Yes, they haven’t let us down, the Winter 2001 edition of the Kate Bush magazine has been posted to subscribers in time for the Christmas holidays. Regular visitors to the site will know how much I recommend subscribing to the magazine. The News pages are a-buzz with recent Kate happenings (mostly courtesy of Q Magazine). Peter comments on the significance of both the Classic Songwriter award and the very high placing in the Q poll: “Kate’s work is clearly seared into the collective consciousness of all music lovers…”. As for the digital remasters? “Clearly all previous timetables for these releases have come and gone…as far as we know at the present time EMI are hoping to release them in the spring, and we understand they will be worth waiting for.” The issue contains the usual great articles and artwork, readers letters and stories. As always read more at the HomeGround Pages.
Category: Homeground
HomeGround Glastonbury 2001!! The 2001 gathering takes place the day before Kate’s birthday, 3pm, Sunday 29th July, Glastonbury Tor. No formal events, just come along and meet other fans. Afterwards at a local pub (probably the Rifleman’s Arms). Read more at the HomeGround Pages!
The Summer 2001 edition of HomeGround, the Kate fanzine has now been mailed to subscribers. Main news points to note include “Kate continues to work on new material” and Dave Cross is quoted as saying that the delayed reissues have “taken much longer to pull together than we had hoped, but we are moving forward and it is likely that all the CD reissues will see the light of day this year. All the albums will have extra tracks and improved booklets”. HomeGround as usual offers great articles, artwork, readers letters and more. For more info on this issue be sure to check out the HomeGround Pages for details..it’s another good one for the collection.
In a recent post to the discussion group love-hounds, Peter-Fitzgerald Morris of HomeGround fanzine has passed on the latest confirmed update from EMI: “Last year, as we reported in the last HomeGround, EMI were looking hopefully at this Autumn. Now we’re in this year it don’t look so realistic. To get a release even in late Autumn would mean the album would have to be finished by June-July at the very latest, that’s 5-6 months away. Unfortunately but realistically it looks like next year at the earliest, Summer/Autumn 2002. I wish it were otherwise, and I would happily like to be proved wrong, but Kate is working on this album in her own time in her own way. We all know what that means. EMI are still hoping to get the rest of the reissues (plus extra tracks) out this year…we pass on what we hear, EMI’s hopes and our guesses. I doubt if even Kate has any real idea of when the album will be finished and released. Hopes and guesses are all we have. What we know for sure, because Dave Cross has just confirmed it with EMI, is that they have not scheduled a Kate album for this year.” (thanks as ever to Peter, Krys and Dave at HomeGround for keeping us as up-to-date as they can!)
Website News: Well, after the above news we’ll focus on dem reissues for now. Sending big warm wishes to Kate as she crafts and shapes her new sounds. Expect some interesting new features to coincide with the resissue CDs whenever they happen. I still intend to get my long-delayed section up and running focusing on the fantastic artists who’ve worked and collaborated with Kate, and very soon I’ll be putting up a really good gallery of Kate-related art which I think you’ll like. The site’s been listed in the new UK “It’s On The Net” magazine, so thanks to them for an unexpected boost! (Thought I’d mention that the Hello Earth site have an interesting listing of every single Kate Bush track there is…do you have them all?!!…I know I don’t!)
Press articles that mention Kate are often quoted on this site, but it’s only with the much-anticipated publication of each issue of HomeGround magazine that we get a comprehensive dose of the latest inside news, comment and reportage on the world of Kate Bush music all in one go. Issue 66 (Winter 2000) reports that, as she has affirmed herself, Kate continues to work on her eighth studio album. “As ever Del is engineering and already guest musicians are arriving to add their work…EMI are now hoping and planning for a release in Autumn 2001”.
They also update fans on the reissue situation, the schedule for release is said to have “slipped” a little. It now looks like The Sensual World and The Red Shoes will probably be released together in early Spring 2001. These will be followed by The Dreaming and Never For Ever probably in late Spring or early Summer and finally The Kick Inside and Lionheart in late summer or early Autumn. EMI hope these reissues will pave the way for Kate’s new album towards the end of 2001. The list of additional tracks, which it is hoped will include stuff not previously released, is still being settled.
There is much discussion and reader comment on the wonderful news of Kate’s son Bertie, and an analysis of what they describe as the “trashy” and “silly” tabloid reports Kate had to endure at the time. Elsewhere in yet another excellent edition the magazine publishes a second fascinating article by Kate’s brother Paddy Bush. This time Paddy tells the HG reader’s of his impressions of the country of Madagascar, writing from his most recent visit a couple of months back to the place which drew him “into the centre of a whirlpool of the most fantastic music I had ever heard”. The special offer on the album of Malagasy music he produced continues to run. As always, if you haven’t investigated HG it’s well worth taking a look at their information pages.
As expected, HomeGround magazine’s latest issue has provided important updates on several interesting Kate news stories. The Summer 2000 edition reveals that “Kate is continuing to work steadily on a new album”. However they say that “the most realistic forecasts for a release date at this point is the latter part of next year”. The fact that Kate’s taking her own good time with the album will come as no surprise to seasoned fans, but as mentioned on this news page earlier there is something very special to look forward to in the meantime…
In April Kate gave the go-ahead to have the remaining six albums in her catalogue remastered and re-packaged as with the 1997 re-release of Hounds Of Love. Dave Cross of HomeGround and Steve Davis at EMI are working on the new digitally remastered and extended editions. HomeGround report that “each album is to be re-mastered at Abbey Road by Chris Blair, who cut the original Wuthering Heights single, and who re-mastered Hounds Of Love….the booklet of each CD is to retain the original artwork but will have additional photographs and new sleeve notes which will be written by the HomeGround editors.” Dave Cross says that “EMI are putting a lot of time and money into making sure that these re-issues look and sound great….Kate’s first four albums will especially benefit from the re-mastering.”
So, when are they coming out? The plan at the moment is to firstly release The Sensual World in September and then The Red Shoes in the early new year (Note: The Red Shoes will not be released in September also, as first reported), sleevenotes by HomeGround’s Peter and Dave respectively. The additional tracks for these first two releases will be contained on the second CD of a two-CD package.
Following that in the Spring of 2001 we’ll have The Dreaming (sleevenote by Krys) and Never For Ever (sleevenote by Dave). Late Spring/Summer 2001 will bring The Kick Inside (sleevenote by Krys) and Lionheart (sleevenote by Peter).
HomeGround also mention that the Dinosaur track that Kate originally recorded for the Disney animated film was not used because the “suits in charge of the film” didn’t like Kate’s words and asked her to first change them and failing that they then instead wanted a “song without words…emotional background”. The magazine states that “at that point Kate threw in the towel”.
As if all this news wasn’t enough the magazine also prints Paddy Bush’s excellent article on the making of Justin Vali’s The Sunshine Within (order your copy today!), an article by veteran US Kate fan Andrew Marvick on how he feels about Kate in 2000, an edited version of my interview with Brian Kennedy (which I have always promised Brian would be printed in HG, so there you go Brian!), and all the usual features such as Five Years Ago, reader’s letters, and more news gathering than this website could ever hope to do. You can order your copy from the HomeGround Pages.
HomeGround magazine has a very special feature in its next issue (65) due out in the next couple of weeks. Paddy Bush has written a fascinating article for the publication on his explorations into Madagascan music, from his early discovery of the music through playing the valiha on Kate’s Love & Anger and on to the new Justin Vali album The Sunshine Within which he has produced under his own record label Bush Telegraph Records. It’s been quite a trip so don’t miss out on reading this one. I’m very pleased to say that Kate’s brother has arranged a special mail order deal for visitors to this website and readers of HomeGround magazine. Also in HomeGround 65 it’s revealed that Kate’s album catalogue will indeed be getting a long-overdue CD remastering by EMI in the very near future. The magazine will be updating us on the official plans to throw some new light through these old windows so watch this space, and as always be sure to get a subscription to HomeGround, I can’t recommend it highly enough!
HomeGround fanzine’s latest issue not only celebrates 20 years since The Tour Of Life, but confirms some solid news regarding progress on Kate’s album.
“Kate began writing and demoing songs for a new album earlier this year. She has had her recording studio serviced and upgraded and recording is expected to begin before Christmas. Kate is happy and full of energy and our former wild guess that there may be a new album by Autumn 2000 still remains a distinct possibility.”
As revealed earlier on this web-site the fanzine have already confirmed that Kate has recorded a song for the Disney film Dinosaur.
“Disney sought out Kate to provide the soundtrack song that would be at the emotional turning point of the film. It appears, however, that Kate has had some problem agreeing the lyrics of the song with the Disney production team. Kate has however created the perfect song for the point in the film, just like in She’s Having a Baby and Disney have the problem of taking or leaving it!”
If you still haven’t subscribed to HomeGround, well, what are you waiting for?! All details are contained on their web pages which I proudly host here.
HomeGround fanzine report in their latest issue (No. 63) that “The line from the EMI press office is that Kate is working on new material…we have a feeling that there is some new energy flowing and the Millennium will bring some new and wonderful things…any release dates are highly speculative”, they continue by saying that their “wild guess is that the earliest likely release date for new material from Kate is Spring 2000, with Autumn 2000 being more likely”. (thanks as ever to Peter & Krys at HomeGround, read more about the new issue and how to subscribe to the wonderful HomeGround here.)
More Newsbits: Record Collector magazine have some interesting news for collectors in their December edition; the ultra-rare Eat The Music 7″ single (only seventeen copies exist?) is placed at number 17 in the magazine’s “100 rarest records ever” listing in their December issue. A value of £1,500 is attributed to this abandoned UK pressing. A b&w photo of the label and sleeve are shown. There’s an interesting paragraph on the scrapped 7″ included with the article. The upcoming January edition of Record Collector will have a large retrospective article looking back at 20 years of Kate.
The editors of HomeGround magazine attended the recent Colin-Lloyd Tucker (featured on The Red Shoes) concert at London’s Mean Fiddler and spoke to Paddy Bush, Kate’s brother who was in attendance. Paddy mentioned an upcoming programme about Madagascar on BBC Radio 4 (more on this when programme details arrive). HomeGround #62 has now been mailed to subscribers. It contains fan’s recollections of the last 20 years of Kate’s music, special moments, special songs etc..
HomeGround’s 1998 Kate Birthday Bash will take place on Glastonbury Tor, England on Sunday 2nd August. All Kate fans are invited to come along. No formal events, just to meet and chat and celebrate Kate’s birthday in the 20th year of her career. Meet on Glastonbury Tor at 2.00 pm, and afterward in a local pub!
The latest issue of the Kate magazine Homeground starts the first part of a major article looking back at Kate’s career over the last 20 years since the release of Wuthering Heights in January 1978. Written by Peter Fitzgerald-Morris, it’s an excellently authoritative account of the highs and lows of Kate’s first few years, and chronicles the dedication that goes into Kate’s work, Part One rounding off with the release of Hounds Of Love in 1985. The next issue (Homeground 61) continues the story, and will be mailed to subscribers in June.