FEATURE:
The Man with the Child in His Eyes
ALL PHOTOS: John Carder Bush
The Treasured, Rare and Fascinating Cathy by John Carder Bush
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THE title of this feature…
refers to Kate Bush’s second U.K. single. From her debut album, The Kick Inside, it seems apt when referring to John Carder Bush photographing his young sister. The legendary and rare photobook, Cathy, captures photos of Kate Bush when she was eight years old (and around that time). Just over a decade later, this curious musician would spring into the music world with some of the most remarkable and original music ever heard. Carder Bush recently featured on The Kate Bush Fan Podcast . In a two-part special, it was remarkable access to someone who has been in Kate Bush’s life and career as long as anyone else alive! Alongside his brother Paddy, the two have known and supported Kate Bush since she was a young child. There are some of those early childhood photos in the excellent and must-own KATE: Inside the Rainbow. That takes us up to 2011. Amazing to think that John Carder Bush has been photographing since and before 1966 (maybe even the early-’60s). I am not sure how many recent photos he has taken of her but, if there is to be another Kate Bush album, I’d like to think he’d take some promotional images! Looking at the black-and-white images of a young Kate Bush are so inspiring and moving. Seeing her at the piano or at the family home at East Wickham Farm. Little did she, her family and the world know that she would enter the music industry with such force and magic not that many years later! I am writing about Cathy, as it is one of those expensive and iconic books that I’d love to own.
It is quite expensive getting hold of a copy. At the moment, you can get a copy on eBay for not that much money, but most of those advertised are around £600 or £700. An artefact and piece of Kate Bush fandom and history, Cathy is an extraordinary volume. It is bound and looks like an old family photo album, and you look inside and see these glorious and personal photos that John Carder and Kate Bush have allowed the world to see. First published as a run of just five-hundred copies in 1986, Cathy is a collection of photographs by John Carder Bush of his sister Kate as a young girl, with accompanying text. Cathy is comprised of twenty-eight cut out pages featuring the text, with full-page photographs revealed on a separate page beneath. There are few Kate Bush fans who would not treasure this and add it to their collection. In 2014, AnOther presented an extract from Carder Bush's lyrical introduction to Cathy, alongside a gallery of images featuring Cathy (Kate Bush):
“My name is John Carder Bush. My father comes from rural Essex, and my mother comes from County Waterford. I have a brother eight years younger than me and his name is Patrick, I have a sister fourteen years younger than me, her name was Cathy. She is famous now, and her name is Kate.
Much has changed since these photographs were taken, some almost twenty years ago, and we in her family have changed. The sudden introduction of fame into a human unit forces decision and action, and they change people. But still in the photographs is the “now” as well, and for those that know the later images of Kate there is much to recognise.
"But still in the photographs is the “now” as well, and for those that know the later images of Kate there is much to recognise" — John Carder Bush
The photographs were not meant for any purpose, for me they were just a way of realising the emotional observations that charged around my head at the time. Our lives were filled with trappings of the Celtic Twilight, its poetry and its music. The Pre-Raphaelites and the turn of the century book illustrators were an obsession for me long before the fashion machine born in the sixties plastered Beardsley all over Europe, the Brotherhood into every home.
Most of the costumes she is wearing came from jumble sales and were many sizes too big for her. Under the costumes is my eight year old sister, companionable little friend, loved by us all who was absorbing it all through her quiet, unobtrusive intelligence. Still at the age when she believed that Gandalf lived in a rock garden in Old Bexley, in love with her pets and just beginning to discover that lonely world of self-to-be.
The finding and arranging of each negative has changed my perspective of that part of the past. My memory tells me that certain events happened at a certain point in time – the printed photograph often shows me an inaccuracy in my recall that I fight against accepting; after all, the memory has been unchallenged for many years, but in the face of my disbelief the photo must win. Even with a detailed diary so much is left out; a photograph gives more in a moment and then offers all the titbits of detail – fences that have gone, walls that have been painted, animals that are dead, people that have grown up. The memory grabs for them like something starved”.
I know there will be these very personal photos in John Carder Bush’s possession that he does not want released to the public. Those shots at home with the young Cathy studying or enjoying quiet time. What we have in Cathy is a real gift. I wonder, to make it more accessible and affordable for fans, whether a new issue could be release. Keep the original binding and design concept but do a reissue that is priced under £100. That would offer a window into the early life of one of the world’s most popular and spectacular artists. You can get copies on auction sites and book sellers’ websites, but they do tend to range in terms of price. If you’re lucky, you can get away with a couple of hundred quid, but that does go up to £700 and beyond! This is one of these Kate Bush-related items that I am so keen to own! I am not sure whether I can budget but, looking at the photos available online, it is so heart-warming that the older brother, John Carder Bush, dedicated that time to photographing his sister. I wonder if he knew, even when she was eight years old, that she was going to be a star. Did he know that Catherine/Cathy would become Kate and go on to sell millions of albums? I think that he did! I have been thinking about Cathy recently, as John Carder Bush appeared on The Kate Bush Fan Podcast. I wonder if he can recall those days when he was at the family home snapping these shots of his sister that, over fifty years later, would still be talked about and admired. If you can afford Cathy or are lucky enough to own it already, then spend some time with it. This slice of photographic and Kate Bush gold is…
SUCH a wonderful collection.