Here’s a clip from a French TV documentary about Kate, directed by Claire Laborey, that is due to air on 13th September at 21.30 on the ARTE channel in France.
Entitled “Kate Bush, la sorcière du son” (which translates as “sorceress of sound”), the 55-minute documentary gets its first showing on Friday, September 13th on ARTE at 21:30. From the press release (roughly translated!):
“Composed of a host of archives and interviews – including musicians who have worked with her – this portrait, without dissipating the halo of mystery that surrounds Kate, allows to discover many facets, and explores the immense musical talent of the one who is nicknamed the sorceress of sound” More at the ARTE site here. The documentary will be available to view online on the ARTE site from Sept 6th.
Update: The 12″ single is now being spotted on the shelves of FNAC stores in France.
Our good friend Tristan in France is possibly the very first fan to get his hands on the new Kate Bush Remastered special release on the French FNAC website – he had ordered it for collection from the store. Thanks for the photos, Tristan!
Both remastered tracks were included in Kate’s collection of rarities, The Other Sides, released in March this year. The cover uses the same photo from the original French Ne T’Enfuis Pas / Un Baiser D’Enfant single from July 1983 but uses the distinctive Kate Bush Remastered font instead. The inner sleeve is a tinted version of the Between Two Worlds artwork which has featured on the Before the Dawn programme and album and also on the 2018 Remastered box sets. Nice touch.
The October 2019 issue of German music magazine MUSIKEXPRESS is shipping with a vinyl 7″ edition of the 1996 track My Computer by Prince which features backing vocals from Kate. From the site:
“Exclusively and only available in MUSIKEXPRESS 10/2019: A 7 “vinyl single by PRINCE!
A-side: “My Computer” ft. Kate Bush
B-side: “Shhh” (x-cerpt) – from the promo tape “The Versace Experience: Prelude 2 Gold”
This exclusive is delivered from September 12th and can be ordered here. Before you get very excited, Kate’s vocal only occupies a couple of choruses in the middle of the track and can be tricky to distinguish from the same lines being sung by Prince – but it’s undeniably thrilling to hear their two famous voices blend, even for a brief moment.
My Computer was released on the third disc of his 19th album ‘Emancipation‘, released on 19th November 1996, with Kate’s contribution recorded in the UK and sent to Prince at Paisley Park Studios. The track marked their second collaboration after Prince was featured on the track Why Should I Love You on Kate’s 1993 album, The Red Shoes. When Prince tragically passed away in April 2016, Kate left a heartfelt message about him on her site.
Thanks to Kevin Wilson for letting us know about this show. From the press release: “The chaotic cabaret cult, AN EVENING WITHOUT KATE BUSH is here! Enter Strange Phenomena, howl with the The Hounds Of Love and dance on the moors with Wuthering Heights. Kate’s not there, but you are. From the makers of Julie Madly Deeply. But completely different.
Performer Sarah-Louise Young (Cabaret Whore, The Showstoppers, La Soiree) has teamed up with director Russell Lucas (Warped at VAULT Festival) to explore the music and mythology of one of the most influential voices in British music. From releasing Wuthering Heights at the age of 19 to selling out the Hammersmith Apollo nearly 40 years later, Kate Bush has always surprised and confounded her critics. Through it all her fans have stayed strong. Young invites you to celebrate her songs with this unique and mind-blowing show.”
Where? Vodoo Rooms (Ballroom), West Register Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AA
When? 3 – 25 August (no show 12 & 19 August) – 16.40pm (1 hour) Free non-ticketed
Photo: John Carder Bush from “Kate: Inside The Rainbow”
Cecilee Linke in the US has set herself the impressive task of covering every single Kate Bush song, one per episode, on her Strange Phenomena podcast. She is already on to the Hounds of Love album, and this week is her episode on the song The Big Sky. Among other contibutors she talks to our own Dave Cross of HomeGround Magazine fame. Dave chats about how himself, Peter and Krys helped to organise 150 fans to attend the taping of Kate’s 1986 music video for The Big Sky. Did you know that Dave starred in the video (along with Peter!) and donned a fetching moustache at Kate’s request as one of the Wright brothers?! You can listen to the episode here.
This is absolutely brilliant. For her cover of Running up that Hill, Los Angeles artist Meg Myers decided to make a music video that would bring the song into Crayola colour. With the help of 2,130 school children from Edmonton, the video’s director created a moving colouring book. Every frame in the 12-frame-per-second animation, features a page coloured by a different child.
Meg Myers
The video has more than 500,000 views since it launched last month.
“It’s quite intense with all the colours changing,” music video director Jo Roy told CBC Edmonton’s Radio Active on Wednesday. “But [it’s meant to] feel like a very colourful experience, with the narrative of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.” The animation was created using illustrations based on film footage of Meg Myers dancing. There are other added flourishes as she morphs into a human-butterfly and flies through space. Read more about the project at this article here which includes an audio interview with director Jo Roy. Meg Myers official site is here: https://www.megmyers.com/
My Inspiration is a new podcast series from HMV in which they give musicians, actors, filmmakers and producers the chance to take a welcome break from talking about themselves and instead talk about their greatest inspiration. For their first episode, they welcome Neil Hannon, the creative force behind The Divine Comedy, who opened up about his life-long love of Kate Bush.
HMV writes: “During the podcast, Hannon spoke about how he discovered the eccentric songstress, how she inspired the theatricality in his songwriting and stagecraft and which LP he considers to be her ultimate masterpiece. You can listen to the podcast below and make sure you check back on hmv.com for more episodes of My Inspiration…”
Following their successful Songbook shows in Ireland with Del Palmer in 2018, Cloudbusting are taking the whole band across the Irish Sea for the first time this September:
CLOUDBUSTING 2019 IRISH TOUR DATES
SEPTEMBER 19TH – BUTTON FACTORY, DUBLIN – BOOK TICKETS
SEPTEMBER 22ND – SET THEATRE, KILKENNY – BOOK TICKETS
We’ve said it many times: before you bristle at the thought of a Kate Bush “tribute” act (and I certainly have in the past), you really should check out some of them for yourself. The quality really is very high indeed these days, in many ways Kate’s music just demands that. It’s a special thrill to hear these songs played in a live setting, feels a bit like getting a hug from an old friend! At the very top of the stack is of course Cloudbusting. Fronted by singer Mandy Watson, these superb musicians play to sold out shows and to huge demand all over the UK.
Their winning formula is fairly simple; they focus on the delivery of the music and the vocals without attempts at parody or mimicry. Their set really is the stuff of fans dreams; featuring not just all the well known singles, but unexpected album cuts and rarer songs too. To give you an example of what Cloudbusting bring to the table – read my review of their stunning 4oth Anniversary of The Kick Inside show. You can watch a clip from that show above where Kate’s choreography consultant and dance partner, Stewart Avon Arnold, joined them and performed a dance to complement The Man With The Child In His Eyes, along with his dance partner Tori Wood-Ives. Stewart had always wanted to create something for this song, one of the few he didn’t dance to on the 1979 Lionheart tour.
“Throughout, singer Mandy Watson brought a searing authenticity to her vocals, never attempting to parody Kate’s voice. The result is a performance from her that is consistently sensational. Mandy always addresses the audience as herself, a singer, never pretending to be Kate, just a genuine fan of this music wanting to do it justice. She deserves special praise for taking on the sheer array of Kate’s most elaborate songs which the band had woven into this show, and making it seem effortless.”
Irish fans – do not miss!
CLOUDBUSTING 2019 IRISH TOUR DATES
SEPTEMBER 19TH – BUTTON FACTORY, DUBLIN – BOOK TICKETS
Here’s the brief description: “Maxi Vinyl Kate Bush. Inclus deux titres rares chantés en français: Ne t’enfuis pas et Un baiser d’enfant.”
Both remastered tracks were included in Kate’s collection of rarities, The Other Sides, released in March this year. The cover uses the same photo from the original French Ne T’Enfuis Pas / Un Baiser D’Enfant single from July 1983 (shown below) but uses the distinctive Kate Bush Remastered font instead. Released on September 3rd, unlike Cloudbusting, there is no mention of a picture disc, so we may be looking at a regular double sided 12″ single here, which would be the first in that format since the rare Italian Rubberband Girl vinyl 12″ in 1993.
The disc is exclusively available in France (it seems) from the FNAC website, and, presumably in their stores around France come September. The vinyl disc is listed as a limited edition, but we don’t know how many there will be….quelle belle surprise!
What are Darrell and Paul’s Top 3’s from all of Kate’s albums, and what single, album, video and b-side would they take on a desert island? In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, for the first half we get the rare glimpse of hearing Darrell and Paul chatting together in the same place, as opposed to Skyping transatlantically. Plus, Ron and Cyril get another spin with a Kate cover!
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Issue 100 of Prog Magazine celebrates this milestone and Kate is featured on the cover illustration, alongside Dave Gilmour, Thom Yorke…and a unicorn! As part of their “100 icons” feature inside, the magazine, which deals exclusively in “progressive rock” since the 1960s, has a piece on Kate written by Heather Findlay. It even comes bundled with a 148 page Jethro Tull Magazine! Kate has been the cover star of this magazine twice before. More details at the magazine site here.
Many of you will know that fRoots is a specialist music magazine published quarterly in the UK since 1979. It specialises in folk and world music, and features a compilation downloadable album with every issue, with occasional specials. Sadly, it seems the Summer 2019 issue may possibly be its last after 40 years of publication. A special feature by Tim Chipping in this issue explores “the untold story of how folk singer A.L. Lloyd influenced one of the greatest pop stars of the modern age” …Kate Bush, of course.
The excellent article features interviews with Kate’s brother John Carder Bush, our own Krys and Peter Fitzgerald Morris from HomeGround Magazine (!), Dave Arthur, Colin Irwin and Alistair Anderson (who performed concertina on Rocket Man). It also includes two beautiful photos from John’s 2014 updated edition of Cathy – the earliest photo we’ve seen of Kate singing!
Krys Fitzgerald Morris writes: “A lovely feature in the new edition of Froots folk magazine. Tim Chipping contacted me about a piece he wanted to write about Kate’s folk roots & he came over to interview Peter & myself in January. After meeting Tim I forwarded an email from him to John Carder Bush. John was interested & got involved. It’s a wonderful feature with a new unseen photo of Kate & John singing together when she was a child. Tim, you’ve done a fantastic job. X”
Kate’s work with the exquisite, breathtaking, Trio Bulgarka from Bulgaria remains one of the outstanding collaborations of her career to date. Seán has wanted to feature them in a special podcast episode for a long while now, and here he explores how Bulgarian singing started to be discovered by the world in the 1980s and how Kate met and recorded incredible music with Yanka, Eva and Stoyanka on two of her albums!
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
In the latest episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Bush Telegraph (aka Darrell and Paul) chat with Darrell’s brother and put him to task to see if he can answer a Kate Pop Quiz! Russell remembers hearing Kate through the bedroom wall constantly, and here he is interviewed to face the trauma it caused him one more time! Darrell and Paul also find a rare recording of the very first Kate tribute act. Not to be missed.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Many of you will know that fRoots is a specialist music magazine published quarterly in the UK since 1979. It specialises in folk and world music, and features a compilation downloadable album with every issue, with occasional specials. Sadly, it seems the 
