In this very special episode, Seán chats with Kate’s eldest brother, the poet, writer and photographer, John Carder Bush at his home in South East London. A dream come true! In this first part, we talk about John’s early life, how he developed his writing, his days playing in folk bands in London (with a young Kate taking notes), forming the Salatticum Poets with his great friends Tony Buzan and Jeremy Cartland, the story behind “Nicholas Wade” and so much more! Part two coming next week.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
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In this detailed new episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast Seán packs an hour looking back over all the amazing landmark events of Summer 2022 when Kate’s song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) was featured on Stranger Things and became her biggest ever global smash hit – all the summer chart news, the reaction from Kate, the media and the fans! A souvenir of an extraordinary few months.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
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Acclaimed author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Philip Pullman, has released his book, The Collectors, as a slim 80-page hardback edition illustrated by Tom Duxbury. It’s well known that Kate and Philip are friends and mutual admirers of each other’s work (Kate famously recorded the song Lyra for the film adaptation of Pullman’s The Golden Compass). Kate is mentioned in the dedication at the start of the book as having inspired it!
“Filled with the magic of Pullman’s assured pen, this glorious new tale set in the universe of His Dark Materials sees an art-collecting Oxford academic acquire two imposing paintings…on a dark winter’s night in 1970, Horley and Grinstead huddle for warmth in the Senior Common Room of a college in Oxford. Conversation turns to the two impressive works of art that Horley has recently added to his collection. What the two men don’t know is that these pieces are connected in mysterious and improbable ways; and they are about to be caught in the cross-fire of a story which has travelled time and worlds.“
We’ve been celebrating the 40th Anniversary of The Dreaming on our Facebook page with videos of the 5 singles from Kate’s incredible 1982 album. It was released on September 13th 1982. I wrote about it in the special new 40th Anniversary Issue of HomeGround Magazine (available free here). Also coming this month is a two-part Bush Telegraph podcast episode all about The Dreaming album with some very special guest interviewees. Here’s some of what I wrote:
“Earlier this year I was contacted by the editor of one of the UK’s major music magazines, asking to pick my brains about a Kate Bush cover article they were hoping to run. For a change, they were mulling over doing a cover feature on The Dreaming album, 2022 being the 40th anniversary of the album’s release (almost impossible to believe). As we have seen over the last decade, having Kate on the cover of a music monthly can shift a healthy amount of magazines but typically those feature articles will focus on Kate’s very early career, the live 1979 tour or the perennial favourite album – Hounds of Love.
I was emphatically enthusiastic about the cover idea and reeled off a list of reasons to the editor why Kate’s extraordinary, ground-breaking fourth studio album still deserved every bit as much attention from the music press as the beloved Hounds of Love – it was indeed time for them to recontextualise this darkly complex, astonishing record. It was the first album Kate produced entirely by herself and of course many of you reading this still regard it as her greatest masterpiece out of a triumvirate of her most acclaimed works that includes Hounds of Love and Aerial. The daring, complex experimentations within are not fumbling towards something more accomplished, they are often more startling than those on Hounds of Love itself. The complexity and inventiveness are insane. In the wider world, The Dreaming is normally mentioned as the album she had to make in order to go on to create her “true” masterpiece, Hounds of Love, but many fans feel it mightily holds up all by itself. This is the one that meant she had “broken free of pop stardom’s strait-jacket, to infiltrate the ranks of art-rock aristocrats” as The Quietus put it. It was Never For Ever that was surely the essential transitional work – The Dreaming was her arrival at an amazing new place in her career, a seismic shift.
Paul Hardiman, Kate and Del Palmer at Advision Studio, recording The Dreaming in 1982 (via Del’s facebook page)
There’s so much fascinating drama and intensity around this particular record’s creation and reception. Kate was only about 22 when she wrote the songs and 24 when she released it, but she still had the guts to produce it herself – she was utterly driven to do that. Years after release we still get insights into the making of the record from some of those that were there – Graeme Thomson did a good job in his Under The Ivy biography getting new insights from studio types like Hugh Padgham, Nick Launay and Paul Hardiman. I imagine what it would be like to have been a fly on the wall during the concentrated experimentation of those sessions across expensive London studios like Townhouse, Abbey Road and Advision on Gosfield Street (hence the “Gosfield Goers” credit) as Kate figured out the new technology and sound possibilities at her disposal – the Fairlight, gated reverb drum patterns, the undeniable influence of Peter Gabriel’s studio work. Crafting layers of utterly new, and to some listeners, baffling soundscapes to press forward her post-Never For Ever ambitions. “I was using different instruments, and everything was changing; and I felt that really the best thing to do would be to make this album a real departure – make it completely different. And the only way to achieve this was to sever all the links I had had with the older stuff”
Original album teaser poster, salvaged from a hoarding in Lewisham in the Summer of ’82 and later restored and photographed by Krys!
“Game changer”. “Jarring”. “Cinematic”. “Pulsating”. “Obsessional”. “Thunderous”. “Sonic Assault”. Wading through the word salad that exists to try to describe The Dreaming album makes one thing clear – forty years later, this remains a record you can’t be apathetic about….
…the Uncut magazine cover feature that eventually surfaced in February this year was, refreshingly, not a re-hashed archive article – a considerable line-up of people involved in the creation of Kate’s dark masterpiece are interviewed by writer Peter Watts, including Preston Heyman, Paul Hardiman, Richard Burgess, Brian Bath, Roy Harper, Hugh Padgham, Dave Lawson, Howard Gray, Danny “Dan Dan the Sushi Man!” Dawson, and Teri Reed…
In 2014 on a BBC documentary Del did finally reveal the truth behind the mystery man on the cover of the record, the ‘Harry Houdini’ that Kate is passing the key to – yes, it was Del himself. A great rehearsal shot of Kate (with key on tongue) and Del in the same pose (Del donning a fetching knitted jumper) appears in the stunning book of photographs Kate: Inside the Rainbow by John Carder Bush. John described the final shot thus: “A slightly cloudy day outside in the kitchen garden at the back of our parents’ house. Apart from Kate looking very beautiful, the ivy behind her is wonderfully textured and full of hidden spaces and shadows amongst the glossy leaves themselves. Ivy may look wonderful, but it likes to slowly strangle any tree it lives on. It’s not poisonous, and in ancient times a poet’s crown was made of ivy.”
From “Kate: Inside the Rainbow” – John Carder Bush (Little Brown, 2015)
…it’s interesting to wonder how Kate feels about The Dreaming album now, from this perspective. In the intervening years she’s been asked far more frequently about Hounds of Love, and it’s obvious that her follow-up to The Dreaming is one she’s very pleased with. No song from The Dreaming was performed live on stage in 2014, although an understanding of how the show came to be structured mostly explains that omission. Guitarist David Rhodes let us know that yes, Kate did initially want to do Sat in Your Lap for Before the Dawn but then this got switched out for Top of the City and, sadly, her 1981 single never made the rehearsal stage – we can only imagine. In the 90’s she recalled looking back at that record “and it seems mad. I heard it about three years ago and couldn’t believe it. There’s a lot of anger in it. There’s a lot of ‘I’m an artist, right!’” With that in mind it’d be fascinating to know how Kate felt relatively recently, listening back to the sparkling new version of The Dreaming she worked on with James Guthrie for her 2018 Remastered project. It remains, a very special treat for our earholes – and in this 40th anniversary year in particular we just need to remember to “Play it Loud”
Filmmaker Mary McCartney has debuted her film about the legendary Abbey Road Studios, If These Walls Could Sing, at the Telluride film festival. The documentary includes interviews with members of Pink Floyd, Elton John, Kate, Ringo Starr and Mary’s father, Paul McCartney. From classical to pop, film scores to hip-hop, “If These Walls Could Sing” explores the breadth, diversity, and ingenuity of Abbey Road Studios. Intimate interviews with leading artists, producers and composers paired with vivid archive footage and session tapes give exclusive access to these famously private studios. From Elton John to Jacqueline Du Pre to Jimmy Page, from Kate Bush to Paul McCartney to Celeste, all found their musical language in Abbey Road Studios. Audiences will experience the creative magic that makes it a revered and sacred space that still produces many of the most recognised records today and makes Abbey Road the most famous and longest-running studio in the world.
Director Mary McCartney
Variety writes: “Kate Bush makes a rare modern appearance in the documentary, albeit audio-only. “It’s amazing having Kate in there because she produced her third album there, directed her video in there… I kind of made contact with her. I know she doesn’t do interviews, but I know she feels real affection for Abbey Road, so over time she kindly agreed to do an audio piece that she wrote and sent to me. Just having her voice talking about the space is pretty special as well.” In the Variety review of the film, they note that “resurgent star Kate Bush talks about the studio’s historic reluctance to repaint, lest even the slightest alteration affect the sound…”
If These Walls Could Sing will be streaming on Disney+ at a date to be announced
The latest edition of PROG Magazine in the UK, out Friday September 9th, has a Kate Bush cover, a feature on her 40 greatest songs and includes 4 Kate Bush postcards and a double-sided Kate poster which features that great Never For Ever cover image they released in 2020. It will be available to mail order from Friday at this site. The magazine writes:
“Kate Bush graces the cover of the new issue of Prog as we present her 40 greatest songs, as chosen by her prog peers from King Crimson, Marillion, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Eivør, The Anchoress, Jane Weaver and more… We also explore the strange phenomena of Kate’s current resurgence thanks to Stranger Things….”
PROG magazine double-sided Kate Bush poster and postcards with the issue
Lovers of physical formats (and Kate collectors) rejoice! As Kate remains in the US Billboard Hot 100 Top 5 this week at No.5, with incredible radio airplay in the USA still, her US record label, Rhino, is releasing a two-track CD single version of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) on September 2nd!As with the original 7″ vinyl release, the single also includes Kate’s stunning, fan favourite song, Under The Ivy. It is almost three months since her 1985 hit was first heard on the Netflix TV show, Stranger Things, but the song shows no signs of losing its grip on the US public’s affections – it has been a phenomenon all summer. The direct order link from the Rhino Records site is here – this is a US release so shipping will be calculated based on being shipped from the USA. This is the first time the single has been issued on the CD format. So far there’s been no official comment from Kate on her website about this release.
From the shop description: “The first single from Kate Bush’s fifth studio album Hounds of Love, “Running Up That Hill” was originally released to critical acclaim in August of 1985. Available once again, this CD single stays true to the original, featuring period correct artwork and b-side “Under the Ivy.”
CD Tracklisting:
1.RUNNING UP THAT HILL (A DEAL WITH GOD) 2.UNDER THE IVY
One of the highlights of the new 180-page special 40th Anniversary Issue of HomeGround – The Kate Bush Magazine is a beautifully evocative and thought-provoking piece by HomeGround’s own Krys Fitzgerald-Morris which explores not just her own fan memories of decades immersed in Kate’s music but also how Kate’s legacy might be cherished and maintained for future generations… “the pleasure of walking through memories.” I think any Kate Bush fan reading this would find themselves moved, but also a little proud, excited and perhaps a little wistful too – I experienced a whole mix of emotions reading this. Entitled “Through Leaves”, Krys firstly writes about the excitement of the early days of HomeGround Magazine; visiting Kate’s wonderful parents, Robert and Hannah, at East Wickham Farm, organising fan events and conventions (all those fans in The Big Sky video shoot!) and actually starring as an extra in the video for Experiment IV along with Peter and Dave from HomeGround. She shares many personal memories, all so treasured.
Dave, Kate, Krys and Peter (and a half-hidden Del!) at the 1990 Kate Bush Club/HomeGround Convention
Krys writes: “Growing older brings things up sharp and close, like what happens to these special things of ours once we’re no longer here. For me it is these treasured cards and letters from Kate, and cards from her parents. Not only these but the letters, cards and manuscripts of prose and poetry from John (Carder Bush). These things have to be preserved for the future.”
To illustrate just how important this will become for Kate’s legacy and to future generations, Krys recounts her own deep dive over the years into the life and work of Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), the English novelist, poet and journalist who is remembered for the celebrated garden at Sissinghurst created with her husband, Sir Harold Nicolson. Noting that many of Vita’s letters and manuscripts are housed in archives in the UK and USA, Krys describes a very memorable visit she made to Sissinghurst where she was given special access to Vita’s Writing Room (preserved as she left it after her death in 1962) – filled with treasures and mementos from the writer’s life and work. And so, inspired by this, Krys takes the reader on a visit to her imagined Kate Bush Museum, housed at East Wickham Farm, one hundred years from now in 2122. It’s quite something to read. Like I said, a whole mix of emotions for any fan!
Read Krys’s article, and many many others (including contributions from Paddy Bush and John Carder Bush) by getting your FREE download copy of the epic, new 134-page issue of HomeGround Magazine here!
Mojo Magazine in the UK have joined in the Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) resurgence with a cover feature and “Kate Bush Companion” themed cover-mount CD. From the magazine’s site:
“Everyone’s talking about Kate Bush, but no one’s going as deep into Running Up That Hill, and its parent Hounds Of Love album, as MOJO. Collaborators, admirers and MOJO’s top writers tell the incredible story of her greatest record, and its resurrection.. This month’s covermount CD is Thunder In Our Hearts: a collection of music that inspired and sustained Kate Bush – including Roy Harper, Anne Briggs, Eberhard Weber and Billie Holiday – plus exquisite Kate Bush covers by Tracey Thorn and Nite Jewel.” The magazine is available by mail order here. CD tracklising:
Roy Harper – You (The Game Part II)
Zaine Griff – Flowers
Nite Jewel – Hounds of Love
Anne Briggs – Sovay
Ewan MacColl & A.L Lloyd – The Handsome Cabin Boy
Tracey Thorn – Under The Ivy
Youth & Gaudi – Bass Weapon
Thomas De Hartmann – Hartmann/Gurdjieff – The Bokhairian Dervish, Hadji Asvatz-Troov
Planxty – Smeceno Horo
Siobhan McKenna – Soliloquy of Molly Bloom
The King’s Singers – Tsintskaro
Eberhard Weber – Pendulum
Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit
London Symphony Orchestra – Delius – A Song of Summer
Mary O’Hara – My Lagan Love
As before, Mojo also have a special subscribers cover (unadorned with other text etc) and it looks beautiful with that gorgeous Hounds of Love photo by John Carder Bush. The covermount CD is really excellent and thoughtfully put together. You will hear Kate herself on the Zaine Griff and Roy Harper tracks. Well done, Mojo! Thanks to the Kate Bush Clippings page for the photos.
Well, of course we’ve been calling this the “Summer of Kate” here at www.katebushnews.com (for obvious reasons) but Down Under it’s nothing short of a glorious Winter of Kate as she today racks up an EIGHTH non-consecutive week at No.1 on the Australian ARIA singles chart! Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has also been a huge success in neighbouring New Zealand where she hasn’t left the Top 4 for the last 9 weeks and even enjoyed a fortnight at No.1 in June!Let’s take a quick look at how the single is doing everywhere now, over two months since Stranger Things sent Kate’s masterpiece song into the stratosphere…
[Note: Don’t miss news of a HomeGround/KateBushNews.com fan event in London in September – all details below!]
OFFICIAL CHARTS: USA: The chart situation in the world’s largest music market remains fascinating – this week Kate retains her highest ever singles chart position in America for the second week running on the Billboard Hot 100 at No.3! Kate’s song has now become not just a streaming/download phenomenon but also one of US radio’s biggest hits of the summer of 2022. As Billboard explains: “The ‘Stranger Things’ viral bump is finally starting to recede for Kate Bush’s resurrected hit, but radio is picking up the slack. Radio programmers continue to successfully test “Hill” in callout research, in which they play snippets of the song to listeners along with other potential playlist staples. Also, it’s unusually strong on several top radio formats, rising from No.5 to No.3 this week on the Alternative Airplay chart and from No.10 to No.8 on the Pop Airplay chart.” As one industry spokesperson told Billboard: “…the audience isn’t tired of this thing.” Kate is currently at No.4 on the Billboard Global 200 having topped that weekly chart of charts on three previous occasions. Billboard have all kinds of charts including Hot Songwriter and Producer charts, you can download the latest set of these here. Kate has enjoyed 4 weeks at No.1 on the Hot 100 Songwriters chart, and an astounding 9 weeks at No.1 on the Rock Songwriters chart and 8 weeks at No.1 on the Alternative Songwriters chart. Kate is also No.2 on several Billboard Producer charts also, having spent up to 5 weeks at No.1 on those.
OFFICIAL CHARTS:Ireland: Kate has today moved down to No.2 after an astounding SEVEN weeks at No.1 in her maternal homeland! Simply staggering Irish chart success. UK: Kate stays in the UK Top 10 for a TENTH week, remaining at No.9 in today’s new countdown – we remind ourselves that Wuthering Heights had a shorter stint, 7 weeks, in the Top 10 in Kate’s home country. Kate has enjoyed three weeks at No.1 in June with her second ever UK singles chart topper and anyone paying attention to her official site knows how she feels about that! Also, very significantly, Kate received an early birthday present on July 29th from the UK record industry when the BPI certified Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) DOUBLE Platinum, with sales of the single in excess of 1.2 million copies! Wow.
Canada: Kate is at No.5 this week in the Canadian chart, down from No.3. She previously peaked at a Canadian chart career high of No.2 a few weeks ago. Germany: Kate remains at No.11 on the German singles chart this week. Kate reached a peak on the German chart at No.4 for three weeks in June. France: Kate is at No.15 in France, having peaked at No.3 for two weeks in June. Italy: Kate has spent 8 weeks inside the official Italian Top 40 peaking at No.18 in June. The Netherlands: Kate is at No.20 in the Dutch charts this week, having peaked at No.3 in June. Kate spent 6 weeks in the Dutch Top 10. Sweden: Kate has had a very impressive run in the official Swedish singles charts where she is currently at No.6. Kate peaked at No.1 in the chart in June and has remained in the Top 7 ever since! Norway: Kate is at No.20 on the official Norwegian chart this week and hasn’t left the Top 20 since she entered the chart at No.4 in June. Finland: Kate has now stayed 8 weeks in the official Finnish Singles Top 20, peaking at number 6 in early June. Denmark: Kate is at No.13 on the Danish singles chart and has spent 4 weeks in the Top 10 there, peaking at No.6. Austria: Kate is currently at No.8 in the Austrian chart and hasn’t left the Top 10 since June, peaking at No.3.
iTunes: Kate is today at an incredible No.2 on the Worldwide iTunes chart, having topped this chart three times previously. She is No.2 in Australia, No.2 in Canada, No. 5 in the USA, No.7 in Chile, No.7 in New Zealand, No.9 in France, No.12 in Norway and No.12 in the UK.
Spotify: Kate is at No.4 worldwide on Spotify right now having topped the weekly global chart three times. She is No.1 in Australia and the UK (Kate has been No.1 in the UK on Spotify for the last 8 weeks!), No.2 in Ireland, No.3 in Canada and also the USA, and No.4 in Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and No.5 in Switzerland. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has been streamed almost 400 million times since the song featured on Stranger Things at the end of May, bringing the total on the platform to an incredible 540 million+ streams in total. And finally…
BIG NEWS – Fan event!!! From our own Dave Cross: “Hey kids, I’m thrilled to announce this special event at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London, England. HomeGround and KateBushNews.com present; A Deal with God – a celebration of Kate Bush, to raise money for Cabaret vs Cancer on Wednesday 7th September, doors at 7pm.
A gorgeous line up of amazing performers including Jonathan Paul Hellyer, Ginny Lemon, Sadie Sinner, The Songbird Sooz Kempner, Rose Garden with Phil Lawrence, A Fat Child and hosted by Michael Twaits with Pippa Dee Jorge, Veronica Maldonado and Simon Le Vans. Tickets are on sale now.“
From 7pm GMT time this evening, BBC2 television in the UK will be dedicating an entire evening of its schedule to her music and story, to celebrate Kate’s birthday today and indeed her incredible international chart success in Summer 2022!
Starting at 7pm, a programme celebrates Kate’s debut year, 1978, with many Top of the Pops performances from that year, including Wuthering Heights. Other great content includes the previously seen Kate at the BBC, full of wonderful performances 1978-1994, then the great 2014 documentary, The Kate Bush Story, her 1979 BBC TV special and Queens of Song at the BBC!
Happy birthday, Kate! At the start of this month your fans sent us in photos to celebrate your 3rd week at the top of the charts in the UK, but you can add many millions more beaming faces to those above now, who will all be wishing you a wonderful day today…and thanking you. In the year that you had the biggest (record-breaking!) global hit single of your career, the world watched on as you expressed your astonishment and happiness in the most humble and grateful terms imaginable. There is no-one in music like you. No-one. You richly deserve the planet re-discovering your incredible work in such huge numbers, and we hope that continues to delight you….it’ll be a better world for it. Have a great day with your loved ones, Kate! With love, Seán, Krys, Peter and Dave x
Youtube: Since Stranger Things 4 landed on May 27th, the Youtube views of Kate’s iconic, dance-based video for Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has sky-rocketed, almost 52 million views have now brought the total for the video (since Kate released it to her official Youtube channel in 2011) to 101 million+ views! It remains the most-watched music video right now in Australia, Ireland and the UK and is Top Ten in 10 other countries. Have YOU seen it? 😉
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Official Charts:Global: Kate has just landed her THIRD week (second in a row) at No.1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart. We can’t stress enough how major that is, the chart ranks songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. Amazing. USA: In the US Kate has remained at No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second week running (third week in total at this peak) as airplay increases each day nationwide. This remains Kate’s highest ever singles chart position in the the USA, the world’s largest music market. Ireland: Kate has achieved her 5th consecutive week at No.1 in Ireland! Unbelievable. UK: Kate remains in the Top 5 in her home country, dropping two places to No.5, with the ACR chart rule now back in place for a second week, but here’s a chart fact that’s worth remembering: Kate has now, in 2022, matched her 7-week run in the UK Top Ten that she achieved with Wuthering Heights in 1978! If she remains in the Top Ten on Friday she’ll have beaten that career record. Astounding.
Australia: Kate has scored her 5th non-consecutive week at No.1 in Australia (she dropped to No.2 for one week at one point) in the week that Kate congratulated the Brisbane Pub Choir for their rousing performance of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God). Canada: Kate has climbed back up to No.3 in the Canadian chart. Elsewhere on official charts, Kate is at No.7 in Germany, No. 2 in New Zealand, No.9 in France, No.24 in Italy, No.7 in Sweden, No.10 in Norway, No. 4 in Austria, No. 12 in Denmark, No.23 in Belgium, No. 3 in Switzerland, and No.9 in The Netherlands.
Spotify: Kate is enjoying her second week in a row (third in total) at No.1 the Global Weekly Songs chart on Spotify! An extraordinary success. Last week Kate had achieved 13 consecutive days at No.1 on the streaming giant’s daily global chart. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) has now had almost 441 million streams on Spotify, with a staggering 328 million of those since Stranger Things 4 arrived on May 27th. On Spotify today she has moved down to No.3 on the Global Daily Song chart, but remains No.1 in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Ireland, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the USA. RUTH is No.2 in Belgium, Iceland, Latvia, United Kingdom, No.3 in Lithuania, Luxembourg, No.4 in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, No.5 in Bulgaria, No.6 in Austria, Cyprus, Israel, No.7 in Romania, No.8 in Hungary, No.9 in Germany, Poland and South Africa, No.10 in Singapore, No. 11 in Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Portugal, No.12 in Finland and No.14 in Malaysia.
iTunes store: The Whole Story is today No.1 in the Irish iTunes charts! On iTunes currently, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is No. 1 in Australia, No.2 in Canada, Czech Republic and the USA, No.3 in New Zealand and Hungary, No.4 in France, Greece, Ireland and the UK, No.7 Brazil, Denmark and Mexico, and No.9 in the United Arab Emirates.
Apple Music: On Apple’s own Spotify streaming equivalent, Apple Music, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) is Top Ten in no less than 37 countries! Shazam: Kate is the No.1 most searched for song in the USA and No.2 worldwide having been No.1 for many weeks.
If you loved the gentle, orchestral version of Running Up That Hill that plays over the end credits of the Dear Billy episode of Stranger Things, a Variety article discusses the production of the “lullaby” orchestral / full choir version of Running Up That Hill by composer Rob Simonsen, heard over the end credits of Episode 4: Dear Billy. The article includes an Instagram clip (above) of the recordings taking place in Air Studios in London.
Finally, for the third re-print of the Kate Bush edition of their popular “Ultimate Music Guide” bookazines, Uncut Magazine has added a feature about the current success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) and chat to Stranger Things Music Supervisor, Nora Felder, about how the song came to be used on the show. Nora was nominated for an Emmy this week for her work on the show. This third, updated, re-print of this bookazine is available to order here.
Kate Bush: The Ultimate Music Guide (3rd re-print)
John Carder Bush in HomeGround’s 40th Anniversary Issue
To celebrate HomeGround Magazine‘s 40th anniversary issue which has just been published, Kate’s brother, John Carder Bush, has contributed something very special indeed. He is offering readers access to his special site which offers a wonderful collection of videoed recitations of his favourite poems: Poems, Hats and a Beard. You can visit the site here and use the login HOMEGROUND with password FORTY.
Many, many years ago, I used to give live poetry readings with my two poet friends, Tony Buzan and Jeremy Cartland as the Salatticum Poets, and in more recent years, I used to entertain them both with recitations of my favourite poems when we met for dinner. Because both of them have now moved on to the Great Poetry Reading in the Sky, I decided I would carry on reciting, but to a wider audience.
John Carder Bush (2022)
John Carder Bush, also known as Jay, was born in 1944. He is Kate’s eldest brother. He is a respected photographer and writer. John’s poetry narration and backing vocals have been used on several of Kate’s albums. He headed the Kate Bush management team for twenty years and since her early childhood, and throughout her career, John has photographed Kate both candidly and professionally. His images have appeared on iconic album, single and magazine covers worldwide. John read from his own work between songs during the Tour Of Life performances in 1979 and also recorded a performance as part of Jig of Life for the Before the Dawn shows in 2014. In 2005 he published a novel, The Cellar Gang. He has published two stunning books of photographs of Kate; Cathyconsists of portraits of his sister taken during her childhood, and in 2015, Kate: Inside The Rainbow, a book of photographs of Kate from throughout her career.
Well, it’s a fantastic, uplifting, moment captured on video that’s had almost 100,000 views on Facebook and it’s probably about to have a lot more. Brisbane Pub Choir, in Australia, have caught Kate’s attention! As they describe it themselves: “What happens when 1600 strangers have a few drinks, then learn to sing Running Up That Hill in three-part harmony? Turn up the volume and find out! Singing is for EVERYBODY! Thank you to Kate Bush for writing this timeless tune and for letting Pub Choir sing it. We hope we did you proud. Feel like having a sing with us? Join us at the pub some time!”
Kate has just written her response directly to them:
Dear Brisbane Pub Choir,
I’ve been so busy that I’ve only just had the chance to watch you all singing RUTH. It’s utterly, utterly wonderful! I love it so much! Thank you everyone. You sing it really beautifully. I’m incredibly touched by your warmth and all your smiling faces. Thank you!
With lots of love,
Kate
The choir organisers were quick to express their delight on their Facebook page:
KATE BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cancel all your plans. Quit your job. Throw all your books in the bin. Just sit down a minute and get a load of this. Life as we know it is over, and this email is all that remains.
We really did that, Brisbane.
According to a report in The Brisbane Times choir maestro Astrid Jorgensen was about to go for a run on Thursday morning, “up that hill” as it happens, when she checked her email on her phone.
“There it was. A personal message from the zeitgeist-defining Bush. “I ran home pretty fast,” Jorgensen said. “When we sent off the request for the song, the response that we got back from the publishers was pretty much along the lines of ‘have a backup plan, because this is probably going to be a ‘no’ because she doesn’t approve requests very often for the use of her music’,” she said.
“Even getting the song felt like a massive deal, and I told the crowd that on the night. “I think everyone felt like that was really special for us, but yeah, this is obviously a pretty big icing on the cake.”
A brilliantly erratic chord structure and a chorus that comes out of nowhere makes Running Up That Hill a difficult song to master in 90 minutes, but that was exactly what the Brisbane crowd managed. “It is a really complex song and I think that’s why her music has been so interesting for so long,” Jorgensen said. “It’s not everyone’s cup of tea at all times, but it’s complex, it’s never boring.”
The song’s distinctive synth riff was replicated by a string section, courtesy of the Queensland chamber orchestra, Camerata. “The song itself is about a total breakdown of communication in a relationship and begging God to change places with the person so you can understand each other better, so I felt like that is a fairly big, heavy message,” Jorgensen said. “Strings are kind of similar to human voices in a spooky way, so it felt like a nice little extension of the choir.”
