FEATURE:
She Loves to Come for Her Ride
Digging into the Unusual and Unknown Sides of Kate Bush
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AHEAD of the release…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on the set of The Line, the Cross and the Curve (1993)
of the reissued edition of Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, I have been thinking about the more unusual and lesser-known sides of her career. Those facts and titbits that many might not know about. That book, written by Graeme Thomson, is an essential and authoritative biography. It has been revised to include more up to date events like Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) featuring in Stranger Things (2022) and getting to number one. I am not sure how deep to go and what things casual Kate Bush fans know already. There are a couple of unknown bits of information I might need to consult the book about, as they are a pretty hazy memory. I think that Kate Bush was a big fan of The Muppets when she was younger. Especially Animal. I do remember, early on in the book, there is a section that says, one day, when Kate Bush was walking down the street, she thought someone was waving to her and she started waving back. Before realising it was actually someone washing the windows! I think the more we know about the unusual, the cute, the rare and deep, the better impression we get of Kate Bush. I am interested in reading a book or magazine that collects together some of this rarer content. The more unusual or lesser-known interviews. Facts about Bush and some gems that may not even be known to hardcore fans. I did put a shout-out on Twitter to see if anyone had any favourite unusual/odd Kate Bush facts. One person responded with a comment about how her favourite flavour of Angel Delight was butterscotch. I don’t want to give to much credence to the notion that Kate Bush is eccentric or this mythical figure. That is how she was painted by the media for years. This apparent recluse and oddity. When people write about Kate Bush or there are articles, all the more obvious and well-trodden information is provided. Readers rarely get to know more about her various sides. How many know that Kate Bush (and Del Palmer) were at the final Ziggy Stardust concert in 1973? Bush cried her eyes out when it was announced Ziggy Stardust was retiring. Maybe thinking that meant David Bowie was retiring, it was a shock. That concert was at the Hammersmith Odeon. No coincidence this is a venue Bush chosen to perform at during 1979’s The Tour of Life. It was also the venue Bush performed in for the twenty-two nights of 2014’s Before the Dawn (named now the Eventim Apollo).
I think, the more and more I hear Kate Bush on the radio and see her represented in the media, the more defined she is. In terms of the image, her songs and value. The way people describe her. The same words keeping coming up. It gets tiring. People do not go deep enough or bother trying. I realise that highlighting some rarer knowledge about Kate Bush might mean people double-down on calling her weird or witch-like! I do think that it (these facts) add charm, dimensions and depth. When I see features about Kate Bush facts, many of them are the same. There are few that go beyond that. I have collected a few I want to drop in. I would like to hear from anyone who might want to add something. There is a whole world of the back-road Kate Bush. These interviews, performances, trivia and factoids that would be tantalising for fans old and new alike! In terms of lost songs and opportunities that never were quite realised, one of the top is the fact that Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush were going to record a song together, Ibiza. Having not reached the studio, it would have been wonderful to have heard the song! Kate Bush appeared on several Peter Gabriel songs, though he never appeared on hers. The two have shared a stage. I do hope that if a new Kate Bush album comes, Peter Gabriel is included. In terms of songs that were recorded but never released, Never for Ever was completed during the sessions for 1978’s Lionheart. Bush did call her third studio album Never for Ever, although it does not have a title track. Bush disliked her vocal on the song. Producer Andrew Powell loved the vocal. It is a shame that this unreleased song may never come to light. I am going to hop around a bit in terms of time period and subject. Many might not know that Kate Bush (Cathy/Catherine as she would have been called) took up karate. Her eldest brother, John, was an instructor at Goldsmiths College Karate Club. I think that Bush practising karate fed into her love of dance and movement. She did this between writing songs and poetry for her school magazine. Her nickname at school was ‘Ee-ee’, due to her squeaky kiai – this is the battle cry made by combatants when performing an attack move.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982
Whilst The Kick Inside’s James and the Cold Gun was not about James Bond, Bush was approached by Bond producers to record the theme to Moonraker. This is one of the great what-ifs when it comes to artists who could have recorded classic Bond themes. Think about Lana Del Rey or Radiohead. When it came to Moonraker’s theme, the iconic Shirley Bassey eventually recorded it. She recorded one of the very best themes. It would have been intriguing hearing what Kate Bush did with that opportunity! People might not be aware that Kate Bush interviewed herself for fan-club newsletters. In 1987, Bush was interviewed by two fictitious characters – her aunt Hetty and cousin Zwort Finkle. Zwort enquired as to why Bush didn’t do that many interviews. She said: “I find it very difficult to express myself in interviews…Often people have so many preconceptions that I spend most of the interview trying to defend myself from the image that was created by the media eight years ago”. I may do another feature about relatively unseen interviews people should check out. Two very different ones from 1994 – this one here and this - are really important. Going back to the Kate Bush Club Magazine, in the Christmas 1981 issue, Bush wrote about a recent trip to Loch Ness, where she claimed to have seen a UFO: “I noticed three lights in the sky, descending in a diagonal line. Then they formed a horizontal line and remained static just below a layer of cloud. There were huge circular orange lights; and we set off in the car in hot pursuit. We thought maybe they were some kind of stadium lights, but they were too near to the clouds; and we had never seen aircraft with such big lights, nor that colour”.
A lot of people do not know what sort of music Kate Bush was inspired by. During an interview with Pulse, where Bush discussed songs that impacted her, she mentioned John Lennon’s #9 Dream, which featured on Walls and Bridges in 1974. Bush also mentioned Billie Holiday and Roxy Music. There were some odd musical collaborations and charity endeavours. Bush made a guest appearance on Spirit of the Forest, a 1989 Live Aid-style charity single also featuring Iggy Pop, Kim Wilde, Fish from Marillion, the Jungle Brothers and the Ramones. It was a flop! Perhaps not compelled by human voices the most, when asked by Radio 2 in 1996 who her favourite singer was, Bush said it was the blackbird, and her second favourite was the thrush. Perhaps that comes as no shock. In 1981, Kate Bush was interviewed by anthropologist Desmond Morris. Bush did not stumble when asked this question: “Do you like your voice?” She not only said that she didn’t, but she then eloquently explored and explained why. Kate Bush was never a fan of flying. Not necessarily scared of it, she did find it tiring. Not a shock really, as she lived in Australia for a bit as a child. Even so, in 1978, her attitude was more positive. She did say she wanted to fly more. That comment came after she flew to Holland in 1978. She made trips to Japan, Jamaica, the U.S. and Australia. One side of Kate Bush that is not explored is her pets. Her dogs, Bonnie and Clyde, appear on the cover of 1985’s Hounds of Love. At the time of Aerial's release, she had a dog called Ted. Pyewacket was a member of Kate Bush’s household during the late Seventies and Eighties. Living alongside Zoodle, he was the subject of a comic strip Bush drew for the Kate Bush Club Newsletter. Moving onto Kate Bush as a groundbreaking, she was the first singer/songwriter to stage a concert where she danced alongside a team of professional dancers. Bush did so whilst singing live through a headset microphone. She rewrote the rules on how artists could perform live. People often credit Michael Jackson with popularising and introducing cinematic videos. The truth is, by the time Thriller arrived in 1982, Bush had already released epic and cinematic videos.
Kate Bush did not dabble in advertising a lot. She did wrote a series of short instrumental pieces for a Coca-Cola fruit drink, Fruitpoia, in 1994. With a different piece for each flavour, they are well worth watching on YouTube. Way before American Idol and X Factor were known here and the U.S., Kate Bush took part, sort of, in a Japanese version in 1978. She debuted at a Tokyo Song Contest to promote her tour. Bush came in second. These are only a few of the odder facts and deeper bits of information that adds new colours and layers to Kate Bush. Such a phenomenally busy and diverse artist, I do crave for the day when there is a Kate Bush book where we dig down and discover all the wonderfully unusual bits of information about her. On social media, I learn something new about Kate Bush nearly every day. I go down YouTube wormholes and discover these videos I have never seen before. Finding odd photos and discovering new facts that make me fall deeper for everything about Kate Bush. If you are a new fan, I hope you have learned a few things about Kate Bush you did not know. Diehards might have their own facts and oddities they could pass my way. Rather than focus on the obvious songs and the same old narrative, there is much more to Kate Bush than meets the eye. She truly is one of the most fainting artists ever. I want to end by recommending people go and pre-order a copy of Graeme Thomson’s new edition of Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, which is published on 27th June. That will give you all the information and detail that you could ever need. The more you explore and the deeper you go, the wider your knowledge is. That is what makes Kate Bush…
SO very fascinating.