FEATURE:
This Woman’s Work
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris
Why We Need Much More of Kate Bush on the Page, Screen and Beyond
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I could not think of a title and heading…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978
that was that succinct and said what I truly meant but, to sort of reinvestigate an idea I have put out there before, I wonder whether there will be more from Kate Bush in terms of her music and the written word. By that, I mean there are definite opportunities and gaps that could be filled! Consider someone like Madonna, for example, whose birthday it is tomorrow (16th August). She is an artist who has been heralded and studied since her debut album came out in 1983 and, whilst Madonna and Kate Bush are very different in terms of how they approach the media and their views on fame, few can tell me that Kate Bush’s career and legacy is less important than Madonna’s. Maybe the fact that Madonna has toured more and has this slight love-hate relationship with the media means that more has been written and there has been this bigger interest when it comes to documentaries. I would say that Kate Bush has more fans and love out there than anyone else, and her music is beyond comparison. I have asked whether, perhaps, there are other songs waiting to see the light of day and, when I was writing about Madonna last week in the run-up to her birthday, I discovered quite a few good books. For example – and apologies for using her as a guide -, there is a book called Madonna: Album by Album, and it is as you would expect: a look at each album, a breakdown of the tracks and a bit about what was happening in Madonna’s life at the time.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush signing her album, Never for Ever, in London/PHOTO CREDIT: Chas Sime/Getty Images
There are biographies and other guides and, when we look beyond Madonna, there are artists who have all sorts of different books written about them – from album guides through to biographies. I have mentioned before how there are a couple of great biographies out there regarding Kate Bush – Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush is essential, and there is not too much out there! I would love to see an album-by-album guide, because I think, more than anyone, Bush’s albums are so different and immersive. I can understand why Kate Bush would be reticent about there being too much information about her, but an album guide would be terrific! Not only would it open her music up to new people, but I feel it would make for a great companion to the albums themselves. I have been looking online, and there are a few books that relate to various albums, aspects of her career or such – many of them are quite old, and there have not been many new books published in the past decade or so. I would say now, more than ever, there is an appetite and hunger for Bush’s music, and there are opportunities for writers out there! Maybe another biography would be excessive, but a more general look at her life and work would be awesome; maybe a biography that focused on a particular stage of her career, and I am sure a lot of people would welcome more photography books.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
This is an area that is fairly well covered. Again, I have recommended John Carder Bush’s Kate: Inside the Rainbow, and it is beautifully presented and contains a lot of illuminating information from her brother. There are more expensive photography collections available for fans – one from Guido Harari, and the other from Gered Mankowitz. They are both beautiful, but they might be beyond the reach of many Kate Bush fans in terms of cost! I know that there were plans for Mankowitz to bring out a book pf photos last/this year, but that is not going to happen. There are whispers that Max Browne is releasing a book of photos soon. That will be interesting to see! Taken from Rock Archive, this is what Browne remarked about Bush:
"I have never photographed a more enchanting show or multi-talented performer than Kate Bush at Hammersmith om 1979 - pure magic and such incredible stamina. Almost every number required a costume change, intricate dance choreography whilst singing, and 'The Tour of Life' show lasted over two hours in total. The bar was set so high that she never toured again but what an achievement. Thank goodness the show was recorded for T.V. The shot was taken the night of the recording after the 'Wuthering Heights' finale when Kate's relief and exuberance are palpable. A personal favorite, the focus is spot on too!"
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during The Tour of Life in 1979
I think you can have overkill if you put too much out there but, considering all the incredible photos out there of Kate Bush, there have not been that many photo books. I think reading about Kate Bush is as informative as listening to her music, so I am curious whether continued interest in her career will result in more releases. One could easily welcome another few books of photos, another biography and a couple of references works and not feel like there is too much out there. The same goes with her music, I guess. I shall not tread over old ground and wonder whether we will see demos and unreleased tracks put out, but there would be an enormous appetite for these lesser-known tracks. Maybe Bush herself would feel uncomfortable, but it would be remarkable. Her 1979 Tour of Life would have been recorded, and I think a release of that in crisp form – if that is even possible – would give great insight into one of the most important events of her career. In 1979, the four-track On Stage E.P. was released, and it was recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon on 13th May. It became Bush's first official (non-bootlegged) live performance on vinyl. The E.P. was the only audio (non-bootleg) recording of Kate Bush live for years, until 1994 when sixty minutes of the concert was released on C.D.
I cannot find that C.D., and one looks on Discogs, and there is a collection from that tour that is no longer available. At a time when we are getting new releases from Prince, despite the fact he has been dead for over four years, I do wonder whether it is time to put more out there that is collecting dust. I know Kate Bush does not have a vault as impressive and stocked as Prince, but there are live recordings that people would eat up. How about her T.V. appearances and the recordings from those appearances? Bush herself has said how she would like to see her videos on DVD, but (she said) there is not really the appetite in the U.K. I would disagree! I think a lot of people would be interested, and it would not just be a simple cash-in: Bush’s videos are so vivid, cinematic, and memorable, it would be a celebration of an artist who puts so much passion into everything she does! I guess, in terms of her albums, the vinyl editions are out and there is not much room for improvement there. I will tread over some worn ground just one more time when rounding things off. I am working on a Kate Bush podcast, and am taking the first steps to getting that realised. In an ager where there is a podcast for everything, there is not really a definitive one about Kate Bush.
The Kate Bush Fan Podcast is out there, and it is made with a lot of expertise and love. Rather than look at each album and be forensic in that manner, the podcast is more general, and they discuss everything from the gap between Bush’s albums and why 2011 was such a remarkable and productive year for her. I guess it is good for me that there has not really been another podcast, but it does seem odd that there is this void that needs filling! The last area where there needs to be more of Kate Bush is on television. It has been six years since the documentary, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, was broadcast. This is what The Guardian wrote when they discussed the documentary:
“Guests, contributors and soon even formerly ignorant viewers like me were in awe of the talent displayed and then intelligently discussed and dissected by John, Kemp and other respected experts, such as David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, John Lydon, Tori Amos and Del Palmer, Bush's bandmate and partner from the 1970s to 1990s. Neil Gaiman was on hand to hymn her fearlessly literary inspirations and lyrics, from – of course – Wuthering Heights (from which she derived her first single, in March 1978) to Molly Bloom's soliloquy from Ulysses in the title track of her 1989 album, The Sensual World.
Bush herself appeared only in old interview footage – so young, so fragile, so shy, but full of the sureness and certainty that only talent brings – but what emerged was a wonderful, detailed portrait of that talent. Although it gave her precocity its full due (she had written The Man With the Child in His Eyes by the time Gilmour came to listen to her when she was 14), it also gave proper weight to her evolution and her later, less commercial, still astonishing work. Why it chose to close on a stupid jarring joke by Steve Coogan, I do not know. But the rest of it succeeded in making Bush and her work less of a mystery but no less beautiful for that”.
I do like the fact that the documentary was made, as it helped to inform those who were less aware of Bush’s work, or perhaps were looking for that extra bit of information. There were some great contributors – including Del Palmer (Bush’s engineer and former boyfriend), David Gilmour, St. Vincent, and many others who paid their respects and told their stories -; seeing her videos on the screen is always great. Although the BBC and some would say that documentary is authoritative and compressive, as I have said several times before, it just was not. A one-hour documentary is barely enough time to cover an album like Hounds of Love, let alone an entire career!
It felt as though the documentary was rushed in order to coincide with Kate Bush returning to the stage in 2014 in her Before the Dawn residency, but there was little discussion about her 1979 tour, The Tour of Life. Many of the contributors seemed tenuous and expendable, and there just wasn’t enough detail. It is a documentary for those who want a basic overview, but we did not really learn a whole lot about Kate Bush that wasn’t already know. There is this chance to redress the balance in that sense, and I feel like, even without Bush being directly involved, a wonderful documentary could come about! Some say that Kate Bush is underrated, and there are articles that salute Bush’s power and brilliance. One big reason why I wanted to write this feature and argue why we need more of Kate Bush in the world – in terms of books and documentaries – is how influential she is, and the sheer number of artists she has touched. This article from 2018 talks more about Bush’s influence:
“Kate Bush is probably the artist to have influenced me the most: she really was the complete package and an artist so clearly in creative control from such an early age,” British singer-songwriter Little Boots tells me. “From pioneering the use of the Fairlight CMI synthesiser [on The Dreaming and Hounds of Love] to inventing live pop shows as we know them [with 1978’s The Tour of Life], she really was a true creative visionary and you can feel the thread of her personality running through every element of what she does. When I discovered her in my teens, I found this whole artist-world that I could dive into and immerse myself in. It just felt so special and necessary and I think that’s what inspires true fandom in her listeners.”
Little Boots joins a small army of musicians to have saluted Bush: everyone from Grimes to Florence Welch, and Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke to Outkast’s Big Boi has hailed her. “What caught me [about Bush] the most was, first, the production and the voice of course, but also the different meanings behind the stories she was telling,” Big Boi told Rolling Stone in 2011. New York-based Brazilian musician Yann similarly describes himself as a Bush super-fan. “If it wasn’t for Kate, I’m not even sure if I’d be a musician today,” he tells me. “The way she’s able to convey such vivid imagery through songwriting is masterful. The song and video that made me a huge fan at such a young age was Babooshka – the storytelling and visuals really mesmerised me. Growing up gay in a conservative culture as I did can be extremely isolating. Kate’s unapologetic weirdness felt like a safe space to me: she didn’t sound, look, dress, sing, or even dance like anyone else”.
Since Kate Bush released her first single and album in 1978, there have been an assortment of works dedicated to her; people who want to get to the bottom of her genius. I think there is a lot of great stuff out there, but I can’t help but think there are many more opportunities and gaps that need filling – without distilling her legacy and just cashing in for the sake of things. So much has been written and produced regarding Kate Bush, but I feel there is a long way to go still when it comes to…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during Act 3 of her Before the Dawn residency in 2014
THIS woman’s work.