Never for Ever, a Kate Bush tribute band that operate in the northwest of the UK have been adding new gig dates for the 2011 season. (see our gigs listing here). The highlight is a potential slot at this years Glastonbudget festival. To make it through, one of their gigs is also an audition for the festival. It takes place on Saturday 26th February at 9pm at The Shed in Leicester. It’s a single 45 minute set, half the band’s usual set length. They’d love as many Kate fans to come along as possible to enjoy the gig and help make the audition successful! We have more on Never For Ever – including the show setlist here.
Joe Hendry: “Painting kate Bush, it has to be said, for me is a similar experience to painting Debbie Harry. I completely lose myself whilst I am painting and usually listen to the music of the subject of the painting.
This celebrity art is oil on board and I became quite obsessive in my approach to painting this portrait of Kate. I wanted to keep smoothing it out and making the face as slick as possible. The odd thing was, as I was listening to her song “An Architect’s Dream” (which features Rolf Harris no less), the line about her favourite piece being the mistake in the artist’s work. At that point I decided that this portrait was perfect …”
Read the full article and comments here
Derek Erdman on The Stranger writes: “In 2002 I met a bunch of really tough guys. Not guys that were going around beating people up, they were more like ultra-crusties that ate garbage food and slept in boxes outside. They moved into an abandoned house near my house .. they burned newspaper logs in barrels for warmth and grilled pots of vegetables to eat. The pots were just full of vegetable slop that they kept adding garbage produce into, with hot sauce. .. One guy was called VV because he was from West Virginia .. He and I were the closest, we talked a lot about life and music because we both had similar childhoods and both worked in record stores .. He tried so hard to get me into Kate Bush, but for some reason I just never really liked her music. He’d play me records and tell me about her life and how she wrote her songs, he was totally obsessed with her. For some reason I never got it …”
Read the full article and comments here
“The critical reflex for such singers who appear vaguely “kooky” – Bat For Lashes, Alison Goldfrapp, Florence Welch – is to compare them to Kate Bush. Denny is more seldom invoked, which seems unfair, as she was the one who opened the way for others to follow .. She died – aged 32, of a brain injury resulting from a fall – in 1978, the year Kate Bush, the most iconic, unconventional and self-reliant female artist of the 1980s, released her first recordings (Bush namechecked her on Never For Ever)” Guardian 8th January … “Three Potential Royal Wedding Singers who may not be considered, but should be include Kate Bush, Dido and Annie Lennox” Pam Gaulin Celebs 11th January … “Guy Pearce admits he loved working with Kate Winslet on the Depression-era drama Mildred Pierce because he has a bit of a crush on most Kates: “Ahhh Kate Bush, still is in fact [my biggest crush] – it’s her voice, how she looks, just the strange unique creature that she is!” Guy insisted” PA 16th January … “The overall effect is so gripping, so chilling even, that it wouldn’t be remiss to mention this song in the same breath as another great anti-war lament by a British female genius – namely, Kate Bush’s ‘Army Dreamers'” Nick Levine on The Words that Maketh Murder by PJ Harvey Digital Spy 17th January …
“The press release further cites the band’s musical influences as including Morbid Angel, Emperor, Darkthrone, Neurosis, and…Kate Bush? Kate Bush? I guess that’s cool…? I mean, my mom likes Kate Bush. Oh wait, no…she doesn’t. So not even my mom likes Kate Bush. My mom is more metal.” Chris Harris on Dark Meditations in Monastic Seclusion the new album by Shroud of Despondency Gun Shy Assasin 21st January … “Many years ago, while up a hill with the Kate Bush Fan Club eating magic fudge, Zoe stumbled upon the secret of inner peace. Just live life and be happy” Preview of Zoe Lyons ‘Clownbusting’ show Liverpool Echo 21st January … “When you like everything from Dethklok to Kate Bush, I figure there has to be some sort of unifying theme. And I think it’s this: I don’t like music that feels ungrounded. You can’t kick me in the ass if you don’t have a foot on the floor. I don’t like wimpy music. (This one is hard to explain. I’ll have to try to expound on it in future entries.) I don’t like jangly guitars. I don’t like music that feels unwieldy or feels as if it’s floating in the ether. Even though Kate’s stuff is somewhat ethereal, her songs have a certain…insistence…to them that keeps them grounded” Beth Spencer Digital Artist 21st January …
“ISR: Where do you see yourself five years from now? TAIO – I would love to be having lunch with Kate Bush” interview with Break-our new wave band Kites Indie Soup 21st January … “Gemini gets a U.S. release in February with the cover of Cloudbusting the “expansion”. Wild Nothing’s dreamy, shoegaze-type sound is a perfect fit for this interpretation of the Kate Bush song and Wild Nothing, essentially a one-man show, renders it in a heavenly, ethereal manner that is quite delightful” Review Grounds for Appeal 22nd January … “Mila Soldatic is singing Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush. Mila sings this operatic song well, although not sure how many people will remember this song when it comes to voting. She is draped in a gold skirt. She has a bit of a scary gaze when she looks into the camera” Report on Croatia heat for Eurovision 2011 Oikotimes 22nd January … “The first gig I ever had was engineer on Kate Bush’s first album. We used to go out for a joint every morning, and I would spend the rest of the day trying to pretend I wasn’t stoned out of my box. I used to blush whenever I spoke to her, she was that good-looking. I was only nineteen” Ian Maclean now head of A&R somewhere The Fantastic Hope 22nd January … Kate Bush vs Prince mashup Vicious Imagery 23rd January … Dinosaur Dinosaur’s cover of Running Up That Hill Silent Shout 23rd January …
“The record features .. a clutch of cover versions, including a faithfully high-pitched take on Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights” Nick Bond’s review of Robyn Loau’s second solo album Sydney Star Observer 24th January … Just in case you missed it I Love Kate Bush – a blog … and the Kate Bush Appreciation thread on Digital Spy … “What I’m going for is to make music that’s emotional and honest. I mean, I grew up listening to Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, singing songs about making deals with God and all that. It doesn’t all have to be about falling in love, meeting the right person, being in a club and being rich and dancing around!” Natalia Kills Boston Pheonix 26th January … The Old Cheeser reviews Graeme Thompson 29th January … and another Kate Bush blog Babushka Kate Bush … the Bronte Blog spots new cover versions of Kate’s first single 31st January … and Cat Party are having a Kate Bush appreciation week.
Tim Wakefield – Soundwaves print of the Kate Bush song Aerial – signed by the artist and Kate Bush
Kate has chosen the title song from the Aerial album to be interpreted by UK artist Tim Wakefield in one of his highly collectible “Soundwaves” artworks. The resulting prints, described as stunning artworks created from digital images formed in the recording process, sample a section of the song. Wakefield listens to the music, the lyrics and the tempo of the song to decide what colours and shapes he’s looking for before presenting them to the music artist. He has devised a technique to enlarge and customise these images, transforming them into lar
Dimensions: Print Size 660mm X 660mm Medium: Archival Digital Print On Paper Limited Edition: 50 Worldwide (Please note: the actual prints do not feature the ‘Soundwaves’ watermark as seen above)
The prints are available to purchase from St Pauls Gallery here. The gallery is exclusively offering our site visitors a 10% discount. The discount code is WTOYT154 (case sensitive). Interested buyers can put this code in the ‘get discount’ box then press ‘recalculate’ at check out. This will apply the katebushnews.com discount.
There is a limited run of 50 ‘Aerial’ prints worldwide, each one hand-signed by Kate and Tim Wakefield, and individually hand-numbered. They are sold in co-operation with the Nordoff Robbins charity, which brings music’s transforming power to children and adults in need, through the delivery of music therapy services, music and health projects and community music projects, as well as education programmes and research. Other artists who have taken part in the Soundwaves charity project include Sir Paul McCartney, George Michael, Pink Floyd, The Bee Gees, The Killers, Tina Turner and Kings Of Leon. Recently, all four members of Abba signed Soundwaves prints based on their music.
Jazzonline writes: “We recently ran a post about jazz singer Theo Bleckmann and his brilliant concert of the songs of underrated British pop artist & songwriter Kate Bush. Our partner site boomitude.com also ran a similar post on this colorful project. Working in conjunction withboomitude, we contacted Theo and asked him to share the evolution of his amazing project which he eloquently does on the podcast below. Listen as Theo speaks of his inspiration which only further illustrates the beauty of these special works…both his and hers.” Read the full article here.
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd writes in the Riff City music column from New York: “Though not quite as elusive as Sade, the god Kate Bush is something like a unicorn in the music world. Breaks between her albums have felt like eons for megafans — four years between Hounds of Love and the Sensual World, four more ‘til The Red Shoes, and a punishing 12 more before the double album Aerial (2005), during which we wondered if she’d just decided to pack it in. Of those 12 years, she spent nine of them making Aerial. Bless the artist who takes pains and patience. After a press flurry around the record and a couple interviews in which she debunked notions that she was a weirdo recluse because she didn’t show up at star-flecked parties, she returned to silence.” Read the full article here.
Now that the first draft of the book is finished we have moved on to make a start on the much delayed issued 79 of HomeGround. We expect this now to be published in the Autumn.As ever we would welcome any contributions for the issue, and also any adverts: wanted, for sale, pen pals, personal messages – you know the kind of thing we’ve always run. As ever, all ads are free.
For those who want to pre-order issue 79, we’re hoping to organise Pay Pal buttons on the HomeGround page (see menu above).
As previously posted, issue 79 will be the last print magazine, and from issue 80 onwards we will move to a downloadable PDF format. We won’t therefore be taking any more subscriptions, but because we want to continue with the email HomeGround Update when there is cleared and accurate news, we will be taking free registrations.
Update:
On the HomeGround page there are now Pay-Pal buttons to pre-order issue 79, order the last issue 78 with the Del Palmer Aerial interview, and to order HomeGround back issues.
Paul Williams writes in Music Week :
Four Kate Bush albums are expected to be re-issued this year after the singer won back control of them from EMI, but there is no confirmation yet about any new material coming from her in 2011. The Dreaming, Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, which EMI originally released between 1982 and 1993, are all lined up to be re-issued with former EMI and PolyGram executive David Munns now acting as a consultant to her.
The one-time EMI worldwide vice chairman and EMI Recorded Music North America chairman and CEO’s association with Bush goes back to when she was first signed to EMI and the release of her first album The Kick Inside in 1978.
“I’ve been involved for about a year now,” said Munns. “People think I’m managing and I’m really consulting. I drift in and out of these projects.”
There has been recent speculation of a new studio album from Bush, which would be her first since Aerial in 2005. That itself did not appear until a dozen years after her previous release The Red Shoes.
“There are other plans but I’m not able to talk about them right now,” is all Munns would say, adding, “There’s nothing ready until Kate says it’s ready. That’s always been the way.” Munns was also involved in the campaign for last years Greatest Hits album by Bon Jovi, an act he worked with extensively when he was at PolyGram International in the early Nineties and then worked with them in an independent capacity when he left the major in 1998. “I’m still doing stuff with Bon Jovi,” said Munns who took charge of the marketing for the retrospective.
The long-promised reissues are finally happening! Delighted to hear that Kate has not only won control of these albums but now wants to make them available in the very best presentation possible. Nice work Mr Munns! More on these upcoming reissues, and the “other plans” as we get word…
Update: The HomeGround editors write: “We are all VERY excited about this and suspect there will be a more detailed announcement soon, and as soon as we hear anything we will of course send out the HG pigeons!”
The NME have reported that Kate is likely to release new material in 2011 after securing a comment from her spokesperson. “The news comes after unsubstantiated reports about a new release from the fame-shunning musician recently surfaced on a music blog. Speaking in reaction to that report, Bush’s spokesperson said a release from her is likely for 2011, although nothing is confirmed yet. They added that the new music from Bush would not necessarily mean a full-length follow-up to her last album 2005’s Aerial, was on the way.”
Okay, possibly not an album in 2011 but new material nevertheless. We were very cautious about the rumours from an anonymous source, but we’ll allow ourselves a yelp of excitement now! More on this as we get it.
Del Palmer has now launched a page for his solo projects on Facebook, which can be found here. His latest album, Gift, is available at his official site.
Quite a lot of people have been coming across an online rumour that Kate will be releasing a new album this year. As far as I can make out, the rumour stems from the Wotyougot blog website here, who claim to have heard the news from “a reliable source”. Their story was then picked up by Digital Spy here and others soon latched on including celebrity blogger Perez Hilton here.
Meanwhile Graeme Thomson, author of Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, has posted a quote on his blog that is apparently from someone at EMI commenting on the rumour: “Right to be cautious. These rumours always surface this time of year and there’s no reason to think this is any different. We’re hopeful that a new record may emerge this year, but I was saying the same to people in Jan of 2010 so who knows… only Kate herself. Let’s keep fingers crossed!! I’m feeling optimistic.”
So there you go, who knows indeed? Rumours of Kate releasing an album are nothing new, and this one has legs, so it’s worth pointing out that until something is mentioned through official channels we wouldn’t go planning an album launch party just yet. Here at katebushnews we’ll only report something along these lines when we absolutely feel there’s substance to it, or it comes from Kate herself. If there is something coming in 2011, we’ll be all over it!
Poptimal review of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’: “Duncan even brought his turntables and deftly switches the mood to accompany the sudden, exhilaratingly emotional sight of Dee and her newborn being wheeled towards the motley crew. As Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” echoes throughout the otherwise soundless scene, the camera sweetly, hilariously, pans across the faces of all the men. With the exception of Cricket and his ubiquitous homemade crack pipe (which he lights up in plain sight inside a hospital), the sequence begins to enter sticky sentimental territory until Carmen the tranny and her gigantic husband suddenly enter the frame” … Bob Stanley in the Guardian on how to write a Christmas hit: “Santa, Come Up To See Me might be a predictable Mae West festive title but the song is anything but. Over a folk-rock backing, the ageing Mae breaks into an eerie prediction of Kate Bush’s December Will Be Magic Again, before subsiding into double entendres” … The Daily Mash: “Gay US army tank commander, Nathan Muir, said: “It’s a common misperception that homosexual soldiers like myself will be singing along to uplifting dance anthems or the Sound of Music soundtrack while piloting our engines of death. “While my in-tank ipod does include a smattering of Sinitta, Dr Alban and the 80s disco track Menergy by Sylvester, it’s far from just superficial dance pop. I mean, there’s loads of early Kate Bush on there too, like The Sensual World. “I really appreciate how its ethereal vibe and sparkling arrangements help me to focus as I’m leading my squadron through a battle-scarred city where danger lurks around every corner” … Music Week: A surprise new buyer has emerged as a leading candidate to acquire EMI’s catalogue with BMG revealing it now wants to become a player in recorded music. The source adds much of Bowie’s catalogue is “crying out” for the repackaging treatment and very little has been done with the works of other long-term EMI stars such as Kate Bush. … Mike Ragogna interviewing Laurie Anderson in the Huffington Post: “You, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, David Byrne… there are certain established artists whose works seem very fresh no matter which era they were created or played in” … SF Weekly Blogs: The Top 6 Weirdest Actor Cameos in Music Videos: Donald Sutherland in Kate Bush’s “Cloudbusting” “Here’s an attempt to summarize the level of insanity contained within this clip: Kate Bush puts on the worst wig ever made and pretends to be a child, while she and Don (her “dad,” presumably) alter the weather using a huge machine made of gigantic French horns” … Washington City Paper: Painted Face – “Undreamt” (self-released): This song makes me think of The Labyrinth, mostly because it’s an acknowledged tribute to Kate Bush, who, for some reason, makes me think of The Labrynth … Charlotte Martin interviewed on Artist Direct: “The foundational things that shaped me as an artist were Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, Peter Gabriel’s Security, The Cure’s Disintegration, and The Cocteau Twins’ Heaven or Las Vegas” … Daily Breeze 30th December: “Well-known indie band Nada Surf is here just so fans will know not to ignore its album of cover versions, “If I Had a Hi-Fi” (Mardev), which is as delightful as anything the band has ever done. Songs from disparate artists from Depeche Mode to the Go-Betweens, Dwight Twilley and Kate Bush are rendered in lush settings with acres of strummed acoustic and jangly electric guitars, lovely vocals and string arrangements that will have listeners continually saying, “Ah! Good choice!”
Ours Are The Streets by Sunjeev Sahota
Reviewed by Arifa Akbar
I look in American eyes/ I see little life/ See little wife/ He’s striking violence up in me…I’m pulling out the pin/ Oh, I pull out, pull out the pin.” So sang Kate Bush in 1982 about the final reflections of a suicide bomber…
Read the full book review at The Independent. Comments are already being added.
Stephen Humphries writes: Mick Karn, the great bassist for Japan whose fretless instrument graced Kate’s The Sensual World (Heads We’re Dancing), as well as records by Gary Numan and Joan Armatrading, died today. His website stated: It’s with profound sadness that we have to inform you that Mick finally lost his battle with cancer and passed away peacefully at 4.30pm today, 4th January 2011 at home in Chelsea, London. He was surrounded by his family and friends and will be deeply missed by all. http://www.mickkarn.net/
Our sincere condolences to his loved ones.
UPDATE: Del Palmer has left his thoughts in the comment section of this article below.
John Taylor from Duran Duran leaves his tribute here. Mick had worked on recording sessions for Aerial in 2002, and even gave fans the intriguing first new title we learned of, namely “How To Be Invisible”, but ultimately his work on the track didn’t make it to the final album mix. I think the first time Karn played bass for Kate was at the Prince’s Trust performance in 1982 (here’s a video, with Karn’s distinctive bass sound very prominent in the mix).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8WNeb_Lg9A[/youtube]