Newsbits roundup: Dido was the winner of this year’s Best Female award at the Brit awards, and in her recorded acceptance message she thanked other female singer songwriters for inspiration including Kate and Annie Lennox. A clip of Kate performing Hounds Of Love in 1986 was shown during the show…Johnny reported on the site forum that his local paper, The Hornsey and Crouch End Journal, mentioned an art exhibit featuring a work by Kate. “Famous faces went under the hammer on Tuesday as celebrities joined Bindi Harris – daughter of TV presenter Rolf Harris – to raise hundreds of pounds for a Crouch End sheltered housing scheme. TV presenter Jonathan Ross, Travis front-man Fran Healey, singer Kate Bush and kids’ telly star Timmy Mallet were among those who painted self-portraits to be sold at the special event. The celebrities were encouraged to explore their creative sides by professional artist Bindi, who has been running art workshops at Abyssinia Court, Weston Park, since last year. Miss Harris hit upon the idea of a money-making auction to raise funds for Abyssinia Court after she started the workshops. She decided to auction off work done in the classes and then got pupils at Weston Park Primary School and celebrities involved.” The exhibition wasn’t widely publicised so we presume Kate’s work has been sold, we have no idea what it went for. (cheers Johnny)…the new issue of Homeground will be available in March. Articles, letters & artwork are always welcome, as always be sure your subscription is up-to-date by visiting the Homeground pages…
A new Kate Bush biography has been published in Italy, written by long-time fan Monica Tessarin. It is called “Kate Bush – I segugi dell’amore“, published by Firenze Atheneum Libri. It costs €16 and can be purchased here. The book contains illustrations by Paulina Stuckey and is said to be a “must have” for all Kate’s fans. Read more here. (warm congratulations to Monica on her new book, thanks also to Antonello)…Ben de Vos found a Sony CD “Celtic Sounds Of Middle Earth” featuring Mná Na hEireann (thanks Ben)…the January/February 2004 edition of the American magazine Women In Rock features a 4-page spread on Kate – “While glorious Kate remains a recluse working on a new record, we wait patiently for an interview. In the meantime, score! Sylie Simmons interviewed Kate in ’89 and here the piece in published for the first time.” (thanks to Tim Bertram)…Kate was mentioned on University Challenge, BBC2 on Monday 26th January, in a round where the panel had to identify guest musicians/singers, a snatch of Kate singing the BVs on Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers” caused them some puzzlement. Nobody guessed correctly, although one panel member suggested it might be Tatu! (thanks Krystyna)…
More on that Lee Kaay story: his FROST 2003 EP which featured December Will Be Magic Again was a massive hit charting at No 1 in Iceland, Finland, Russia, Czech Republic, Latvia and Estonia. The limited DVD featured the video as well and included a cameo from a Kate Bush look-a-like as a tribute to Kate. At a recent gig in Latvia, Lee decided to change the whole set and included a 30 minute tribute to Kate as inspiration. His DVD “Russian Tour” will feature his version of “This Woman’s Work” and has now been given a September release date to coincide with a new album. Lee is a huge Kate fan and plans to release a further EP at some stage…Pet Shop Boys Neil & Chris recently stated that the album “The Dreaming” was quite a favourite of theirs and they had heard rumours of a new album in the pipeline at their record company EMI…Claudia De Booche has included her version of The Big Sky on her US single Salute To Ciao Baby (thanks MB)…recent issues of Blender Magazine mention Kate – Dido says Army Dreamers is one of her favourite songs, and Nelly Furtado is likened to Kate in a CD review (thanks Sudane)…The Darkness played their favourite videos on ABC’s Rage (on 7/2/04). Babooshka was one of them and was played in its entirety here (thanks to Brian Parker)…Kate was recently discussed on the Richard & Judy show’s Book Club on ITV in the UK. Starter For Ten was reviewed, and author David Nicholls was interviewed. As prevously reported on this site the main character of the book has an obsession with Kate Bush. Some studio guests discussed the book and the topic came around to Kate – and her absence from the charts. None of the panel had a clue as to what she was doing now. One of them thought that she now writes – but didn’t say whether it was still songs or other forms of writing. Then a brief clip of the Wuthering Heights video was shown. (Cheers to Argotist on the site’s forum).
Due to their huge success in Germany, the Dutch band Within Temptation have decided to release their cover version of Running Up That Hill (already released in Holland in April last year) on a 3-track single CD and 5 track DVD on Feb 16th in Germany. Their official site reports: “On 16th February 2004, Within Temptation release their new, long-awaited single ‘Running Up That Hill’, which has always been a mega success in their native country The Netherlands. The classic originally sung by Kate Bush is taken to a new dimension thanks to its rocking riffs, its sensitive, classical arrangements as well as Sharon den Adel’s atmospheric voice without losing the intensity of the original. A really great cover version!” The video is also available on the German version of their website. (thanks to Michael Leitz)…Kaz at Cooper Owen auctions has let me know that two Kate items are featured in their Rock Legends auction on the 26th February; a signed photo and a Hounds Of Love item, read more here…
And finally, Night Scented Stock and Army Dreamers were played on BBC Radio 3, The Late Junction Wed 18th Feb (thanks to Jonathan Hugh) – a fascinating discovery unearthed on our site’s forum is the link between Night Scented Stock and Blow Away from the album Never For Ever. Listen to these MP3 clips from Tristan and Gabriela to be amazed: here and here.)
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