50 Words For Kate: #17 - Trivia

There is an unofficial title that I have claimed for me and my friend Amanda - Kate Bush World Trivia Champions. How dare we lay claim to such a boast you cry? Well my friends, let me take you back to a late autumn day in 1990, where over 1200 fans gathered at the Hammersmith Palais for the Kate Bush Convention, organised by Kate's official fan club and the Homeground gang. What a day that was. We had fans doing live performances of Kate back catalogue, both song and dance. There was a special video showing highlights of Kate's career.There were raffles and there was a quiz... but more on that in a bit.

The undisputed highlight of the day though was when Kate herself appeared! She had agreed to do a question and answer session and everyone duly wrote some queries down on bits of paper. Kate sat on stage on a small, comfy-looking sofa. She stayed for about an hour, answering questions on everything from supermarket shopping (it freaks her out, apparently) to her recent foray into acting. She looked happy and relaxed and we all managed to remain relatively calm and upright.

Then came the big announcement... Kate was going back on tour! From her own mouth she told us she was planning some live dates towards the end of 1991. There was also to be a new album around the same time, which would take her back to her roots of writing piano-based songs, easier to play live. Every... jaw... dropped.

The atmosphere was electric, as you can imagine. Then Kate asked us to observe a short period of silence to remember her two friends, Alan Murphy and Gary Hurst, who had sadly died from AIDS-related illnesses. We all knew how much they had contributed to Kate's work and we felt the loss as well. Then, Kate began to sing.

To the tune of My Lagan Love, Kate sang a song of love to her fans. It went like this:

For so many things you give me

It means so much to be with you here

To see your smiling faces

To see you all

Here in this hall

It fills my heart with joy

God bless you all

Goodbye for now

Until we meet again

It was a truly unbelievable event. The thing that made it extra special was the fact that our team, Rebel Freaks Anonymous, won the trivia quiz! We were the only team to get 20/20, even Kate's brother and partner didn't get that many right. Most of the credit goes to Amanda, who went into a strange, almost catatonic state from which she channeled us some very elusive answers. Our prize was a personally signed box set of Kate's complete works. It is my most treasured possession.

Just to prove it was no fluke, Amanda, myself and two new team members repeated the feat at the 1994 convention, although this time we "only" got 17/20. So there you go: we are the undefeated and undisputed Kate Bush World Trivia Champions!

Ah, that 1991 album and tour... how amazing they were... What do you mean it was all a dream!



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