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…
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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 