Kate’s book of lyrics, How To Be Invisible was published in a new paperback version last week and is now available in book shops across the UK and Ireland. A very limited amount of signed copies have also been sent out to those who managed to pre-order them from selected retailers in January. Publisher Faber have announced that they are “delighted that the paperback of Kate Bush’s How To Be Invisible has entered the charts this week as a Top Ten Sunday Times Bestseller“
Kate’s new introduction is a lovely addition to this paperback edition. Replacing the original introduction to the 2018 hardback edition written by Kate’s friend and collaborator David Mitchell, Kate has now written a very personal five page piece about what her written words mean to her, remembering how she would crawl as child, under her father’s piano, and listen to him while he played, leading to her profound relationship with that special instrument and her songwriting. “I was extremely prolific when I was very young”. It’s a truly wonderful read, well worth the purchase alone.
Sunday Times Bestsellers April 16th 2023
It’s great to hear that so many fans are now reading her lyrics with new eyes, much as she had hoped herself. Kate references the process involved in creating the lyrics to songs like Cloudbusting, Mrs Bartolozzi and Snowflake while citing the influence of the likes of author Alan Garner, singer Frank Sinatra, The Trio Bulgarka and the band King Crimson on her wordcraft. She even reveals the roots of her very early composition The Man With The Child In His Eyes; a mystery man she recently met again who had no idea he was the subject she was “madly in love with” as a young teenager!
As announced, a very small number of those copies have invisible ink messages inscribed on the signed page from Kate – only visible under UV light. Secret messages from Kate include “Boo!”, “Now, You’ve Read Between the Lines”, “Can’t See The Words For The Trees?”, and “Now You Don’t, Now You See Me!” Special copies indeed!
It was very sad to hear today that the wonderful Scottish guitarist, Ian Bairnson, has passed away after a long battle with dementia. The news was confirmed by a post on his wife Leila’s Facebook page. Ian played guitar on many tracks on Kate’s first two albums and also backing vocals on Oh To Be In Love and beer bottles on Room For The Life. Later he recorded bass voices on the song Delius and went on to play guitar on Leave it Open from The Dreaming album. He is probably best known to fans for his iconic guitar solo on Wuthering Heights which closes out Kate’s hit single. His stunning work on these songs will forever have a place in our hearts.
Update 21st April: Kate has added her thoughts on Ian’s passing on her official site:
Ian
I was very sad to hear the news about the death of Ian Bairnson. He was a very sweet man. He was a huge talent and had a fabulous voice with an extraordinary vocal range but he was mainly known for his guitar work. We lost touch after we worked together on my early albums but I remember he had a lovely, warm smile and he played the inspired solo on Wuthering Heights with a broken arm. He was still wearing the cast! He was in a lot of pain but soldiered on and like all great artists, he truly suffered for his art. Making my first album was pretty daunting and I was working with people I’d never met before. Ian was kind and supportive and that meant such a lot. Thank you, Ian. Kate
He was a session guitarist before joining up in 1973 with former Bay City Rollers musicians David Paton and Billy Lyall in the band Pilot, and contributed the harmony guitar parts to their hit single, ‘Magic’. Ian was best known for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. A glittering career included work on over one hundred albums and a huge amount of live work with artists such as Al Stewart, Joe Cocker, Jon Anderson, Chris DeBurgh, Mick Fleetwood, Neil Diamond, Sting, Eric Clapton, Beverley Craven and many more.
Sending our sincere thoughts and condolences to his wife, family, friends and loved ones today.
In January this year the katebushnews.com website turned 25 years old! In this episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast Seán celebrates this hard-to-believe milestone by asking some fan friends to cherry-pick their choice of news stories, both obscure and momentous, from the site archives which date back to 1998! An enjoyable, eclectic chat with guests Dave Cross, Paul Thomas and Darrell Babidge! Here’s links to the news stories that we chose from the archives:
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
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Kate has signed copies of the Running Up That Hill CD single, issued in 2022
Kate has donated a number of signed Running Up That Hill CD singles to the annual Cabaret vs Cancer charity music auction. Cabaret vs Cancer was set up in 2016 and raises money through cabaret and burlesque shows as well as themed online auctions to help people coping with the effects of cancer. Kate has donated signed items for the previous two music auctions. Dave Cross from HomeGround Magazine is a patron of the charity, and last year organised a Kate themed cabaret fundraiser at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. The music auction also includes signed items from Kim Wilde, Belinda Carlisle, The Pet Shop Boys, Stormzy, Taylor Swift, Joan Armatrading and many limited edition vinyl and CD collectibles. Please do check out the auction online here, a wonderful cause – thanks Dave!
Interesting news this lunchtime, Kate’s official Fish People site and social media channels have been updated with a brand new logo design. The logo has been designed by Timorous Beasties who previously designed the Between Two Worlds sea/sky artwork for the Before The Dawn concert programme which later also featured on the Remastered CD box sets. (UPDATE: her site now also features some wonderfully hidden fishy secrets – see bottom of this post!) The updates come as she announces via her official site that from March 1st 2023 she is moving her album catalogue from Warner Music Group over to The state51 Conspiracy with the following albums:
The Dreaming Hounds of Love The Sensual World The Red Shoes Aerial Directors Cut 50 Words For Snow The Kick Inside (USA only) Lionheart (USA only) Never For Ever (USA only)
Kate will be re-releasing the Hounds of Love album in special presentations of vinyl and CD later in the year. A brand new range of Fish People merchandise featuring the new logo design has also been launched, including a soon to be released jigsaw, vinyl slipmats and aprons! The news item finishes with this note: “Fish People continue to have an ongoing positive relationship with WMG.” You can read more about The state51 Conspiracy here. Update July 2024: An additional Fish People logo beach towel has been added to the range.
UPDATE: Kate is clearly having a lot of fun with this business refresh! Be sure to click on the “O” of the word PEOPLE on the new logo on the landing page of www.katebush.com – it will reveal some wonderful, cryptic Fish People secrets! FISHY SPOILERS BELOW
From the hidden section behind Kate’s new logo :
Fish People were a civilisation which became lost around 900 BC. Little is known about them other than they walked out from the seas onto the land one day when no-one was looking. It is believed that they were centuries ahead of their time. Their culture was not defined by wealth or social status and they abolished all violence as they believed in the harmony of nature and the equality of all oceans.
Their mystical language was thought to originate from The Tethys Trench. They could speak simultaneously to all aquatic creatures and to most of the humans in the Western Hemisphere. There were certain frequencies in their language that could only be understood by small crustaceans and very young children.
The full meaning of where their distinctive letterforms came from, has been lost. Many believe that these originated from the complex migrational paths of birds and a cellular-level understanding of the underwater mammals that had moved around them.
Fish People were said to have walked back into the seas one night when everyone was having dinner and it was foretold that they would again return to land when their teachings would be needed to heal a wounded world.
The seven variants of The Kick Inside sleeve, including the 1988 Swedish cassette variant! Photo: Monty Moncrieff
Today marks 45 years since the release of The Kick Inside, Kate’s brilliant debut record! It sounds as beguiling today as all those years ago. This album is a companion for life. Below you can hear Kate in 1978 talking about the songs on the album from the US “Self Portrait” radio special promotional disc.
As we celebrate, don’t forget our news archives have lots of features about this album and its legacy: like the time the entire album was played live by Cloudbusting for the 40th anniversary of the album when Del Palmer played Kate Bush songs on stage for the first time in decades…or this detailed look at the creation of the famous ‘Kite’ cover…don’t forget to listen to the recent BBC Radio feast of programming to mark the 45th anniversary…not to mention the many, many news features we have ran about the album’s worldwide hit single, Wuthering Heights! And do check out all those The Kick Inside collectibles…
Czech coloured vinyl reissues of The Kick Inside. Photo: Monty MoncrieffSeán Twomey
www.katebushnews.com
BBC Radio 6 Music goes back to the beginning this week with a very special all-day ‘deep dive’ to mark the 45th anniversary of Kate’s debut album, The Kick Inside. Listeners can hear the album in full, a track each hour, kicking off on Chris Hawkin‘s show (5am), followed by Lauren Laverne (7.30am), Mary Anne Hobbs (10.30am), Craig Charles (1pm) and Steve Lamacq (4pm) – full schedule on BBC site. Each song will be preceded by a specially-recorded voice note from an artist or creative, talking about how Kate, and her seminal album, inspired them. The shows will also have lots of other music from 1978.
There has already been more great programming this week to accompany the celebration on BBC Sounds, including Kate Bush At The BBC – a collection of interviews and performances recorded over the years – Classic Albums: Hounds of Love, in which she talks to Richard Skinner about the making of the the 1985 long-player, and more Kate Bush-inspired playlists. Here are Listen again links to those five archive programmes:
Kate Bush, Deep Dive Into The Kick Inside The Duffer Brothers, Peaches, KD Lang and many others celebrate Kate Bush’s debut album. Listen again
Kate Bush, Kate Bush: In Their Own Words Kate Bush reveals her story through recordings from the BBC archives. Listen again
Kate Bush, Kate Bush: Hounds of Love Kate Bush talks to Richard Skinner about her best-selling 1985 album. Listen again
Kate Bush, The Kate Bush Playlist A playlist celebrating Kate Bush hosted and curated by Anna Calvi. Listen again
Kate Bush, For Fans of Kate Bush One hour of great music curated for fans of Kate Bush: Bowie, Alanis Morissette + more. Listen again
It’s hard to believe, but on this day, 25 years ago, I launched the Kate Bush News & Information website on the 25th January 1998. I had no training in HTML or web design or photoshop (could you tell?!!) but I was driven by a need to put something on the web that I felt was sorely lacking at the time – a site that told the world that, despite a 5 year absence (at that point) Kate was still a contemporary and very influential artist and there was still PLENTY of Kate-related news to report and get excited about. Basically…I wanted to make a website that I could browse myself and enjoy (and weirdly I often found myself doing just that!) It was a different online world then – no Google, Facebook, Youtube or Twitter, and it was a lot of hard work gathering news and doing updates without the luxury of things like WordPress – it was a labour of love.
The News page of Kate Bush News & Information in 1998
Luckily the site rapidly gained in popularity and fans became very generous and helpful informing me of all kinds of news from all over the world. Five years later, in April 2003, I launched the site forum which became a thriving meeting place for all manner of discussion and debate among Kate fans. My friends in HomeGround even agreed to have their home here on the site and we have enjoyed many exclusive stories and announcements over the years – like when Kate wanted to tell her fans about her son’s birth through the site or when we were the first place anywhere in the world to officially announce the Aerial release after 12 long years between albums! More recently we’ve had the most extensive coverage anywhere of Kate’s massive global success with Running Up That Hill in the summer of 2022.
Wallpapers designed by Brian Cloughley celebrating our 5th anniversary in 2003
I’m very proud of the fact that this site is still the highest ranked dedicated Kate Bush site on Google searches for “Kate Bush” after Kate’s own official site. As we continue to do what we do, here on the main site and across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and on our Kate Bush Fan podcasts, I’d like to thank you all so much for all the support and goodwill you’ve shown this site over the last two and a half decades. Special thanks to Peter, Krys and Dave from HomeGround, to Paddy Bush, John Carder Bush and Del Palmer for their warm support, to Brian Cloughley for so much amazing graphic work over the years, to Paul and Darrell for their Bush Telegraph podcast series, to Mike Wade for steering the forum through all kinds of drama during the early years, and to my family and friends who must have often thought I was a bit mad. And of course to Kate for making the extraordinary music that has brought us all together. You’ve been great – THANKS! – Seán x
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The News page of Kate Bush News & Information in early 2005
The one that started it all. Kate’s breathtaking debut single, Wuthering Heights, was released 45 years ago today on January 20th 1978! Music writer Sam Liddicott has put together a new podcast episode to celebrate. You can hear Seán talking about Wuthering Heights [Seán is at 1:02:15 but this special also includes DJ Mark Radcliffe, performer Sarah-Louise Young and the music writer Tom Doyle] Thanks, Sam!
Here is what Kate herself had to say about the song in a 1979 Kate Bush Fan Club newsletter:
Well, I wrote it in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March at about midnight. There was a full moon and the curtains were open, and every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon. Actually, it came quite easily. I couldn’t seem to get out of the chorus – it had a really circular feel to it, which is why it repeats. I had originally written something more complicated, but I couldn’t link it up, so I kept the first bit and repeated it. I was really pleased, because it was the first song I had written for a while, as I’d been busy rehearsing with the KT Band.
I felt a particular want to write it, and had wanted to write it for quite a while. I remember my brother John talking about the story, but I couldn’t relate to it enough. So I borrowed the book and read a few pages, picking out a few lines. So I actually wrote the song before I had read the book right through. The name Cathy helped, and made it easier to project my own feelings of want for someone so much that you hate them. I could understand how Cathy felt.
It’s funny, but I heard a radio programme about a woman who was writing a book in Old English, and she found she was using words she didn’t know, but when she looked them up she found they were correct. A similar thing happened with ‘Wuthering Heights’: I put lines in the song that I found in the book when I read it later.
I’ve never been to Wuthering Heights, the place, though I would like to, and someone sent me a photo of where it’s supposed to be.
One thing that really pleases me is the amount of positive feedback I’ve had from the song, though I’ve heard that the Bronte Society think it’s a disgrace. A lot of people have read the book because of the song and liked it, which I think is the best thing about it for me. I didn’t know the book would be on the GCE syllabus in the year I had the hit, but lots of people have written to say how the song helped them. I’m really happy about that.
There are a couple of synchronicities involved with the song. When Emily Bronte wrote the book she was in the terminal stages of consumption, and I had a bad cold when I wrote the song. Also, when I was in Canada I found out that Lindsay Kemp, my dance teacher, was in town, only ten minutes away by car, so I went to see him. When I came back I had this urge to switch on the TV – it was about one in the morning – because I knew the film of Wuthering Heights would be on. I tuned in to a thirties gangster film, then flicked through the channels, playing channel roulette, until I found it. I came in at the moment Cathy was dying, so that’s all I saw of the film. It was an amazing coincidence.
Faber are publishing the paperback edition of ‘How To Be Invisible: Selected Lyrics’, by Kate, officially released 6th April in the UK and 9th May in the USA. The new paperback edition features a brand new introduction from Kate and a new cover design by Jim Kay. Can you spot the hidden KT symbol on the cover?
The book will be available to pre-order from today (18th January). A very limited number of signed copies will be released and can be pre-ordered from selected bookshops and record shops (including Waterstones and Rough Trade), from 9am on Friday 20th January (UK only).
Kate has also written a message in invisible ink in a very small number of the signed copies, which will be distributed at random: the notes will be revealed to the lucky recipients when they place the signature page under an ultraviolet light.
‘The greatest singer-songwriter of the past forty years, whose work is complex, ethereal and filled with so many secrets that one can listen to the albums for decades and still discover new delights every time [. . .] There’s not a spare word anywhere in Bush’s work. Everything means something.’ Irish Times
I’m heartbroken to hear the news. Jeff was a real one-off, He was so adorable and funny – incredibly lovable. He was one of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known. We’ve lost one of our brightest stars and the heavens now have one of our heroes. Kate
Jeff Beck, the celebrated guitarist who played with the Yardbirds and led the Jeff Beck Group, has died aged 78. Jeff played guitar on Kate’s song You’re The One from The Red Shoes album in 1993. Kate wrote in the fan club magazine at the time: “I love Jeff Beck’s guitar on this song – he is a big fan of The Trio (Bulgarka) and was very keen to work with their melodies in the song. The idea was for him to gradually “step into” the track and slowly make his presence felt, to end with an outspoken solo. I was really honoured to work with all the people on this album…”
In an interview with Del Palmer in Sound on Sound magazine in 1993, Del remembers the tech set up for the session: Jeff playing his signature Stratocaster for You’re The One in the control room with a tiny amp positioned underneath the front of the console and miked with a U87 positioned three inches away to the side and pointing in. “I was sitting at the console, Kate was to my right and Jeff was seated about four feet behind,” explains Palmer, “so she could talk to him and was able to both operate the deck and stand up to adjust the rack.” Kate had also previously worked with Max Middleton, a former member of Jeff Beck’s band on her album Never For Ever.
According to a Jeff Beck biography titled Hot Wired Guitar, Kate was somewhat surprised by Beck’s choice of guitar for the session, recoiling in horror at the sight of his Surf Green Strat! “She said it was the ugliest guitar she’d ever seen”, Jeff laughed. “She nearly vomited at the sight of it.” Mark Savage of the BBC summed up Jeff’s towering influence: “His tone, presence and, above all, volume redefined guitar music in the 1960s, and influenced movements like heavy metal, jazz-rock and even punk.” Our thoughts are with Jeff Beck’s family, friends and fans this evening.
If you’re planning to go see the new Tom Hanks film, A Man Called Otto, listen out for Kate’s song This Woman’s Work which is used to score a big emotional set-piece in the film. Directed by Marc Foster, here is the film synopsis: “When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.” We are hearing that fans who have seen the film have been particularly moved by the sequence featuring Kate’s classic song.
I was so saddened and shocked to hear the news on Christmas Eve that our friend and fellow Kate Bush fan, that amazing whirlwind of enthusiastic energy, Michael Byrne, had passed away after a short illness that came so unexpectedly upon him over the last couple of months. Mere weeks ago I had been chatting with Michael, a fellow Dubliner, about him hopefully attending the performance of Kate’s songs in the Irish language in Smock Alley Theatre with me – something I know he’d have been ecstatic about, but he wasn’t well enough.
Michael, a kind, industrious, soft-spoken man who ran a creative publishing company in Dublin, first came to my attention during lockdown in 2020 – contacting me to feel out an ambitious, high quality Kate Bush coffee table book project, Finding Kate, that he was undertaking with his colleague, the supremely talented Irish designer and illustrator, Marius Herbert. Needing something to throw his endless energy into while business took a pandemic downturn, his passion and sincerity as a fan managed to convince me that this was going to be special so I was on board, plugging his crowdfunding campaign (it wasn’t a cheap book to produce) and helping to spread the word. Michael succeeded in getting interviews on national Irish radio and press articles about the book, and I am delighted that we got the chance to record an episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast together all about the Finding Kate project. You can hear it here – it’s so wonderful to be able to hear him talk last year about realising his dream project. The detailed effort that went into creating each image is so evident in his voice.
‘Hello Earth’ – from ‘Finding Kate’ by Michael Byrne and Marius Herbert
The early peeks I got of the book were breathtakingly good. The reaction from fans was highly enthusiastic, the book was hailed as a great success. As I wrote before on this site, “it was a joy to leaf through the pages of the book and talk through this impressive piece of work with its clearly relieved and delighted creators. As promised, the book is a visual feast, illustrating twenty six of Kate’s songs across sumptuous double-page spreads. The songs have been chosen by Michael, a major Kate Bush fan (it shows!) who writes beautifully about each song’s significance in Kate’s career and what they mean to him.”
Some of the sumptuous reward items crowdfunders received with their early orders
“The unexpectedly generous introduction sections by Michael throughout constitute a wonderful, concise synopsis of Kate’s recording career, so there’s plenty of great reading here for both casual and more hardcore fans of Kate. But, this large LP-sized book is intended to be a visual feast and Marius has produced some breathtaking images filled with detail and touches that were agonised over for months between the pair – a honeybee flies across the pages from a near psychedelic explosion of Kate in colourful nature imagery (and a familiar yellow sun-design) for Delius, a floating, angel-winged electric guitar poignantly reflects the departed musicians name-checked in Blow Away (for Bill), a water-submerged Kate simultaneously floats, dreamlike, above the planet for Hello Earth, an Irish dancer’s feet captured in whirling mid-step on a flagstone floor for Jig of Life, four glorious pages devoted to A Sky of Honey where the crimson, red and rust of golden hour transform a female figure into an explosion of feathered wings and avian friends, soaring skyward…and so many, many more surprising visuals.”
Michael Byrne, Mandy Watson (Cloudbusting) and Marius Herbert – Dublin, July 2022
Michael had told me that one of the sparks of inspiration to do the book came from seeing the Kate tribute band Cloudbusting play in The Sugar Club in Dublin, so it was my pleasure just a few short months ago in July to arrange for Michael and Marius to meet the band backstage before their Dublin gig, where he presented the band members with copies of the book. It was plain to see the joy and pride Michael had on his face as he explained the book and thanked the band for spreading Kate’s music out into the world. He was floating on air. I had no way of knowing that was the last time I’d see him, but I’m glad it was such a joyous occasion for him. Very recently, Michael managed to get the book mentioned again on national radio here in Ireland, presenter Ryan Tubridy truly impressed by the book – a flood of new orders ensued. Of course.
Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Michael’s wife Deirdre, his children Holly, Conor and Alyson and to all his family and friends. He will be terribly missed. An online book of condolence is here. We especially send a big hug to Marius, who patiently and painstakingly helped Michael to put together something that remains utterly unique for Kate’s fans around the world to enjoy. Marius, your illustration work is exquisite. You have done yourself and Michael so very proud. I would urge anyone reading this to get your copy of the book to see it for yourself. It’s available to order worldwide from https://findingkatebook.com/ – RIP Michael, you did it x
This new episode of The Kate Bush Fan Podcast is the third and final installment from Bush Telegraph celebrating the 40th anniversary of The Dreaming – arguably, Kate Bush’s most forward-thinking album. Paul and Darrell introduce this episode, and then Darrell chats with Nick Launay, Kate’s prolific engineer at Townhouse Studios. His collaboration with Kate created a synergy of ideas that ended up on this iconic album. Exclusive stories are heard on this podcast, where we get an expanded view of how these almost operatic tracks were produced, including more details of the title track. As an added bonus, we also get to hear how ‘Lord Of The Reedy River’ (b-side to the first single ‘Sat In Your Lap’) was recorded next to a dank pool under the studio floorboards. And if that doesn’t whet your appetite, which we’re sure it will, find out who Kate nearly recorded a duet with. Thanks again to Nick Launay, also known for his work with other great artists such as Nick Cave, Public Image Ltd., Lou Reed, Talking Heads and Arcade Fire.
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes or Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Stitcher or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
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Kate has posted a very thoughtful message on her official site this evening reflecting on a year of highs and lows and ending on a beautiful, hopeful note. Happy Christmas to you, Kate, an amazing year for your music around the world.
Merry Christmas
Every year seems to fly by a little faster. They say this happens as you get older, but there’s no doubt that the speed of life is accelerating at a greater rate than ever. I don’t think any of us have ever known a year like this one. Life became incredibly frightening in the pandemic, but just as we think it might be over soon, it seems to keep going. It’s a bombardment – the horrific war in Ukraine, the famines, the droughts, the floods… and we lost our Queen. Many of my friends were surprised at how upset they were at her death especially as we aren’t royalists, but I think her passing became a focus for grief, for unexpressed loss that so many people had felt during the pandemic. It’s been a crazy, roller coaster year for me. I still reel from the success of RUTH, being the No 1 track of this summer. What an honour! It was really exciting to see it doing so well globally, but especially here in the UK and Australia; and also to see it making it all the way to No 3 in the US. It was such a great feeling to see so many of the younger generation enjoying the song. It seems that quite a lot of them thought I was a new artist! I love that! Again, thank you so much to everyone who supported the track and made it a hit. I wonder where on earth we’ll all be at the end of next year? I hope the war will end. I hope that the nurses will be in a position where they are appreciated – they should be cherished. Let’s all hope that next year will be better than this one. I keep thinking about hope and how it was the last to fly out of Pandora’s box. Sometimes it’s all that seems to glow in the dark times we find ourselves in right now. I used a little robin in some of my Christmas gifts to friends this year. I felt that this humble little bird, which symbolises Christmas could also symbolise hope in the context of Emily Dickinson’s beautiful words: Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. I‘d like to think that this Christmas when joy is so hard to find, hope will perch in all our souls. Merry Christmas! All best wishes, Kate
