Author: Seán Page 1 of 94

US musician Les July has been in touch to let us know about an unheard piece of music, Magnolia Road, from the greatly missed Del Palmer. Les writes: “You may not know this but I worked with Del on his CD, “Point Of Safe Return”. We knew each other via Facebook and he had always been a fan of my Kate tribute (see here), but he had no idea I was also a horn player. I did the horn arrangements for the song and gave it a Miles Davis , ‘Sketches of Spain’ kinda vibe and he LOVED that. Unfortunately, due to a flood in his studio, the track that I played on, “Magnolia Road” could not be put on the record. He sent me an email explaining what happened, how sorry he was and that one day, he intended for the world to hear what he considered to be my great work. I made a video slide show with pictures in tribute, using the song. This is a song of Del Palmer that no one has ever heard.“

Lovely to hear Del’s voice, thank you so much, Les. See more from Les at his Facebook page here and Instagram here.

The new issue of Uncut Magazine (January 2025) hits the news-shelves this coming Friday and features Kate on the cover and a full feature and archive interview within. The issue is available to order online here. “In this revelatory lost interview from 2011, Kate Bush holds forth on fame, the internet, pop music, fantastical creatures and the time she nearly burned her house down…”

The feature brings Kate’s story bang up to date by chatting to Paul Simmons of Timorous Beasties about the illustrated editions (we almost had a yeti cover!), designer Jonathan Barnbrook about producing the lettering on the recent special edition vinyl releases and how he designed the lettering for the reworked Fish People logo, and animator Gayle Martin also discusses working with Kate on the recent Little Shrew animated short film.

In this shorter minisode Darrell from Bush Telegraph chats with Alan Skidmore, the saxophonist on Kate’s 1975 The Saxophone Song, recorded when she was only 16. Alan talks about his recording session and briefly meeting the young Cathy in the studio. Alan, known as “Skid” in the jazz world, has had a prolific career working with all the jazz greats. His amazing playing is not only highlighted on Kate’s song in the podcast, but we also get to hear another phenomenal track he plays on.

You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes, Audible, Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Podcast Addict or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.

At a time when we’re already buzzing at Kate’s confirmation that she is working on ideas for a new album, it has been announced that Kate and her son Albert McIntosh have been nominated as art directors in two categories in next year’s 67th Grammy Awards in the USA. Her 2023 illustrated vinyl release of Hounds of Love, The Baskerville Edition is nominated for Best Recording Package, while The Boxes of Lost at Sea art pieces (also editions of Hounds of Love) have been nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. You can read more about these releases on our original news item here. Congratulations to Kate and Albert and team! We are sure you must be delighted by this. Winners will be announced on the day of the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles on February 2nd 2025.

The Grammy Awards, established in 1958, are awarded annually by The Recording Academy of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry. They were originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded gramophone. There are a whopping 94 categories covering not just every genre of music but also for the likes of record packages, historical recordings, production, engineering, composition and arrangement. Most of these less glitzy Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast “Premiere Ceremony” in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast, a live show dominated by the most popular “general field” pop categories. Previously Kate was nominated three times for a Grammy; in 1988 for Best Concept Music Video (The Whole Story), in 1991 for Best Alternative Music Album (The Sensual World) and in 1996 for Best Music Film (The Line, the Cross and the Curve).

Significantly, in terms of Kate’s profile and status in the USA, these are Kate’s first Grammy nominations in nearly 30 years, with Forbes magazine musing that “clearly Recording Academy voters seem interested in recognizing her work and her talent.” This follows Kate’s biggest chart success ever in the USA in 2022 with Running Up That Hill and her induction last year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Forbes also notes that while Kate faces tough competition in the two fields, “she should be considered a serious contender for one, if not both awards. She is one of many artists who have never won a Grammy whose legacy has grown throughout the years.”

The Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love, adorned with artwork by Timorous Beasties, was notable for its innovation for being the first ever vinyl record to have a solar powered LED light specially developed and built for the project by Kate and her team. The circuitboard was exclusively designed for the package so it would fit into the standard thickness of the gatefold sleeve. The release was accompanied by a special Cloudbusting-themed short film written and directed by Kate. Read more about the Grammy for Best Recording Package on Wikipedia here.

Meanwhile Kate has made a donation for each sale of The Boxes of Lost at Sea artworks to War Child, a charity Kate has recently also supported with the release of her beautiful Little Shrew animation. Inside The Boxes of Lost at Sea are two vinyl records, each with a UV print on a side without grooves, on white vinyl. Kate said of them last year: “The idea was to create a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall. They’re based on something I designed for an auction for the charity War Child” Read more about the Grammy for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package on Wikipedia here.

Kate has this morning announced the third release in her series of illustrated reissues, following Hounds of Love (The Baskerville Edition), and The Dreaming (The Escapologist Edition). 50 Words For Snow (The Polar Edition) is available to pre-order now, and will be released online and in stores on the 15th November as a double album on 180g vinyl. It is once again illustrated by Timorous Beasties and designed by Fish People, with a gatefold sleeve, metallic belly band with embossed text, poly sleeve and stickers. Each record will also come with a special snowflake design Christmas card. It was printed at Pozzoli and pressed on black vinyl at Record Industry from new lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman of the 2018 remasters by Kate and James Guthrie. It is available to pre-order on Kate’s site here: https://music.katebush.com/buy/50-words-for-snow-polar-edition/ but you can also check with your local record store and ask them to pre-order it for you.

Update: Thanks to our linguist friend, Tristan, for deciphering the Inuktitut words (one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada) on The Polar Edition’s “belly band”. It reads: ᐸᐃᐱᑎ ᐅᖃᐅᓲᑦ ᐊᐳᑎᒧᑦ which is spoken as Paipiti uqausuut aputimut which approximately translates as “50 Words For Snow” – additionally Kate’s full name is transliterated into Inuktitut as ᑲᐃᑦ ᐳᔅ on the reverse side of the belly band. So now you know!

Wonderful, wonderful news this morning! Kate has given an interview to Emma Barnett on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme (listen back to it here) to announce the launch of a new short film she has written and directed to raise money for children affected by war. She also talks about her plans to make a new album. The black-and-white, four-minute animation, called Little Shrew, is set to a shorter edit of her 2011 track Snowflake and aims to raise money and awareness for the charity War Child. (be sure to read the story of Little Shrew on Kate’s official site)

Little Shrew is released on Kate’s official website today. It is free to watch, but Kate encourages viewers to support organisations helping children in conflict. Kate says: “I would like to ask that if you watch the animation, please make a donation to War Child, or to another charity that aids children in war.” War Child are accepting donations at their site here. The short film, which Kate worked with illustrator Jim Kay to create, was partly inspired by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “I started working on it a couple of years ago, it was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out, and I think it was such a shock for all of us,” Kate explained.

“It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through. And I just felt I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl. It was really the idea of children caught up in war. I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children.

“And so I came up with this idea for a storyboard and felt that, actually, people would be more empathetic towards a creature rather than a human. So I came up with the idea of it being a little shrew.” Reflecting on the impact of conflict on children, Kate said: “I think war is horrific for everyone, particularly civilians, because they’re so vulnerable in these situations. But for a child, it’s unimaginable how frightening it must be for them.”

Kate added: “I think we’ve all been through very difficult times. These are dark times that we’re living in and I think, to a certain extent, everyone is just worn out….We went through the pandemic, that was a huge shock, and I think we felt that, once that was over, that we would be able to get on with some kind of normal life…But in fact it just seems to be going from one situation to another, and more wars seem to be breaking out all the time.” The Guardian newspaper in the UK have already given Kate’s animated film a five star review “…this devastating film will make you weep at war’s violence against children.” Also, concept artist on the Little Shrew animation, Jim Kay, writes about working with Kate over on his official site.

War Child are accepting donations at their site here

About her next album, Kate adds that she is “very keen” to start working on new music. She said there are “lots of ideas” she wants to pursue, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space, it’s been a long time.” BBC report.

In 2022, with war breaking out in Ukraine, I decided I wanted to make an anti-war animation. In particular, I hoped to draw attention to the children caught up in war.

I based the storyboard around the song, Snowflake, which was sung by my son when he was a child. I think his performance is extremely moving and although I‘d originally written the song to capture his beautiful descant voice before he entered adolescence, it has taken on a haunting new meaning within the context of this animation.

I knew I wanted the featured character to be a child caught up in war, so I made a very rough, off the cuff story board.

Although I’d initially thought to make the character a human child – a little girl – I settled on the idea of a Caucasian pygmy shrew (Ukrainian shrew): a tiny, fragile little creature. I felt that people might have more empathy for a vulnerable little animal than a human…

This little shrew would take a journey on a moonlit, winter’s night through a war-torn city, initially unaware of what was going on around her in this land of the giants. She can sense that she’s being called by a kind of spiritual presence… HOPE.

She starts to search for HOPE. Sometimes hope is all there is to hang on to.

War Child are accepting donations at their site here (and be sure to read the story of Little Shrew and all the talented people involved on Kate’s official site)