Newsbits: Two famous Kate fans have recently been singing her praises: Robert Smith of The Cure has long been a very vocal Kate fan, in the current issue of Tower Record’s Pulse magazine he lists Hounds Of Love as one of his desert island discs…On St. David’s Day (March 1st) satellite music channel VH1 appropriately had Welsh movie star Catherine Zeta-Jones presenting her personal Top Ten choices. She gave Kate a nice introduction before playing The Red Shoes video…the remastered version of Hounds Of Love on CD with bonus tracks has now replaced the standard version on shelves in some European countries including the UK & Ireland, having been reissued without the cardboard slip case and EMI booklet of the ’97 EMI 100 release…Norwegian ambient pop group Velvet Belly include a remake of The Man With The Child In His Eyes on their new album Lucia. According to a report in Billboard magazine vocalist Anne Marie Almedal was “attracted to the intimacy of Bush’s song…it’s important for us to maintain a sound that is naive and simple”.(thanks to Craig Larsen, PDFM, Jon Bishop & Michael Leitz).
Category: Other artists Page 10 of 11
The major Dutch music magazine OOR has issued its list of the 100 most influential female artists of the last 100 years. The list was put together by critics and pop journalists. Kate ranks at number 3, with Aretha Franklin (2) and Madonna (1). An accompanying article mentions her “rich imagination” with “albums full of divine songs”. Chrissie Hynde was interviewed by OOR for this special poll and when asked about Kate’s very high showing she commented “I love Kate. I know she has influenced a lot of female singers, but not me. I like her, as a person, a lot.” (thanks to Marcel Nahapiet)
New Kate Dance Remix: Look out for a 12″ Single by ‘Beyond’, called ‘Still Dream’, a dance re-mix of Cloudbusting featuring Kate’s vocal. It has apparently already been played on BBC Radio 1. White label promo only – available in “good dance record stores”. (thanks to Sebastian who posted this on the guestbook)
Issued on Dressed to Kill Records Catalogue DOP152 – Titled “A Tribute To Kate Bush – The Child In Her Eyes” tracks performed by E-Clypse featuring Jemma Price. It’s a 19 track double CD selling for £4.99 at HMV I’ve been told. CD1 Tracklisting: Wow, Wuthering Heights, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, Breathing, The Kick Inside, Army Dreamers, Lionheart, In The Warm Room, Babooshka. CD2 Tracklisting: The Sensual World, Reaching Out, This Woman’s Work, The Red Shoes, Running Up That Hill, Mother Stands For Comfort, Cloudbusting, Never Be Mine, Moments Of Pleasure, Under The Ivy. You may be able to find more info at the record company’sweb-site (thanks to Beate Meiswinkel and Mark Binmore for these updates)
Newsbits: According to US music channel VH1, of the 100 most influential women in rock music, Kate ranks at number 46………Máire Brennan of Clannad has recorded a new version of Don’t Give Up with Michael McDonald dueting on a new album Streams, see this web-site……the latest issue of the academic journal Popular Music, (vol. 18/2), has Kate on the cover and an analysis of “Wuthering Heights” by Dr. Nicky Losseff of York University, UK. Her article is titled, “Cathy’s homecoming and the other world: Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights.” (Newsbit thanks to Greg Gilligan, Keith DeWeese and Scott Silzer)
In an exclusive chat with me for this web-site, Irish singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy talks in-depth about how Kate’s work has influenced him and how he came to meet her. I think it’s a fascinating chat and Brian was very enthusiastic to do it also. We cover other topics also such as his own work, what the expression of music means to him, and the time he met the late Jeff Buckley in New York. Brian was pressed for time that day, but the conversation was very informal, I had no set questions, I just wanted Brian to tell his story in his own way. I hope you all enjoy reading it, please e-mail me with any feedback or comments. You’ll find the text of our conversation on the Articles page.
The scheduled US DVD release of The Line, The Cross & The Curve for May 4th has unfortunately been put back by Sony till possibly January 2000 for reasons unknown, to the dismay of those who had ordered it from online stores such as Amazon.Com…..US visitors to the site should look out for the CD soundtrack album to the TV show Felicity, it will contain This Woman’s Work, previously heard on the show…..Brett Anderson, the lead singer of Suede, has long been known to be an ardent admirer of Kate’s work, this week in a UK interview he reveals that Wuthering Heights was the first ever record he bought…..on Dutch TV the new ad for Toyota features Running Up That Hill amid dolphin/nature imagery…(newsbit thanks to Vincent, Hans & Marinus in the Netherlands, and Collin in the US)
According to UK radio’s Magic FM there is soon to be a reissue of the late Dusty Springfield‘s live performances from the 1960s to 1990s which will feature her live version of Kate’s “The Man with the Child In His Eyes” which was performed in 1979 and has never been issued on vinyl or CD. Dustys version was said to have been very emotional and atmospheric and went down a storm at the Albert Hall.
A new album has been released in Ireland on the Dara label which features a selection of artists singing songs in Irish. Entitled “Éist“, the Irish word for “listen”, the album features Kate’s version of Mná na hÉireann originally recorded for Donal Lunny’s Common Ground project in 1996. Other artists include Van Morrison, Brian Kennedy, Christy Moore, Mary Black & Altan. Reported to be selling in Ireland “like hot cakes” the album was heavily promoted by Bord na Gaeilge (the body responsible for promoting usage and enjoyment of the Irish language) around the St. Patrick’s Day festivities, with TV advertising and a high profile poster campaign, Kate being mentioned in both.
Dara Records TORTV 105 CD
[Website http://www.dolphin-dara.ie]
1 Molly na gCuachni Chuilleanain – Altan
2 Ar Bhruach na Carraige Baine – Seamus Begley & Mary Black*
3 Ta mo Chleamhnas Deanta – Van Morrison & The Chieftains
4 Eist a Stor – Brian Kennedy & Maire Bhreatnach*
5 Aisling Ghear – Maura O’Connell*
6 Seanchas – Clannad
7 Jimmy mo Mhile Stor – Frances Black*
8 Gleanntain Ghlas Ghaoth Dobhair – Paul Brady*
9 Eist do Bheal – Sinead Lohan*
10 Mo Ghille Mear – Mary Black*
11 Seachtain – John Spillane
12 An Cailin Gaelach – Maighread ni Dhomhnaill
13 Mna na hEireann – Kate Bush
14 Na Conghailigh – Christy Moore*
* Denotes previously unreleased songs
On Friday March 19th, Éist was deemed Album Of The Week by The Irish Times, read their review here:http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/features/1999/0319/fea5.htm, and notice the strangely bad/great review Kate gets!
All details on Kate’s stunning track can be read at my page here.
Note: This is the first time both the Irish & English lyrics of Mna na hEireann have been included in a CD package.
Thanks to Jane Sagr and Fearghus McSweeney for help with this item.
Alan Partridge (comedian Steve Coogan) has been at it again! Friday night was Comic Relief night on the BBC and on his half hour special the “Radio Norwich DJ” announced that if £1 million was pledged he would fly in to BBC TV Centre and perform his Kate Bush Medley live before the viewing millions…and so he did, same tracklisting as on the live video (see below). Comic Relief host Lenny Henry (The Red Shoes) commented that Alan had proved that he couldn’t sing…earlier Alan made an “untoward” comment about Kate’s surname before playing Running Up That Hill and apologised to any of Kate’s friends watching!
Donations can be pledged to Comic Relief at its web-site here.
For those who’ve yet to see it, I hugely recommend the video of Steve Coogan Live (“The Man Who Thinks He’s It”), released before Christmas by VVL in the UK. The show (which had a record breaking run seen by over 350,000 people) culminates in the British comedian’s best known character, the smarmy TV presenter Alan Partridge, doing an hilariously over-the-top “Kate Bush Medley” including Wow, Babooshka, Running Up That Hill, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, Don’t Give Up, Them Heavy People and of course, Wuthering Heights. Painfully funny stuff.
Recently someone asked about any further word on a Nick Drake tribute album featuring Kate (see the 1997 news), unfortunately I’ve still yet to have heard anything, but this year *does* mark the 25th anniversary of his death. One of the mentioned commemorative projects, a TV documentary, is going ahead. The documentary will be broadcast February 1st at 11.15pm on BBC 2 in the UK. The film is called A Stranger Among Us – Searching For Nick Drake, a 40 minute “Picture This” special.
More Newsbits: Record Collector magazine have some interesting news for collectors in their December edition; the ultra-rare Eat The Music 7″ single (only seventeen copies exist?) is placed at number 17 in the magazine’s “100 rarest records ever” listing in their December issue. A value of £1,500 is attributed to this abandoned UK pressing. A b&w photo of the label and sleeve are shown. There’s an interesting paragraph on the scrapped 7″ included with the article. The upcoming January edition of Record Collector will have a large retrospective article looking back at 20 years of Kate.
The editors of HomeGround magazine attended the recent Colin-Lloyd Tucker (featured on The Red Shoes) concert at London’s Mean Fiddler and spoke to Paddy Bush, Kate’s brother who was in attendance. Paddy mentioned an upcoming programme about Madagascar on BBC Radio 4 (more on this when programme details arrive). HomeGround #62 has now been mailed to subscribers. It contains fan’s recollections of the last 20 years of Kate’s music, special moments, special songs etc..
Meredith Tarr has sent in her review of a show she attended in Fairfield, Connecticut USA a few weeks ago by Kat Devlin, “Kat Devlin Sings The Songs Of Kate Bush”. You can read it here. (thanks to Meredith).
Kat Devlin sings the songs of Kate Bush – a review by Meredith Tarr
Friday, October 2, 1998 was a real Kate Bush evening: first I heard 45 minutes of uninterrupted Kate music on WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, then I saw cabaret singer Kat Devlin gave a wonderful performance of her show “Kat Devlin Sings The Songs Of Kate Bush” at Fairfield University’s Quick Center For The Arts in Fairfield, Connecticut. There were two performances that evening, and we attended the 9 o’clock show.
I had seen this show before, a couple summers ago at a club called 88’s in New York City. Then, Devlin was only accompanied by arranger Ross Patterson on piano and cheesy keyboard, but this time she was accompanied by Rex Benincasa on drums and Phil Palombi on upright bass, in addition to Patterson again on piano. The rearrangements/reconstructions of the songs in a jazzy style for the most part worked really well, definitely better than when I saw the show before. Devlin’s definitely got the vocal chops to handle everything from “Wuthering Heights” to “Night Of The Swallow” without much apparent effort. She even looks like Kate! She’s a bit taller, but she’s got the hair and the facial structure, and in each song she acts out the character portrayed within with only a bit too much over-the-top melodrama (which in itself is quite Kate-like).
The songs performed were:
Moments of Pleasure
Wuthering Heights
This Woman’s Work
Symphony In Blue
Experiment IV
Feel It
The Man With The Child In His Eyes
Houdini
Cloudbusting
Coffee Homeground
Mother Stands For Comfort
In Search of Peter Pan
The Infant Kiss
Babooshka
Moving
Running Up That Hill
Under The Ivy
Night of the Swallow (encore)
The rearrangements that worked the best for me were “Symphony In Blue”, “Feel It”, “Houdini”, “Moving”, and “Night Of The Swallow”. The songs from The Kick Inside and Lionheart lend themselves naturally to more swinging jazz arrangements. “Running Up That Hill” was done way too fast, and I think something went wrong with “Wuthering Heights”, because it seemed to end in a train wreck. My favorite performance was “Coffee Homeground”, in which Devlin played up the element of paranoia for all it was worth, and the result was a funny, dead-on portrayal of what the song is about. And “Under The Ivy” slew me … but that song could do that no matter the setting. (Note: Mila Drumke’s acoustic guitar version is killer, too – I’m still not sure which I like better.)
Kat Devlin is a true fan, who has obviously let Kate’s music into her soul. She understands every nuance of every song, and if this is as close as I’m going to get to seeing a Kate Bush concert in my lifetime, I’ll gladly take it. I hope she gets a chance to take her show on the road – I think the Katefans across the country would appreciate it as much as I did.
Kate’s version of Brazil which was recorded for the 1985 Terry Gilliam film of the same name has resurfaced in a different version on a new compilation album “featuring powerful new orchestrations specially written for this album”. Here’s a report from John Heislman:
‘The original version of this song, released on the Brazil soundtrack CD in 1993, features
Kate on vocals, backed by Michael Kamen conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London. The orchestration is light and string-dominated; Kate’s phrasing and delivery are quite soft. There’s a striking trumpet passage in the middle that plays the lead melody line along with Kate’s vocal.The “new” Brazil that appears on Michael Kamen’s “Opus” CD is significantly different! [Note: this CD seems to be released in Europe under the title “The Michael Kamen Soundtrack Album” (London Records: LONDON 458 912-2)]
Once again, it’s Kate on vocals, but this time she’s backed by Kamen conducting the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. This version is a much heavier, brass-dominated arrangement. Kate’s phrasing is real similar to the first version in the beginning, but she becomes much more deliberate towards the end. She also throws in quite a bit of vibrato on one of the sustained notes. The trumpet passage in the first version shows up as a string accompaniment here.’ (thanks John!).
Michael Kamen’s liner notes:
“Brazil was my first opportunity to work on a film of meaning and stature. The film is, in my opinion, an enduring work of genius by Terry Gilliam. This song was the inspiration of the entire madness, and as I explored every corner of this melody, usually heard at bar mitzvahs and weddings, I awoke every morning with it haunting me. I grew to believe I had written it! Kate Bush sang this version, which was never used in the film, and it appears here as an ‘end credit’ song to my own movie…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jq4QU2Bxms
Brown Star Records in Chicago are now taking mail orders for “I Wanna Be Kate: The Songs Of Kate Bush”. The CD will not hit retail outlets till August/September but initially it will be available by mail order only. Ordering information is available on a page I’ve put together which also now has part two of my interview with Thomas Dunning.