FEATURE:
A Big Part of Kate Bush’s Story…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in March 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix
Producer Andrew Powell at Seventy-Five
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I have mentioned him…
a bit when speaking about Kate Bush’s first two studio albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Even if their association was brief, there is no denying that Andrew Powell was hugely important. A classically trained musician and superb producer, he was the man who was at the helm for those two incredible first two albums. Maybe fans have a mixed reaction to him based on the sound of the albums and Bush wanting to solo produce fairly soon after 1978. She would do for her fourth studio album, The Dreaming (1982). Even if Kate Bush could have produced her first couple of albums and had more input, it was felt by EMI that she needed a professional for those works. Rather than it being a case of this slightly older and more experienced producer stuffily calling the shots and there being this sort of divide and wall between them, there was a lot of collaboration and leeway. Bush assisted with Lionheart’s production. There was communication and respect though, in hindsight, Kate Bush probably felt like she was an ingénue – someone who needed guiding and was restricted to sticking to the microphone. Not really given too much access to the control room and the mixing desks. She was there for mixes and stayed up through the night to hear Wuthering Heights come together. I know that there would have been suggestions from Bush about her first two albums. Andrew Powell taking that on board and the music being worked and shaped accordingly. Maybe the biggest decision he made for The Kick Inside and Lionheart was the choice of band.
Kate Bush would have favoured more input from her KT Bush band members. Del Palmer, Vic King and Brian Bath played with her in a serries of small gigs prior to her getting into the studio to record The Kick Inside. Again, more experienced musicians were chosen. Among them was the late Ian Bairnson and stalwarts like David Paton and Duncan Mackay. Andrew Powell played on a few tracks himself. Bush’s brother, Paddy, was on her debut album mind. He would appear on all of her studio albums bar her most recent, 50 Words for Snow (2011). By Lionheart, there was a bit of crossover between Kate Bush’s band and the ones that were chosen by Andrew Powell and EMI.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Also, Bush’s mentor David Gilmour would have favoured musicians who had a bit more experience. If Bush corrected things by 1980’s Never for Ever and made sure that she had more say and fingerprints on her music, one cannot overlook the importance of Andrew Powell. If his production is more studied and different to Kate Bush’s, the fact that The Kick Inside and Lionheart sound like they do and have endured is because of him. His intuition and experience when it came to the music. Born in Surrey, England, Powell soon relocated to Wales. He is still working today. After leaving the University of Cambridge, his first professional role was as a soloist at the BBC Proms. He went on to work with several orchestras, including Covent Garden's. Powell also had begun to work as a session player. He founded the group, Come to the Edge, alongside Robin Thompson and Morris Pert. As producer, Powell’s first commission was the debut album for Cockney Rebel. He worked with other artists, such as Leo Sayer, Donovan, Al Stewart, David Gilmour and Chris Rea.
That bit of biography is adapted from Wikipedia. Good and solid pedigree as a producer. It would have been David Gilmour who knew that Andrew Powell was the man who could get so much from Kate Bush’s distinct and extraordinary music. A reason I am writing about him now is that he turns seventy-five on 18th April. I am going to move away from 1978 and Kate Bush’s earliest work for a bit. I felt it worth returning now to mark the upcoming birthday of Andrew Powell. Someone who is very important in Kate Bush’s history and development. I guess a lot of people do not really know much about Andrew Powell. In terms of the press and promotion for The Kick Inside and Lionheart, he was not really featured. We do not have photos from the studio or any video. Regardless, his role is clear. Someone who was instrumental in crafting these incredible albums. I am going to come to some interviews where Andrew Powell talked about Kate Bush and working with this hugely promising young artist. Ending with a segment from his official website where a fan asked him questions about Kate Bush and a particular song from the Lionheart sessions that was never released. Let’s start out with an article from Article from Electronics & Music Maker, October 1983:
“Kate Bush
It was about this time that I was introduced to Kate Bush. I remember Dave Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) playing me a demo of 'The Man With A Child In His Eyes', and my only reaction was 'when do we start?' As it turned out, we recorded that song and 'Berlin' soon afterwards, when Kate was still only about 16. The same recordings were used on 'The Kick Inside', although the rest of the album was recorded some time later when Kate had finally signed to EMI.
Kate used the time between making those first recordings and signing up to very good effect. I think a lot of artists would have begun to despair or maybe thrown in the towel altogether, but she remained calm and during that time her writing matured a good deal: she wrote some brilliant songs.
Production
'The Kick Inside' represented my first venture into production, and oddly enough I didn't feel the need to do orchestral arrangements for every song. Some of the tracks on side two are more or less just piano and vocals, which is the way Kate writes them, of course. I kept them sparse because it was something of a change for me, and I think they worked very well on the whole.
From the beginning, Kate was very interested in the mixing and production side of things, and by the time we came to do 'Lionheart', she was assisting me to quite a large degree. I'm very proud of some of the things on that album, especially the arrangements on 'Wow' - a lot of people reckon that to be one of the best things I've done.
I always thought Kate was one of those people who wanted to do everything herself, and it came as no surprise to me to see that she'd done the last album entirely on her own. She's very much a perfectionist, and a very talented one at that; working with her was a real pleasure, and I learnt a lot from it”.
In 2018, Music Aficionado spoke with the great Andrew Powell. I have sourced this interview previously when I featured Andrew Powell. As this amazing producer and musician is turning seventy-five, it is well worth revisiting. I love how he came to meet Kate Bush (then Cathy) and those promising first steps:
“As usual, I saved the best for last. This is how Andrew Powell described the beginning of one talented lady‘s a recording career: “David Gilmour phoned me one day, and invited me for lunch at the Pink Floyd’s office in Bond Street, London. When I arrived there, he introduced me to Kate Bush (or Cathy, as she was then known.) She was a very quiet, but obviously thoughtful, young girl. He played me some of her songs, and I was impressed by her vivid musical and lyrical imagination. We talked about which songs to do – I took a tape away, and we had a further discussion a few days later. We agreed on 3 songs to record, and David handed the project over to me. I booked some time at AIR London Studios in Oxford Circus with the renowned Geoff Emerick as engineer (who, to my great embarrassment, wasn’t credited on the album), and booked a rhythm section consisting of Barry de Souza on drums, Bruce Lynch on bass, and Alan Parker and Paul Keogh on guitars. Kate would play piano, although I played both piano and electric piano on Berlin (later renamed to Saxophone Song). We had another session a few days later with the orchestra, who played on Berlin, and also played The Man with the Child in His Eyes – Kate played piano and sang live with the orchestra. If she was nervous, it didn’t show. Geoff, who was assisted by Peter Henderson, did great mixes of all 3 titles (the other one was called Humming – it was never released) and David took the tape to Bob Mercer at EMI, who signed her.” Kate Bush was 16 when she recorded these early demo tapes. The rest is history”.
The Kick Inside, Kate Bush’s debut album, was the first major project for Andrew Powell as a producer, and he is all over that album arranging the orchestral tracks, playing bass on Wuthering Heights and keyboards on other songs. The album is wonderful start to finish, but the hits are the real winners and represent some of Powell’s best work as arranger. The Man with the Child in His Eyes, written by Bush at the age of 13(!), features her playing the piano, accompanied by an orchestra arranged by Powell. The interplay between the piano, orchestra and her vocals is classic. Powell said of her singing on that song: “I still rate it as the best vocal sound I’ve ever heard from Kate“.
The album’s big hit was of course Wuthering Heights, the song that created history in British music – the first song composed and performed by a female singer to top the charts. Kate Bush on the song: “I wrote it in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March at about midnight. There was a full moon and the curtains were open, and every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon. Actually, it came quite easily. I couldn’t seem to get out of the chorus – it had a really circular feel to it, which is why it repeats. I had originally written something more complicated, but I couldn’t link it up, so I kept the first bit and repeated it.” Powell brought rookie engineer Jon Kelly, who was assistant engineer for Geoff Emerick at AIR studios in London. Like his mentor who got his break with the Beatles about 10 years earlier, Kelly could not hope for a better initiation as a principal engineer: “I give full credit to Andrew Powell and the great musicians, who were very supportive, while Kate herself was just fantastic. Looking back, she was incredible and such an inspiration, even though when she first walked in I probably thought she was just another new artist. Her openness, her enthusiasm, her obvious talent — I remember finishing that first day, having recorded two or three backing tracks, and thinking ‘My God, that’s it. I’ve peaked!'”
The great musicians Kelly mentions were all very familiar to Andrew Powell. Bass player David Paton and guitarist Ian Bairnson were both in the band Pilot and later joined the Alan Parsons project. Paton worked extensively with the band Camel in the 1980s and 1990s. Bairnson had success with Paul McCartney’s Mull of Kintyre and played on additional Kate Bush albums. The drummer on Kate Bush’s debut was Stuart Elliott who was part of Cockney Rebel and later worked with Powell on Year of the Cat and many of the Alan Parsons Project albums. He continued to work with Kate Bush on four more albums and hits including Babooshka, Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love and Cloudbusting. Elliott later recalled the recording sessions: “The album The Kick inside was not at all demanding in any sense. It is one of very few albums I have ever done where there was instant chemistry between the whole band in response to Kate’s brilliant music. Kate made it very easy for us in that she performed the songs live on piano and vocal during all takes so following her and adding our own interpretation to her songs was all that was needed. Thankfully it just fell together without any verbal guidance from either Andrew or Kate.”
Wuthering Heights is rather complex for a pop song, thus rarely covered over the years. The chorus has a rhythm that changes from 4/4 to 3/4, throwing off many unsuspecting listeners and musicians. Amazingly the vocals for the song were recorded in a single complete take without overdubs, a fit unheard of with today’s pop singers.
Andrew Powell produced one more album for Kate Bush, Lionheart, released later in 1978. For Powell it was somewhat a lesser achievement: “Kate hadn’t been allowed enough time off from promotion work to write new songs, so we ended up using some which had been short-listed for The Kick Inside. There were probably a couple of songs which, with hindsight, shouldn’t have made it onto the record.” Still, there are gems on that album and although it does not feature an orchestra as widely at the debut album, Powell’s services were needed on the energetic single Hammer Horror. Not as commercially successful as the previous hits, but a great song nonetheless.
When asked on his website about the methodology of creating an arrangement, Powell answered: “As far as a ‘methodology’ is concerned – I don’t really have one. Every song and artist is different, and needs a different approach. I have been asked before how I get my ideas for arrangements, and I can’t really explain it – it just happens when I absorb myself in the song – there is no set or pre-conceived method.” Method there isn’t, but the results are there. The arrangements Powell created in the 1970s for the artists mentioned in this article helped create some of the best songs of that decade”.
I am going to end very soon. Looking ahead to 18th April, I do hope there is acknowledgement of Andrew Powell on his seventy-fifth birthday. Someone who was a big part of Kate Bush’s early career. I hope that he talks about Kate Bush more. Reflects on working with an extraordinary artist. In a section of his website where people can ask Andrew Powel questions, this one caught my eye:
“Darrell from the USA submitted the following enquiry:
Dear Mr. Powell,
I hope this email finds you well, amid the unprecedented concerns of this pandemic. I have a few questions regarding your work with Kate Bush if at all possible. I have been a fan since I was a teenager. Your work as a conductor, arranger, composer and record producer, amongst other things, is iconic. Thank you! Here are my main Kate Bush questions:
1. Do you remember what the unreleased song 'Never For Ever' was about and sounded like? Was it upbeat or more ballad-like? Did you arrange the orchestration and conduct it?
2. I know 'Blow Away' was on the 'Never For Ever' album, but was this an earlier song that you also arranged? I noticed that you have conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, and wondered when Kate sang it for their 75th anniversary, whether you arranged the orchestration and conducted it then? This was in 1979 a year before it was released in 1980.
3. Is it right that you played the piano for 'Saxophone Song' on 'The Kick Inside'? I could go on of course, but those would be my main questions. Thank you for your time in reading this.
All the Best,
Darrell
Answer
Dear Darrell,
Thank you for your questions, and your generous comments about my work. To answer your three questions:
1. Yes I remember the song very well. It was probably my favourite song which we recorded for the “Lionheart” album, but, unfortunately, wasn’t included on the record in the end, because Kate wasn’t 100% happy with her vocal. It was a beautiful ballad - Kate sang it at the piano - and was just for Kate with her piano, (no rhythm section) and a large string orchestra. We recorded Kate at Superbear Studios in the South of France, and the orchestra parts at the original AIR studios in Oxford Circus, London. I think it may have been the best arrangement I ever did for Kate - Kate loved it too - so I wish it could be allowed to see the light of day sometime. It was a great, and very intimate, song.
2. No, I’m not sure that I had even heard “Blow Away” before that album was released; and, yes, I have conducted the London Symphony Orchestra on several occasions, but was not there with Kate at their 75th birthday celebrations.
3. Yes, it is right. I did play the piano with the rhythm section, and also played the electric piano part on the song afterwards as an overdub. This again was at the original AIR studios, with the late, great Geoff Emerick engineering.
Best,
Andrew”.
I wanted to celebrate Andrew Powell and his production work with Kate Bush. Even if it was brief, his impact was huge. Someone who definitely should be recognised. Someone who speaks fondly of his time working with Kate Bush through 1977 and 1978, it is great that he is around and can recall his time with a music icon. When it comes to Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart, Andrew Powell definitely played…
SUCH a key role.