Newsbits: Friends and supporters of this website, Dublin band Settler, have released their excellent second album, Hard Won, Hardwired – please check out the banner link above to read all about them and to see our own Brian Cloughley’s graphic work. Also access their main site to hear some great music clips and read the tour diary of our Chicago trip last year, hosted by I Wanna Be Kate producer Thomas Dunning (see how KBN&I connected they are?!!!). We wish them big success with their new CD, which I’ve been playing on rotation here this evening as I’ve been putting this update together – cracking stuff.

A very interesting Jive Magazine article on Kate’s resurgence in popularity with the dance culture can be read here (thanks Andrew)…BBC2 screened a clip of the Wuthering Heights video at the beginning of Alistair McGowan‘s slot urging people to vote Emily Bronte’s classic book to the top of the 100 Best Books poll. Alistair recounted how his introduction to the novel was as a result of hearing Kate’s first single back in 1978, and like many others he went out to find himself a copy of the book…Donal O’Mahony of The Tycho Brahe is interviewed in the latest issue of the Dublin Event Guide about the bands new CD Love Life (see September 17th 2003 news). He is asked “Without necessarily wanting to make unwelcome comparisons, there is one that can be made between ‘Love, Life’ and Kate Bush’s ‘The Hounds of Love’ album. She had the ability to make seemingly simple songs, but ones that contained immensely complex and subtle component parts. Like your new album, hers were absolutely gorgeous to listen to. Is the comparison fair? Donal: We have no problem with any comparison. She made albums that you would always come back to, both because of the quality of the production and because of her own quality. She made ‘Hounds of Love and ‘The Ninth Wave’, which was really one album but had two distinct themes to it. What happened with us, in releasing a double album, is that we just had way too many songs for a single one.” read more here…Hayley Westenra‘s version of Wuthering Heights can be heard here, also find an interview with Hayley here where she’s asked: “Who are you listening to at the moment? Hayley: Coldplay and I’ve just discovered Kate Bush’s songs. I think it might have been her first album – I’d love to record them all!” (thanks to Ben de Vos and Michael Leitz)

Les July sends in this article on Kate from a recent Women Who Rock magazine from the US… find a link to the Fil OK remix of Waking The Witch at this French KB site here (thanks Ben)…On the recently shown BBC TV Series “Burn It“, which is about thirty-something Mancunians and their messed up lives, whenever the local drug dealing character is featured Kate Bush tracks are quite clearly playing in the background! So far, Wuthering Heights, Wow & Babooshka have featured (thanks Gav)…John Roger noticed that Cloudbusting was played on Australian ABC radio, whose site featured the following comment: “Why is it that Geri Haliwell releases an album every 12 months but Kate Bush doesn’t? Is this some sort of cruel hoax perpetrated on us all? Methinks so. Kate we miss you, make a record for us real soon.” John also found this reference from Australian TV in 1978 (thanks John)…

A recent issue of Music Week, widely regarded as the bible to the UK record industry, has an interview with Rob Dickins, chairman at Warner Music for most of the ’80’s & ’90’s. Discussing his career highlights he talks about how he signed Prince, The Sex Pistols, Madonna, Enya & Simply Red. He also talks about Kate as “The one that got away”. He says “I would love to have signed Kate. I was waiting for a meeting at EMI when I heard Wuthering Heights through the door – I thought it was spectacular. I asked the secretary how I could get in touch with the artist. I was told that she didn’t have a manager, but was given her home number. I called Kate the next day and said I was interested in signing her publishing. She was 17 and very flattered, but needed advice. She called back a few days later and said she’d been advised not to sign with Warners, but EMI instead. I asked who had advised her and she said Bob Mercer. Bob was the general manager of EMI at the time”.

Running Up That Hill has been used in an advert for the new Channel 4 series in the UK – The Seven Ages of Britain (thanks to Russ Thomas and Kyla)… Laura Clifford was at a screening of the documentary “Tupac: Resurrected” which she says is narrated by Tupac himself and beautifully put together. During his school days at a Baltimore school for the performing arts as he spoke about the music that he was exposed to they played “Wuthering Heights,” accompanied by pictures of Tupac in ballet gear and a closeup of his handwritten list with Kate Bush noted (thanks Laura)…singer Happy Rhodes has performed And Dream Of Sheep at a recent Philadelphia concert…The Telegraph newspaper in the UK lists Don’t Give Up at number 3 in its Top 50 Duets listing. “There is no harmonic intertwining in this strangely disconnected duet, no blending of superstar voices and absolutely no vocal showboating. It is a kind of call and response between a man struggling with unemployment and his lover imploring him to keep the faith, though such is the sense of isolation in Peter Gabriel’s verse vocals that he seems removed from Kate Bush’s increasingly desperate murmurings of solace in the choruses. It was a quite devastating critique of the effects of Thatcherism, all the more powerful for its emotional understatement and lack of polemic. Key moment: The tremble in Bush’s pleading voice in that final heartbreaking chorus, filled with hopeless compassion.” (Thanks to MC)

Composer, performer and arranger Visnja (also a major Kate Bush fan) has reworked Wuthering Heights here (thanks and best of luck with your career Visnja)…this book on Amazon looks at songwriting and has various mentions of Kate – you can search inside the book and you’ll see quite a few interesting views on Kate’s abilities here. Vertical songwriting, anyone? (thanks Andrew)…The Kick Inside Tribute site has been revamped and now contains a sparkling new look, kudos to Jagdpanthers design efforts, the site now features downloadable snippets. You’ll find a link on the links page of this site here…Peter Gabriel‘s new “Best Of” 2 CD set called “Hit” is out now and features all tracks Kate is on: Don’t Give Up, Games Without Frontiers and No Self Control… a book called “Englands Hidden Reverse” by David Keenan notes that the experimental band Coil are big fans of Kate. She is mentioned several times as a source of inspiration. (thanks to Paul Elwick)…Mojo Magazine November 2003 issue lists Kate at No.43 in their Hall of Fame, above the likes of Bruce Springsteen, The Stone Roses, REM, U2 & Abba. No.1 was Elvis. (thanks MC)… The Nov 2003 of German magazine Audio features an article about CD box sets from EMI, including Kate’s This Woman’s Work collection and a free CD called “Platinum Pop”, featuring Cloudbusting from the set. (thanks to Michael Leitz)…finally the website of the Finnish version of the Pop Idols programme features a performance of Wuthering Heights. While the contestant didn’t make it, the panel spend a while chatting about Kate afterwards instead – see the video evidence here.