FEATURE:
The Kate Bush Interview Archive
1978: Donna McAllister (Sounds)
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I am going to do…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Wuthering Heights shoot in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
a run of features very soon around The Kick Inside. Kate Bush’s debut, recording of the album completed in August 1977. That is almost forty-five years ago. I wanted to lead into that with an interview from 1978. One of the features I will do for The Kick Inside is around the cover. It is not one of Bush’s best. In this interview with Donna McAllister of Sounds, the album cover was brought up. In one of the last editions of The Kate Bush Interview Archive, this one caught my eye. I am really interested in those early interviews. Bush was new on the scene and people were not quite sure what to make of her. A lot of the interviews revolved around her looks and sexuality. This interview is a bit more balanced, mature and respectful, I think. It opens by asking why there is attention around Kate Bush:
“SOULFUL, SENSITIVE, salubrious. So why all the fuss about Kate Bush's age? Is it the fact that you don't usually get such cohesive intelligence from 19 year old females? Is it that 'child' prodigies are out of our mode? Or is it simply the fact that the journalists are getting older? It wasn't that long ago that the charts were brimmed from 1 to 10 with teen-aged stars. It may seem that only yesterday she was your average unknown person, but in fact, Kate has been developing her unique talents on rinky-dink second hand pianos since she was the ripe old age of 14. Recently she moved into a three storey flat in Lewisham, which is owned by her general practioner daddy-o, and whose other two storeys are occupied by her two older brothers.
The story is not at all as overnight as it seems to be, it was in fact two years ago that Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour bopped around to Kates' flat with a Revox -- goal in mind to get some of Kates tunes published. She wasn't, at the time, considered a singer but Gilmour, who is genuinely interested in giving undiscovered talent a shot-in-the-arm (with his Unicorn organization) felt that the bubbling under songs should have the opportunity to be heard. They recorded about 15 songs per tape, and took them around to various record companies. The unanimous opinion, then, was 'non-commerical', and after all . . . it's not creative unless it sells, 'eh?
How Kate and Gilmour hooked up is rather a vague 'girlfriends'- boyfriends'- girlfriends friend' sort of rigamaroll, but the fact is that he never did lose interest in her er . . . talents, and decided that the only way to reach a record company's goldlined pocket was to produce finished product. Which is exactly what they did. Gilmour put up the money, and Kate went into Air studios complete with a band, and laid down the three tracks she and Dave both felt were best. This is the tape which eventually landed Kate her contract with EMI Records.
Despite the fact that she has been already wrongly built (no pun intended) in the media to be a mere child, she is surprisingly aware of what is going on around her, and is accepting the entire shindig with a pleased air of disbelief.
"They keep telling me the chart numbers, and I just kind of say 'Wow' (she sweeps her arms) . . . it's not really like it's happening. I've always been on the outside, watching albums I like go up the charts, and feeling pleased that they are doing well, but it's hard to relate to the fact that it's now happening to me..."
'WUTHERING Heights', Kate's self-penned song, inspired by the book of the same title, is literally catapaulting up the UK charts, and looks as though it will be one of those classic world-wide smasheroonies, though it has yet to be released in most other countries. She recently took her first air-bourne flight to Germany for a television appearance, as the single, apparently, has been chosen as whatever the German equivalent of 'pick-of-the-week' might be.
"It was mind blowing," she said euphorically, in reference to flying, "I really want to do more of that . . ." Wonder how she'll feel about in in two years time.
She writes songs about love, people, relationships and life . . . sincerely and emotionally, but without prostituting her talents by whining about broken hearts.
"If you're writing a song, assuming people are going to listen, then you have a responsibility to those people. It's important to give them a positive message, something that can advise or help is far more effective than having a wank and being self-pitiful. That's really negative. My friends and brothers have been really helpful to me, providing me with stimulating conversation and ideas I can really sink my teeth into."
For as long as she can remember she has been toying around with the piano, much, I reckoned, to her parent's chargrin. Can you imagine living with a nine-year-old who insisted on battering away on said instrument, wailing away at the top of her lungs in accompaniment?
"Well, they weren't very encouraging in the beginning, they thought it was a lot of noise. When I first started, my voice was terrible, but the voice is an instrument to a singer, and the only way to improve it is to practice. I have had no formal vocal training, though there was a guy that I used to see for half-an-hour once a week, and he would advise me on things like breathing properly, which is very important to voice control. He'd say things like 'Does that hurt? Well, then sing more from here (motions to diaphram) than from your throat.' I don't like the idea of 'formal' training, it has far too many rules and conventions that are later hard to break out of . . ."
IT IS QUITE obvious from the cover of 'The Kick Inside', her debut album, that Ms. Bush is Orientally influenced, but apparently it was not meant to take on such an oriental feel.
"I think it went a bit over the top, actually. We had the kite, and as there is a song on the album by that name, and as the kite is traditionally oriental, we painted the dragon on. But I think the lettering was just a bit too much. No matter. On the whole I was surprised at the amount of control I actually had with the album production. Though I didn't choose the musicians," (Andrew Powell, producer and arranger did). "I thought they were terrific”.
A great interview from 1978, I always love reading different interviewers’ question and perspectives. Kate Bush handled herself very well and gave terrific answers. In one of the busiest years of her professional career, she was all over the place being interviewed. The Kick Inside is an exciting and original album from a teenage artist who was capturing people’s attention. I am going to start a series of features around that album, forty-five years after it was recorded. There is no other album like it in my mind. Bush, even at the start, was so eloquent, interesting, and kind in interviews. The above is an example of that. The Sounds interview is a great one which fans need to read. Back in 1978, the brilliant Kate Bush came into the music world with…
A stunning debut.