FEATURE:
The Kate Bush Interview Archive
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Kite during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Peter Still Photography
John Shearlaw (1979)
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WHEN thinking of which year to focus on…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
for this part of the Kate Bush Interview Archive, I wanted to go back to 1979. This interview was conducted by John Shearlaw. It was ahead of Bush heading out to do her first (and only) tour. The Tour of Life was Bush hitting the road following two great albums: 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart. A preview feature ahead of the tour, 1978 and 1979 are my favourite years of Bush’s career. It was when so much was happening. A lot of the media did not know what to make of her. Trying to grasp this unique music and a very special artist, the interviews from that time are very interesting! I am not going to source all of the interview conducted by Shearlaw. There are some segments that are particularly noteworthy:
“For Kate, still only twenty years old, has found that what was at first a tentative (and very well planned) debut outing has swollen into a full-scale tour--now including five nights at the London Palladium, with Europe to follow.
While I've found (let's say a birdie told me!) that this spectacular initiation is likely to offer such treats as:
Two supporting dancers appearing with Kate (herself an accomplished dancer and mime artist);
What has loosely described as a "magician" (although, typically, the nature of the act is being kept a secret!).
A specially designed stage with opening mirrored ramps for Kate and the seven-piece band to disappear in and out of.
A variety of equipment--including a black carpet that will cover the entire stage area.
Mind-boggling set-pieces--one of which seems likely to be Kate suspended inside a giant, transparent egg (with only two handholds and two footholds) which will rotate as she sings.
As well as a completely new approach to the singer as the center of attention--perhaps one of the most interesting innovations! As well as using radio microphones (without leads), she'll also be wearing a wire head-piece (with a mike) for certain songs--thus making it easier to move, dance and sing...with no limitations.
Nor is all this dedication to presentation a mere attempt at technoflash. In fact, the whole production (which will travel with the tour and be adapted for each venue--with the full works being reserved for the largest stage: the London Palladium) isn't reckoned to be that expensive. (A figure of around 150,000 Pounds has been mentioned--almost peanuts in relation to full-scale ELO-like production packages).
Rather, if it works--and with all the effort that's gone into it, it looks like it will--it will be some way towards Kate's original stated ambition of "combining songs and dance in a slightly different way--a way that suits me."
Now you know, although you shouldn't! Prepare for something a little bit special--that's if Wuthering Heights didn't, or the incredible BBC TV video she recorded in Switzerland last month for Wow doesn't either.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Room for the Life for The Tour of Life
Ms. Bush, whichever way you look at it, is about to break out in a big way. And not just out of an egg!
Yes, she has played live before--"in pubs and clubs, from when I was about fourteen," she remembers. "I was always happy to perform." And who can forget that it was Kate, as a squeaky and precocious sixteen-year-old, who first gained record company interest (and to certain people, also from record companies, who must now be kicking themselves with some force, abject scorn) by accompanying herself on piano at her doctor-father's house?
But, since the success of Wuthering Heights and her subsequent breakthrough as one of the most truly original voices of the decade (perfectly executed and illustrated on two albums) last year, there hasn't been what product-managers would call back-up. No live appearances; just videos in Japan and playbacks for Top of the Pops.
The reason being, yes..."a genuine lack of time."
"I think I survived all the digs I had last year," she says now. "I really wasn't deliberately keeping myself away from an audience to build up a reputation. It has simply taken all this time to stage things the way I want to. And to match up to the standard I've set myself.
"Which I haven't reached, and probably won't reach!" she laughs.
"But however it turns out, it's my concept--my concept, as much as the time, the budget and the presentation will allow.
"And it's for all the Lionhearts first!"
"It's also a concept, says Kate, that is the culmination of two years' planning, and--more realistically--six solid months of rehearsal, which began with the band long before Christmas, extended into lighting and effects work at a Home Counties film studio, and will culminate, for the rest of this month, with full run-throughs at a major London theatre.
"It does, however, make it somewhat understandable that the lady herself is reluctant to disclose any details of the surprises in store. Since Christmas she's lived with the hard-core reality of putting the show on--a development that has attracted so much rumour and speculation that someone less determined (and less in total control of her own projectction) might be tempted to begin her own publicity before the event. Not so.
Great, fantastic and incredible. How else would she put it?
"I'm really looking forward to it so much," she says. "I look at myself, and I'm not a public person. At least I don't see myself as a public person; I don't go out and go to parties. My friends" --her boyfriends "are "just good friends", she points out--"don't make front-page news! All that amazing show-business thing, you know.
"But," she continues, "you do have different faces. My different face is when I perform--it will be when I perform, I mean!
"When I'm on stage, I get possessed, really." Her eyes--still bigger-than-believable, away from the flash-guns--sparkle. "Away from it, I'm just normal and small...then, suddenly, I've got this really special thing. I'm really letting go.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing Hammer Horror during The Tour of Life
"It's an amazing feeling, a great big rush."
She pauses and delivers a sentence that could have a malicious tease about it. Equally, it could be genuine. "It's almost like seeing God, man! Though it's not quite as simple as that...
"You're communicating, without talking, something that's inside you--your creation--and it's going out to people. It's fantastic when you see them accepting it."
And does she feel they do, or sorry, that they will? Or does she worry about projecting a conscious image to gain that acceptance?
In a word, no. "It's not a question of being sexy or anything. It's much more to do with the interpretation of each song. Each one you see differently and present differently," she says. "I've been very open to lots of influences up until now, or I wouldn't even be doing the things I am doing. Like if I hadn't worked with Lindsay Kemp, I wouldn't be moving around at all while I was singing! Can you imagine that?”.
We all know that The Tour of Life was a success. Bush was hailed by many critics. It was an exceptional set of shows that broke new ground and marked her as one of the most spectacular live performers in the world. I can imagine there was this mixture of excitement and nerves discussing The Tour of Life. It makes me wonder whether, ever, there will be a book of interviews Bush was involved with through the years. They are always so different and fascinating. The one above…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performs Moving during The Tour of Life in 1979
IS simple proof of that.