FEATURE:
Inside of Every Line
The Kate Bush Fanzine, HomeGround, and a Truly Passionate Fanbase
___________
THIS will be a fairly short feature…
but I have been reading a lot about Kate Bush and trying to get a view of how other people worship her. I was born in 1983, so my experience of Kate Bush’s music is largely in the form of looking back and sort of catching up. I missed out on many of her studio albums when they were new because of my age, but I started to pick up on her music pretty early. Bush means something different to everyone, and there are so many sides to her. One only needs to think about the people who attended her long-awaited return to the stage in 2014 – with her Before the Dawn residency – to realise the sort of love there is out there for her. Among those who saw Bush live in 2014 includes Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox and Anna Calvi; Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Miranda Richardson and Terry Gilliam. Actor Gemma Arterton also saw Bush perform and, back in 2010, she explained how she’d love to play Kate Bush on the screen one day:
“Gemma Arterton has admitted that she would love to play Kate Bush on the big screen.
However the actress is worried about playing a living artist as they may not like her portrayal of them. And, without giving anything away, she revealed that there were quite a few people that she would like to play in a movie.
Speaking to ITN she said: "Kate Bush, maybe, in the future. There are a few people [I'd like to play], but they're still living. I just think it's weird playing someone who's still alive. If they're rock stars they can be quite scary, people like Courtney Love.
IN THIS PHOTO: Gemma Arterton/PHOTO CREDIT: Philip Gay/The Guardian
"I love Kate Bush and I reckon I could do a good Kate Bush impression but she's still alive - good!"
"I feel like I'm a rock star trapped in an actress's body, I'm just rubbish, but luckily I might play a rock star one time. I don't have to worry about writing music."
Arterton is back on the big screen this week in comedy Tamara Drewe, which is the new movie for The Queen filmmaker Stephen Frears, as the title character”.
I look online now, and there is so much love for Bush’s music still. Unlike most artists, Bush is seen almost as a deity: there is this camp that see her as something akin to a goddess or supernatural talent. I have covered the cult of Kate Bush and her army of fans before, but I wanted to circle back, as I have been reading a lot of books relating to Kate. Not only are there excellent books like Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory by Deborah M. Withers, My Life With Kate Bush by Riaz Ali and Kate Bush: Under the Ivy by Graeme Thomson; there is the incredible photographic book, Kate: Inside the Rainbow, from her older brother, John Carder Bush. It is wonderfully touching to see authors and fans write books about her and ensure that this stunning and hugely inspiring musician is given the respect and love she deserves.
Over forty years from her debut album, Kate Bush commands the sort of adulation and admiration reserved for a precious few. Every day, I see someone post online some sort of paen to Bush; a song shared here or a tweet that expresses devout dedication to a true original. I wonder whether it is a product of the pre-social media age, but I recall the days when there were fanzines and clubs for various artists. Maybe the quick and wide access we have to digital resources means that people would feel a bit lumbered having to subscribe to a magazine or taking the trouble to read a magazine. That said, the printed music press is still strong, though it is being threatened by the current situation and climate. I love the fact that there was a long-running and lovingly-curated fanzine dedicated to Kate Bush: the magnificent HomeGround. Actor Guy Pearce is one of the legions of fans who felt that their week was only made relevant and bright by the arrival of a new edition of HomeGround – a treasure trove of information and news. Pearce actually spoke about his love of Kate Bush with The Telegraph back in 2018:
“Do you have any of your old movie memorabilia?
I don't usually take something from a film, to be honest. Chris Nolan [the director of Memento] gave me one of those Polaroid cameras that folds out. Not the one that we use in the film, he's got that. But a new one... I do own a dress that Kate Bush wore in a video. From The Sensual World. I bought it at a charity auction. Capital Radio were doing a charity auction and I'm a huge Kate Bush fan. And my friend, who runs the Kate Bush fan magazine said to me, "You should buy it". So we rang up and bought it.
IN THIS PHOTO: Guy Pearce
Where do you keep it?
Well for some years my ex-girlfriend had it, because she was a huge Kate Bush fan as well, but I've now got it back. So it's just hanging up in the cupboard. It needs to be out on one of these [he gestures to a dressmakers' dummy that happens to be in the corner of the room]. It is pretty amazing. I remember Shaney, my old girlfriend, getting hold of it and there was a little sweat mark in the armpit and Shaney was [excitedly] going "Ohhh it's Kate Bush's sweat!"
I am digressing a bit but, for those who are unfamiliar with the Kate Bush fanzine, here are some details regarding HomeGround:
“The longest running Kate Bush fanzine, which started in 1982. The final printed issue, number 79, was published in 2011. It was run by Krystyna Fitzgerald-Morris, Peter Fitzgerald-Morris and Dave Cross from the UK.
The fanzine was conceived in Dave Cross's flat in May 1982. 25 copies were run off an office photocopier. Through the years, the fanzine was produced with ever more professionality and in fact got the support of Kate and the people around her. Fans contributed stories, artwork and poetry, while the editors followed every detail about Kate in the press worldwide, even during quieter times.
In 2014, two big books summarizing the impressive output of the fanzine were released by Crescent Moon Publishing: HomeGround Anthology volumes 1 and 2. It is a detailed look at Kate's career through the eyes of fans around the world, along with the aforementioned artwork, poetry and prose from fans”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images
I have both editions of the published HomeGround books. Volume one and two can be purchased and enjoyed, and here is some more information about them – starting off with a quote from Guy Pearce:
“For a Kate Bush fan there was nothing more satisfying, other than perhaps Kate herself dropping around for a quick cup of tea, than the arrival of a much awaited issue of HomeGround. Just as the illusion of being the one and only devotee reaches overwhelming heights a surprise package is delivered as a joyous reminder of Kate Bush’s hold over, not just me, but many of us.”
… so Emmy Award winning actor Guy Pearce introduces HomeGround: The Kate Bush Magazine Anthology 1982-2012, a project we have worked on for over five years, and which we are delighted to say, is now available to order.
The first issue of HomeGround appeared in 1982, four years after Kate Bush’s dramatic debut with Wuthering Heights. Starting with an ancient manual typewriter, real scissors and a pot of genuine paste, we mounted articles on recycled backing sheets and added hand-drawn artwork to fill the gaps. The first issue was photocopied, the pages hand-stapled together and twenty-five copies were given away to fans we knew. Only later did we discover the magic of word processing, and then desktop publishing.
From those beginnings HomeGround became a cornerstone of the ‘Kate-speaking world’, going on to co-organise with the official fan club four fan conventions and events at which Kate Bush and members of her family and band appeared; arrange at her request a team of fans to be extras in two of her videos, and organise annual informal fan gatherings on Glastonbury Tor, and at Top Withens, the storm-blown ruin on Haworth Moor thought to be the place which inspired the creation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Years before the internet, HomeGround became a place where fans could discuss Kate’s music, and a place where they could publish creative writing and artwork inspired by that music.
Built around the thread of HomeGround’s retracing of the scenes of Kate’s musical career, these unique books include material from over 400 HomeGround contributors from the thirty-year existence of the magazine, and include material inspired by all periods of Kate’s musical progression.
This is a two-volume set published both in hardcover and paperback. Volume 1 covers Kate’s career from the late 1970s to the late 1980s – from before Wuthering Heights to The Sensual World and the box set set This Woman’s Work. Volume 2 covers Kate’s career from the 1990s to date – from The Red Shoes to 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. Both volumes include a detailed Kate timeline and discography and a “who’s who” of people involved in the story.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985
These volumes also contain a definitive collection of the beautiful Kate-related artwork from professional artists Paulina Stuckey-Cassidy and Steven Brown, the riotous Cosmic Kate graphic stories of Chris Tilley, the Kate-related extemporary photography of Rob Assenberg, Paul Camilleri, and Jules Angel and the work of published poets John Carder Bush, Collin Kelley, Kyla Clay-Fox, Antonello Saeli, and Jeff Side”.
I thought I knew everything about Kate Bush before I read the HomeGround books, but it has been a voyage of discovering looking through these pages! I am not sure whether other artists have had fanzines of such quality and depth, but HomeGround is replete with illustrations and poems about Bush; collated reviews of her albums and interviews. It is a shame HomeGround printed its last edition in 2011, because there is still a voracious appetite out there for Bush’s music – in an age where we get most of our music content online, I think a fanzine would be a wonderfully archaic and welcomed thing! HomeGround has given me a wonderfully vivid and variegated view of Kate Bush’s biggest fans and how, since 1982, she has commanded such dedication from so many people. One can glean a certain amount from biographies and archived interviews. HomeGround provides this incredibly detailed and rich documentation of Bush’s career and the sheer loyalty of her fanbase. I am just finishing the second edition, and I have been wondering whether a third stage of HomeGround could be started.
Bush has not released another studio album since 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, though she cannot be done yet – one suspects there are another couple of albums left! Also, as social media is so vast and predominant, we can collate articles and pieces concerning Kate Bush from 2011 to now. Her 2014 Before the Dawn residency is ripe for inclusion, and there has been some Bush activity since then – including the remastering of her back catalogue and the release of a book of lyrics, How to Be Invisible, in 2018. So many artists have been inspired by Bush – including St. Vincent and Bat for Lashes -, and I think a new compendium of HomeGround would take Bush’s story from 2011-2020 and introduce a new line of fans to her work. Regardless, I love the HomeGround fanzine, and the books of the magazines (if you follow?) are essential purchases for diehards and casual Bush fans alike. The sort of intense and fascinating chronicling of Bush’s work and fan/media appreciation has not really been seen since 2011, but she continues to have articles and books written about her – there are two upcoming books of photographing arriving fairly soon. I have read through the illuminating and fascinating pages of HomeGround (the books) and it is so moving to see so much love on the pages and inside of every line! One can question whether an artist warrants such lofty and fulsome appreciation but, when you listen to the music of Kate Bush and explore her visual and audio world, it is…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in front of Royal Liver Building in Liverpool while on the Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
NOT hard to see why.