FEATURE:
The Deepest Understanding of This Woman’s Work
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
A Thank You to Seán Twomey and the Kate Bush News Website
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THIS will not be a long feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Kate Bush News website founder and Kate Bush Fan Podcast host, Seán Twomey/PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush News/Seán Twomey
but I wanted to react to something that I saw in Classic Pop’s special magazine dedicated to Kate Bush. One section was given up to the Kate Bush News website. I am going to come to the interview that its founder Seán Twomey. He has been running the Kate Bush News website since 1998. Peter and Krys Fitzgerald-Morris and Dave Cross are the editors of HomeGround (the Kate Bush Magazine), the world’s longest-running Kate Bush publication, since 1982. They The final edition was in 2011 (though a special digital edition was published this year to mark their fortieth anniversary). HomeGround magazine joined forces with Twomey in 2011. I am writing this on 24th September. The site marked forty years of The Dreaming on 13th September. Last week, the Kate Bush Fan Podcast’s fifty-second episode was given over to discussing this summer. One of the only Kate Bush fan podcasts out there, it is a cornerstone of Kate Bush News. There are a few other podcasts – I am going to do an albums one soon -, but none have the knowledge of Bush’s music that Seán Twomey has! He has been reporting about Kate Bush for so many years. He even met her at her old family home of East Wickham to celebrate Paddy Bush’s fiftieth birthday. He developed a friendship with Kate’s brother through the site. The Kate Bush Fan Podcast is the go-to podcast. In the same way the Kate Bush News website is the portal you need to refer to when it comes to all things Bush. In fact, they were given exclusive access by EMI to announce the release of Aerial in 2005. No small honour when you consider this was Bush’s first album in twelve years!
Anyway. The latest podcast explores the magnificent and eventful summer. One where Kate Bush has been deeply in focus. Stranger Things featured her Hounds of Love hit, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), in a key scene. There was rumours and whispers before that, as Winona Ryder (who features in the series) wore a badge of Kate Bush (I think it was a photo of Bush in her Lionheart period). People wondered what it could mean. Few could have guessed that an iconic song would feature and then go on to hit number one in the U.K. and around the world! That was Bush’s second U.K. number one. Her first, Wuthering Heights, was in 1978. Breaking records all over the place, the classic song got new attention and life. Lots of artists covered the song (most were pretty average; Rita Ora’s abysmal version was the final straw and showed why you need to stay away from a song only Kate Bush can perform with any memorability!). Bush’s music found a new audience and, to top it off, she gave a rare interview to BBC radio’s Woman’s Hour! I have included that at the end of this feature. Bush explained how grateful she was that people responded to the song and Stranger Things in the way they did. She also revealed how she was gardening a lot; the fact she has an ancient mobile phone, and how happy she was right now. It was a wonderful interview that few could have anticipated! Bush also provided several updates to fans on her official website.
Making sure that fans were aware of all the latest happenings, Twomey and his team have been covering everything with passion and dedication. It has been such a wonderfully busy and exciting year for Kate Bush! Her fans have rejoiced. Bush has provided her thoughts and insights to a new documentary, If These Walls Could Sing, directed by Mary McCartney about Abbey Road Studios (where Bush recorded at several times). PROG magazine had a Kate Bush cover and provided a poster. Classic Pop dedicated an entire issue to Bush. Credit to the magnificent website for keeping abreast of everything! I am not sure how they are made aware of the news, but I am guessing it is a combination of getting first-look access and being told the news before other sources. Fans will send in links and news and, together, there is this updated and essential site for all things Kate Bush! I think 2023 will be quieter than this when it comes to Bush and developments/news! But 2022 is not over yet. There is a new book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush, by Tom Doyle coming out late next month. I suspect that Bush will send out a Christmas message on her official website before the big day. Who knows what other news we might get between now and then. Maybe some cover versions, another magazine spread or, as everyone in the world hopes (but seems unlikely) some new albums news!
IN THIS PHOTO: HomeGround’s Peter and Krys Fitzgerald-Morris and Dave Cross with Kate Bush (and a half-hidden Del!) at the 1990 Kate Bush Club/HomeGround Convention (photo via the Kate Bush News website)
I am going to wrap up by selecting a few parts of that interview Seán Twomey gave to Classic Pop recently. I hope to speak with Twomey for a Kate Bush podcast in the future. There are some big anniversaries next year. My favourite-ever album – and Bush’s magnificent debut, The Kick Inside - is forty-five in February. Bush is sixty-five on 30th July. Plus, one of her really underrated albums, The Red Shoes, is thirty in November. I know there will be more books, magazines and articles written about this timeless icon. She is someone who seems to be more popular now than she has ever been. That is no mean feat when you consider the fact that her most recent studio album came out in 2011! That was the year that Seán Twomey and HomeGround joined forces to create this website that is the most essential resource for Kate Bush information. It was only right that, in a magazine special (from Classic Pop) concerning Kate Bush’s career and music, that they should get some words from one of the world’s leading authorities about Kate Bush. Twomey himself has modestly said how there are others out there who know more about Bush than himself. I am not too sure! Who is the Mark Lewisohn (the world’s leading authority on The Beatles) of the Kate Bush universe!? Even though I claim to have written more Kate Bush features than anyone alive, Twomey has deeper love and wider knowledge than me! There were a few questions that caught my eye. The first one concerned his reaction to hearing Kate Bush for the first time…
I think that this experience is one many of us share when tracing our love of Kate Bush. Twomey recalls that the ‘white dress’ version (the original U.K. video that was rejected by America because it was too intense and weird. A second, with Bush in a red dress, was filmed for the U.S. The single did not make an impact there) was “constantly present”. He told how her “high-pitched register and swooping arm moves were unlike anything else on telly at the time”. That is how I felt! That was my first experience of Kate Bush. The video for her amazing debut single was so unconventional. Not choreographed like Pop videos (it was choreographed by Robin Kovac) I was used to seeing, I was about four when I first witnessed it. The family had a copy of the 1986 greatest hits album, The Whole Story, on VHS. The Wuthering Heights video was strange and almost theatrical. Differing from the somewhat conventional music of the 1980s and 1990s, this was a revelation! Twomey revealed how he became invested in Kate Bush at the age of sixteen. This was a time when he was listening to a lot of Indie bands. Quite a refreshing break from that rather tooled and unsurprising sound, Bush’s diverse and original music was a revelation. Stating that it was when he discovered the HomeGround fanzine that his casual and growing love turned into a passion, this was the way artists like Bush were discovered in the pre-Internet age. Bush herself contributed to the fanzine and wrote about her creative process and working. She even attended some fan conventions so, for someone finding out about Bush’s music, having this unique and invaluable information was crucial. Fanzines bonded fans and was this community in itself. I almost envy Twomey’s experience! I turned into a diehard later on, at a time when social media was existent and fanzines like HomeGround were in their final moments.
The origins of the Kate Bush News website can be traced to 1997. Twomey told Classic Pop that, this year, he wanted to have a go at building a site. Kate Bush seemed a natural choice! Noting how existent sites were galleries and almost surface without saying much about what makes Bush special and who she is as an artist, it seemed a no-brainer to counteract that with something informative and deep. Launching the site in January 1998, Twomey said how people thought he was crazy “doing a news site in the middle of what turned out to be her epic 12-year gap between albums!”. 1998 was the year Bush gave birth to her only child, Bertie/Albert. She had already written songs for Aerial by then, but giving birth put a halt to that and also changed the way she wrote and what she wrote about. It seems almost symbolic that the leading Kate Bush website was born the same year as something life-changing and momentous came into Bush’s life! I shan’t quote every answer, but I shall skim each of them. Twomey explains how his objective for the Kate Bush News website is to be informative and up-to-date. Bringing HomeGround into the digital realm was a good move by Twomey, as it means that they can continue on in a different form. It is fitting that the classic and adored fanzine should team with the founder of the number one Kate Bush website. I know that Kate’s brother John (Carder Bush) will be on an episode of the podcast soon. Bush’s other brother Paddy has been in touch (he is seventy in December). Del Palmer – Bush’s former boyfriend and someone who has worked with her before The Kick inside; he was the engineer for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow – has also been very supportive.
When asked what significant things about Kate Bush have been learned since he started the site, Twomey said how he put her on a pedestal and was almost worshipping at her altar. “I quickly appreciated just how down-to-earth and completely disinterred with being famous Kate is”. That is something that strikes me. Deified in the sense that she has heavenly talent and ability, Kate Bush is also completely normal. Not the reclusive and spooky woman that tabloids and idiots have labelled her as for years, she is one of the most well-adjusted and kindest people in all of music! Twomey noted how, what is remarkable about Kate Bush, is that no matter what mood he is in, there is a song that can fit that – whether he needs to be lifted or kept in a good mood. Rocket’s Tail and Among Angels were among the tracks he singled out. The final question Twomey was asked was how he sees the Kate Bush News website developing. He is going to keep the podcast and, of course, stay on top of all the news and Kate Bush adjacent bits (books influenced by her or an artist covering one of her songs etc.). He also said how he might get into video podcasts too. This is something I have written about for a future feature. Namely, how there should be a video series or podcast that explores each of Kate Bush’s albums. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a Kate Bush channel on YouTube that discusses albums, has interviews and is similar to the Kate Bush News website. I think fans can really get behind a Seán Twomey-created video podcast or channel!
I will end things there. I wanted to quote from the fascinating and revealing interview in Classic Pop. It was great hearing when Kate Bush came into Seán Twomey’s life and how her music affected him. We almost take her music for granted. I wonder how many fans think back to that first discovery of her music and how they reacted to it. If you did, I reckon you would be quite moved! I think that the Kate Bush News website is the most authoritative and informative source when it comes to the beloved pioneer from Kent. There are great books about Bush. There is the odd podcast (away from the Kate Bush Fan Podcast), together with magazines and special spreads. When it comes to the online sources, the Kate Bush News website is the one! Kate Bush’s official website posts announcements from the icon, but as that does not happen regularly, where does one find out about what is happening with Kate Bush? That is taken care of by Seán Twomey, Peter and Krys Fitzgerald-Morris and Dave Cross. Lots of love to the website – and long may they continue to shine, inform and keep us all included and embraced!
PHOTO CREDIT: The Kate Bush News website
2022 has been an unexpectedly hectic and successful year for Kate Bush’s music! Breaking records, topping charts and featuring on one of Netflix’s biggest series, Stranger Things, it is amazing that she remains so popular and adored nearly forty-five years after her debut album was released. Who knows what is next for Kate Bush. Will we ever hear that teased track that Big Boi seems to suggest features Kate Bush?! Will Bush release an eleventh studio album? Will we get album reissues, new books or will Bush be made a Dame (if you ask me, that is long overdue!)? Indeed, will the legend be finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year (she has been nominated three times and lost out on each occasion), or will she do something special for her sixty-fifth birthday next year?! All we know is that the magnificent Kate Bush News website will let us know! For all they have done since 1998 – 2011 if you see that as the date when the website was truly born because of the unity with HomeGround’s editors –, and especially throughout this busy and brilliant year for Kate Bush, fans all around the world offer…
THEIR sincere thanks and love!