In Part Two of Seán’s three-part conversation on the Kate Bush Fan Podcast with the legendary guitarist and songwriter, Brian Bath, he discusses being there for Kate’s stunning debut with Wuthering Heights, leading her band for TV appearances, working on demos and helping build her first demo studio at the farm, playing on the Lionheart album and the incredible experience of playing guitar on the 1979 Lionheart tour! We also hear a couple of excerpts from never-before-heard acoustic demos. Such an honour to have spoken to the lovely Brian Bath, once again! Check out Brian’s live revival of The KT Bush Band here. (And, if you haven’t heard it, Part One of our great chat can be heard here.) Big thanks to Brian Cloughley for the episode graphic above – look out for Part Three very soon!
Brian with the band and Kate in 1978 and 1979
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.
Cloudbusting have long been the preeminent Kate Bush Tribute act out there and once again they are bringing their richly conceived, musically accomplished and tastefully staged show to Irish audiences. The seven date tour of Ireland kicks off on June 13th in The Button Factory, Dublin (tickets here) and continues June 14th Belfast, Empire Music Hall (tickets), June 15th Sligo, Hawks Well Theatre (tickets), June 17th Galway, Town Hall Theatre (tickets), June 18th Cork, Cyprus Avenue (tickets), June 19th Kilkenny, Set Theatre (tickets) and June 20th, Dundalk, An Tain Arts Centre (tickets). Read more about Cloudbusting at their official site.
Also, if you manage to miss Cloudbusting or need more live Kate Bush songs in your life later in the Summer one of the very first Irish tribute bands, calling themselves Army Dreamers, have their first Dublin show on July 26th at The Grand Social (tickets). The band have shared a promo video here.
Andy Fairweather Low sang backing vocals on Wild Man
Welsh singer and guitarist, Andy Fairweather Low, has talked about providing vocals on Kate’s 2011 song, Wild Man, in a new interview for Guitar World. Wild Man was the lead single from her album 50 Words For Snow. Andy is promoting his new album, The Invisible Bluesman, the latest project in his long career which, as well as his own music, has included stints as a “guitar-playing sideman” to the likes of Eric Clapton and Roger Waters, touring with Chris Rea, Paul Carrack, and Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, recording with Joe Satriani and jamming with Jimi Hendrix.
Oh, man. This is off the scale. I’m at home, nothing’s going on. Phone rings. There’s this woman who says she’s Kate Bush. ‘Would you consider doing some vocals on a track? You’d be absolutely perfect.’ I said, ‘Well, can you send me something?’ ‘No, just come up.’ I’m apprehensive. But I get up there and gosh, she’s just fabulous. She plays me Wild Man and we record it. I get home, send my bill in: ‘Hello, Andy, I’ve just got your bill. You don’t charge enough.’ So she gave me three times more, then put the single out as Kate Bush and Andy Fairweather Low.
In 2011 Kate was asked by The Quietus about Andy’s contribution. Interviewer, John Doran: “Have you worked with Andy Fairweather Low before, the [Amen Corner] vocalist who presumably plays the role of the hirsute gentleman of the mountains?” Kate: [laughing] Hirsute? Well, no, Andy doesn’t play the hirsute beastie, he’s one of the people on the expedition into the Himalayas. But I think that Andy just has one of the greatest voices. I just love his voice. When I wrote the song I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get Andy to sing on this song because he sounds great.’ Which I think he does. He’s just got a fantastic voice.”
In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán introduces Darrell’s chat with Pat Martin, bass guitarist with British band Unicorn. Because of his close association with Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, he was asked to play for the young Cathy Bush’s first ever recording at the age of fifteen in 1973. Pat can be heard on ‘Passing Through Air’ from this session which was released as a B-side to ‘Army Dreamers’ in 1980. The late, Ricky Hopper is also discussed. It was through him that Kate’s music was heard in the first place, championing her relentlessly.
We get to hear how Pat was invited to this session at Gilmour’s house, and his fond remembrances of the young and shy Cathy. He knew there was something very special and that here was an artist, sure and confident about her craft. We also get to hear wonderful stories about Pat’s involvement with Unicorn, and the amazing artists they worked with, including Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac and Linda Rondstadt among many others. Unicorn’s song ‘Ooh Mother’ was recently played in the USA TV drama ‘Paradise’. It has resulted in the song being streamed 115k times on Spotify. It’s worth a listen.
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.
From our very own Dave Cross (HomeGround): “I am very happy to announce that once again Kate Bush has donated signed items to the Cabaret vs Cancer music auction…and this year, she’s donated four, YES, FOUR items, all signed exclusively for CvC! We have got the 50 Words for Snow special vinyl Polar Edition, Before the Dawn four disc vinyl box set AND Boxes one and two of the Hounds of Love special ‘Lost at Sea’ boxes.
All items were signed by Kate this week specially for us. Having Kate’s support for CvC means the world to me, Rose Thorne and the rest of our volunteers and we will hopefully raise a lot of money to help people dealing with the effects of cancer. Please see the auction link HERE to start bidding… there’s lots of other cool things too!” Thanks for letting us know Dave – amazing work from you and the team at CvC as always! Best of luck – Seán
Some heartwarming news about how Kate, with the generous support of her fans, has been helping to make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children around the world. US music magazine, Under The Radar, has spoken to Jim Benner, Global Music Lead of the War Child charity in their latest issue #74, The Protest Issue.
“We’ve done a Protest Issue every four or five years since 2004. As we’ve done in the past, the issue examines the intersection of music and politics and features photo shoots with musicians holding protest signs of their own making. Later this year we will auction off all the autographed signs, with all profits going to War Child UK and their U.S. fundraising arm, Children in Conflict.” The issue can be purchased here.
Kate has consistently supported the War Child charity for over 30 years. The magazine article notes that Kate “…continues to go above and beyond for the charity”. War Child provides psychosocial support for children caught up in war zones, whether it’s ensuring Iraqi children get an education, providing psychological support to children who have been traumatised by conflict in Yemen, finding lost vulnerable children in Afghanistan or providing life-saving emergency aid to the children of Gaza and their families.
Kate Bush signed Soundwaves art print – Running Up That Hill
“In the past 12 months alone, she’s raised over £500,000 for us.” Benner beams. “She just released a short animated film, ‘Little Shrew (Snowflake),’ which conveys the vulnerability of children in war in support of War Child. It’s beautiful and timeless. I urge everyone to go to Kate’s website to watch it. We had over £100,000 in donations and dozens of news stories in one day. “Kate also recently repackaged and reissued her back catalog, including a box set entitled Lost At Sea where she repurposed artwork she did for a War Child exhibition/fundraiser in 1994, Kate has donated proceeds and has made generous personal donations.
Another successful project Kate did for us was signing Soundwaves Art prints created by digital artist Tim Wakefield. Tim creates stunning artwork from a particular song. We then get the musical artist to sign. In this instance, Kate signed prints based on ‘Running Up That Hill’ which of course has had a great resurgence, thanks to Stranger Things. We usually ask the artist to sign 100 [copies], and Kate kindly did. The demand was so great that we then asked her to sign 150 more which she did, and 100% of the profits were donated to War Child.”
One of the “Boxes of Lost at Sea” special presentations of Hounds of Love
You can donate directly to help War Childhere. Read more about Kate’s Little Shrew animation here or watch it in the player below. Read more about her signed Soundwaves Art printshere. Read more about TheBoxes of Lost at Sea, “…a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall” here or watch the special short promo film Kate directed to introduce these special presentations, narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, in the player below.
For this new episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán introduces an exclusive interview between our own Darrell Babidge and the Dutch photographer, Govert de Roos. Govert was Kate’s European photographer. Many of the photos that were taken of Kate in 1978 and were posted on many a bedroom wall were taken by Govert. In this interview we get a glimpse into his work with Kate Bush, as well as the rock and pop stars of the 70’s and 80’s. We also find out more about his work during the Efteling Special in Amsterdam and taking photos of Kate’s Tour of Life concert there. Other artists he worked with include Grace Jones, Queen, ABBA, Debbie Harry, Tina Turner, Prince and many more.
In this interview we hear about some of his work with these other great artists. We also get to hear a great story about when he was 15 years old, sneaking into the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam with a fake ID and taking the iconic photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. We hope you enjoy this chat with Govert de Roos. (Many thanks to Kevin Hall for the montage of Govert’s photos).
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.
Image taken from promotional video for Is This What We Want? silent album
A new Kate Bush studio recording dropped unexpectedly today? Well, kind of, yes! As we saw in her recent Christmas message, the challenges and concerns posed by AI technology are not far from Kate’s mind of late and in a letter in today’s UK Times newspaper she joins many prominent artists and writers in a protest at the UK government’s AI copyright proposals. Many media reports single out Kate’s involvement in their headlines this morning. A similar campaign has paid for prominent wrap-around paid advertising on all major UK print newspapers this morning with the slogan “Make it Fair“.
Paid for advertising by the campaign on all major UK newspapers this morning
The letter states “There is no moral or economic argument for stealing our copyright. Taking it away will devastate the industry and steal the future of the next generation.” It is signed by Simon Beaufoy, Barbara Broccoli, Kate Bush, Stuart Camp, Matthew Dunster, Sam Fender, Helen Fielding, Rachel Fuller, Sir Stephen Fry, David Furnish, Dame Pippa Harris, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Sir Elton John, Paul King, Simon Le Bon, Dua Lipa, Alastair Lloyd Webber, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Martin McDonagh, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Lucy Prebble, Sir Simon Rattle, Philip Ridley, Michael Rosen, Dame Hannah Rothschild, Ed Sheeran, Sting, Sir Tom Stoppard, Pete Townshend, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Matthew Warchus, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Wylie.
As part of this campaign, a new “silent” album, called “Is This What We Want?” has been released today on streaming platforms including here on Spotify. The album includes contributions from Kate, Damon Albarn, Tori Amos, Annie Lennox, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Ocean, the Clash, Hans Zimmer, Imogen Heap, Cat Stevens, Max Richter, and many other names. Kate has written about the project on her official site:
Over one thousand musicians are jointly releasing this album today to protest the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law.
If these changes go ahead, the life’s work of all the country’s musicians will be handed over to AI companies for free. None of us have a say in it.
The UK is full of pioneering, highly creative and imaginative artists. The government’s willingness to agree to these copyright changes shows how much our work is undervalued and that there is no protection for one of this country’s most important assets: music.
Each track on this album features a deserted recording studio. Doesn’t that silence say it all?
I’m very happy to have contributed a track to this project and to join the protest.
Please help protect the music makers and our heartfelt work. We make it for you, not for it to be taken and used against us.
In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?
Kate
The recordings of dormant music studios and performance spaces, represents the impact on artists’ livelihoods if the government pushes ahead with its plans, according to Ed Newton-Rex, the British composer and former AI executive behind the idea. He warns that livelihoods are under threat from these proposed changes to copyright law. According to an article in The Guardian today, “…the album contains 12 recordings with more than 1,000 artists credited as co-writers, with the individual artist behind each of the dozen “silent” tracks uncredited. However, it is understood that Kate Bush has recorded one of the dozen tracks in her studio. Bush said: “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?”
The 12 track titles spell out the following sentence: The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies. And we note that the final silent track 12, “Companies” does faintly feature the birdsong of a dawn chorus, a lot of cat purring sounds and what sounds like the sipping of hot tea (at the 3 minute 10 second mark)!! So, do we think this is Kate’s contribution to the project? Listen and see what you think.
Kate’s tradition of sharing a most-welcome Christmas message this year lands, appropriately, on Christmas Eve. As many of us prepare to spend time with family, today she has shared a Christmas Eve message on her official site that, while acknowledging the global strife and war that led to her creating her acclaimed Little Shrew animation, reflects on the possibilities of brighter revelations ahead for all of us.
A Monet Christmas Eve to All!
It’s been really exciting to see the wonderfully positive feedback to the Little Shrew animation. Thank you so much to all of you who made a donation to War Child. They have been absolutely delighted with the response.
Little Shrew will be getting a bowl of especially delicious earthworms this Christmas morning.
It’s been another year of exceptionally dark news. It just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?
The wars keep raging. We helplessly stand and watch as those poor people are caught up in the horrors of it all and of course there are the children…
It’s hard not to focus on the worry we all feel about these conflicts and the massive changes that are happening around us, but I’d like to try to find something positive to say for this Christmas message:
Happy Christmas Eve! My favourite day of the year. When I was a child, it used to have a special feeling. It even had a sort of Christmas Eve smell… a mixture of smoking coal fires and damp leaves, all bundled up in a drizzly English frozen fog. If I really work on it, I can still summon it up on the day. I’m working on it now…
I went to see the Monet exhibition. Twenty one paintings in two rooms – all featuring the Thames in the smog. They were incredibly atmospheric. The fact that they were all of the same environment made you feel like you were there yourself, wrapped up in a mysterious smog of muddy sulphurous yellows, sun-starved pinks, car-sick greens.
You could only make out vague, blurred shapes through the etherial, swirling veils…a majestic bridge here, a wispy boat there… these paintings were completely mesmerising. They transported you to London at the turn of the last century.
Monet thought that the smog was beautiful and that London would’ve looked utterly uninteresting without it. For him it was the smog that created the magic of the place.
I imagined him ready at first light, stood at his easel spluttering and coughing as he peered through the polluted air, with no choice but to gasp at its beauty.
It made me smile to read that although he sketched them while he was in London, he took them home and finished them off in France. Ha ha! So all is not as it seems – that sun-starved pink was actually lavish Giverny pink.
Is that us? Standing in awe at the dawn of AI, the symbol of modernity, as smog was for Monet at that time in the newly industrial London? Do we only see the twinkling light of the new invention, which so often catches the eye of our imagination… and what are those vague, dark sardonic shapes we can see in the background, behind the theatrical gauze?
It’s hard to make them out, but could they be our human pods, like those from the Matrix, being readied for us by eager, playful digits? Or maybe they are freshly painted bridges – robust, and lovingly built to carry us all into a much longed-for new age of healthy thinking?
All will be revealed when the smog begins to clear.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it’s a really joyful one for you all.
In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán gives a suitably wintry introduction to this short chat between Darrell and Paul Simmons of design team Timorous Beasties about his recent work on Kate’s illustrated vinyl version of 50 Words For Snow – The Polar Edition. Look out for even more conversation between Darrell and Paul about their work with Kate over the last decade in the new year. Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful and healthy 2025 to come!
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.
In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Paul and Darrell from Bush Telegraph reminisce over their first reactions to Kate’s videos and film work from her 1980 album Never For Ever. Ultimately, Kate created stunning visuals for 50% of the album, and they were so different to anything else that was around at that time. We also get to hear Kate and Paddy’s own words from the Kate Bush Club newsletters about the making of Breathing, Delius and Army Dreamers. Paul (who lives in the UK) and Darrell (who now lives in the States) also banter about their trips together to the record shops and reactions to the artwork and photos from each ‘Never For Ever’ single.
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.
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.
UPDATE January 27th 2025: The lovely people at Bloomsbury have let us know that the Hounds of Love 33⅓ book by Leah Kardos is now back in print and our site visitors can avail of a special 20% off discount code: HOUNDSOFLOVE25 – Visit https://www.bloomsbury.com/kate-bushs-hounds-of-love-9798765106990 and use it at the checkout stage. The code is valid in all territories so not just limited to the UK. It’s set to expire on the 31st March 2025. Thanks to Mollie and Brenna at Bloomsbury and to Leah for doing the podcast with me!
In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán talks to Leah Kardos, author of the new book about Hounds of Love which is part of the acclaimed 33⅓ book series which examine key albums from music history. Leah is a musician, a senior lecturer in music at Kingston University in London, co-founder of that university’s Visconti Studio (with producer Tony Visconti) and is also author of Blackstar Theory: The Last Works of David Bowie. A very enjoyable chat in which she discusses what made her pitch Kate’s fifth studio album to the book publishers, her experience of writing the book as we emerged from a pandemic, the challenges of producing a smaller sized book like this and why it was important to her to emphasise Kate’s pioneering production work and barrier-breaking career achievements. I highly recommend this excellent little book as the perfect Christmas stocking filler for the Kate Bush fan in your life!
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.
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.
HomeGround and KateBushNews.com are thrilled to be back at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Thursday 30th January for another Kate Bush themed celebration, raising money for Cabaret vs Cancer. The night will be packed with amazing cabaret and drag performers, each giving us their versions of their favourite Kate songs. Heading the bill is the sensational Sooz Kempner, the hilarious stand up comedian, with the most gorgeous voice fresh from her UK tour and hit run at Edinburgh Fringe.
We also thrilled to welcome back, the brilliant lip sync star, Ripley, fantastic singer Jenny Scoones, drag legend Rose Garden with Phil Lawrence and, Michael Mayell, ex Cloudbusting. Plus the whole event is hosted by the cabaret drag sensation that is Michael Twaits…and watch RVT socials for more acts to be announced. This will be a night packed with Kate songs from her biggest hits, to fan favourites, album tracks and b sides, this will be much more than The Whole Story…
PLEASE NOTE: This event will be a mix of seated and standing, first come first serve. If you have access questions please contact dave@vauxhalltavern.com. ALL BAGS AND COATS MUST BE CHECKED IN TO CLOAKROOM The RVT is an LGBTQ+ venue, please respect our space. No hen/stag parties. https://www.katebushnews.com/
