Just to let you know about an Irish Kate Bush fan gathering happening in Dublin on June 14th. The Sensual Walk celebrates Kate, Molly Bloom and James Joyce on beautiful Howth Head with live music, a cliff walk and an evening of merry-making. I’m organising it for the second year running and all KB fans from Ireland and abroad are very welcome. Please drop me an email if you’re thinking of coming and want to know more. Two other great gatherings happening in the UK this year include the annual Glastonbury gathering on July 27th (more here) and the Wuthering Hike up in Haworth on the Yorkshire moors on November 1st (more here).
Dance act Utah Saints are back again with a hugely popular 2008 remix of their smash 1992 UK #4 hit ‘Something Good’ (which samples Kate’s Cloudbusting) and all signs are that it is taking the dancefloors of Europe by storm. The great (we love it) new video can be seen on Youtube here. Here’s the blurb for the single from the band: “Utah Saints’ ‘Something Good 08’ (Van She Tech Remix) is the biggest dance record of 2008 so far… Already receiving heavy daytime plays on Radio 1 from the likes of Jo Whiley, Annie Mac, Chris Moyles, Scott Mills, and more, it’s also been a staple for the likes of Zane Lowe and Pete Tong, who’ve made it a Hottest Record In The World and Essential New Tune respectively. Displaying the crossover traits that made the Utah Saints such a formidable force, ‘Something Good 08’, is also picking up huge support at stations ranging from Kiss to XFM, and ILRs across the land. A former No.1 in both the Cool Cuts and Buzz Charts, this release is set to send everyone’s favourite dance band rocketing back to the top of the UK singles charts.”
So, we’ve tried (reluctantly) to keep this a secret but, Del Palmer has released an exclusive recording of his take on “Watching You Without Me” on his MySpace page here. Please check it out soon as it is not going to be on his Myspace page for long. Great stuff…and adds to our excitement and celebration in this momentous year for Kate. Cheers Del!
An amazing milestone – we can celebrate 30 years of Kate’s music today asWuthering Heights was released on this day all the way back in 1978. It’s incredible to think of that much time having passed. I was just four years old but I do remember seeing a crazy lady (I thought she was a witch!) on the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop on the BBC and being baffled as to what all the arm-waving and shrieking was about. Granted at the time I was more interested in guessing the flavour of the frog’s milkshake on Bod, or figuring out which neighbour’s garden was best for catching bees, but she had entered my consciousness for the first time. This extraordinary song was the first the world would hear of an artist who has become one of the most highly acclaimed and influential figures in music. So, to celebrate be sure to listen to the classic song that started it all today – make sure you play it loud to annoy the neighbours (who will in turn have their own special nostalgia trip!). To mark today’s landmark occasion I asked members of our forum (in finest Q Magazine-esque fashion) to add their own personal take on ‘30 Reason’s Why We Love Kate’s Music‘. Thanks to all who took part – enjoy the answers below. [Also today marks ten years of me running this website, thanks so much to you all for your support and interest!]
30 Reasons Why We Love Kate’s Music…
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I’d like to wish all our site visitors and forum members a very merry Christmas, and all the very best for a wise and healthy 2008! Thanks for all your support this year – a year which unexpectedly ended with Kate singing the theme song to a film that has hit No.1 in the box office on both sides of the Atlantic – great stuff. We especially wish Kate and her family all the very best for the Christmas season and a bright and happy new year. 2008 sees a number of landmarks in Kate Bush fandom, not least the 30th Anniversary of Kate’s first record, Wuthering Heights, and her debut album, The Kick Inside. We’ll even be celebrating 10 years of this website – any excuse for a party eh? Best wishes – Sean.
‘I Wanna Be Kate: The Songs of Kate Bush’ is now (at last!) available to download on iTunes and Emusic. Generally considered to be the best Kate Bush tribute album out there, you can read all about the CD here.
Kate has updated her official site with a note about Lyra, saying how thrilled she was to have been asked to write for the film and wishing her fans a wonderful Christmas. She advises people that the song will be available to download from iTunes December 10th, but mentions a date of January 22nd for a physical release (which we hadn’t heard before). Her site also includes a good quality short clip of the song. Kate also tells us that her classic song ‘This Woman’s Work’ is going to be heard in the Extras Christmas special – the programme by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant is set to be one of the most-watched television shows in the UK over the Christmas period, it being the two-part finale of the popular series. Two potential download hits this December then!
“Hello everyone, I’ve really enjoyed putting the ‘Lyra’ track together and working with the Magdalen Choristers was totally delightful. Philip’s trilogy is a masterpiece and I was thrilled to be asked to write this for the film. Have a wonderful Christmas…”
With all the excitement about Kate’s beautiful song for the soundtrack to The Golden Compass, I thought it’d be nice for people to re-listen to the wonderful interview Kate did for the BBC’sFront Row programme two years ago. In it Kate discusses what motivates her musically, her creative process particularly in relation to the Aerial album, and her views on the current preoccupation with ‘celebrity’. It’s a lovely chat with Kate and is happily still available to listen to here. Very nice.
Anyone having trouble hearing ‘Lyra’ from the BBC links can now see and hear a fan-made video of the radio broadcast in our YouTube theatre above. Our forum has several threads buzzing with an incredible range of opinions on Kate’s first recorded output since Aerial, so be sure to check it out. In other ‘Lyra’ news, the Oxford Mail has revealed that Kate is paying for the choir who sang on her song to take a trip to see the film. Choir director Bill Ives said: “Ms Bush came along to see the boys because it was her song and she wanted to meet them. She was lovely, very quiet and altogether charming, and the boys were very excited to meet her.” Magdalen School College choir is made up of 16 boys, aged nine to 13, and 12 men, although only the boys sang on Lyra. On top of that, Kate Bush has very kindly offered to pay for them all to go and see the film when it comes out, so we will be taking them for a treat.” The LA Times has reviewed Kate’s new track here. We can confirm that the track’s length on the soundtrack will be 3 minutes 19 seconds (thanks to Reza).
On the day of the film’s world premiere in London Del Palmer has written a very interesting account on the recording of ‘Lyra’ posted on his official website: “The song was written very quickly as Kate was asked to do it at very short notice. In fact she only had a matter of days to write and produce it. She came to the studio with a rough demo recorded at her home using a ProTools LE system. Our first job was to record the keyboard and the lead vocal so that the Choir arranger could get to work as quickly as possible. This short project was to be a happy return to analog recording for us. We used a Studer A827 24 track recorder. Once the track was recorded it was transferred to ProTools for editing and mixing. This was so that the choir recordings could be done using a small mobile setup supplied by Abbey Road on a Monday morning. They were then imported into the original ProTools session for mixing on the Monday afternoon. Kate then took a car to Abbey Road for mixing in the evening. Abbey Road studio did the 5.1 surround mix. This was because all of the soundtrack music had been done there so it made sense to do the same. The following day we did a stereo mix at our studio for the soundtrack album release. In all, the whole thing took about 10 days to do. I personally think it’s a wonderful performance from Kate considering the time restrictions, in particular her vocal.” Thanks Del, and well done on an excellent job – I’m looking forward to hearing Kate at the cinema in 5.1 surround for the very first time!
Kate’s new song for The Golden Compass soundtrack, ‘Lyra’, has received it’s UK radio premiere on the BBC Radio 6 programme Roundtable, hosted by Steve Lamacq, at 6pm GMT this evening. First impressions: It’s a beautiful track, and perfect for the end of this film, I’ve just finished reading the book and this exactly sums up where audience’s hearts should be as they think about Lyra’s story. A very loving sentiment towards this character driven by such a gorgeous vocal. As I said, perfect – cannot wait to hear this in the cinema – this song really does have a context yet to come…for the record Steve Lamacq actually called the song Kate’s “new single” but it may just be a promo single for radio airplay purposes, we’ll have to wait and see. The show is now archived on the BBC ‘Listen Again’ service, here. ‘Lyra’ is played at 44 mins 20 seconds into this audio stream.
New Line Cinema is now actively campaigning members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to vote for ‘Lyra’ in the category of Best Original Song for the 2008 Academy Awards. The studio is running the traditional ‘For Your Consideration’ advertisements in the entertainment press in the US. See a photo of one such advertisement here. (with thanks to Vickie)
News of Kate’s new song for The Golden Compass movie has rapidly filtered out across the media. The film’s official site announced it here. Click on the following links for reports from Eonline, BBC, NME, Variety, Uncut and Pitchfork. A particularly witty write-up was published by Empire Magazine. Philip Pullman fansites have been buzzing, see here and here. Perhaps the most revealing article comes from theOxford Mail. It confirms that Kate recorded her vocals for the track in her home studio, but used the Abbey Road mobile unit to record the boys choir at their school in Oxford. Entertainment Weekly in the US has even ran an article proposing Kate as a possible Oscar contender: “New Line wants to be part of the Academy Awards one way or another, and their best bet may be their just-announced news that British singer/songwriter Kate Bush will have her original song titled “Lyra” tacked onto the end credits of The Golden Compass…who knows, now we may get to see her perform at the Oscars.” This seems to be a case of putting the cart waaay before the horse, Oscar nominations aren’t even announced till January 22nd. Let’s all just wait to watch the movie first…
The Golden Compass soundtrack CD is now available to pre-order at www.play.com. The tracklisting also reveals that Kate’s song ‘Lyra’ is featured last out of 26 tracks on the CD, following the 25th track entitled ‘Epilogue’.
After a week of speculation we can finally announce the great news – Kate has written and recorded a song, ‘Lyra‘, for the upcoming major fantasy film The Golden Compass, to be released 7th December 2007! It will also be available for download as part of New Line Records’ The Golden Compass soundtrack, which will be released Dec. 11. The song, named for Lyra Belacqua, the lead character in The Golden Compass, is written and produced by Kate in her own studio, and features the Magdalen College Choir, Oxford. It will be heard over the closing credits of the film. In the most recent issue of HomeGround magazine Del Palmer revealed that Philip Pullman (author of the books on which the film is based) had visited Kate at her home earlier this year, and it’s known that she is a fan of his work. This evening’s full press release from New Line Cinema is here. [Check out the full theatrical trailer in glorious high definition here, or visit the film’s official site by clicking the film logo above. I also recommend the fan site Bridge To The Stars.]