FEATURE:
Mother (and Father) Stands for Comfort
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with her mother, Hannah, in the video for Suspended in Gaffa/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Kate Bush and Her Parents’ Support
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EARLIER in the year…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with her parents, brothers and friends
I published a feature about Kate Bush and how she draws inspiration from her family. There are few artists who have included their entire family in their music. In terms of turning her onto music and different forms of culture, her brothers, Paddy and John (‘Jay’), were important guides for Kate Bush. They have both played a big role in her career – Paddy in terms of making his sister more aware of unusual and less conventional music; he has appeared on many of her albums; John, as a photographer, has snapped his sister since she was a child. Bush’s son, Bertie (Albert) can be heard on 2005’s Aerial and 2011’s Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow (he also performed on stage with her during Before the Dawn in 2014). Her partner, Danny McIntosh, has appeared on many of her recordings. It must be comforting to have her family appear on her records. Of course, when it comes to her brothers, she had a musical and creative bond with them from childhood. Bush’s ‘new family’ of Bertie and Danny has mixed alongside Paddy Bush on more-recent recordings (both appeared on Director’s Cut). I am casting my mind to other artists whose family has been so instrumental in terms of appearing on recordings; who have also inspired the creative process. It is no surprise that Bush has her family appear on her albums, as she has her own studio at home and there is that convenience. Ever since 1978, Bush has worked alongside her family on professional recordings (of course, John Carder Bush photographed Kate many years before that).
I think her siblings’ influence is very powerful and important. Most musicians can count their parents as big fans and supporters. Not only has Kate Bush’s parents been encouraging and helped shape her path; they also appeared on her albums. It was not the case that her mum and dad had no reservations about going into music. They would have liked her to go to university of spent longer in education. Given the fact Bush released her debut album when she was nineteen, one can understand why there were reservations. She was very young and, if things didn’t pan out, what were her options? That said, they didn’t hold her back. They were encouraging and supportive. Maybe it is the fact that this was a middle-class household. They would have been able to support their daughter if things did not go right. A more working-class family may have dissuaded their child from pursuing music in their teens. In a household filled with music, I am not surprised it enforced Kate Bush’s passion! Recognising their daughter’s innate and amazing gift, I feel her parents knew she was going to be a star and provided this support and comforting air. Before moving on, it is worth learning more about Kate Bush’s parents. Her father, as the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia highlights, can be heard on many of her most-famed recordings:
“Born on April 4, 1920 in South Ockendon, Robert John Bush worked hard to win a scholarship to the Grammar School at Grays, and later won a place at medical school to become a doctor.
He married Hannah Bush in early 1943. Together they had three children: John Carder Bush (1944), Paddy Bush (1952) and Kate (1958).
His voice can be heard in the song The Fog, in the extended version of The Big Sky (The Meteorological Mix) and also among the voices calling to the heroine of The Ninth Wave between the songs Under Ice and Waking The Witch.
He passed away in 2008”.
Her mother, too, is someone who one can hear on some brilliant tracks. Again, with the help of the Kate Bush Encyclopaedia, we can discover more about an incredibly inspiring woman:
“Born on June 20, 1918, Hannah Patricia Bush was Kate's mother. She worked as a staff nurse at Epsom Grove Hospital and was one of 12 children who originally hailed form the harbour town of Dungarvan in County Waterford (Ireland).
She married Robert John Bush in early 1943, giving birth to John Carder Bush a year later. On December 9, 1952, Paddy Bush was born. Six years later, Kate was born.
Hannah's voice can be heard in The Ninth Wave, saying the line 'Come here with me now' in the song And Dream Of Sheep, and among the many voices calling to the heroine between the tracks Under Ice and Waking The Witch. She can be seen in the video for Suspended in Gaffa.
Hannah Bush passed away on 14 February 1992, and the album The Red Shoes is dedicated to her memory”.
I am going to do another detailed dive into Kate Bush and her family later down the line. Growing up at East Wickham Farm in Welling, the young Kate Bush was exposed to so much music and creative flair. Her Irish mother, who grew up in Waterford (where music was part of the familial and domestic fabric) identified a spark in her daughter. Kate Bush bought her first album, Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, and bonded with popular music of the 1970s – Roxy Music, Elton John and Marc Bolan (and many others) mixed with English and Irish folk.
Her father played Classic pieces on the piano and integrated that with songs from the Great American Songbook. Bush, as Graeme Thomson notes in the biography, Under the Ivy: The Life & Music of Kate Bush, was inspired by that early exposure. Her love of Classical music later explains her unorthodox song structures and more experimental nature- one can trace this back to her father’s playing. From her mother, she picked up Irish folk and the instruments played on these records - one can hear an Irish influence in her music pretty early on (it is especially prevalent on The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds of Love (1985). It is clear that some tutors at school encouraged Kate Bush and were important to her. Like most artists, the biggest inspiration came from her folks. They realised that she could realistically make a career from music and dedicate her life to this medium. The young Kate Bush was not someone who had her parents ask to hear her songs and barge into her room. Her father was especially attentive and useful as a sounding board when she needed it. Bush has said in interviews how she would ask her dad to listen to her new songs and, so long as she could wait until the adverts came on T.V., he would sit and listen. I think that sort of dedication and audience meant that she could play her mass of new songs (she was especially prolific and prodigious!) and determine which were promising. Her father was encouraging, but he would not say everything was great – he would give fairly honest feedback (though, as I will soon mention, there was a littler bias and subjectiveness). Her father’s ear and shoulder would be utilised by Bush through her career.
I think his impact was vital when it came to her career and determination. Her mother was also very supportive from the start. When the debut single, Wuthering Heights, was released in 1978, Hannah Bush would ask friends and people to call the radio stations and get the song played in order to get it up the charts - the song would eventually reach number-one. Perhaps the love and slight subjectiveness was a mixed blessing. There was a definite sense from Hannah Bush that, if her daughter’s interests were not being treated fairly, she would have a say. One example came when Kate Bush took the mix of The Man with the Child in His Eyes (from her debut album, The Kick Inside) to producer Andrew Powell. Her mother felt the strings were not turned up enough. Powell, an experienced producer, disagreed. An assumption, in a bid to support and encourage their daughter, that everything she recorded was fabulous was overridden with the introduction of Del Palmer (he and Bush dated early in her career through to the 1990s; Palmer appeared on many albums and is still working with her to this day as an engineer) into the family circle. A no-nonsense and funny Cockney, he would be straighter with Bush! Whilst she did not like people being too critical about her work, I think this sort of balance was healthy. Her parents, of course, were fantastically supportive…though a sort of blinkered and rose-tinted glasses approach could have led Bush to be too complacent and not push herself.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978
Kate Bush grew up in an affluent household, though she never relied on that or needed much financial support too much from her parents. They made sure their daughter was being treated equitably, though she had a clear vision and did not need too much interference. I love the fact that her father, for nearly all of her career, was there to hear music and provide his feedback. Later in life, I think his natural paternal instincts and love was sage and needed. As he was a doctor, he was at hand when Bush was suffering with stress and nervous fatigue. He prescribed bed rest. This came after the recording of The Dreaming. So intense was the recording of that album that it took her six months to recover. Subsiding on an unhealthy diet, things changed when she started work on Hounds of Love. Not only did the fresh air of East Wickham Farm and a custom-built studio (she built a 24-track studio in the summer of 1983 in the barn behind her parents’ home) help reverse a lot of the pollution and strain of London; her parents’ warmth and perfect environment, I feel, played a big part in the sound and brilliance of the album. Her mother’s legendary hospitality meant that musicians and those involved with recording Hounds of Love were well fed and catered for. Of course, her brothers were there to give her help and love - though her parents’ influence and warmth meant that there was this safe haven. I am going to cut it short here. I wanted to break away from my previous piece about Kate Bush’s family and their influence and concentrate on her parents. I know that parents are supportive and loving, but there was something extra about the Bushes. The combination of music, arts, nurturing and hospitality was a massive reason why Kate Bush had this confidence and natural ability. Although they are both (sadly) no longer with us, they will both…
NEVER be forgotten.