Category: Press

Luke Turner of The Quietus interviews Ken Livingstone as he makes another attempt to regain his position as Mayor of London, and asks Ken what he thought about Ken:

How many men would have loved to have a song written about them by Kate Bush – and especially one that refers to them as a “sex machine”. The song was recorded for a special edition of TV series The Comic Strip.

Did you like the track, Ken?

KL: Of course I was a fan of the song. What was particularly funny was that I think she was bigger in the States than here, but it used to be the case that ten years ago there are people writing ‘who is Ken? What is GLC?’ I suppose it’s a bit like if someone heard about the Bananarama track and asked ‘what cheap fares?’ You have to be at least 50 to remember it.

You seem to have been quite a popular subject in songs.

KL: I did stuff with U2, and then over the years because the GLC was putting on concerts and then when I was mayor. Even in between, when Blur did the gig against tuition fees, so I’ve always been around the edge of the music world.

There’s a line in the Kate Bush song where she calls you a ‘sex machine’

KL: If only this were true. If only Kate Bush had seen me as a real sex machine?

Last update till after Christmas, just to let you know there’s a two-page spread on Kate in today’s Daily Express. Under the heading “The Return of Pop’s Great Recluse”. They have also been chatting to other journalists such as Stuart Maconie on his thoughts about Kate’s return. (thanks to Matt)

There has been an explosion of press coverage about Kate’s KBC announcement over the past few days, most are variations of the same news recycled from Music Week, although longer pieces have been printed in The Telegraph and The Times in the UK. The BBC website has posted a story and a link back to this site. The Evening Standard ran a story “Comeback Kate” and including nice comments such as ‘a unique performer who inspired a generation’. Other news stories have appeared on Sky News, Female First, Ananova,Contact Music, Launch Music, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, Play Louder, The Sunday Post, Sound Generator and various TV teletext services across Europe. (big thanks to Ben on the site’s forum who has been gathering news mentions and links from all over)

It all amounts to a surprisingly broad splash of pre-publicity for Kate’s eighth album, with BBC Radio 2 playing December Will Be Magic Again, Moments Of Pleasure and Hounds Of Love in recent days. The Telegraph featured an article by Richard Wolfson: “The very existence of this novel, Waiting for Kate Bush by John Mendelssohn, is an indication of the bizarre levels of obsession that Bush still inspires. Despite her decade-long absence, the 46-year-old from Bexleyheath still holds a central place in the national consciousness. As I wandered around London, having just purchased a copy of the book, periodically someone would catch a glimpse of Bush’s face on the cover and grab my arm. “She’s absolutely brilliant. I love her,” said the Glaswegian security guard at the building works around St Pancras. “Can I see that?” said an 18-year-old a few yards further on, who would have been about seven when Bush’s last album, The Red Shoes, was released. “I really need to check her out. Muse say she’s their biggest influence.” It is not just the music that has been influential. It is the scale of her theatrical ambition which makes her such a compelling figure, and which makes the prospect of new material next year something to savour.”

The Times today has a large article on page five, as well as a picture of Kate in its front cover. David Sheasby has scanned the article for me: “The article is mainly a compendium of info that has been posted on this site over the past couple of years – in fact, the article refers at one point to “her website”, by which I think the writer means Kate Bush News and Information.” The article, written by Adam Sherwin says: “Twelve years after her last release, one of pop’s most mercurial performers has delivered a surprise Christmas present to her long-suffering fan club. The record features the last work of Michael Kamen, the composer and arranger, who died last year. She has also been working with Mich Karn, bassist with Eighties new romantic group Japan, drummer Stuart Elliott and jazz percussionist Peter Erskine. The London Metropolitan Orchestra will feature with two classical musicians, Emma Murphy and Susanna Pell. Bush, 46, burst on to the music scene as a 17-year-old with the swooping Brontë-inspired Wuthering Heights. She was noted as a unique performer who combined musical theatre, dance, poetry and rock. But she retired from live performance in 1979 and her recordings became more rare, despite huge successes including Hounds of Love in 1984. In 1993 she released an album and a self-directed film entitled The Red Shoes, then retreated to her home near Reading to sculpt and work on an untitled project. Her record company, EMI, has waited patiently for the results. Her long absence even inspired a novel, Waiting for Kate Bush, by John Mendelssohn. But what everyone, not least EMI, would like to know is when the album will be released. “We’ll let you know,” Bush writes. March has been hinted at. Bush returns as a new generation of artists recall her as an inspiration. OutKast, the US rap group, want to produce her next record. Madonna, Björk, P.J.Harvey and Katie Melua have revealed the debt they owe to the doctor’s daughter from Bexleyheath, southeast London. A cover of Hounds of Love by hotly-tipped rock band The Futureheads is to precede her return to the charts. The music industry sought to lure her back with the offer of a Brits Lifetime Achievement Award but she rejected it because she would have to perform live. Three years ago she accepted Ivor Novello and Q Magazine awards, even making a surprise appearance to perform Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb with Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall, prompting speculation of a return to the concert stage.” (big thanks to David Sheasby)

Australian newspaper The Age has a long article about Kate and the Waiting For Kate Bush book here…(thanks to Andrew Thompson)…Tom Hingely of Inspiral Carpets mentions that he’s a Kate fan in an online BBC interview: “I’m listening to some old compilation albums of Kate Bush! I’ve three daughters and I’m getting them in to listening to that. I actually hated Kate Bush when she first came out – it took me 20 years to realise that she totally brilliant! I find quite good ‘girl music’. I know that’s going to cause problems. But I find it very sensate and feminine – very different from what I do.” Read more here (thanks to Ben)….on Erasure‘s New DVD “The Swan, The Tank and The Balloon”, from their 1992 “Fantasmagorical Tour” there’s a recent interview with Andy Bell. The opening of the show featured him coming in on a swan-cart for the song “Siren Song”. When asked why a swan to open the show, Andy Bell answers: “Because I loved– There’s a Kate Bush song called Lord of the Reedy River. Well, it was written by Donovan, but she did a version. And the first line of the song is “I fell in love with a swan”, and it seemed to tie in with a song called Siren Song.” (thanks to when lingers on the forum)…a film called Women Talking Dirty on Channel 4 featured Kate’s version of Rocket Man…

The NME ran a full page photo of Kate with the caption “How did this woman blow Andre 3000‘s mind?”. The article is on page 29 and covers artists who’ve had an influence on today’s pop stars. The piece is very complementary, indicating that without Kate there’d be no Goldfrapp, PJHarvey or Bjork. Describing her as the original quirky-something, the article says “Kate Bush is worshipped around the globe for a) having an amazing unique voice, b) being a brilliant songwriter, and c) being really hot. But she’s not a workaholic. She released two albums in 1978, four in the 80s, but there’s been nothing new for 12 years. Without Kate there’d be no PJ Harvey, no Courtney Love and no Goldfrapp. True, there’d be no Bjork either, but we shouldn’t hold that against her. Anyway, the wait is-probably-nearly over. She’s been recording her new album for at least five years. In October 2001 she said “I am making an album but it is taking a little longer than I thought”. A track called, rather pertinently, “How To Be Invisible” is one of the few that’s known to exist. Try The Futureheads’ favourite ‘Hounds of Love’ from 1985; its a loveable bastard of a record, stuffed with bonkers, mammoth hits that were never off the radio. ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ was one of the defining tracks of the 80s. OutKast’s Andre 3000: “Kate Bush’s music opened my mind up,” he said recently. “She was so bugged-out, man, but I felt her. She’s so f*ucking dope, so underrated and off the radar” (thanks to Matt Denney)

Maggie Ball has written a review of the Waiting For Kate Bush book here (thanks Maggie)…Kate has been mentioned in a new philosophy book by Julian Baggini “What’s It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life”. In the review the quote from the book is “The lyrics of Kate Bush…are really quite profound if you think about it.” (thanks to Darrell Babidge)…meanwhile Kate’s heavy metal credibility is briefly discussed in Seb Hunter‘s recent book ‘Hell Bent for Leather – Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict’. Hunter writes: “There was even a time when Kate Bush was considered borderline Metal, but I’m not sure why. I think it might have been a simple sex-object thing. Maybe it was just because she had really long hair. Or because she crimped it”. (thanks Liza)…a blog poster has the Hammer Horror video here. (thanks to L. Thompson, also thanks to David White, John T Black, Simon Clark, Brian Parker and Amanda Williams). Wishing all our site visitors and forum users a very happy Christmas! Thanks for all the support this year! Seán.

Another press mention: The Irish Post -The Voice Of The Irish In Britain have published an article on Kate which is the third of a seven-part series celebrating the contribution of second-generation Irish songwriters to British pop and rock music. Unfortunately the writer of this article either didn’t know about or forgot to mention Mná na hÉireann. Still it’s one of the few articles written about Kate in the press that I’ve seen this year. (thanks to Jane Sagr for pointing out this article to me)

The Irish Post – Saturday August 29 1998

Bush Tales

Kate Bush is the focus in this third of our seven-part series celebrating
the contribution of second-generation Irish songwriters to British pop and
rock music.

In many ways, Kate Bush is the antithesis of the other songwriters in this
series. Female, middle class, secure in adolescence with a notably placid
temperament, she is seemingly free from the warring sense of cultural
dislocation experienced by many of her Anglo-Irish peers. What she does
share with fellow travellers like John Lydon, Morrissey, Kevin Rowland and
Noel Gallagher is an Irish ancestry and a strong determination to control
every aspect of her career. While her male, working-class counterparts
spent most of their lives fighting against the odds to break free from
tough environments and suffered legendary run-ins with record companies or
music journalists, Bush’s CV has been free from controversy.

Although often seen as an exotic example of English suburbia transposed to
the pop world, Bush’s career suggests a far more cosmopolitan outlook. Her
Irish roots emanate from her late mother Hannah, an Irish staff nurse,
farmer’s daughter and prize-winning dancer. All the Bush family were
artistically creative and Kate’s musical interests originally drew from her
Irish heritage. As she once explained: “I’m very influenced in my writing
by old or traditional folk songs, ballads handed down by new generations of
musicians but with the original atmosphere and emotions still maintained.
The sort of music my mother, who’s Irish, would have listened to and danced
to, and used to play for me when I was very little. It’s still probably my
biggest influence.

Kate’s father, Robert Bush, a doctor, introduced her to the harmonium at a
young age, while her elder brothers, Paddy and Jay, encouraged her
interests in roots music and poetry. Precocious and secure in her own
company, she was composing from an early age. One of her early hits, ‘The
Man With The Child In His Eyes’, was written when she was only 12. Her
break came two years later when a friend of the family, Ricky Hooper,
passed on her roughly recorded demos to Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour who duly
informed EMI Records of this new talent. Instead of exploiting her ingenue
potential, the company wisely invested in her future, providing a modest
income during which she completed her schooling, played some low-key fun
pub gigs, studied dance and mime and continued writing.

It was another second-generation Irish writer, Emily Bronte, who inspired
Bush’s 1978 debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’. When it reached number one,
the 19-year-old singer was thrust into the limelight as one of the most
exciting young talents of her era. In common with other Anglo-Irish
artistes like Elvis Costello, Morrissey and Kevin Rowland, Bush
increasingly sought control over the way her work and image were presented
in the media. She famously championed the release of ‘Wuthering Heights’ in
the face of record company scepticism and, having won that battle, never
looked back. Over the years, she would successively secure control of the
means of production, licensing her material to EMI, overseeing sleeve
artwork, managing herself, producing her own albums and determining release
dates at her leisure.

Meanwhile, her private life was a closed book. While her contemporaries
cavorted in public, she remained a model of decorum, studiously avoiding
superstar gatherings and concentrating on her work. Even the tabloids lost
interest when she seemingly retreated from the public eye. What they saw as
a reclusiveness was actually nothing more than a self-motivated woman
getting on with her life, surrounded by a loyal family and coterie of
like-minded musicians.

Musically, Bush’s series of albums resemble a travelogue, taking in a
variety of musical forms from English folk (‘Lionheart’) through Australian
traditional music (‘The Dreaming’) and a mixture of Irish and Bulgarian
influences on ‘The Hounds of Love’, ‘The Sensual World’ and ‘The Red
Shoes’. Like her Anglo-Irish contemporaries, she seems both connected to
and dislocated from her Irishness. While admitting that she is drawn to the
idea of living in éire, the whim remains unrealised. “I’ve always felt
pulled to Ireland because my mother was Irish,” she says, “but whenever
I’ve gone, I’ve never felt very at home.”

Nevertheless, she has found a home for Irish music in her work. Her
ground-breaking album ‘The Dreaming’ incorporated Irish traditional
instruments on ‘Night Of The Swallow’, which featured Bill Whelan
(pipe/strings), Liam O’Flynn (uilleann pipes and penny whistle), Sean Keane
(fiddle) and Donal Lunny (bouzouki). The experiment was continued on the
extraordinary ‘Jig Of Life’ from ‘Hounds Of Love’, which was credited to
her brother, Paddy, whose interest in Irish music had been present since
childhood. Released at a time when her record sales had hit an unexpected
dip, 1985’s ‘Hounds Of Love’ established her standing as the most
adventurous and accomplished female singer-songwriter working in Europe.

Bush’s Irish leanings reached their apogee on ‘The Sensual World’, arguably
her most accomplished work to date. Again traditional elements were notable
with Celtic harp, mandolin, uilleann pipes and tupan to the fore. The
evocative title track was inspired by Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in James
Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. Bush had been playing around with some words which
reminded her of the speech and after reading the passage was amazed to
discover that the lines scanned perfectly with her music. “It was
extraordinary,” she exclaimed. “I’ve never had anything like that happen
before, and it was very exciting.” What seemed a highly accomplished
literary adaptation was blocked by Joyce’s literary executors. “I tried
several times,” she explained, “but they were just absolutely adamant.”
Instead, she elected to retain the rhythm of the speech and adapt the theme
to express the idea of Molly Bloom emerging from the pages of the book to
discover the “real” sensual world. “To reapproach it was quite painful,”
she admitted at the time, “especially having to let go of what I thought
was obviously a classic piece of literature that I felt worked with
contemporary music.”

‘The Sensual World’ remains the most successful translation of literature
into pop, the culmination of a process begun a decade earlier with
‘Wuthering Heights’. It is likely that Bush will return to Irish themes
sometime in the future, although aficionados have had to learn the patience
of Job while awaiting new product. The four-year gap between ‘Hounds Of
Love’ and ‘The Sensual World’ was followed by a five-year wait for 1993’s
‘The Red Shoes’. Another half-decade on, there is no news of a new album
before the millennium.

Next week, Johnny Rogan considers the dimension of Kevin Rowland, the
mainstay of Dexy’s Midnight Runners.