NME: “Adele, Kate Bush and PJ Harvey have landed nominations for best album at next month’s Ivor Novello awards, the first time that all the nods in the Best Album category are for women …
Album Award
’21’ by Adele
’50 Words For Snow’ by Kate Bush
‘Let England Shake’ by PJ Harvey.
The Ivor Novello Awards celebrate, honour and reward excellence in songwriting and composing. They are presented and judged by the writing community.
Whilst we’re on the subject of talent shows, New Zealander Laura passed her “blind 
audition” on Oz Nine Network’s ‘The Voice’ with a rendition of Wuthering Heights which went down very well.
“Close your eyes and open your ears, The Voice Australia is set to be the musical and social media phenomenon of 2012. On The Voice the four superstar musician coaches begin to select teams of twelve based solely on an artist’s voice. Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Keith Urban, are competing as coaches – each one hoping to discover, and nurture Australia’s next great voice. During the blind auditions, if a coach is impressed, they push a button to select the artist for their team of competitors, (they’ll need to select 12 acts in total). At this point, the coach’s chair will swivel so that they can face the artists they have selected. If more than one coach selects the artist, the power shifts to the artist who may choose which coach they want to work with throughout the competition. An artist is eliminated when they have not been chosen by one of our coaches who are superstar music talents themselves… ”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS35_sUUtg0[/youtube]
Laura is now part of coach Joel Madden’s team.
Somewhere the shade of Hughie Green must be very pleased that anyone should think Kate was the product of his ‘Opportunity Knocks’ …
Kate’s Wuthering Heights has been shortlisted in the 1970s section for ITVs “The Nation’s Favourite Number One Single”:
“2012 sees the 60th anniversary of the first ever UK singles chart. That’s 60 years of 
songs that have defined our lives, reflecting the rich history of a nation. And we’re searching for The Nation’s Favourite Number One Single. In three primetime shows on ITV1, we’ll tell the stories of 60 unforgettable Number One singles. We’ll also talk to chart-topping artists to find out their favourite Number Ones across the generations – and find out from the hit makers what makes a great single. Plus we’ll reveal the results of an ITV viewers’ vote to determine which song can truly be called our greatest number one ever…”
Kate’s nomination for 1978 appears on the the 1970s shortlist page:
“Kate Bush’s record company didn’t want to release this take on Emily Bronte’s gothic novel as her debut single – but Kate, who had written the song when she was just eighteen, dug her heels in. In so doing, ‘Wuthering Heights’ made her the first female to get to number one with her own composition.”
You can add your vote here.
Although she appeared to believe that the song was by Maxwell, and no-one on the judging 
panel corrected her, Essex girl Hope seriously impressed the panel with her rendition of Kate’s This Woman’s Work.
Hope had started with Jessie J’s Mamma Knows Best, but Simon Cowell complained: “I’ve heard that song so many times, “I want to hear something different to whatever anyone else is singing.” so Hope turned to Kate and won a standing ovation from the audience, and pass marks from the panel into the next part of the competition.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeaYFmMCik[/youtube]
Later: As a consequence of this it appears This Woman’s Work (both versions) has reappeared in the i-tunes Top 20.
Later Still: This from the Radio Times:
“Hope Murphy was from Upminster and was not ashamed to be an Essex girl. She was 16 but already had the flinty, aged look the county specialises in, with solid blonde hair and Barry M cladding. You could imagine her quite comfortably running a large pub/carvery. But her singing voice! Perfect clarity and hints of a freakish range achieved without effort.
She sang This Woman’s Work “by Maxwell” (it’s by Kate Bush!), a canny leftfield song choice arrived at after Simon, looking down at his producer’s notes to see the words “TELL HER TO CHANGE HER SONG”, told her to change her song. Shameless, but who cares any more?”
LSMedia on last night’s Maaike Breijman’s tribute gig:
“There may have been the odd one or two in the audience… that would have been in the 
audience the only time Kate Bush actually played in Liverpool and …the only ones to be there over 30 years later from that date to hear the sensational talent of Maaike Breijman go through two sets of the most sensual, inspiring and classic music from one of the queens of British popular music …There are not many women who would willingly go through so many costume changes in the name of music but as soon as Maaike came out on stage for the opening numbers of Moving, James and the Cold Gun and the haunting Babooshka, the audience knew they were in for a night that went …into the realms of performance high art…
The second act of the show was just as impressive with tracks such as This Woman’s Work, the incredible Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting and the sensational Wuthering Heights …This was so much more than a gig or even a celebration of music created by one of the most endearing song writers of her generation …it became a show of importance, a moment in time that captured the essence of the music and left the audience stunned by the spectacle and roaring with their approval…”
The New York Times remembers Theo Bleckman’s January live show, reviews his album of Kate covers, and interviews the man:
“I fell in love with her music in high school,” said Mr. Bleckmann, who said he listened to Ms. Bush’s recordings incessantly until his interests shifted toward jazz in his late teens. After hearing her 2005 record, “Aerial,” he revisited her old albums. “I thought, oh my God, this is still incredible: it’s actually better now,” he said. So Mr. Bleckmann decided to make a project out of it “because no one had ever treated her as a composer in that way,” he said. “There are a few cover versions out there, but that’s it. The songs are hard to do. Some are very rangy, and weird intervallic stuff is going on; there’s a lot of meter changes and uneven bars. There’s so much weirdness about it, which, of course, I love and is exactly the reason I wanted to do it …”
NPR previews and reviews Theo’s version of Love and Anger:
“Theo Bleckmann gives an enthralling reading of her classic “Love and Anger” … Bleckmann’s band loosens the rhythmic feel of “Love and Anger,” making it more suitable for jazz interpretation without sacrificing its surging momentum and bucolic sensibility. His limpid baritone soars amid the sumptuous rearrangement, as he conveys the song’s themes of unspeakable hurt, disappointment and the thorny process of forgiveness and liberation. Bleckmann articulates this jumble of mixed emotions with sonic and sentimental clarity … Grasping and then expressing the meaning of Bush’s words takes both a sharp mind and a soulful heart. Bleckmann brings both to the fore with idiosyncratic ingenuity.”
Daily Telegraph 2nd April: 
“Three female singers will go head-to-head in the pop music category for the sixteenth South Bank Sky Arts Awards.
The 2012 list is female-only, with PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake and Kate Bush’s 50 Words For Snow going up against Adele’s best-selling 21 …”
We understand that there are 1,000 10″ picture discs of Lake Tahoe / Among Angels being pressed for sale in the UK, to be sold only at stores taking part in Record Store Day and then another 1,000 that are for the international stores taking part in the EMI territories, which is everywhere except the USA. Details of which shops are included can be found at the Record Store Day website.
“Kate Bush has been named the best mum in our Mother’s Day poll.
The mother-of-one, and ‘Wuthering Heights’ pop innovator, beat mouthy Londoner Lily Allen into second place. Also placed in the Top Five were Chris Martin’s wife, and Glee performer, Gwyneth Paltrow, US soul singer Alicia Keys and brilliant Icelandic nutter, Bjork ...”
As part of Record Store Day on Saturday 21st April, Kate will release a limited edition 10″ vinyl picture disc. The disc will feature two songs from Kate’s current album, 50 Words For Snow: Lake Tahoe and Among Angels. The disc artwork features imagery from her 2012 film Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe and also an ice sculpture by Robert Allsopp & Associates. According to Kate’s official site, this will be a limited edition of 2000 copies.
The single, which follows last year’s Record Store Day 10″ Hounds of Love EP, will only be available in participating record stores from the morning of Saturday 21st. These limited releases are intended to encourage people to support and rediscover the joy of their local independent record store. Read more about Record Store Day (and participating record stores) here.
Ann Powers and Patrick Jarenwattananon at NPR Music on Theo Bleckman’s jazz-inflected cover album of Kate’s music Hello Earth!:
“The singular vocalist Theo Bleckmann released a new disc today dedicated to the songs 
of English singer-songwriter Kate Bush. In other words, it’s an album where one inimitable singer with a small but dedicated fan base reinterprets another. There’s not much in the way of ding-ding-a-ling on Hello Earth! The Music of Kate Bush. But there is, perhaps, a jazz aesthetic: It grooves, and makes room for interactive improvisation from a talented band… I sensed a number of sympathies between Bleckmann and Bush, starting with their mutual taste for gorgeous idiosyncrasy. Butlike many Americans, I wasn’t too familiar with the source material. So I wrote to a big Kate Bush fan who happens to be my colleague: the esteemed pop critic Ann Powers, of NPR Music’sThe Record. Here’s the discussion we had …“
From Noise.11.com (Australia):
Robyn Loau has recorded a cover of the Kate Bush classic ‘Wuthering Heights’.
Two versions of the song were done, one with Josh Abrahams and Davide Carbone 
(S:amplify) in Melbourne and the other with Stu Hunter in Sydney.
“Kate Bush is a genius and I’ve adored this song for so long. It is exhilarating, beautiful and twisted. While this is a complicated tale of eternal love, the thought of haunting a bastard ex lover from beyond the grave appeals to me… and why the hell not?!! I’m sure that’s what I’ll be doing!” she said in a statement.
The original ‘Wuthering Heights’ was written by Kate Bush in 1978. It reached the top of the charts in the UK, USA and Australia.
Robyn’s version is available on her ‘Only Human’ album.
From the Daily Telegraph 6th March 2013:
“3. Kate Bush
Her florid, elaborate, mysterious recordings may be the most utterly female pop music ever made, elaborate bulletins from across the gender divide. A true one- off, Kate Bush opens windows to her inner world, dropping a needle in the groove of her psyche. This is the musical motherload.”
Picture: Dawn Wilsher
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