FEATURE:
That Cloud Looks Like Industrial Waste…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Kate Bush and the Ongoing and Important Family Connection
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I did not write…
a feature specifically about Kate Bush’s Christmas message, as there are some thoughts and words from it that inspire features of their own. However, I did want to say it is a typically and reliability excellent one from Kate Bush. I did watch the King’s speech, though I found it to be too generic and platitude-filled. Several references to Jesus and with a religion message at its heart, maybe it is aimed at those who feel the U.K. is a Christian land and that a more traditional narrative is needed. However, in a year of genocide, hatred and bloodshed, it would have been nice to dispense with religion – for atheists like me, it was especially meaningless – and actually talk about nations like Palestine and how it has been ravaged! Maybe a bit too edgy and family-unfriendly for a message that is, sadly, too concerned with cosiness and ‘traditional values’ (though the messages of togetherness and kindness were great) than anything more important. Not to say Kate Bush’s Christmas message was a charged and political one that took evil nations and dictators to task. However, as she is someone who has raised money for charities supporting those affected by war and genocide, and this is something she has done a lot through her career – charity fundraising -, she can be forgiven. Also, Bush keeps it specific about her career and year, rather than providing an examination of the wider world. I did half-expect – in a rather optimistic way – some sort of new album news. Like Taylor Swift picking up an award and then announcing a new album in that rather opportunistic fashion, that would be beneath Kate Bush. Thought it would be a revelation that would perfectly lift a rather crappy year! However, as I shall expand on for another feature, there is a little clue in the photo she used in the post (that you can see above), where we see something reflected in the Christmas tree bauble.
PHOTO CREDIT: Bernard Fallon
I am not sure whether that is a stock image or from Pexels/Unsplash and Bush imposed the image into the bauble, or whether it is her actual tree – I suspect the former -, but it is quite intriguing. Maybe it might be there to represent Best of the Other Sides and bringing that out, though there is a studio we can see. Or a mixing console at least. Some have intimated this as a sign an album is finished and may be announced. In the same way Bush hides ‘KT’ on her album covers, is this a little clue for the eagle-eyed, or something that represents the time she spent bringing out the Best of the Other Sides compilation? I will muse further in a separate piece. However, I want to bring in these words from her Christmas message:
“It’s been wonderful to see the response to the vinyl release of Best of the Other Sides. To put the running order together, I had to listen to songs I hadn’t heard since they were first released. My favourite part of revisiting those songs was listening to the middle section of The Meteorological Mix of The Big Sky. My favourite line is delivered brilliantly by my brother, Paddy. It still makes me laugh… “That cloud looks like industrial waste“.
There are also lines in that section of the track that were spoken by my mother and father. I love to hear their voices. It makes it feel like they’re still with us. Over the last few years, I often wonder how they would’ve felt about the major events that have happened. Particularly the pandemic, the undeniable effects of climate change, and of course all the wars.
I think they appreciated that Golden Age we had until recently in a way we can’t imagine. They had lived through a war and seen the horror, they’d felt the exhaustion that Britain had experienced afterwards. My father had practised medicine before the introduction of antibiotics and my mother had been a nurse, but I still feel they would’ve been bewildered by the intensity and the speed of the many changes over these last four to five years.
I remember when I was little, how our parents would carry in the Christmas tree every Christmas Eve. It was always in the evening and made the Christmas tree even more special and magical because it was only with us for a few days. We always used the same decorations, going back years, and this real tree would be draped in tinsel. A rather worn fairy would grace the top of the tree in her faded pink dress.
The Christmas tree is still the centre of our festive Christmas decorations at home. Of course, like most people this goes up and is decorated weeks before Christmas Eve, but it still holds a truly special magic for me”.
If previous years have seen Kate Bush muse on subjects such as art or loss in the world, this one very much had family at heart. The thanks she gave to fans for supporting the Little Shrew (Snowflake) video. Raising money for War Child. The Duffer brothers for using Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) in Stranger Things’ fifth (and final) season. Max’s “totem” (in Bush’s words) and anthem, it has helped boost streaming figures of the song. It is great that this song continues to reach people and grow in stature. However, it is her recollections of childhood Christmases and her parents that really touched me. Family has always been so key to Bush. I have explored this in previous features, though are there are major artists where their family is as integral and important in terms of the music and career progression?! From her parents encouraging her young musical ambitions and supporting her, through to those earliest years where brother Paddy and John (Jay) were exposing her to poetry, music and a range of different sounds, words and sensations, I do think that a reason Bush was so hard-working and determined was partly as a thanks to her family. Rewarding their faith and love with this incredible music, I think of those early years. She has lost both of her parents. Her mother, Hannah, died on 14th February, 1992 from cancer. Her father, Robert, died in July 2008. Even though her father lived to eighty-eight, the fact that neither are here is especially tough this time of year. As they are in her mind for the Christmas message, I find that touching. Perhaps Bush has been working on material and her family have been in mind. Though, in a more factual sense, it is clear that her family have been so essential right through her career. Not to say other artists do not have that quality, yet there is something quintessentially and distinctly family-focused with Bush. Her dad providing encouragement when hearing her early demos (some of which were epic and saw other members of the family/friends walk out!), to giving her access to a piano and an organ at East Wickham Farm. Throw in all these happenings around Bush learning dance and mime and how her parents would have provided support, lifts sand money. That all influenced her.
Her brothers’ impact too. Opening her eyes to so many different styles of music and literary/poetic works. Her connection to the Trio Bulgarka (who appear on 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes) came from Paddy Bush. Her mother’s voice has appeared on record and we see her briefly in a cameo in the video for Suspended in Gaffa (from 1982’s The Dreaming). Her father appearing more in voice form rather than visual. I think his vocal/spoken part on The Fog (from The Sensual World) is most striking. Rather than ot being nepotism or anything like that – can you have nepo parents?! – it is, rather, key to Bush to have her family close to her. It is no coincidence that her happiest recording came when she was making Hounds of Love and built a bespoke studio right next to the old family home at East Wickham Farm. When she moved out of there as a teenager and relocated to Wickham Road – I like to think she chose a flat there as it had ‘Wickham’ in the name -, she and her brothers had a flat each. They had their own floors but were essentially under one roof. Bush moved to Eltham in the early-1980s but never too far away from family. Wanting to remain close to that base. Flip through the pages of her albums and you can feel and hear her songs very much imbued with familial support and reference. A Coral Room (from 2005’s Aerial) mentions her mother’s old brown jug. Her mum is mentioned in Moments of Pleasure from The Red Shoes. She shows love and admiration for her parents and brothers on Hounds of Love’s closing track, The Morning Fog. There is a whole chapter – or playlist – around family and their role in her music and lyrics. Of course, Paddy Bush played on most of her studio albums. Apart from, oddly and mysteriously, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow (let’s hope we hear him on another Kate Bush album), he has been there providing vocals, playing a range of instruments, and giving the records general good vibes. Everything from exotic instruments to strange backing vocals to general noises and, as we gloriously discover from Bush’s Christmas message, a funny line from a remix version of The Big Sky (from Hounds of Love), it was important to have a brother on her albums. As Paddy did so much to encourage his sister and push her imagination beyond the conventional, this is perhaps a show of her appreciation. And Paddy Bush is an incredible musician in his own right!
John/Jay also features on her records – you hear him adopt an Irish accent for the spoken word section of Jig of Life from Hounds of Love -, and I feel his poetry directly influenced his sister’s lyrics right from the off. The mention of Paddy Bush made me smile! Someone who is not discussed enough when it comes to her music and legacy, I find it intriguing he is mentioned when speaking about Best of the Other Sides. Perhaps relating to that overall message of family, I do feel like they have been working together and it is a nod to his recent engagement in new music. Who can tell! However, it shows that as much as any collaboration, engineer or studio bod, members of her family have been driving forces. Whether that is for lyrical inspiration, musical directions or even something as big as where Bush lives and records, take that away or push it to the peripheries, and you have a lesser artist. That safe and secure family household in the 1950, '60s and '70s. Bush immersed in music, culture and literature (film and T.V. too). Her mother’s Irish heritage having a big impact. Bush recording bits in Ireland and writing a lot of the album there was because of her mother I feel. I can’t overlook a third generation of Kate Bush influence. We know about her parents and siblings, though her son Bertie continues to be in the mix. Although not mentioned in her Christmas message, you know that Bertie is in her heart. Keeping him private. He twenty-seven now, and he may well have his own family or he is off doing his own thing. I am going to write about him in more detail for another feature, as he has been a huge part of Bush’s later-career work. From an eponymous paen on Aerial to so many of the best and most touching moments on that double album – not by name, though Bush’s happiness and ambition on that, I feel, were motivated and propelled by Bertie’s presence – he has made his mark. Born in 1998, he arrived at a time in Kate Bush’s life when she had not released an album for five years, and perhaps was at a stage when she was re-prioritising things. Less about constant grind and work and more about something deeper and more important. Bertie replaced Rolf Harris’s parts – he is the disgraced sex offender who died in 2023 – when Aerial was reissued in 2018. Before then in 2014, thank Christ, Bertie appeared on stage for Before the Dawn and was essentially playing Rolf Harris’s parts there. Harris was convicted in 2014, and I don’t think he was ever in mind. However, Bertie helped encourage his mum back on stage and did a fine job – though I was not at any of the twenty-two Hammersmith dates, reviewers noted his natural acting and impressive turns. Little Shrew (Snowflake) is essentially Snowflake from 50 Words for Snow. The first track on that album, the first voice you hear is Bertie’s. So now, when Bush is fundraising and produced this powerful video, her son is still inspiring her.
Who knows, if Bush becomes a grandmother, will we see a new generation on her albums or in her lyrics?! I would like to hope Bertie is not too old or ‘cool’ to jam and sing with his mother if there is another album. Paddy needs to come back into the fray to compensate for that 2011 omission (there may have been a solid reason he could not appear on 50 Words for Snow)! Her parents always close to her; no doubt that will be explored more in future material. I am going to write about the Meteorological 12” Mix of The Big Sky, so I shall come back to Paddy Bush and that golden line! The fact she loves her parents’ voices being on the Meteorological 12” Mix. How many other Kate Bush tracks have featured her brothers/parents? I think Waking the Witch from Hounds of Love perhaps. She wanted personal connections on that song, and they appear on a crucial track on The Ninth Wave from that album. I would love to hear a Kate Bush track with Paddy, Bertie and recordings of her parents! Maybe it was Christmas and Bush thinking about family, but it has compelled me to look wider. Even at six-seven, Kate Bush has keep her parents’ memories and importance alive.
Thinking about her childhood and the Christmas trees. It is magical to visualise East Wickham Farm and the whole family congregating by the tree and opening presents. Maybe the T.V. was on or music was playing. I don’t think there is a major artist in history who has brought her family more into their music than Kate Bush. Not even The Beatles, Madonna or anyone you can think of. Maybe I am wrong, though there is this massive, ongoing and hugely important familial connection. In 2026, I feel Kate Bush’s family will play a big role. Her brothers, Paddy and John, may well inspire new music and promotional photos (John is a photographer and has shot several of Kate Bush’s covers, including Hounds of Love, and photographed her since she was a child). Her parents will work their way into words more prominently than before. Let’s hope Bertie’s adult voice features. Though I feel her son will very much compel at least one or two new songs. As Bush notes in the first line of her Christmas message, “2025 has been an interesting year…”. That is definitely true! I do feel like next year is going to be less horrific. I do also think we will get something from Kate Bush. Either an album or a single. And I feel family, one way or the other, will be included. In what form remains to be seen. (And does that studio reflection in a bauble denote imminent activity?!). I, and every Kate Bush fans, looks forward to seeing…
WHAT 2026 holds.