Kate Bush News

It’s been an incredible time for high quality, beautifully designed books on Kate. John Carder Bush has just won a prestigious award for the design of “Cathy” and his breathtaking follow-up, “Kate: Inside the Rainbow“, will be on so many people’s Christmas lists. Now, we are also being treated to a glimpse into another remarkable book of photography from one of Kate’s most prolific visual collaborators: Guido Harari. Watch the video on the upcoming book, The Kate Inside, here:

“The Kate Inside” is Guido’s lavish tribute to Kate. His collaboration with her spans from 1982 to 1993. During that period he was invited by Kate to shoot her official press photos for landmark albums like “Hounds Of Love”, “The Sensual World” and “The Red Shoes”, including a completely never-before-seen reportage on the set of Kate’s film “The Line, The Cross & The Curve”. Accompanied by Guido’s own commentary and a foreword by Kate’s mentor Lindsay Kemp, “The Kate Inside” is packed with more than 300 photographs from his extensive Kate Bush archives. They include all of Guido’s classic images of Kate, a wealth of outtakes, contact sheets, unseen photographs and other materials (including test Polaroids and cards by Kate) that are showcased in it for the first time. we wish Guido every success with this project. As Del Palmer has said on our site comments: “…this book is going to be a real “must have”!!…it’s superb and will be well worth every penny!!” Ordering details here

Warm congratulations to John Carder Bush! His 2014 republished edition of “Cathy”, photographs of his sister Kate as a young girl with accompanying text, was the recipient of the Best Photographic Book, Art/Architecture Monographs Award 2015 at the British Book Design and Production Awards on Thursday 26th November.

Very much a book industry event, the ceremony was held at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel in Knightbridge, presented by comedian and author Mark Watson.

The awards, which seek to recognise those that “continuously innovate, push the boundaries and embrace new technologies”, were held by the British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) in association with Oxford Brookes University, The Bookseller and The Publishers Association.

“Cathy” can be ordered on Amazon here and some copies of a signature boxed edition of the book are still available here. His latest book, Kate: Inside the Rainbow, is available here.

[youtube width=”425″ height=”384″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tcwMwTE1RE[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4pSKeLw8gE[/youtube]

Update: If you are in London, you can still catch some of the Before the Dawn costume and set designs at the V&A Museum in London as part of their Make/Believe exhibit. Read more at the V&A website here. The exhibition runs till January 3rd 2016.

It’s a modest exhibition that takes up just one of the four rooms (Room 104) in the Theatre and Performance area of the museum. Robert Allsopp’s fish skeleton masks and Dick Bird’s set design for Watching You Without Me are on display as well as photos of set sketches and rehearsal photos.

From the Financial Times review:

“…a small show of British stage design at the V&A in London, embraces an eye-watering variety of events: the populist spectaculars of the London 2012 Olympics and Para-lympics closing ceremonies; Kate Bush’s instantly sold-out Before the Dawn shows, her first live performances for 35 years; the famous skeletal frame of the War Horse; extravaganzas for Miley Cyrus and designs for performances at Glastonbury…Make/Believe highlights the most popular and the most memorable moments in the past four years of British design for performance. The exhibits are by no means all as familiar as the examples above, but there are some original and striking designs here that indicate a British industry that is undersung in the media.”

Aerial, Kate’s astounding 8th studio album, and only double album, was released 10 years ago today! Wow, it seems so new to us still. Birdsong, Elvis, washing machines, deep oceans of memories and the profound magic of everyday life brought us one of Kate’s greatest ever works. Fans have been leaving their thoughts on the album at our Facebook page here and BBC Radio 6 Music also celebrated the occasion on their site.

Today’s edition of the Sunday UK newspaper The Observer has a 4-page feature in the Magazine supplement featuring photos from ‘Kate: Inside the Rainbow’ by John Carder Bush. Read more here. Note: As of Thursday Oct 22nd only 30 signature boxed editions remain – you can order them here.

John writes:

“For 20 years I was involved with my sister’s creative career as she rode the waves of fame. I started photographing her “professionally” in an almost accidental way. For her first album, The Kick Inside, her record company began to arrange for sessions with full-time photographers. The thought was daunting. So we thought we would have a session of our own at home – a chance to try out poses and looks. I borrowed some old tungsten lights on skinny, fragile stands that would throw you across the room if you were too ambitious with their circuitry.

The wash house which served as our studio was cold as there was no heating; a velvet curtain for the background was supplied by our mother. It didn’t feel particularly different from photographing Kate as I had when we were young. We could still hear our mother singing as she swept the yard outside the building and our father playing Schubert on the piano in the front room, and every so often my dog came in to see what was going on. Kate had a natural ability to make a connection with the camera, knowing what was needed to achieve a particular result.

Maybe it is the brother-sister connection that makes the pictures I took of her distinctive. It may also have something to do with where the photos were taken: it was always where we were living. I would turn a room into a studio, piling my kids’ bikes and toys into a corner to make way for the backcloth and the studio lights.

I never became a professional photographer. At the same time as taking photos, I was involved with her career on many other levels: driver, bookkeeper, bodyguard and executive producer, occasional backing vocalist. There was no time to pursue a career in photography with the kind of dedication it requires. The “product” was delivered and then we moved on to the next one; we didn’t look back.”

Click on this picture of Kate “on holiday on the Kent coast, 1972” for the HI-RES version:

Kate: Inside the Rainbow can be ordered from Amazon here.

The limited Signature Boxed Edition can be ordered here.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Kate Bush’s classic ‘Hounds of Love’, Vinyl & Wine in Dublin are hosting a special listening party on Sunday September 27th at 5pm. (Facebook event page is here)  

‘Hounds of Love’ will be played from start to finish on high-quality vinyl on a spectacular sound system, specially provided by Cloney Audio for this event. There will also be a panel discussion about the album, the artist and the album’s legacy, as well as a great vinyl giveaway! And Seán Twomey from katebushnews.com is one of the featured panelists 🙂

Last few remaining tickets are available here

Hounds of Love, the fifth studio album by Kate Bush was released on the 16th September 1985. It was a massive commercial and critical success and to this day regularly finds it’s way onto most lists and polls of the greatest albums of all time. Rightly so, it’s an exceptional work that continues to fascinate and inspire listeners. It is also clearly one of Kate’s favourite albums; she played almost all of the songs from the album during her live shows last year. We’re going to listen to it loud today!

To mark the occasion, the full album is being performed in its entirety this evening by tribute band Cloudbusting, in Islington, London. More here.