FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Iconic Shots
A Stunning Artist Takes to Abbey Road Studio 2 During the Recording of Never for Ever
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THIS is the absolute final…
part of a run of features where I look at iconic shots involving Kate Bush. Although I do not have an exact date and photographer for the shot (it is between 1979 and 1980), I couldn’t pass by such a classic! I think that many picture Bush as this artist who is known for her voice. They do not often associate her with production and tackling the studio. She was just as hungry a producer and sonic innovator as she was an accomplished vocalist. The shot I am featuring shows Bush focused and in her element! This is her at Abbey Road Studios. I am guessing the photo is around 1980. In the featured image, she is sat at the Mark IV desk in the control room. Whereas her brother, John Carder Bush, took photos of her smiling at a studio control room when she was making Hounds of Love (1985), I am not sure about this photo. Although I can only be a bit vague with this final inclusion, it is an image that I think about a lot! The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia explains when Bush recorded at Abbey Road Studios:
“Kate worked at Abbey Road Studios on the albums Never For Ever, The Dreaming, and Hounds Of Love in Studio 2, and the orchestral parts for the albums The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. On 17 June 1981, the music video for the song Sat In Your Lap was recorded in the cavernous Studio 1, a huge space about half an acre in size. On 12 November 1981, Kate attended a 50th anniversary party for the studio, and cut the birthday cake alongside singer Helen Shapiro. In March 1986, she recorded a performance of the song Under The Ivy for the 100th broadcast of The Tube”.
Whilst I cannot really pinpoint the month the shot was taken – as there is scares information online about this image -, I do think that it ranks alongside the best. I am pretty sure it is in 1980, but I do not have a photographer credit. During the recording of Never for Ever, she worked alongside Jon Kelly as producer. These two young people were given the keys to Abbey Road! It was the first time Bush co-produced. It would have been such an exciting time. Both revealing and scary, this was a big leap for her. As it turns out, the sound and production work on Never for Ever is incredible. The tone and sound would radically shift for 1982’s The Dreaming – Bush produced solo and worked out of Abbey Road for parts of it. There are several reasons why I love the shot of her looking intent at Abbey Road. The fact it is a black and white shot makes it more memorable and beautiful I think. Also, her expression is wonderful. Bush always gave great looks when it came to her photos! Here, there is a mixture of seriousness and curiosity. If the Hounds of Love studio shots were more fun, this is a more determined and focused look. Bush was following on from 1979’s The Tour of Life and a very busy first couple of years of her career. Although 1980 was a busy year for her, the period where she recorded Never for Ever seems less intense than in 1978. She had more control of the music, and her next album would not be for another two years.
I think that Never for Ever is an underrated album. One that is not often talked about, one has to marvel at Bush’s songwriting and the different moods expressed throughout. Songs like Babooshka and Army Dreamers are very different. Lesser-heard tracks like The Wedding List and The Infant Kiss are magnificent. So assured and accomplished, there was no doubt that this was a songwriter and talent at the top of her game! Wanting to exert more control of her material and create an album that was truer to her, she worked very well alongside Jon Kelly. Even though he did not produce with her again, the two had a good working relationship. It was just that, having had a taste, Bush knew that she had to produce alone and take full the reins on her own. Only twenty-one when she started recording Never for Ever, it is amazing to hear the complexity on display. Peter Gabriel introduced Bush to the Fairlight CMI. We hear it a bit of Never for Ever, though this exciting new technology would play a bigger role on The Dreaming and Hounds of Love. Able to simulate all sort of sounds, it was a real breakthrough. It was a really exciting time for Kate Bush. One can see that in the expression she gives in the photo from Abbey Road Studio 2. A remarkable young artist who always produced such phenomenal music, it would have been fascinating sitting in the studio and hearing these songs come together. In terms of the conversations and memories that are held in that studio from that time, it is something that…
WE can only imagine!