Saturday Deluxe / 13 August 2016
New Kate Bush photo book
Another busy week at SDE HQ! On Thursday morning I had a really interesting conversation with Italian photographer Guido Harari, who photographed Kate Bush on a number of occasions between 1982 and 1993…
We were discussing The Kate Inside, his forthcoming book (due in September) which explores these sessions in detail and includes outtakes and previously unpublished images, along with some fascinating annotation and commentary by Guido himself, telling the story of the sessions and what it was like working closely with Kate.
The interview will be published on SDE in the near future. In the meantime, head over to The Wall Of Sound Gallery for more details on the book, pre-publication offers (deluxe editions are signed by Guido and Lindsay Kemp) and to order prints. There will also be an exhibition in South London of Guido’s photos. Check out the Project Space website.
Shake your bits to Suede’s hits
I was very happy when I learnt that Suede‘s 1996 album Coming Up was to be reissued in September. I wouldn’t say the album is ‘better’ than Dog Man Star (a big ‘ask’, to use a rather annoying phrase) but if you were there at the time, you’ll probably agree that there was something so vibrant and life-affirming about the big bold pop songs on this record that it didn’t really matter that it lacked the dark grandeur of DMS.
And the band were having hits again. How fantastic was that? After Stay Together reached number three in the UK charts in 1994, it looked like the Suede were heading for the toppermost of the poppermost, but the singles from Dog Man Star all underperformed, despite their brilliance. We Are The Pigs and The Wild Ones both parked up, put the handbrake on and took the keys out of the ignition at number 18 and even an appearance on Danny Baker’s short-lived BBC TV Saturday night chat show couldn’t propel New Generation into the top 20 (it stalled at 21). For fans this was both disappointing and very annoying. Apparently no one wanted to buy their records any more and they’d just lost a key member in Bernard Butler. Not. Looking. Good.
Hence the joyful celebrations, when Trash was a massive hit, matching their best ever (no. 3). And, thanks to the marketing bods in the record labels, we were suddenly getting two CDs for each single release. With Trash, we enjoyed the following extra tracks: Europe Is Our Playground, Every Monday Morning Comes, Have You Ever Been This Low? and Another No One. That’s a virtual mini-album and they are all fantastic songs. This pattern continued for all five singles (Trash, Beautiful Ones, Saturday Night, Lazy and Filmstar) although even Suede’s songwriting ‘well’ dried up a bit towards the end and Filmstar ‘only’ contained two new studio cuts.
But every single went top 10. Even Lazy, which I remember thinking at the time would ‘do a Take A Bow‘ and spoil their run of top 10 hits. They appeared on Top of the Pops five times! Let’s not pretend otherwise, success is fun – for fans and artist, alike.
A bit like the recent 20th anniversary reissues from the Manic Street Preachers, this new super deluxe of Coming Up largely complements the previously issued deluxe, although the B-sides are repeated (it would be criminal not to include them). Demon have also sorted out their pricing and while not exactly a bargain, at £50-ish (depending on whether you opt for the limited version with the 10-inch single) it’s about half the price of that rather disappointing 20th anniversary edition of Dog Man Star.
Read all about the forthcoming super deluxe of Coming Up
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Hi Chris.
I have the WOW book and I’m delighted I had the money at the time because it’s a beautiful book. I know it was expensive but I love it.
I wish I had the money for one of the lovely frames from Snap Galleries as well to hang it up!!!
It’s a bit on the big side alright but I knew that as I have another one from S G about Nick Drake.
I just pre ordered the regular edition of the Kate Inside. Couldn’t really justify an extra 300 euro for the Deluxe edition and the extras involved, didn’t think it was worth it.
It annoys me that it costs 30 euro for courier when the book is 90 euro!!!
Gered Mankowitz’s 3 ft wide “Wow” was just plain bonkers whilst John Carder Bush’s book was superb and I had my name down on day one for Guido’s. The good thing is I paid for it on the day too, so it can’t hurt any more than it already has. It’s a lot of money but as our dear Kate seems to have little interest (at the moment) in making money we will have to hand it to associates rather than the girl herself. My bookshelves are groaning under the weight of other people’s pictures whilst my record shelves could do with some more of your tunes. An updated and re-mastered 16LP / 12CD “This Woman’s Work” would go down a storm or even just a re-done “The Kick Inside” if she wants to start off slowly. Please Kate, you must be bored by now?
What is it you want “redone” about The Kick Inside?
It sounds superb on both Vinyl and CD……
Agreed, it still sounds fab. I kinda meant a Super Deluxe Edition. However, if you get hold of the German Vinyl ATR Mastercut re-mastered Lionheart, that sounds sublime and markedly better than the original Lionheart, so although The Kick Inside still sounds great I wonder whether it has some more to give? Given what Lionheart was capable of giving up.
As far as an SDE of The Kick Inside, or any of the first three albums come to think of it, there are so many demos / Beat box versions / lyric changes that each could easily be a double CD or Double vinyl. Then there are a few known tracks that didn’t make the cut, such as “Never For Ever”, that was listed as the lead track on the early promo posters, but mysteriously disappeared and is currently unheard let alone unreleased.
So, there is plenty to add, but I agree it still sounds great and is as perfect a debut album as there ever has been and considering she was 13 – 18 when it was all written it is even more remarkable. I guess it is just wishful thinking…..
Bananarama look a bit rough in that photo.
My favorite B-side is “Have You Ever Been This Low?” but they seldom play it live
I suspect that the necessary falsetto doesn’t come as easily as it used to :-/
You know, Carly Simon & Moby both realised compilations to back up their memoirs. While this Kate book isn’t that exactly, perhaps now is the time for that long overdue retrospective we read about a few years back…
Re Kate Bush and the non-reissue frustrations we all feel, Steven Wilson mentioned no too long ago that he had made several overtures to the Kate Bush camp to re-issue her work ala Yes/XTC style, without any responses.
And then in a very recent Q&A he states that the market for live DVDs has significantly dropped away, more than CDs, due to youtube etc. So things are also not looking favourable for a Kate Bush live release of one of her London concerts either. :(
I’m not too au fait with Madonna’s 90’s output, so when you mentioned Take A Bow, Adam Faith’s Baby Take A Bow came to mind. That actually ended Adam’s run of 13 Top 12 Hits as it only got to No. 22.
My Saturday nights ain’t what they used to be.
Haha good fact about Adam Faith. Sharing knowledge is good :)
As for Kate, another photo book spanning strands of her career makes me smile. With her apparent ambivalence towards any reissuing of her recorded output, as frustratingly described on this site, other career artifacts by those who worked with her are, I guess, the inevitable by-product. It looks nice though and I enjoyed the recent one her brother did.
The marketing bods at Nude were responsible for the singles from the albums going top ten as Suede’s sizeable hardcore would have bought two versions of each single due to the glut of new songs on offer. (i.e I doubt the last 3 stayed longer than one week in the top ten or even twenty but a hit is a hit, I guess).
Similar strategy was deployed a decade later when The Tears, Brett’s second band reunited with Bernard, had a top ten with debut single Refugees but the absence of any feeling of “crossover” to the general public seemed clear and the album debuted/peaked at a disappointing number 16.
As to the quality of the Coming Up B-sides, some were good, but comparing the first and second one disks of SciFi Lullabies (Butler era on first disk) is chalk and cheese about half the time in my opinion.
great time to be a suede fan. jan 1996 hanover grand fan club gig. london in the snow. hearing the Coming Up songs for first time. Neil’s debut … then the big success with Trash/the album. saw loads of gigs. not sure if I’ll get this as I’m not too fussed about new demos etc. like the idea of the vinyl and having the b sides on the 2nd disc. funny lil story. me and some friends used to buy dave barnett’s suede zine late 94/95 … on the back of the envelope was scrawled ‘you don’t have the guts to complain’… we all thought it was something personal!! … we soon found out *what* it was about! ;) … and I heard it a few weeks later at the Leicester Jan 95 gig. good times.