Wave

The Boxes of Lost at Sea

If that wasn’t enough Kate has created two pieces of wall art, The Boxes of Lost at Sea (available from December 1st, pre-order here), each consisting of two boxes, each containing one side of the Hounds of Love album. In a second accompanying video, Kate explains via on-screen text, that she was inspired to expand upon a piece of work she first created for a special War Child charity auction in 1994 (see our news item here on the original artworks). Kate was thrilled to find the ITV clip of her idol, David Bowie, admiring her original artworks.

David Bowie admires Kate’s artwork on ITV in 1994

The boxes, which can each be wall mounted, also feature flashing LED lights powered by two AAA batteries. A donation will be made to War Child with each box that’s bought.

Kate says: “The idea was to create a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall. They’re based on something I designed for an auction for the charity War Child”

The Boxes of Lost At Sea – outside of boxes

Inside The Boxes of Lost at Sea are two vinyl records, described as “UV print on a side without grooves, on white vinyl.”

The Boxes of Lost at Sea – inside the two boxes

Like the 1994 original piece, each has an inscribed plaque, with versions available for pre-order in a braille version also:

The boxes are also accompanied on Kate’s updated site with an unboxing video which features a voiceover by Sir Ian McKellan!

The Boxes of Lost at Sea – Unboxing Video

Fish People are also reissuing the regular vinyl and CD versions of Hounds of Love and believe it or not (Stranger Things fans, ahoy!) a newly reissued cassette version – all three out on November 20th as previously reported. Elsewhere on the site, you can pre-order something for “those cloudbusting kind of days…” ……a rather fetching umbrella!

Cloudbusting umbrella

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17 Comments

  1. Stephanie Daly

    Very cool

    • Oliver Honeywill

      How much is going to War Child?

    • Gary Smith

      Might be cool but £500 for 12 tracks which we all have and two fancy boxes.
      What on earth is she doing here other than alienating many of her fans.
      Most cannot comprehend the cost involved here while they struggle yo pay mortgage/rents/bills etc in these testing times.
      Extravagant in the extreme and only for those with deep pockets.

  2. Kelvin

    She’s laughing all the way to the bank!

  3. Bill Blankenship

    Dolby atmos version please!

  4. Annabel

    Lovely!

  5. Frederick Wynks

    Good on her,its not as if she has a regular 9 to 5 income each week..and it would have costed her a pretty penny to start off with before any income she makes

  6. £138 for “the Baskerville Edition!” I’ve adored Kate for 45 years – and I love “Timorous Beasties” too – and the issue does look beautiful but I really cannot justify that kind of money on yet another version of “Hounds Of Love.” It’s not like I would ever play it, at that price, and it may be lovely as a piece of art but no. Just no. I would have much more respect for Kate if she finally released special edition deluxe releases of her albums with their b-sides and other rarities – there must be unknown treasures in her archive – at reasonable prices or, finally, a box set of all the early demos. Better still, a new album.

    However devoted a fan I have been over the decades, I do not have bottomless pockets, unlike the dealers who will no doubt buy up so many copies of these new editions to try to make easy and substantial profits online.

    • Ray

      Completely agree with your thoughts. Kate Bush is Iconic and her music is wonderful but even to the most fanatical of fans the purchase price has to be eye watering. My jaw literally dropped!
      Alas your comment about dealers purchasing bulk editions will sadly be true.

      • Stephen Sondergaard

        “Oh, here I go…
        It’s coming for me through the trees
        Oh, help me, someone
        Help me, please…

        …Never mind it’s just a pug dog.”

  7. G smith

    Half an album for £238!
    The full album for £500 if you buy both boxes!!
    Not sure what else to add other than really!!!!

  8. U. N. Believable

    £500 to buy both boxsets ? I’ll pass and stick to my original vinyl copies thanks.

  9. uwe

    Why Kate not bring a new Album.

    She reales standing the old Albums.
    That was very sad. Why reales she not a DVD about before the dawn tour.

    • Jeff

      She should bring a new version of the Before the Dawn concerts to the Las Vegas Sphere for a few weeks of shows!

  10. Stephen

    Very sweet indeed.

  11. To all the naysayers please be nice. If you like and can afford then buy, if not then admire them and buy what you can afford, I just got a copy of December will be magic for £1 in a picture bag which I’m framing in a Dunelm frame ( £2 ) so for not much I have created a lovely Christmas arty artefact which I can admire whilst listening to my favourite seasonal tune. I think the new editions are underpriced. Beautiful art with a wonderful story and endorsed by David Bowie whom, it’s safe to say, knew a thing or 2 about art. With monetary contributions to War Child and the costs of producing items, ( you just know they will be exceptional ) this project is a huge undertaking and it is obviously not an exercise in profiteering. We are blessed to have artists of the calibre of DB & KB. Thank you and have a good evening.

  12. Thank you Kate for the new versions! To the Nattering Naybobs of Negativity, I say there are those who will happily snap up these limited edition art pieces, and there are those who won’t. I’m in the “will happily snap up…. ” category. Kate has NEVER been in this for the money, otherwise there’d be a new album every couple of years. Kate is an artist, and I am one of her patrons. If you can’t afford it I understand and am sorry, but don’t rain on everyone else’s parade, that makes no sense.

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