FEATURE: Revisiting… Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying to Tell You

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Saint Etienne - I've Been Trying to Tell You

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THERE are a few reasons…

 ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Melek Zertal

why I want to feature Saint Etienne’s I've Been Trying to Tell You in this Revisiting… For one, the tenth studio album from the legendary London band is among their very best. It shows they are one of the most consistent and inventive groups of their generation. Also, this album was released on 10th September, 2021, and it did get great reviews. I don’t think it is played and talked about as much as it should be. Also, as it was released during the pandemic, maybe it denied Saint Etienne the opportunity to promote and tour it in full. An album that should not pass anyone by, I also like I’ve Been Trying to Tell You, because it makes direct reference to music of the late-’90s. In terms of its concept and act, it is an album set between the ‘optimistic’ years of 1997 and 2001. It contains samples of Pop songs from this time, alongside some field recordings. Before getting to some reviews, there are a couple of interviews that I want to bring in. The band, Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs discussed the inspirations behind I’ve Been Trying to Tell You. They spoke with The Guardian in September 2021 about COVID-19, in addition to British music and culture in the ‘90s:

“I’m Trying to Tell You’s hazy musical style is influenced by something unexpected: YouTube videos made by younger people Stanley became obsessed with a few years ago. “It was this warped, woozy music like chillwave or vaporwave, but it’s mostly samples of 80s American music, set against stills of abandoned shopping malls. There are virtually no records or CDs [of this music] – it’s all on YouTube and it definitely seems outside of the conventional music industry, which I find fascinating.”

Stanley is the band’s resident pop geek, publishing acclaimed books (including 2014’s whip-smart history of pop, Yeah, Yeah Yeah, and this year’s Excavate!: The Wonderful and Frightening History of the Fall, co-edited with his partner, artist and writer Tessa Norton, as well as compiling crate-digging anthologies with Wiggs. Some might accuse him of wallowing too much in the past, but he’s not having that. “I don’t think it’s nostalgic to be fascinated by the Chartists or the Bauhaus, or the Beatles for that matter. It’s about history.” It’s also about having a modernist approach to creativity, he says. “And my understanding of modernism is that it’s about borrowing the best bits of the past when you’re creating something new. That’s how you progress. ‘Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat’ as Neil Tennant said in Left to My Own Devices. You can’t ignore history.”

When Covid hit, the band struck on the idea of taking samples from a period currently being referred to by younger artists such as Charli XCX and AG Cook. Cracknell loves the resulting album: “It’s all hazy, late summer sounds – and it was so nice to do something like this during multiple lockdowns, and so nice to see each other, even if it was only on Zoom.” She recorded her vocals in her son’s bedroom; Wiggs worked at home, as did Stanley, but later hooked up with composer Gus Bousfield, who contributed to two tracks. They decided to look at the less well-know styles songs that were actually all over the radio in the late 1990s – styles far removed from indie and Britpop. “Because it frustrates us how history gets rewritten,” Stanley says. “That’s part of the theme of this record – it’s an attempt to reclaim memory.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Stanley, Sarah Cracknell and Pete Wiggs in 1991/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Rasic/Getty Images

The idea of reappraising our received version of the 1990s is something the band have often discussed. Stanley says he finds it odd that “Britpop people have taken over the music bits of the BBC… ex-members of various bands being presenters or whatever. That doesn’t help what we remember.” What was exciting then, he says, was rave, hardcore and breakbeat, jungle and drum and bass, music that was developing constantly. “Every couple of months there was something new. It was constantly evolving.” We discuss the famous cover of Select magazine in 1993 that first introduced Britpop as a concept: Saint Etienne were one of the bands. “It had us, Pulp, Denim, Suede and the Auteurs as well – we all sounded completely different. By the time Britpop became big, that sound was much more homogeneous and by 1997 it was quite dreary – and suddenly everyone was splintering off into different things.”

What do the band think of the argument that Britpop – and its fetishisation of Britishness – was one of the building blocks towards Brexit? Wiggs nods wearily; Cracknell offers a theatrically miserable shrug. “You can definitely see things within the stereotypes of Britpop that tie those things together,” Stanley says. “It snuck certain associations into popular culture.”

The album also explores a time where Britain last felt optimistic, they say, although it was tempered by disillusion even shortly after New Labour was elected. “We must be near the bottom of it for politics now, though,” says Stanley.

Cracknell and Wiggs have kids in their late teens who are fascinated by the 1990s (Stanley is merely an observer of this phenomenon: his son with his partner, Norton, is only five). I wonder if they cling to that period because it takes them to a mysterious world just before they were born – so close to them, in a way, but also so out of touch. “It’s a bit like us having a fascination for the 60s at a similar age, just in a different way,” Cracknell says. “I mean, for us, the 90s seems like yesterday, but for them, it seems like a really, really long time ago”.

Before getting to those reviews, there is an interview from PASTE that caught my eye. In it, the band’s superb lead Sarah Cracknell was asked about the album and living through the pandemic. There are a couple of sections of the interview that I wanted to bring in. One answer suggested that Saint Etienne might have another album coming along soon:

“Paste: Your new album title I’ve Been Trying to Tell You works on several levels. For years in my writing, I’ve been quoting everything from the book Ishmael to climate-change headlines to underscore the fact that man, in thinking he’s the end product of evolution, has basically doomed himself to extinction. And there will be no safe place to run that’s free from fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and coastal erosion. We’ve been trying to tell you.

Cracknell: Oh yeah. I know this woman, she’s really lovely, and she’s got younger kids. But her 14-year-old teenage boy, she found him crying his eyes out, and she was going, “What’s the matter?” And it was all about how frightened he was about the future, and about climate change and about wars and the pandemic and the government. It was horrible, and my friend said she wished she’d never had the news on. I mean, you put the news on and you think that your children are not absorbing it, but this kid was. And she felt so sorry for him, but she said, “What can I tell him?” And there was another hurricane in New Orleans, and a million people without power, and they’d only just got their shit back together, you know? It’s awful. Boy, this is really a doom-y conversation!

Paste: So you were just getting lost in bygone Britpop-era reverie on this album, basically? Back when Labour was in, Boris wasn’t.

Cracknell: Yeah, exactly. I think we were just thinking about how you can get into the idea that there was this great change, and with it brilliant things are going to happen! And some really good things did happen, but not everything we expected happened. So it’s about optimism, but optimism that’s a little bit unfounded, you know? And you kind of remember the good bits and that feeling. So the album is about sort of misremembering things.

Paste: So there’s another nearly finished Saint Etienne album in the pipeline then?

Cracknell: Yeah. And I’d say, to be realistic about it, it’s probably 2/3 of the way there. But now I think we might even get those songs and rethink how we want to approach it. Because—and this is just me talking, and I think Bob would agree with me—I don’t think it’s necessarily the right thing to do to suddenly go back to really full-formed songs again. I think some kind of segue, some kind of hybrid of the two things might be good. I don’t know—we’ll see. If we even get to do another record, that is. Who knows?

Paste: Did you come out of the whole experience cheered up? Reinvigorated?

Cracknell: Yeah, actually! Yeah! I think we did. Right around track four, I was thinking, “This is great! I love this!” And even the grumpy old manager, my husband, said, “This is great!” And he doesn’t normally say things like that, you know. And then because Alasdair was involved, after we’d done about three or four songs, he was sending us stuff that he had made to go with the songs, and it was really exciting. I mean to have someone as creative as he is, and who gets us as much as he does, sending us these beautiful images and beautiful sections of films, it was really exciting”.

I will put in a review from CLASH. I’ve Been Trying to Tell You received positive reviews across the board. From such a  remarkable band, their 2021 album ranked alongside their very best. This is what CLASH had to say in their review:

“As literally nobody says: if you can remember the late 90s, then you weren’t really there. At the time, the period seemed to take on a beatific, easy-going glow in the eyes of the media – the Britpop party had ended but the confidence remained, while Labour’s history-making victory seemed to remove the Tory menace forever. Looking back, emotions are mixed: the art that emerged from the late 90s often feels flat, saccharine, lacking any kind of counter cultural edge; Labour – New Labour – failed to invoke radical change in this country, largely allowing the achievements that did emerge to rest on market forces.

‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ digs into this period. It’s an odd choice – there’s nothing so strange as the recent past, and Saint Etienne choose to linger in between gilded memory and unvarnished reality, somehow invoking both across eight songs that always feel uneasy, always feel engaging, and rarely feel anything else but exemplary.

Their first sample-based record since 1993’s ‘So Tough’, the album draws on a mosaic of sounds from that pre-9/11 period of trans-Atlantic optimism. Re-adjusting sonic traits more familiar with Zero 7, All Saints bangers, and T4 idents into transportive works of art isn’t an easy feat, but the production on ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ is simply stunning. ‘Music Again’ slows down the chimes of an acoustic guitar into a grinding sense of introspection; ‘I Remember It Well’ seems to open out into a hauntological faux-90s landscape, reminiscent of Forest Swords’ hinterland dreams.

That oft-overused word ‘cinematic’ comes to mind – there’s an accompanying full-length film incoming, constructed by Alasdair McLennan – but only because Saint Etienne’s songwriting is so rich in atmosphere and suggestion. Even at its most left-field – the strange, warped trip-hop elements of ‘Pond House’ push the coffee table into the incinerator – there’s a knack for melody and accessibility that simply cannot be denied.

With a sonic palette bathed in artificiality, Saint Etienne seem to pick apart the plastic, to illuminate the flesh underneath. The slomo progression of ‘Penlop’ drags you into an aural torpor, while ‘Little K’ inverts on-hold muzak to simultaneously embody, cherish, and thoroughly pierce the sense of stasis so many have found in the Blair era.

A record that feels sharply removed from 2012’s glossy ‘Words And Music By Saint Etienne’ and the more autobiographical ‘Home Counties’ (2017), ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ reaches for the inexpressible. When words fail them – much of the record is instrumental – sounds somehow take up the taxonomy, falling mid-way between a dream state and waking. A hugely impressive achievement, ‘I’ve Been Trying To Tell You’ is technically exquisite, while remaining incredibly difficult to pin down. A project to bathe in, rather than simply enjoy.

8/10”.

The final review I want to bring in is from AllMusic. They were hugely positive and enthusiastic when it came to I’ve Been Trying to Tell You. Even though the album does lean heavily on British culture, it still did very well in other countries. I have seen American reviews that are very glowing and enthusiastic. It is an album that everyone needs to get involved with:

“From the beginning of their long career, Saint Etienne have excelled at bringing together nostalgia and futurism in one stylish package that has always felt fresh, no matter how many old parts were salvaged in the creation process. Along the way, many of their most memorable moments have come about on the dancefloor, whether a glittering new wave disco or a past-its-prime Northern Soul discotheque. Looking past the shiny surfaces, it was always clear that the trio have just as much skill at crafting heartbreakingly pretty ballads that could be as epic as "Avenue", elegiac as "Teenage Winter", or painful as "Hobart Paving." After a couple of records in the 2010s that were bright and shiny examples of disco-driven pop at its best, the band have shifted gears dramatically to delve exclusively into their sadder, softer side. 2021's I've Been Trying to Tell You is a concept album that looks to extract the optimistic sound of late '90s mainstream pop and twist it into a suite of songs that feel like the half-remembered afterimages of a dream.

Built around samples of artists like Tasmin Archer, Lighthouse Family, Lightning Seeds, and Honeyz, to name a few, the band snatch little bits of acoustic guitar, strings, and keyboards, add their own instrumentation, then drape snatches of vocals over the top. The end results aren't songs as much as they are moods, or dub-like versions of songs that never existed. The circular melodies spin around like a record on a turntable, the keyboards drift and swell like ships lost at sea, and Sarah Cracknell sings like she's making up bits of songs to be sung only to herself. It's mesmerizing and peaceful, uplifting and heartbreaking all at once, especially when the revolving sounds resolve into something resembling a chorus, as on "Penlop" when all the elements of the song come together, and the melody breaks through like the sun on a cloud-filled afternoon. "Pond House," too, comes alive when the Natalie Imbruglia vocal sample shifts into a wonky synth bass breakdown, then slides back into a hazy swoon that plays on and on. There are moments like this throughout the album as the band mixes sounds like mod scientists to come up with something magical. While early albums sought a similar sample-based path that often deviated into eddies of calm despair, the band have never dived in as deeply as they do on I've Been Trying to Tell You. Fans of the group more interested in songs might feel short-changed at first, but further listens only intensify the cohesive power and pocket grandeur of the record. It's rare for a band to have a new idea after being together for five years, let alone thirty. That Saint Etienne not only had a brilliant idea but also made it come to life so fully and so beautifully is nothing short of miraculous”.

One of the best albums of 2021, I’ve Been Trying to Tell You is not played a lot. It is a magnificent album from the brilliant Saint Etienne. Mixing modern production with some samples from late-’90s tracks, I love that blend. For those who were growing up in that time in Britain, the album might resonate more and have a deeper meaning. For everyone else, you will fall in love with the always exquisite and original songwriting of the trio. The magnificent I’ve Been Trying to Tell You is an album that…

YOU should not ignore.

FEATURE: I'm Not the Same: Madonna’s Burning Up at Forty

FEATURE:

 

 

I'm Not the Same

Madonna’s Burning Up at Forty

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WRITTEN by Madonna…

for her debut album of the same name, Burning Up turns forty on 9th March. I am writing about Madonna quite a bit at the moment. The song was presented as an early recorded demo by Madonna to Sire Records. They gave her the green light to go after her debut single, Everybody, became a hit. Produced by Reggie Lucas, Burning Up concerns her (Madonna’s) lack of shame in declaring her passion for her lover. I am going to write about Madonna’s debut album closer to its anniversary in July. Although it was not a big chart hit in the U.S. or got major attention, it was a top twenty song in Australia. With Physical Attraction as its B-side, this is a song that has grown in importance through the years. Her first single release of 1983, and the third track off of the Madonna album, I was eager to mark the approaching fortieth anniversary of a very important song. I think Burning Up announced Madonna, not only as a terrific songwriter, but an original and confident artist. It would take a little while longer for her to become the Queen of Pop and an icon, but songs such as Burning Up show why the Madonna album is revered and seen as influential. I am glad there is a lot of information on Wikipedia regarding the song.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1983/PHOTO CREDIT: Marcus Leatherdale

Maybe not considered one of Madonna’s best or most famous songs, it is definitely one of her most important. When it turns forty on 9th March, I know it will get a lot of love and celebration around the world. I hope Madonna herself marks its fortieth:

“Rolling Stone staff described the video as a juxtaposition of "disparate images of illuminated busts and cars driving on water with Madonna writhing in the middle of the road". The narrative shows Madonna proclaiming her passion for her lover, being portrayed as a "helpless" victim and a "stereotyped [female] portrayed in many silent movies". Though lyrics such as Do you want to see me down on my knees? portray female helplessness, the video acts as a counter-text; when this line is sung, Madonna is shown kneeling on the road in front of the advancing Amphicar, then turns her head back while exposing her throat back in a posture of submission. However, her voice tone and her look at the camera portray a hardness and defiance that contradict the submissiveness of her body posture and turn the question of the line into a challenge for her lover. At the end of the video, it is her who's driving the car, with a knowing, defiant smile on her lips. She has ditched the man, thereby giving the message that she's in charge. This theme would become recurrent throughout her career.

Author Andrew Morton, in his biography on Madonna, commented that the video was America's first introduction to Madonna's sexual politics. Author Robert Clyde Allen in his book Channels of Discourse compared the video to "Material Girl" (1985). According to him, both videos have an undermining ending, while employing a consistent series of puns and exhibiting a parodic amount of excess associated with Madonna's style. The discourses included in the video are those of sexuality and religion. Allen wrote that Madonna's image of kneeling and singing about 'burning in love' performed the traditional ideological work of using the subordination and powerlessness of women in Christianity to naturalize their equally submissive position in patriarchy. Author Georges-Claude Guilbert in his book Madonna as postmodern myth commented that the representation of the male character becomes irrelevant as Madonna destabilizes the fixing and categorization of male sexuality in the video. Her utterance of having "no shame" was interpreted by author James B. Twitchell, in his book For Shame, as an attempt to separate herself from contemporary female artists of that era”.

I don’t think people realise the sort of promotion Madonna did for singles like Burning Up. Before its March 1983 release, she performed the song around various New York clubs. She was in London and performed at clubs such as Heaven, Camden Palace, Beatroot Club. She also played it at The Haçienda in Manchester. Being a new artist and someone a lot of people were not overly aware of, the performances were not received that well. Burning Up is a song that Madonna is fond of and has performed on a few of her tours: Virgin (1985), Re-Invention (2004) and Rebel Heart (2015–2016). As she is touring later in the year, I wonder whether Burning Up will get an outing at all. Her debut album is forty in July, so it is only right a few tracks from it get a modern live performance from Madonna. I am going to end with another bit from Wikipedia. The video for her debut single, Everybody, was quite low-budget and basic. It is just Madonna dancing in a room. To be fair, her third single, Holiday (1983), was not too dissimilar. For Burning Up, there is more concept, cinema, and ambition. It is another reason why the song is important and iconic:

“Author Andrew Morton, in his biography on Madonna, commented that the video was America's first introduction to Madonna's sexual politics. Author Robert Clyde Allen in his book Channels of Discourse compared the video to "Material Girl" (1985). According to him, both videos have an undermining ending, while employing a consistent series of puns and exhibiting a parodic amount of excess associated with Madonna's style. The discourses included in the video are those of sexuality and religion. Allen wrote that Madonna's image of kneeling and singing about 'burning in love' performed the traditional ideological work of using the subordination and powerlessness of women in Christianity to naturalize their equally submissive position in patriarchy.

Author Georges-Claude Guilbert in his book Madonna as postmodern myth commented that the representation of the male character becomes irrelevant as Madonna destabilizes the fixing and categorization of male sexuality in the video. Her utterance of having "no shame" was interpreted by author James B. Twitchell, in his book For Shame, as an attempt to separate herself from contemporary female artists of that era.

To the staff of Rolling Stone, it can be seen as a "great testament to the anything-goes era of early MTV". Jon Pareles, writing for The New York Times, compared Madonna's poses to those of Marilyn Monroe. Louis Virtel deemed it Madonna's 18th greatest video and wrote: "Before [Madonna] humped the stage of the MTV Video Music Awards in a wedding dress, she thrusted away at pavement in a chintzier white ensemble". It was ranked her 13th best by Eric Diaz, who went on to call it "iconic" and a "classic". He further wrote that "there is something [about 'Burning Up'] that is just so ’80s, and so Madonna - the rubber bracelets, the chains, the bleach blonde hair with the terrible roots. When girls today dress up like '80s Madonna' for Halloween, it's the look from this video they're emulating".

In their feature from 2018, Entertainment Weekly placed Burning Up 11th in their list. They commented about how it is underrated and borrowed from the Punk scene. The Guardian, in 2018 too, placed it forty-third. Parade put it at thirty-three. Everyone notes at how rocking and punky the song is. In 2016, Rolling Stone named Burning Up Madonna’s tenth-best song. It is clear how important it is, and it goes to show just how assured and compelling she was from the start. It is only right that we all celebrate Burning Up on its fortieth anniversary on 9th March. It is another big moment and anniversary for an artist who will celebrate forty years of her debut album and Holiday…

LATER this year.

FEATURE: Unbelievable! Kate Bush’s Wow at Forty-Four

FEATURE:

 

 

Unbelievable!

PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

Kate Bush’s Wow at Forty-Four

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I have written about this song many times before…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing during The Tour of Life in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Pete Still/Redferns/Getty

but, as it was released on 9th March, 1979, I wanted to look ahead to the forty-fourth anniversary. Wow was the second single from Kate Bush’s second studio album, Lionheart. Perhaps the defining track from that album, I am going to look at Wow fairly soon again, as there is another anniversary coming up. The Tour of Life (Bush’s only tour) started on 2nd April, 1979. Wow was featured in the third act/part of the set, and I think that it is one of Bush’s most important and underrated singles. I do not hear the song on the radio as much as you’d think. It did get to number fourteen in the U.K. Lionheart’s first single, Hammer Horror, only got to forty-four. I often wonder why Wow was not considered as the first single. Maybe there was a feeling Hammer Horror was a bolder departure from the songs and sounds of The Kick Inside (her debut album). Released in October 1978, Hammer Horror did sound very different. Maybe Bush and EMI wanted to send out that message and indication she was not to be easily predicted. Although Wow is an incredible track, maybe it sounds more similar to songs on The Kick Inside than Hammer Horror. There is greater accessibility to Wow. A finer chorus and a something that elevates the track beyond most others in her catalogue, the supreme Wow still sound amazing to this day. It was subjected to parody and ridicule by some – Faith Brown did so in 1980 -, but one cannot deny the hypotonic and timeless quality of this track.

Inspired by Pink Floyd, Bush wanted to write something spacey when it came to Wow. This was an older song that was written before The Kick Inside came out, and I often wonder what would have been if it was included on her debut. In terms of inspiration, the Kate Bush Encyclopedia has sourced an example where Bush spoke about the background and inspiration behind one of her most famous songs:

“'Wow' is a song about the music business, not just rock music but show business in general, including acting and theatre. People say that the music business is about ripoffs, the rat race, competition, strain, people trying to cut you down, and so on, and though that's all there, there's also the magic. It was sparked off when I sat down to try and write a Pink Floyd song, something spacey; Though I'm not surprised no-one has picked that up, it's not really recognisable as that, in the same way as people haven't noticed that 'Kite' is a Bob Marley song, and 'Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake' is a Patti Smith song. When I wrote it I didn't envisage performing it - the performance when it happened was an interpretation of the words I'd already written. I first made up the visuals in a hotel room in New Zealand, when I had half an hour to make up a routine and prepare for a TV show. I sat down and listened to the song through once, and the whirling seemed to fit the music. Those who were at the last concert of the tour at Hammersmith must have noticed a frogman appear through the dry ice it was one of the crew's many last night 'pranks' and was really amazing. I'd have liked to have had it in every show. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, Summer 1979)”.

Kate Bush did find some of her videos hitting issues. Experiment IV (released as a single from her 1986 greatest hits collection, The Whole Story) was banned from Top of the Pops, as it was deemed too violent for the pre-watershed slot. In Wow, the video shows Bush patting her bottom while singing "he's too busy hitting the Vaseline". Vaseline was once defined as a personal sexual lubricant, so that got the song into trouble. I love the cheekiness of the song. Bush’s vocals are superb throughout. This was a track where she did so many takes to get the vocal right. Like an actor getting the right take, Bush was quite precise when it came to this song. I am not sure why she was pretty obsessed when it came to her vocals here, but it paid off! The song has received some ribbing and fonder comedic affection – Steve Coogan performed it live as Alan Partridge -, but it is a classic! I think it is still quite underrated. When it comes to Bush songs played on the radio, Wow does not get the same exposure as others. I think it is the song many associate with Lionheart. As that album is forty-five in November, I hope Wow compels many to check out the album it came from. It is a remarkable song that turns forty-four on 9th March. So many lines stick in the mind. I love the theatrics and emotion Bush’s puts into her vocals when she sings “Ooh, yeah, you're amazing!/We think you're incredible/You say we're fantastic/But still we don't head the bill”. Performing the song through The Tour of Life (April-May 1979), and on an ABBA T.V. special in Switzerland in April 1979, one cannot listen to Wow without singing along! I love the Keef (Keith McMillan) video, and the hooky and wonderful chorus. It is another song that proves Kate Bush was and is…

A true music genius.

FEATURE: International Women’s Day 2023: 2024: A Year for True Equality and Balance Across All Festivals?

FEATURE:

 

 

International Women’s Day 2023

IN THIS PHOTO: Holly Humberstone will play the Reading & Leeds Festival this year 

2024: A Year for True Equality and Balance Across All Festivals?

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WHEN I think of…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Rina Sawayama is also booked to play this years Reading & Leeds/PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Lifungula/The New York Times/Redux

International Women’s Day, I think of equality and an end to discrimination and abuse. In terms of artists, gender balance is still something that blights many festivals. As we look ahead to the summer, there are going to be plenty of festivals and events for all kinds of music lover. Even if festivals like Reading & Leeds offer a valuable and prestigious platform to some brilliant rising female artists, there is still not gender balance. I am not sure why there has not been a complete reversal of the inequality that has plagued festivals. If Reading & Leeds has improved in terms of the percentage of male artists vs. female artists (and gender non-specific artists), then it still shows there is a lot more work to do. Most of the major festivals are not defined and rigid in terms of the genres of music features. There is a breadth and flexibility that means so many kinds of artists are accommodated for. That does make selection a lot easier. I don’t think there is any room left for excuses. There will be various festival bills revealed in the coming months. With festivals offered gender equality, let’s hope that next year is going to be one where there is actual commitment and change! Baby steps are happening, but it is peculiar why things are slow in terms of parity. The past few years has seen an explosion of incredible women right across the musical map. Apologies if it sounds like I am repeating myself, but it is a subject that requires bringing back to the fore. In the same way award ceremonies like the BRITs made excuses as to why some of their major categories were male heavy, I don’t think festival organisers can really hide behind old lines.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei/Pexels

We are living in a time when women are ruling music. In terms of choice, originality and potential, there are so many options for every festival. Excuses in the past revolved around female artists not being available to play or busy touring; some were not commercial or popular enough; maybe not the right fit. Festivals are not defined by harder-edged bands or any particular scene. Music is as fluid and genre-free as it has ever been, and festivals’ line-ups are reflecting that. Even if Reading & Leeds’ bill features very few women in the top lines and headline slots, they have expanded their sonic roster and palette. One hopes that, by next year, they will be even closer to a fifty-fifty. I think it is poor that many festivals this year will not improve or create a gender-equal bill. Glastonbury are the leading light from the biggest festivals, and there are smaller festivals like The Great Escape in Brighton where there is equality. The same is true of Connect Music Festival in Scotland. One only needs to look at the wave of features from the end of last year that tipped so many great female artists for success. That should provide ammunition and inspiration for all festivals. The best and most enduring albums of the past year or two are by women, and the most exciting and indelible album are also from women. I am glad that incredible artists like Holly Humberstone and Billie Eilish are going to be at Reading & Leeds.

I guess we will have to wait until nearer the summer before other festivals announce their bills. It is frustrating not really knowing why festivals are slow to adopt a gender-equal billing. Glastonbury has announced its first wave of names and, astonishingly, even though there are some incredible women lower down the bill, there are NO female headliners. Whilst excuses have been made, there is no excusing a festival that should be leading the way! What about Taylor Swift for instance?! It is ridiculous that there will be all-white male trio of headliners. Maybe there are genuine problems that mean things are what they are, but one cannot deny the sheer talent and popularity of so many female artists who would be perfect on festival bills. They are no less qualified or promising than male artists. This idea that women are not festival-ready, or they would be hated on is not true. I guess it is an evolving process and improvement. Things will be better this year than last, so it stands to reason that 2024 will be a year when things improve even more. Will that mean gender equality across all festival bills? I think that is unlikely, but we will see bigger steps towards it. It is sad and frustrating that, with databases like The F-List providing a plethora of U.K. female artists, that there are is still disparity. I spoke with the President of the Independent Society of Musicians, and the founder of The F-List, Vick Bain.

PHOTO CREDIT: Vick Bain

I wanted to know what she felt about gender inequality at festivals and across the industry and, as we head to International Women’s Day, whether she felt change was happening:

Even though smaller festivals like Connect in Scotland have announced a balanced line-up in terms of gender, larger ones like Reading & Leeds are still not there. Do you think there are reasons behind this?

Yes, the pipeline is not there yet. Festivals, especially larger ones, will book from agents. Agents book from record labels. Only 20% of signed artists are female (solo-artists it’s slightly better), with the ‘harder’ genres such as heavy rock and electronic music having even less than that. So the talent development side of the industry needs to invest in more female talent to get that pipeline going.

Now more than ever, women are dominating music and producing the most original and brilliant work. How damaging is it to young female artists coming through when they see how music festivals are struggling to reflect this with their line-ups?

It’s got to have an impact. I am told time and time again by women that they struggle to get festival spots because they are unsigned (not because they are not talented but because of discrimination and stereotyping) and so they don’t get that experience to help them progress. Female musicians experience far more barriers to progression in their careers and it accounts for the astonishing fall-off rate – 46% of all music performance students graduating from UK universities were female (2013 – 2018) and yet make-up only 25% of professional musicians and 20% of signed artists and 13% of large festival headliners. As an industry not improving the retention rate means we are losing out on talent.

The F-List for Music clearly lists a huge volume of female artists who would fit onto festival bills. Are festivals out of excuses when it comes to not creating gender-balanced bills?

Indeed, one of our straplines is no more excuses. Especially with smaller/mid-size festivals. And with the brilliant examples of huge festivals like Glastonbury and Primavera leading the way…

So yes things are improving, but goodness it’s glacial”

What was the reason for creating The F-List for Music? With no excuses for a lack of diversity and equality, is it frustrating to see only small steps being made?

It came out of data that I collected and analysed from my research for Counting The Music Industry, where I analysed the rosters of over 300 record labels and music publishing companies. Out of that process, I realised I had the details of a number of thousand female musicians who were signed and I made that information public via a Google spreadsheet, so festivals could find the ‘roster of rosters’ of signed women to book. Then lockdown happened about two weeks later and creating The F-List WordPress platform allowing women to create their own listings, and the non-profit organisation behind it became my lockdown project.

And yes, I wish progress was happening at a far quicker pace! We have some fantastic promoters and festivals out there (I’d like to give a big shout out to the brilliant promoters in our Doing The Right Thing network!).

I guess things have improved through the years. Do you think things have moved on and given women a bigger platform in general, or is there a long way to go?

Research and analysis allows us to measure progress and the BBC Data Unit have reported that in the few decades prior to 2017 women consisted of 6% of large festival headliners, that has increased to 13% (plus 12% ‘mixed’-sex bands) up to 2022. So yes things are improving, but goodness it’s glacial.

With so few festivals booking female artists as headliners, and very few festivals committing to a fifty-fifty gender split, what message would you give to them as we look towards the summer and a raft of festival announcements?

Use The F-List! There are over 5,700 women listed on there with all types of skills, genres and expertise. If they want help and assistance on recommendations they can drop me an email.

It is not only festivals that are lacking when it comes to balance and parity. Award ceremonies such as the BRITs are culpable. What was your reaction to the all-male line-up in the BRITs’ Artist of the Year category?

Exactly the same as what I have said about festivals: it’s an industry pipeline problem!

“Female musicians are demanding it….and so are audiences, which at most festivals nowadays are now also majoritively female”

How do you feel things will look next year in terms of equality and diversity at festivals and across the industry? Do you have a message to festival organisers and label bosses?

Invest in female talent just as much as you do male talent. Female musicians are demanding it….and so are audiences, which at most festivals nowadays are now also majoritively female. It’s better for your reputation, the vibe of your festival, the creativity on stage, your economic potential and risk management.

It is International Women’s Day on 8th March. To me, the voices of women in music is more important now than it has ever been. How does it make you feel to see the results of the great work you have helped create with The F-List, and should International Woman’s Day be a moment where the industry should stop and appreciate just how important female artists are?

I am thrilled that three years after lockdown we are building our momentum to make a difference and influence the industry. And YES, the industry needs to stop and appreciate just how important female artists are - and they can do that by signing more women, investing in their careers and supporting women-led initiatives such as The F-List 😊

2022 saw so many tremendous new female artists coming through, and some established names put out incredible music. Let’s hope that there are signs of equality this year at festivals. It would be the least that they can do for artists who have made such a big and important impact on the industry. It would be hugely encouraging if we got gender-balanced festivals across the board…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rahul Pandit/Pexels

BY 2024.

FEATURE: International Women’s Day 2023: Why Glastonbury’s All-Male Headline Announcement Is Especially Angering

FEATURE:

 

 

International Women’s Day 2023

 IMAGE CREDIT: Glastonbury Festival

Why Glastonbury’s All-Male Headline Announcement Is Especially Angering

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I understand that Taylor Swift…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Self Esteem(Rebecca Lucy Taylor)

has touring commitments that means she could not headline Glastonbury this year. I feel that Björk, Self Esteem, Little Simz or any number of other incredible women in music could have headliners. Glastonbury have announced the first wave of names and it is an all-male, white line-up. Whereas the festival will get at least a fifty-fifty gender balance when all names have been confirmed, why are there no women headlining?! The Guardian’s Laura Sapes reported on the news:

“Festivals are struggling with a dearth of viable female headliners owing to an industry “pipeline” problem, Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis said as the festival announced a lineup of all-white, all-male headliners for this year’s event.

Following the news that Elton John would conclude the 2023 edition on Sunday, Eavis confirmed that Arctic Monkeys would headline Friday, their third time closing the Pyramid stage, while Guns N’ Roses would make their Worthy Farm debut on Saturday.

Guns N’ Roses were booked when a previously confirmed female headliner pulled out because she “changed her touring plans”, said Eavis. She declined to name names but said she hoped they would headline within the next five years. Fans had anticipated Taylor Swift, who was due to headline Glastonbury 2020 prior to its cancellation as a result of Covid – but the US leg of her Eras tour this summer obviated the possibility.

IN THIS PHOTO: Surely a worthy festival headliner, Little Simz

Guns N’ Roses had been discussed as prospective headliners pre-pandemic, said Eavis. “They’ll be brilliant and provide something totally different to the rest of the headliners.” Lizzo will open for the US rockers and has joint headline billing. “She could totally headline,” said Eavis, adding that the Pyramid stage often sees bigger crowds in the afternoon than at night. “Many of the artists could. But the headline slot had already been promised to someone else.”

Further down the bill, this year’s lineup includes debut performances from the Eurovision winners Måneskin, the Brit-winning girl band Flo and the US country stars the Chicks. Lil Nas X will return to play before Elton John, while Lana Del Rey will graduate from her 2014 Pyramid stage afternoon slot to headline the Other stage.

53% of the 55 names on this week’s partial lineup announcement – with many more acts still to come – are male. Eavis said she remained “entirely focused on balancing our bill. It’s not just about gender, it’s about every aspect of diversity.” 43% of those 55 names are non-white, or feature non-white members: Afrobeats star Wizkid will headline the Other stage on Friday. “We’re probably one of the only big shows that’s really focused on this.”

The music industry needs to invest in more female musicians to create future headliners, said Eavis. “We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.”

Next year’s festival should see two women headline, said Eavis – one confirmed, one close, and both of them Glastonbury first-timers. Rihanna and Madonna are among the top-billing acts who have never played the festival.

Eavis said that as a woman in the music industry she saw the matter as a personal issue, recalling the days where there was only one woman working as a live booking agent. “It’s top of our agenda, and it probably makes it a bit harder because we’ve decided to make that important to us. To be honest, sometimes it’s easier to keep your head down”.

What about moving up Blondie and replacing Guns N’ Roses?! Perhaps having a younger female act replace the band? I can understand why Elton Jon is headlining, and maybe Arctic Monkeys is a fair shout, but you NEED the third name to be female. If Taylor Swift’s busy diary means that she left Emily and Michael Eavis looking for a replacement, how is it that there are no other women free?! I know Glastonbury have already booked two female headliners for 2024, but why not this year?! Directories like The F-List are invaluable when it comes to options. Even Reading & Leeds have a headliner in the form of Billie Eilish. Why couldn’t Glastonbury book Dua Lipa, Paramore or any number of solo artists, duos or bands fronted by women?! By booking both Arctic Monkeys and Guns N’ Roses, it seems to be aiming for a very similar demographic. The band have not released new material for years, and the view from the other side of the stage is dismal. Women and upcoming artists will look at bills and know that, sure, they can make it on, but can they ever headline?! To say the ‘90s was more progressive when it came to female headliners is all you need to know! There is no ‘pipeline’ issue. In terms of female artist that are commercial and popular, there are more than enough to choose from. If legends like Guns N’ Roses are booked, why not a legend like Shania Twain or move a great artist like Lizzo to the headline slot? A younger male artist like Harry Styles would have been better. It looks very creaky and regressive on the headline slots! Another year and another festival failing to book a female act as headliner. Glastonbury showed they could do it last year as they booked Billie Eilish. There is a huge amount of female talent out there. Festivals like Glastonbury needs to lead the way and…

DO much better.

FEATURE: Love Battery: Buzzcocks’ Another Music in a Different Kitchen at Forty-Five

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Love Battery

Buzzcocks’ Another Music in a Different Kitchen at Forty-Five

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A tremendous debut from a legendary band…

 IN THIS PHOTO: John Maher, Steve Diggle, Pete Shelley and Steve Garvey of the Buzzcocks in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Fin Costello/Redferns

Another Music in a Different Kitchen by Buzzcocks was released on 10th March, 1978. Even though it was the debut from the band, it was the Buzzcocks’ third line-up. Guitarist Pete Shelley sings on Another Music in a Different Kitchen following the departure of the original vocalist Howard Devoto. Bass guitarist Garth Smith was also fired. You would think this would lead to some dislocation and a sense of transition. Maybe some weaknesses at the edges. Instead, the Buzzcocks’ debut is fully formed and astonishing! Even though I am not a big fan of the album’s title – as it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense grammatically or in any other way -, you cannot quibble with the music on it! There was a 1996 reissue that included tracks like Whatever Happened To?, Orgasm Addict, and What Do I Get? The stunning original features Fast Cars, Love Battery, I Don’t Mind, and I Need. It is a classic album that turns forty-five very soon. I cannot find too many features about the album and its impact. There are reviews online concerning Another Music in a Different Kitchen, so it is only right to bring them in. Even if you are not a fan of the Buzzcocks or have not heard this album, it is well worth getting on vinyl, as there is a lot to respect and cherish. This is what Rough Trade say about the album and its vinyl release:

“Buzzcocks' first album, Another Music in a Different Kitchen from 1978 is a major punk landmark and a great record to boot. it's full of fire, wit, speed, philosophical lyrics and gender explorations. Released after the departure of Howard Devoto, this is one of the truly essential punk rock albums. It's aggressive and raw but the band also had pop hooks to spare. Lovingly restored and re-mastered from the original ¼” tapes for the first time and come packaged in the original Malcolm Garrett designed sleeves with a booklet containing unseen images and extensive liner notes by famed writer, broadcaster, music journalist and cultural commentator Jon Savage”.

I will move on to a couple of reviews. In their take on Buzzcocks’ Another Music in a Different Kitchen, AllMusic mention some of the band’s influences that can be heard from an amazing debut album. It is clear that one of the seminal Punk bands of their era released something monumental back in 1978. This is an album that still resonates, inspires, and moves people:

“General judgment holds the Buzzcocks' peerless singles, the definition of punk-pop at its finest, as the best expression of their work. However, while the singles showcased one particular side of the band, albums like the group's long-playing debut Another Music showcased the foursome's other influences, sometimes brilliantly. The big secret is Shelley's worship of Krautrock's obsessive focus on repetition and rhythm, which transforms what would be "simply" basic punk songs into at-times monstrous epics. The ghost of Can particular hovers even on some of the shorter songs -- unsurprising, given Shelley's worship of that band's guitarist Michael Karoli. "Moving Away From the Pulsebeat" is the best instance of this, with a rumbling Maher rhythm supporting some trancelike guitar lines. As for the sheer rush of pop craziness, Another Music is simply crammed with stellar examples. Lead-off track "Fast Cars" starts with the opening of Spiral Scratch's "Boredom"'s intentionally hilarious two-note solo intact, before ripping into a slightly bemusing critique of the objects in question. Most of the similar tracks on the album may be more distinct for their speed, but Shelley in particular always seems to sneak in at least one astonishing line per song, sometimes on his own and sometimes thanks to Devoto via older cowritten tunes redone for the record. One favorite standout: "All this slurping and sucking -- it's putting me off my food!" on "You Tear Me Up." Top all this off with any number of perfect moments -- the guitar work during the breaks on "Love Battery," the energizing yet nervous coda of "Fiction Romance," the soaring angst throughout "I Don't Mind" -- and Another Music flat out succeeds”.

I am going to wrap up soon. I want to end with David Quantick’s review for the BBC from 2010. I am not sure whether it is the case now but, in 2010, he named it his favourite album ever. He makes some great cases as to why it is such a stellar and remarkable listen. An essential album that should be in everyone’s collection, let’s hope new listeners pick up Buzzcocks’ debut ahead of its 10th March anniversary:  

“Often dismissed at the time as a uniform, dull and oiky movement, punk rock threw up, sometimes almost literally, an immense variety of bands, from the 60s psychedelica of The Stranglers and the RnB of The Jam, to the icy noir of Siouxsie and the Banshees and the luminous plastic satire of X-Ray Spex. But most inventive of all were Buzzcocks, who began with the cheapo Steve Harley-esque sneer of Howard Devoto but, when he left, turned into the greatest world-weary but somehow innocent punk pop group.

The term “perfect pop” is misused to hell, because it’s mostly applied to bands that never went near the charts; but Buzzcocks were pop, in that they consistently had top 20 singles. In Pete Shelley – angelic, sexually ambiguous, eyebrow-raised – they had one of the best songwriters of the time, and in Steve Diggle – loud, mod, a bit barky – they had his perfect foil, and a man also capable of great songwriting.

Another Music in a Different Kitchen was their debut album. Everything about it – from its silver, orange-lettered sleeve to Martin Rushent’s aluminium-sheen production – is right. The songs are all brilliant pop tunes in the classic style, but with lyrics whose doomed romanticism would put John Lennon to shame, and the kind of riffs that only a Stooges and T.Rex fan could write. From I Don’t Mind’s woozy declaration that “reality’s a dream” to Sixteen’s stentorian “And I hate modern music! Disco! Boogie! Pop!”, Another Music… was as melodic as pop has ever been and as honest and real as any plaid-faced grunge act.          

Best of all, it wasn’t just a set of songs: it was an album. Upgrading and referencing the Spiral Scratch EP’s Boredom as bookends to the whole thing, Another Music… mixed Shelley’s remakes of Devoto lyrics (Fast Cars being a standout) with new brilliance like I Don’t Mind. Diggle added one of Buzzcocks’ greatest songs, the otoric genius of Autonomy. And the whole thing finales with punk’s greatest end-of-side-two track, the epic Moving Away From the Pulsebeat, which still sounds like nothing else ever recorded. It’s my favourite album ever; buy it and find out why”.

A terrific album that still sounds fresh and revealing to this day – thanks to the phenomenal songwriting and Martin Rushent’s production -, a happy forthcoming forty-fifth anniversary to Buzzcocks’ Another Music in a Different Kitchen. It started a run of genius albums. Love Bites arrived later in 1978. A Different Kind of Tension came out in 1979. Such a prolific and wonderful band, Buzzcocks were remarkable, fully formed and assured right from the start! It is sad that we lost Pete Shelley in 2018. Even though he is gone, what he helped create on A Different Kind of Tension will live and shine…

FOREVER more.

FEATURE: Marching Through 2023… Songs from the Best Albums of the Year So Far

FEATURE:

 

 

Marching Through 2023…

IN THIS PHOTO: Nina Persson and James Yorkston

Songs from the Best Albums of the Year So Far

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EVEN though…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kelela/PHOTO CREDIT: Dicko Chan

we have just come out of February, there have been some tremendous albums released so far. I want to put together some playlists that document the best albums of 2023. I will do another one in the summer but, to show that this year has got off to a brilliant start, I am highlighting songs from the absolute best so far. There is a great spread of sounds and artists! You might know about many of these albums, but some may be new to you. Let’s hope that this playlist leads to some new discoveries. This year is going to be one of the best in recent memory for albums. The selection below shows you that artists are not messing around and wasting time! If you need some suggestions as to which albums from 2023 are worth getting or have been picking up great reviews, then the playlist below will…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Gaz Coombes

PROVIDE some inspiration.

FEATURE: International Women’s Day 2023: Songs from Women Who Inspired Me Growing Up

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International Women’s Day 2023

IN THIS PHOTO: Björk, circa 1995/PHOTO CREDIT: Enver Hirsch

Songs from Women Who Inspired Me Growing Up

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AS part of a run of features…

 IN THIS PHOTO: En Vogue

ahead of International Women’s Day on 8th March, I have compiled a playlist of songs from women who inspire me growing up. Charting my childhood through to teenage years, these are artists who either opened my eyes to new sounds and possibilities, or they were part of songs that have stuck in my head and are with me still. From my earliest childhood years in the 1980s, through to my high school years in the ‘90s, this is a selection of incredible women who have made a big impact. Whether in a band, solo artist, or someone fronting a Dance classic from back in the day, this is a salute to some amazing women. I will put out some other features ahead of International Women’s Day. It is an honour and pleasure celebrating these…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1984/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

INCREDIBLE women.

FEATURE: The Nerves…and Then Laughter: Imagining the Prospect of Speaking with Kate Bush

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The Nerves…and Then Laughter

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Lichfield 

Imagining the Prospect of Speaking with Kate Bush

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OF course…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Faber

it is not something that will happen to me, but there seems to be this common and shared experience from people who have either met or spoken with Kate Bush. Just on a little detour, I am going to write more about Kate Bush books and ideas as yet unrealised. One book that is coming out is a reissue of How to Be Invisible. Originally released back in 2018, it is coming back out with a new introduction/foreword from Bush herself. You can pre-order the new edition. It comes out in April, and it is selling fast. I like the fact Bush is revisiting and open to retrospection. There is a reissue of Hounds of Love later in the year, and I am not quite sure what is going to be included on it. She is happy to put How to Be Invisible back out there, so it might mean that she is clearing a path for new work. In the same way 2011’s Director’s Cut sort of ensured she could get something done she wanted to do for a long time – re-recording songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes – prior to starting on something brand-new. Maybe it is over-analysing, but I think that there has been a lot of looking back as of late. Of course, we saw Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) used in Netflix’s Stranger Things, which dominated the charts in 2022. It at least introduced Bush’s music to a new generation. That Hounds of Love single took on a whole new life.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

With a book about the album, the album being reissued, plus the lyrics book coming back out, I get the sense that something will come later in the year from Bush. That is what people hope but, as we all know, she will bring something to us when and if she is ready. A reason why I am mentioning the How to Be Invisible lyrics book is because there is a new introduction. It is going to be something established and new fans are raving about. Another reason why I am interested in it is because of the new cover. I prefer the new design. The 2019 version has the title of the book and that was about it. It looked fine, but the new illustration and design is better and more striking. Via Kate Bush News, Jim Kay discussed his experience of speaking with Kate Bush on the phone. The two worked on the cover design, and his feedback about speaking with her seems to mirror what many have said:

“Jim Kay has posted a first look at the embossed cover of the paperback edition of How To Be Invisible and also a very sweet note about working with Kate on the cover design concept. The book is published April 6th. Jim writes: "A cover I did for Faber recently. I’ve just got to say, Kate Bush is the most delightful, funny, lovely person I have ever had the fortune of chatting to. I was SO nervous before the phonecall, but within 30 seconds you forget all of that, and she has you laughing. Thank you Faber for this opportunity, and thank you Kate, for everything. The cover was Kate’s concept, and it was an absolute pleasure to work for both her and Faber, it pulled me out of a pretty miserable place." Jim's Instagram page is here: https://www.instagram.com/creepy_scrawlers/”.

I can imagine how nervous one would be before calling Kate Bush. That sense of what to talk about and how it will go! Bush still uses a landline – as she explained in a great interview with Woman’s Hour last year -, and at least that would be more reliable in terms of signal and the call dropping out. What so many have said is that they feel this nervousness before speaking with Kate Bush. That is understandable. She is such a major artist and someone who has such a legacy. People get those nerves, but they are always melted really quickly. Someone with a great sense of humour who wants people to feel welcomed and warm, that hospitality comes across whether you speak with Bush on the phone or come to her house. When I spoke with author Tom Doyle last year for a podcast marking forty-five years of Wuthering Heights, he discussed meeting Bush in 2005. He was very nervous prior to arriving at her house. He also explained that, very quickly, she puts you at ease and makes you feel relaxed. This stems back to the earliest days. Bush’s mother especially was very hospitable when musicians and other people came to the family home. That seems to have rubbed off on Kate Bush. She is always very courteous and charming, and it does seem that Bush treats people like they are friends.

At the very least, there is no ego or any sort of barrier. Grounded and very much someone who has that common touch, I do like that quick shift from feeling quite fearful and nervous to be made relaxed and eased. Maybe not the case with all journalists Bush has been interviewed through her career, it seems that those that she likes and feels a connection with are made to feel very welcomed and embraced. This is not the case with many artists. You get a feeling of ego and distance with many. That is not what happens when you speak with Kate Bush. Jim Kay’s recollections are heartening to read. Bush never seems to be in a bad mood or having an off day when she is being interviewed or calling someone on the phone! The professionalism she shows at all times in one reason why she is so loved and respected. Although it will never happen for me, others will interviews and chat with Kate Bush in the years ahead. I am sure, no matter who they are, they feel nervous before speaking with her. I’m interested what Bush would open with when speaking with Jim Kay. Maybe there is small talk about weather and T.V., or she might have a particular opening. I know Paul McCartney often asks people who are interviewing him (by phone or remotely) where they are in the world so that it eats up a bit of time or puts the focus on them. Not in a rude way at all, it is just a good opening and can make people feel more relaxed. I envisage Bush having a routine or conversational route that she leads with, so that those who are clearly nervous are settled. It seems like speaking with the magnificent Kate Bush is…

A sheer delight.

FEATURE: Ideas as Opiates: Tears for Fears’ The Hurting at Forty

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Ideas as Opiates

Tears for Fears’ The Hurting at Forty

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MY first experience of Tears for Fears…

would have been when their second studio album, Songs from the Big Chair, was released in 1985. My first memory of life was a song from that album, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I love that track so much, and I have fond and personal attachments to the album. The English band, led by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, released their debut, The Hurting, on 7th March, 1983. Released a couple of months before I was born, I wanted to spend some time with a remarkable debut that is forty very soon. Featuring huge songs like Change and Mad World, the album is a classic. Even if there has been some ageing regarding some of the production and compositional touches, The Hurting still sounds essential and relevant. I have been playing it a bit recently, and I love everything about it. In 1983, when it was released, there were positive reviews. There were a lot of critics who were sniffy and wrote Tears for Fears off. Feeling they were pale imitators of other synth-led groups, maybe a lot of the music was laboured. Retrospective reviews have been a lot kinder. I guess it must have been unusual hearing an album like The Hurting 1983. Maybe some did not know what to make of it. Now, we consider it to be a classic! I will come to a couple of reviews for Tears for Fears’ debut soon. Before then, Classic Pop wrote a feature in 2021 that told the story of The Hurting. Mixing lyrics of childhood traumas and pairing them with a Synth-Pop palette is an intoxicating and potent blend:

“In 1983 Tears For Fears’ The Hurting introduced the world to a band that blended bleak musings on the long-term effects of childhood trauma with a razor-sharp synth-pop instinct. The result: an instant classic… By Wyndham Wallace

When Roland Orzabal was growing up – first in Portsmouth and later in Bath – his parents ran an entertainment agency for working men’s clubs. Among the guests auditioning at his home were singers, ventriloquists and strippers; even his mother was a stripper.

It was, you might say, inevitable that he’d end up on stage himself. But if this sounds like a boisterous childhood, behind the curtains things were less happy. Orzabal’s parents were at loggerheads: his father, a WW2 veteran, was far from healthy and given to fits of fury that drove his wife away after bursts of domestic violence.

But Roland was about to meet his future musical partner Curt Smith, who was also enduring a troubled childhood, growing up on a local council estate in a broken home where money was a significant problem.

“He was a lot more rebellious than I was,” Orzabal recalls, “which shocked me because I was a good boy at school and quite conservative as a character. We were out once in Bath, and a police car pulled up and said, ‘Come with me.’ Curt stole a couple of violins from the school for my birthday present. Not that I played the violin!”

Thankfully, Orzabal’s musical partnership with Smith would flourish in other ways and lead to the monumental 1983 album The Hurting.

That album – and, to a degree, 1985’s multi-million-selling follow-up, Songs From The Big Chair – were, as Smith puts it, therapeutic attempts to “find out why our backgrounds were so messed up”.

Orzabal found Smith’s recklessness as appealing as Smith found Orzabal’s intellect, but the two really gelled after Orzabal’s guitar teacher pressed a copy of The Primal Scream, by US psychotherapist Arthur Janov, into his hands. Orzabal was already buried in existentialist books by the likes of Sartre and Beckett, and this new addition to his library became his bible.

“Aged 17 or 18, I was an absolute convert to Janovian ‘primal theory’,” Orzabal says, though Smith adds that, “The fact that you’re screwed up because of your parents is hardly brain surgery. We were both slightly evangelical about it.”

Nowadays, Orzabal jokes that his pious proselytism turned him into “a primal bore”. But, as the two of them sought to make sense of their psyches, Janov’s tactics – to revisit childhood trauma – provided a framework for their lives to such an extent that it would eventually give them a name for their band.

Tears For Fears, however, was not their first musical endeavour together. They’d already experimented with friends, playing everything from folk to rock, and signed their first deal at 18 with a moddish band called Graduate, known in Spain for their radio hit Elvis Should Play Ska.

The band recorded one album, but the experience was most notable, Smith argues, for teaching them “what not to do: we learned that we weren’t made for travelling in two mini-vans. I don’t think we were comfortable in the live setting. And we don’t like being in five-person democracies where we constantly get outvoted by the others, even though we’re the only two that write songs.”

Inspired in part by Gary Numan, whose use of technology proved that you didn’t need a band to make music, they split from Graduate and set about recording as a duo.

Hooking up with local producer David Lord – who’d already co-produced The Korgis’ Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, and who’d soon helm Peter Gabriel’s fourth album – they demoed their first songs, including Suffer The Children, at Bath’s Crescent Studios.

A meeting at a “vegetarian disco” (in fact, the city’s enduring Moles club) with Ian Stanley – a “rich kid”, Smith says, who had his own studio and would go on to join the band on keyboards – allowed them to experiment with their sound.

Their publishing company from their Graduate days, run by Tony Hatch, composer of the Crossroads theme, helped get them signed. Only two showed interest: A&M, and Polygram’s David Bates, who recalls how he nearly let the band slip through his fingers after being played songs by the publisher’s representative, Les Burgess.

“Les’ job was to visit A&R managers and play them songs in the hope that one would be picked and used for a recording session,” says Bates. “As usual, I had no artists looking for songs. After he’d gone, I thought about one of the cassettes I’d heard. I ran after him, stopped the lift, asked for the cassette and told him I wanted to listen to it a couple of times over the week. After another play, I was sure the songwriters would be an interesting act.”

To the duo, the only surprise was that it took so long to get a deal. “We were sure of ourselves,” Smith smiles. “I remember arguing with A&R people that turned us down. I’d say, ‘Well, you’ll be sorry one day…’”

But their confidence required stamina. The deal with Polygram was only for two singles, and neither 1981’s Suffer The Children nor 1982’s Pale Shelter (produced by ex-Gong member Mike Howlett) charted.

“Normally, you’re either a critically acclaimed band that are pretty deep,” Smith elaborates of the difficulties they faced making commercial headway, “or you’re a pop band, and never the twain shall meet. But we achieved that. We had the screaming girls, which is the pop side, and we had people analysing our lyrics. College kids who were deeper thinkers appreciated us. So it was a weird mixture and people didn’t quite understand”.

I don’t think there is a fortieth anniversary release of The Hurting. I am ending with a review that assessed the thirtieth anniversary edition. Before that, AllMusic had their say about the introduction of the magnificent Tears for Fears. Its subject matter and lyrical approach, if presented and composed differently, could have alienated listeners. The compositional skills and instincts of Roland Orzabal as a songwriter ensures that the album is as embracing and accessible as it is deep and personal:

“The Hurting would have been a daring debut for a pop-oriented band in any era, but it was an unexpected success in England in 1983, mostly by virtue of its makers' ability to package an unpleasant subject -- the psychologically wretched family histories of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith -- in an attractive and sellable musical format. Not that there weren't a few predecessors, most obviously John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album -- which was also, not coincidentally, inspired by the work of primal scream pioneer Arthur Janov. (But Lennon had the advantage of being an ex-Beatle when that meant the equivalent to having a box next to God's in the great arena of life, where Tears for Fears were just starting out.) Decades later, "Pale Shelter," "Ideas as Opiates," "Memories Fade," "Suffer the Children," "Watch Me Bleed," "Change," and "Start of the Breakdown" are powerful pieces of music, beautifully executed in an almost minimalist style. "Memories Fade" offers emotional resonances reminiscent of "Working Class Hero," while "Pale Shelter" functions on a wholly different level, an exquisite sonic painting sweeping the listener up in layers of pulsing synthesizers, acoustic guitar arpeggios, and sheets of electronic sound (and anticipating the sonic texture, if not the precise sound of their international breakthrough pop hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"). The work is sometimes uncomfortably personal, but musically compelling enough to bring it back across the decades”.

I will wrap up with The Line of Best Fit’s  view on The Hurting’s thirtieth anniversary release. They make some interesting observations about a classic album that was released into the world in 1983. I hope people listen to it a lot on its anniversary on 7th March:

“Tears For Fears were a curio when this album was originally released. Keeping company with pastel-suited guys on boats like Duran Duran, the superficial sophistication of Spandau Ballet and the white smiles and tight white shorts of Wham, they kind of fitted in, but with a darker, more intelligent edge.

It was an edge which had them bridging the gap between Echo and The Bunnymen and grinning one hit idiots thankfully now forgotten, and whilst Simon Le Bon ponced around singing nonsense about girls called Rio, Tears For Fears imparted morose lines like “The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had”.

Fast forward six years and you find a band whose critical fall from grace was swift and drastic. Acid house was in, indulgent four year gaps between albums crammed with Beatles pastiches were most definitely out. Acid cleared out a lot of older established rock acts, and Tears For Fears were part of said clear out. It was a cruel twist of fate that could have been avoided if they didn’t spend the subsequent four years after their period of biggest success obsessing over hi-hat sounds for months on end.

With the benefit of several elapsed decades, their influence is now clear to see; Editors, Bombay Bicycle Club, Coldplay, in fact any band of kids playing eighties tinged indie, it all begins here. Although this, their debut, is nowhere near as fully formed as the colossal selling worldwide hit, 1985′s classic Songs From the Big Chair, it contains some of the catchiest songs about primal scream therapy techniques, broken relationships, childhood psychological issues and postnatal depression you’ll find, and despite this subject matter, it spawned hit after hit.

There’s no denying The Hurting has aged, course it has, its thirty, and being thirty means you get fretless bass, electronic drum pads, synths and sax solos alongside really bad videos. But as pop has proven to eat itself, The Hurting has remained relevant through the continuing slew of acts seeking to add poppy choruses their existential angst.

As a duo, Curt Smith was given the poppier songs to sing – “Mad World”, “Pale Shelter”, “Change” – but as principle songwriter, Roland Orzabal tackled the more brooding introspective material. It’s these tracks that really stand out now.

“Ideas as Opiates”, with its minimal electronic beat and yearning vocals, shows off a deep and artistic side that the singles didn’t indicate was there, while “Suffer The Children” and “Watch Me Bleed” are guitar based indie tracks, the lack of synths has these tracks still sounding contemporary, and the wailing saxophone solo on “Memories Fade” instantly dates the track, it still retains its side one, track five charm, the sad one before you had to get up to turn the album over”.

As it turns forty on 7th March, I wanted to pay tribute to the remarkable debut album from Tears for Fears. The Hurting was not a success in the U.S., but it did reach number one here in 1983. Forty years later, and the songs from the album are still played widely. Maybe more people associate Tears for Fears with Songs from the Big Chair, but their debut is remarkable. If you are new to the album or have not heard it in a while, then spend some time…

WITH it today.

FEATURE: International Women’s Day 2023: Five Albums from Women That Hold a Special Place in My Heart

FEATURE:

 

 

International Women’s Day 2023

IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Marten in 2016 (the year her debut album, Writing of Blues and Yellows, was released)

Five Albums from Women That Hold a Special Place in My Heart

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ALONGSIDE features…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Björk in June 1995, at the time of the release of Post (which is technically her third studio album, as the 1977 Björk album came before 1993’s Debut)/PHOTO CREDIT: Corbis

for International Women’s Day that highlight inequality and issues, I am also writing about artists coming through to watch, plus albums and female artists that impacted me when I was growing up. I wanted to name five albums from women/female groups that have stuck in my mind and have a special place in my heart. It was hard whittling them down but, for various reasons, these albums are ones that mean a lot to me – and ones that I would certainly urge other people to check out and explore more. I wanted to start off with my favourite album ever. It is from my favourite ever artist, and it is one that people would associate with me. I am talking about Kate Bush’s 1978 debut, The Kick Inside. There are so many reasons why this album is so vital and cherished. It introduced me to Kate Bush but, more than that, it opened my world to a completely different type of music. As a child, I was a big fan of so many female artists. It was probably mostly Pop music that was in my thoughts and ears when I was in primary and middle school. I would expand my horizons more when I was in high school but, for the most part, I was keeping things fairly safe and commercial. After seeing the video for Wuthering Heights when I was very small, that lit a fuse. I was compelled to discover more and find out who this amazing and strange artist was.

My love for Kate Bush’s music was cemented shortly after listening to The Kick Inside. It gave me such an insight into an artist who I had no ideas we’d be talking about so much today. It was a very pivotal moment when I heard her debut album. Still quite underrated in my view, this is an album that I would recommend to anyone. It is so accessible, yet it is complex and varied. In terms of the vocal performances and subjects Bush touches on, you get so many layers with The Kick Inside. It is a masterpiece album that is my favourite for a very good reason. On 8th March, for International Women’s Day, there will be a lot of new love and appreciation for Kate Bush. She is still so relevant and important to this day. So many artists have been inspired by her. I feel so many owe a debt to The Kick Inside. I have played the album countless time, yet it always brings something new with each visit. One that provides comfort, happiness and moment for reflection, everybody should listen to The Kick Inside. The teenage Kate Bush was so assured and daring right from the off. There was nobody like her in music back in 1978. There still isn’t. An album that opened my musical mind and horizons, I am always going to be grateful for this amazing work! Forty-five years after its release, and it is still being played and celebrated. That is going to be the case for decades to come.

Maybe not an album people would expect, but I want to mention one or two albums that came out when I was in high school. The first introduced me to the legend that is Beyoncé. Of all the girl groups that were around in the 1990s, I think the most talented, respected, and consistent were Destiny’s Child. I think the group’s 1998 debut sort of passed me by. Destiny’s Child is a great album, but The Writing’s on the Wall is a step forward. Almost like a greatest hits package, it came out in July 1999. There are a few reasons why it resonated. It would only be a couple of months before I would leave high school. I remember hearing songs from The Writing’s on the Wall such as Say My Name and Bills, Bills, Bills. Uplifting and fresh, they were both a source of strength and bonding. I was not a big R&B fan to that point but, inspired by this rising girl group, I was hooked! I would soon become a big Beyoncé fan. This was a transition point for Destiny’s Child. Apart from the classic line-up members of Beyonce and Kelly Rowland, the quartet were completed by LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson. The group did not yet have Michelle Williams in their ranks. This is one of my favourite albums, and it is one that helped me through a tough time in high school. I love it now, as it still sounds exciting and new. The songs hold up really well, and there is great chemistry within the group. The sound of the individual members contributing and performing music that is important to them.

Before getting to the third album that is meaningful to me – and another one from my childhood -, there is a review from Pitchfork that shines some very positive light on an album that did not get a load of critical love back in 1999 – yet it has gone onto be this album that has been reappraised. The Writing’s on the Wall is one of the best albums of that decade for sure:

“The Writing’s on the Wall is presented with a loose religious theme—each track is introduced in the form of a Commandment, and the album ends with a prayer: “Amazing Grace,” dedicated to late manager Andretta Tillman. Specifically, its theme is confession: a catalog of relationships and the failings thereof. This was, and is, fraught territory. Practically since the album’s release, Destiny’s Child have dodged accusations of man-hating. Beyoncé stood in front of that giant FEMINIST display at the VMAs not as a response to a couple of thinkpieces but to over a decade of misinterpretations of her work, starting here. Forget the dated technological references in “Bug a Boo,” its hapless-clinger archetype has stalked his way from pagers to cell phones to today’s social media. “Bills, Bills, Bills” was so vastly misunderstood the group had to patiently re-explain it in almost every interview. This particular scrub isn’t just broke, but a brokeness vortex; he drains her girlfriend’s gas tank, maxes out her credit cards and ruins her credit. Maybe it’s a testament to the comparatively flush 1999 economy that this almost sounds quaint. (The lady he’s running up her bills with? His mama.)

Beyoncé, in particular, would develop this theme at length throughout her career: money as a weapon, wielded by and against women. It’s the last straw of “Hey Ladies”: “The worst thing of it all was that he gave her money/Now, how he gonna give her my ends?/That’s a no-no.” And it’s one of the many indiscretions on “Confessions”: “Remember that time you wondered where your money went?” The bridge professes contrition, but Missy’s track suggests the lie; the sweet-seeming guitar line curdles within seconds, dropping out ever so often to punctuate lines. The track is a game of confession chicken with Beyoncé delivering, in carefully measured detail, “He kissed me like a guy could never kiss a girl before.” These aren’t the words of someone who's sorry, at least not just sorry. Confessional music in the ’90s is often thought of as the work of gamine singer-songwriters. But The Writing’s on the Wall, along with TLC’s CrazySexyCool, are the template for the 1990s’ other strain of confessional music—it’s right there in the title—and the one that’s survived most into 2017.

A year before The Writing’s on the Wall arrived, I bought an album from an artist I was well aware of. That was when Ray of Light came out. Whilst this is my favourite Madonna album and one that I have written about recently for its twenty-fifth anniversary, it is not the one I am including. It is her 1983 debut. The Madonna album is forty on 27th July. The reason why this album is very dear is that it was released two months after I was born. I think of being that young and this album coming into the world. Again, I am going to bring in part of a review for Madonna. Not doubt one of the most influential albums ever, the fact Madonna co-wrote most of the tracks showed she had that talent and determination! At a time when a lot of women were being moulded by songwriters and producers, here was a strong artist who was putting her own voice out there. Releasing a Disco-inspired album in 1983 was rare. Whereas Pop and more commercial sounds ruled in terms of chart music, here was a rising star who was someone who helped launch Dance-Pop and re-popularise Disco. The assured and stylish videos together with this charm and sex appeal definitely made sure it resonated and made an impression. I think I first heard the album when I was in middle school. Songs like Holiday were still being played a lot in the late-1980s and early-’90s. Maybe I heard 1984’s Like a Virgin in full before her 1983 debut, but Madonna is more important. I love how the album still get into my blood and heart. Released the same year as I was born, it has that clear relevance. I listen to it now and imagine how people must have reacted to this extraordinary debut from an artist who would soon become a legend.

I hope there is a reissue or something special planned for Madonna’s fortieth in July. It is a timeless album that I would definitely rank alongside my favourite. It has a very special place in my heart. This is what AllMusic had to say about  a golden album from 1983:

“Although she never left it behind, it's been easy to overlook that Madonna began her career as a disco diva in an era that didn't have disco divas. It was an era where disco was anathema to the mainstream pop, and she had a huge role in popularizing dance music as a popular music again, crashing through the door Michael Jackson opened with Thriller. Certainly, her undeniable charisma, chutzpah, and sex appeal had a lot to do with that -- it always did, throughout her career -- but she wouldn't have broken through if the music wasn't so good. And her eponymous debut isn't simply good, it set the standard for dance-pop for the next 20 years. Why did it do so? Because it cleverly incorporated great pop songs with stylish, state-of-the-art beats, and it shrewdly walked a line between being a rush of sound and a showcase for a dynamic lead singer. This is music where all of the elements may not particularly impressive on their own -- the arrangement, synth, and drum programming are fairly rudimentary; Madonna's singing isn't particularly strong; the songs, while hooky and memorable, couldn't necessarily hold up on their own without the production -- but taken together, it's utterly irresistible. And that's the hallmark of dance-pop: every element blends together into an intoxicating sound, where the hooks and rhythms are so hooky, the shallowness is something to celebrate. And there are some great songs here, whether it's the effervescent "Lucky Star," "Borderline," and "Holiday" or the darker, carnal urgency of "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction." And if Madonna would later sing better, she illustrates here that a good voice is secondary to dance-pop. What's really necessary is personality, since that sells a song where there are no instruments that sound real. Here, Madonna is on fire, and that's the reason why it launched her career, launched dance-pop, and remains a terrific, nearly timeless, listen”.

Before coming to the most recent album from a woman/female act that has made a huge impact on me, there is another one from the 1990s that was definitely instrumental and influential when I was in high school. Again, there is a big anniversary coming for this artist’s debut. Björk’s Debut came out on 5th July, 1993. Like Madonna’s July-released album, I hope there is a big anniversary release or something special for the thirtieth anniversary of Debut. It is my favourite Björk album but, again, there is a reason why I am not plumping for my favourite by the artist. I love Debut dearly, but the 1995 follow-up is the one I am including. Post arrived at a very interesting time for music. Icelandic artist Björk, perhaps more invested in and interested in Electronic and Dance sounds from the U.K., definitely upped the ante and evolved her sound. 1995 was a time when Blur and Oasis were fighting it out. There was a lot of interest in Britpop and what was happening there, but I already knew about Björk. I heard Debut when it came out in 1993 - but Post really hit me and changed my perceptions. This album opened a door to Electronic and other genres. So inventive and full of fascinating sounds and worlds, its legacy is clear. This is a huge album that confirmed the brilliance of Björk. I remember hearing the album when I was in high school and being blown away! Songs like Isobel, It’s Oh So Quiet and Army of Me were revelations! It lit this deep love of Björk and her music. I was so struck and in awe of her. Even if Post remains my favoured Björk album, the fact Post arrived at a time when I was new to high school and was really getting into music means it has a deeper meaning and significance.

Before coming to the final of five albums by women that holds a very special place in my heart, I want to bring in some of Rolling Stone’s review of Post. At a time when other styles of music were favoured, this album arrived like a tidal wave. So interesting and different, I was enthralled and endlessly curious about this sensational artist and her second studio album:

“On her second major solo album, this 29-year-old native of Reykjavik, Iceland, embarks on her most unlikely journey yet; Post comes up as victorious and gallant as any of her Viking forefathers. Chock-full of curious noises, mesmerizing vocals and musical surprises, Post provides a much-needed escape route from alternative rock’s dull offerings of late.

While leagues of boys sporting goatees spill their dysfunctional guts over Ted Nugent-esque guitar licks, Björk forages for inspiration in the soundscapes of orchestrated jazz, ambient techno and classical. On Post she uncovers a range of specific sounds — not broad styles — that best express her emotions and color her arrangements. With little awe or irony, Björk blends these recognizable scraps and otherworldly snippets into a striking pattern of her own design, making Post an album that’s post-everything but akin to nothing else.

Björk’s now reaping the benefits of all that earlier trial and error. On her 1993 solo album, Debut, she finally toned down the rowdy theatrics of the Sugarcubes and began to fiddle with jazz rhythms and electronic effects with some success. Post sounds like the culmination of her quest. It’s full of fantasy, humor and the grandiose, melodramatic, wide-open feel of old film scores. Most importantly, the music here finally challenges her voice.

Björk sings in smooth and subdued moods next to a delicate harpsichord, blasts out à la Judy Garland alongside screaming trumpet and growls over a tough, bottom-heavy beat. Her previously unbridled vocal swoops, from primal creature to flighty pixie, now cooperate and flow with the music around them. She communicates in creamy coos and guttural, bluesy belts. In both modes she emanates grace and raw power without forfeiting her uniqueness.

In “Blow a Fuse,” a saucy big-band number originally recorded by World War II poster girl Betty Hutton, Björk saunters out like a sex siren in a smoky nightclub. Against the blare of a 20-piece orchestra, she purrs, then slips into a throaty growl and then releases a shrill “Wah!” that would shame both the Tasmanian Devil and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna.

Most of Post isn’t quite as flamboyant, however. The elegant “Isobel,” yet another number featuring string arrangements and a smaller orchestra, snakes along like a patient desert caravan; the minimal “Cover Me” features nothing more than harp, hammer dulcimer, the sound of crashing surf under Björk’s whispers.

The surreal hum and gurgle of ambient techno motivates “Army of Me,” on which DJ Graham Massey of 808 State lends a hand. His approach — muted, bass heavy, Beasties-like — melts into transcendental lightness beside Björk’s voice. “Enjoy,” co-written with ex-Massive Attack member Tricky, contributes a menacing feel to Post via some seriously dark, seething undertones.

Björk enunciates her words carefully and clearly throughout, as if the slightest clumsy slip would shatter their meaning into a million pieces. Inside her delicately constructed English, bizarre Björkian imagery materializes. On “Modern Things” she sings, “I listen to the irritating noises of dinosaurs,” and turns fantasy into morbid but honest wonderment for “Hyperballad.” Here’s what she sings over a sweeping, panoramic vista: “I imagine what my body would sound like slamming against the rocks, and when it lands, will my eyes be open or closed?”

The last album I want to get to is Billie Marten’s 2016 debut, Writing of Blues and Yellows. This is an album many may not have heard of. I was in awe of Marten from the moment I heard the album. I am not sure how aware I was of her prior to 2016, but this was a very hard year for me. Not only had the music world lost titans in David Bowie and Prince, but I was not happy in general. In a job and town I was bored of and felt the need to break from, it was very difficult getting through. From the beautiful painted cover to the incredible music within, Writing of Blues and Yellows was a real balm. Both strengthening and of huge comfort, there is such tenderness, beauty, and familiarity within. Still only a teen when the album came out, I draw parallels between Billie Marten and Kate Bush. These prodigious musicians with such intelligent, mature, and inspiring lyrics and the most amazing voices, Writing of Blues and Yellows dug so deep and really helped me through. Of course, Marten is still recording and has a busy year ahead of her. Although I love her other two studio albums - Feeding Seahorses by Hand (2019) and Flora Fauna (2021) -, it is her 2016 debut that ranks alongside my favourite albums ever. The Yorkshire-born artist has a new album, Drop Cherries, that comes out on 7th April. She is one of our very best artists. Writing of Blues and Yellows got love when it came out, but it deserved so much more! Just listen to the extraordinary emotions and sounds within Heavy Weather and Emily. The gorgeous and transporting nature of Bird and Hello Sunshine. The great drum hop and skip of Green, or the great cover of It’s a Fine Day (I think you can hear the sound of her dad in the garden on the recording!).

I am going to finish off with part of a review for Writing of Blues and Yellows. This is what CLASH said in their review of the magnificent and utterly beguiling debut album from the utterly bewitching and stunning Billie Marten:

“Billie Marten’s thoughtfully crafted debut is a collection of tales, retrospect and self-examination. Candidly honest about her periods of mental health, ‘Teeth’ places you in the centre of her overwrought mind: “I’m writing this in a bad way, no one can hear what my head says.” Her vocals are infused with a fragility that drills down into your consciousness, whether you want it to or not. Full of contradictions, ‘Lionhearted’ highlights the songwriter’s desire to be braver, yet she fails to acknowledge that she has achieved exactly this through her overt lyrical sincerity, which is intrinsic to the success of this record.

‘Writing Of Blues And Yellows’ manages to be flawlessly delicate in terms of instrumentals and tone, drawing on inspirations from her quaint upbringing in her home-town of Ripon just near the Yorkshire Dales. Fixating upon the wilderness and nature, this is a theme that is inter-weaved throughout songs ‘La Lune’, ‘Heavy Weather’ and ‘Hello Sunshine’; later on ‘Live’, she explores her close relationship with her family, versus her yearning to explore and find some adventure.

Billie Marten delivers a pragmatic album that explores the equilibrium between her positive and negative outlooks on life, whilst confirming that being preoccupied with our own contemplation is and will forever be an ongoing process of the human condition.

Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8th March, I wanted to mention some very important albums from female artists. From U.S. R&B/girl group magic to Kate Bush and Billie Marten, to Madonna and Björk, these five albums have been very important in my life. Even though they were crucial years ago and had their place then, these special and brilliant albums will always be…

IMPORTANT to me.

FEATURE: International Women’s Day 2023: Amazing Rising Female Artists to Watch

FEATURE:

 

 

International Women’s Day 2023

IN THIS PHOTO: Iraina Mancini

Amazing Rising Female Artists to Watch

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BECAUSE International Women’s Day…

 IN THIS PHOTO: FLO/PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Alexander

is on 8th March, I am writing a series of features around it. Aside from discussing issues concerning equality, I also am highlighting important albums and women in music who have influenced me or are worth watching. This year is going to see some incredible artists come through. I think, like in previous years, the sound of 2023 will be defined by women. To show the range and quality of artists emerging and making steps who are going to be big names very soon, below is a playlist of amazing women who you need to follow and keep an eye out for. Let’s hope that the clear wave of brilliant women emerging leads to equality in the industry. From festival bookings to equal rights, let’s hope that there is change and improvement. The selection of songs in the playlist showcases some brilliant women. On International Women’s Day, ensure that you…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jaz Karis/PHOTO CREDIT: narcography

FOLLOW these artists.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Ninety-Two: Cyndi Lauper

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Ninety-Two: Cyndi Lauper

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AS she is currently…

leading the fan vote for possible induction to this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I thought it was high time to include the incredible Cyndi Lauper in this feature. An artist who is hugely influential and important, she released her stunning debut album, She’s So Unusual, in 1983. Looking ahead to that fortieth anniversary (in October), I have also been checking out the rest of Lauper’s discography. Such an inspiring and brilliant artist, it is no wonder that so many others have taken a cue from her. I am going to end with a playlist of artists who have either cited Cyndi as an inspiration to them, or they have been compared to the New York-born legend. First, here is some biography from AllMusic:

“Cyndi Lauper began her career as a playful rebel, and matured into one of the best respected artists in American music. Lauper rose to fame in 1983 with the release of She's So Unusual, an album that provided an ideal showcase for her strong but girlish voice and her thrift-shop-genius personality. The album made her an overnight star and a darling of MTV, spawning two major hit singles ("Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time") and briefly making her a symbol of hip female empowerment on a par with Madonna. While Lauper wasn't truly a new wave artist, her multicolored hair, her eclectic fashion sense, and the implied inclusivity of her musical philosophy -- embracing elements of pop, reggae, funk, and dance music -- symbolized a free-thinking attitude that cleared a path between the underground and the mainstream. Lauper would never have another hit on the level of She's So Unusual, but with time her music matured as her persona evolved from a wacky street kid to a woman with ideas and the talent to make things of them. Her music remained eclectic, but with 1989's A Night to Remember and 1992's A Hat Full of Stars, she took greater control of her songwriting and explored serious themes that would have been outside her image a decade before. With 2003's At Last, Lauper showed she could tackle old standards in grand style, and by the 2010s she was a diva who could move from pop to blues (2010's Memphis Blues) and country (2016's Detour) with ease, even writing the songs for a successful stage musical.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the neighboring borough of Queens, Lauper (born June 22, 1953) dropped out of high school in her late teens, choosing to sing in a number of local cover bands instead. Eventually, her voice was so strained she turned to voice lessons from Katherine Agresta, a well-known vocal teacher in New York. In 1977, Lauper began writing her own material with keyboardist John Turi. The duo formed a rockabilly-influenced rock band, Blue Angel, that same year. Over the next few years, the group built up a solid following in New York, culminating in the release of an eponymous debut album on Polydor in 1980. Blue Angel flopped, and shortly afterward Lauper filed for bankruptcy, which led to her group's disbandment.

Lauper subsequently sang in local clubs and restaurants. In 1983, her manager and boyfriend, David Wolff, managed to secure her a contract with with the CBS-distributed Portrait label. At the end of the year she released her debut album, She's So Unusual. Helped by heavy MTV support of the album's first single/video, "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," the album became a major hit in the spring of 1984, eventually climbing to number four on the U.S. charts; it would wind up going platinum five times, as well as becoming a hit in the U.K. and Europe. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" peaked at number two, while its follow-up, the ballad "Time After Time," reached number one; two other songs, "She Bop" and "All Through the Night," went Top Ten.

With mainstream success under her belt, Lauper was an official star, yet she found maintaining her popularity wasn't easy. During 1985 she worked on her follow-up album; her only release of the year was "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough," the theme song from the children's adventure film The Goonies. Her second album, True Colors, appeared in the fall of 1986, and although it was successful -- the title track went to number one, while the album peaked at number four and went platinum -- its softer adult contemporary sound ran counter to the expectations of some fans. Lauper's career continued to lose momentum, as her feature film debut in 1988's comedy Vibes failed to find an audience. A Night to Remember, her third album, was released to weak reviews in 1989, and although it spawned the Top Ten hit "I Drove All Night," it suffered from disappointing sales, peaking at number 37. The next year, she severed her relationship with Wolff and married actor David Thornton.

After taking a few years off, Lauper returned in 1993 with Hat Full of Stars, an album where she co-produced and co-wrote all of the tracks. The record stiffed, peaking at 112. The following year, the hits compilation Twelve Deadly Cyns...and Then Some was released in the U.K.; the album reached number two, while a remixed "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" became a number one hit. Twelve Deadly Cyns was released in America the following year to less attention. Lauper released Sisters of Avalon, her first album of new material in four years, in the spring of 1997 to generally positive reviews, yet the record didn't chart. Merry Christmas...Have a Nice Life! followed in late 1998.

After a long hiatus, Lauper returned to the studio in 2003 for At Last, a collection of pop standards that garnered favorable reviews and spawned a live DVD, Live...At Last. The Body Acoustic, a collection of stripped-down reinventions of previous hits, followed in 2005. In 2008, Lauper released her tenth studio album, the dance-oriented Bring Ya to the Brink. She then switched gears for 2010's Memphis Blues, which featured her versions of several classic blues songs.

Lauper promoted the release of Memphis Blues with a stint on the reality show The Celebrity Apprentice, and over the next few years she specialized in multimedia projects. In 2012, she released an autobiography titled Cyndi Lauper: A Memoir and wrote the score and songs for the Broadway musical adaptation of the 2006 film Kinky Boots. The production earned 13 Tony nominations in 2013 and Lauper took home the trophy for Best Original Score, becoming the first woman to win this category alone. She celebrated the 30th anniversary of She's So Unusual with a tour in 2013 -- the album also saw a deluxe reissue that year -- and she continued to make appearances on TV. In the spring of 2016 she returned with Detour, a collection of country music covers featuring cameos from Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Alison Krauss”.

Ahead of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony – where she could be inducted -, I wanted to highlight the influence of the brilliant Cyndi Lauper. An artist who released such a vibrant and unique debut album in 1983, she has touched so many lives. Below are many of the artists who have been influenced by Lauper. As you can see, they are…

A stellar line-up.

FEATURE: We, the Fish People: The Kate Bush Hounds of Love Reissue, and a Possible Name for the Fans?

FEATURE:

 

 

We, the Fish People

The Kate Bush Hounds of Love Reissue, and a Possible Name for the Fans?

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THIS is a bit of a bodge…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Kate Bush/Fish People/LOGO DESIGN: TIMOROUS BEASTIES

of a couple of bits of news that was announced recently. In the next Kate Bush feature, I am exploring the possibilities for 2023. A few projects that fans would definitely welcome coming to light. It does seem that, following some news about her catalogue moving. The Kate Bush News website provided more details:

“Interesting news this lunchtime, Kate’s official Fish People site and social media channels have been updated with a brand new logo design! The updates come as she announces via her official site that from March 1st 2023 she is moving her album catalogue from Warner Music Group over to The state51 Conspiracy with the following albums:

The Dreaming

Hounds of Love

The Sensual World

The Red Shoes

Aerial

Directors Cut

50 Words For Snow

The Kick Inside (USA only)

Lionheart (USA only)

Never For Ever (USA only)

Kate will be re-releasing the Hounds of Love album in special presentations of vinyl and CD later in the year. A brand new range of Fish People merchandise featuring the new logo design has also been launched, including a soon to be released jigsaw, vinyl slipmats and aprons! The news item finishes with this note: “Fish People continue to have an ongoing positive relationship with WMG”.

That is all exciting. As I wrote in a previous feature, does this mean that she is getting things in order for a new album to come about? Perhaps. We do know that there is going to be a Hounds of Love reissue later in the year. As Super Deluxe Edition write, this classic 1985 album is going to get a new release. I do wonder whether there will be any extras or surprising on the reissue at all. Seeing how the album has found a new audience this past year or so, could we see something extra added to the standard album? That would be an incredible treat:

“Kate Bush’s 1985 album Hounds Of Love will be reissued on CD and vinyl later this year, it has been announced.

The album spawned the hit single ‘Running Up That Hill’ which reached number three back in 1985 and then hit number one in the UK last year thanks to its inclusion in Netflix’s Stranger Things. The album spawned three other top 40 UK singles in ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Big Sky’.

Side 2 is home to the conceptual The Ninth Wave which was performed live on stage in its entirety during Kate’s Hammersmith Odeon residency in 2014 and, from Kate’s back catalogue, only the 1986 hits compilation The Whole Story has sold more copies in the UK than Hounds Of Love.

Hounds Of Love remains the only Kate Bush studio album that has been expanded into any kind of ‘deluxe’ edition when in 1997 EMI issued a new CD edition as part of its Centenary celebrations with a modest six extra tracks.

Guitarist David Rhodes on performing with Kate Bush in Before The Dawn

This Hounds Of Love reissue news was actually a footnote in an announcement posted on Kate’s website about the fact that she is moving her albums from Warner Music Group to independent music company The state51 Conspiracy. Here’s the list of albums that are impacted:

The Dreaming

Hounds of Love

The Sensual World

The Red Shoes

Aerial

Directors Cut

50 Words For Snow

The Kick Inside (USA only)

Lionheart (USA only)

Never For Ever (USA only)

Kate also shows off new logos for her ‘Fish People’ label at the same time.

There is no detail about Hounds Of Love as yet. The exact wording is “We’ll be re-releasing the Hounds of Love album in special presentations of vinyl and CD later in the year. We’ll keep you posted”.

What would you like to see on a Hounds Of Love reissue?”.

That last question about what we’d like to see on the reissue. I have said how one of the B-sides from that time, Under the Ivy, has to be there. It is a song not available on Spotify, and it has not been performed live. Bush did not bring it to life during her 2014 residency when she performed other tracks from Hounds of Love. The B-side to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) it is arguably her best B-side. Written quickly after the rest of the album was completed, you wonder whether it could make it into the reissue. I think photos from that time would be a nice addition. Maybe some remixes of tracks from Hounds of Love, plus a few other audio bits. I am not sure how many demos are available that could be included. There will be in the vaults, but perhaps Bush does not want to have them released and included. In any case, having a reissue of Hounds of Love into the world will mean it is discovered and loved by a new generation. Like last year, it does seem like there is going to be a lot of activity in the Kate Bush universe. Maybe there is news coming about new music, but that Hounds of Love announcement is something that we can all look forward to. Before getting to a thought I had, there is also some wonderful Fish People merchandise. Bush set up the label prior to 2011. The first album she released on the label was 2011’s Director’s Cut. As this was an album of reworked versions of songs that appeared on previous albums, it seemed like a move where she could have control over her past and present. Rather than cuts ties with EMI completely, Bush wanted her own label, so that she could work at her own pace and release albums in the way she wanted. That was followed up by 50 Words for Snow (also released in 2011). You can find some great Fish People merchandise that is well worth getting.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush/Fish People

Something cryptic and intriguing also appeared on the official Kate Bush website. If you click on the ‘O’ that appears on the right-hand side, you can read what is written below. It makes me wonder a couple of things. The writing does seem like the concept on an album. It seems like a concept in itself. Something almost idyllic and fantastical, it seems like a combination of Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave and some reaction to the modern world. There is a four-part concept that could come to life when you read what is written. Of course, there are Fish People in the Marvel universe, but Kate Bush’s version is fascinating:

“Fish People were a civilisation which became lost around 900 BC. Little is known about them other than they walked out from the seas onto the land one day when no-one was looking. It is believed that they were centuries ahead of their time. Their culture was not defined by wealth or social status and they abolished all violence as they believed in the harmony of nature and the equality of all oceans.

Their mystical language was thought to originate from The Tethys Trench. They could speak simultaneously to all aquatic creatures and to most of the humans in the Western Hemisphere. There were certain frequencies in their language that could only be understood by small crustaceans and very young children.

The full meaning of where their distinctive letterforms came from, has been lost. Many believe that these originated from the complex migrational paths of birds and a cellular-level understanding of the underwater mammals that had moved around them.

Fish People were said to have walked back into the seas one night when everyone was having dinner and it was foretold that they would again return to land when their teachings would be needed to heal a wounded world.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush/Fish People

The fishing pole has interesting roots. 900 BC is an important year in terms of its evolution, but Bush seems to have created something that is less of a label mission statement. I read it as a possible tease for an album but, as there seems to be this Fish People model and philosophy, I wonder whether it should be the name given to fans. It is not the most attractive sounding or fragrant name, but we have been searching for a collective term. Maybe naming the fanbase after Hounds of Love or something else Kate-related. I think that Fish People is a better name. It does seem that Bush is expanding her label in some way. I presume the Hounds of Love reissue will come out on Fish People. She wants to do more with the label, but I don’t think it will extend to signing artists. It is going to be more in-house. This new text does seem to hint that there is at least some new direction and idea in her head. I think that the Fish People would be a terms for us Kate Bush superfans. As there is not a fanzine anymore, I do wonder whether there could be anything more collaborative when it comes to the label and fans. As the Fish People do seem to be this ancient race, it does seem like a chance for us to claim some ownership. Maybe this new writing forms the idea of an album base, or it might just be the philosophy of the label. I do hope that it makes its way into something bigger. 2023 is starting as excitedly and busy as last year. There is no stopping the Kate Bush juggernaut. With some recent developments, cryptic writing, and that Hounds of Love reissue coming soon, we are all pumped and ready for…

THE year ahead.

FEATURE: Allegro Ad Libitum: A Need for a New #MeToo Movement for Female Film Composers and Scorers

FEATURE:

 

 

Allegro Ad Libitum

IN THIS PHOTO: Pianist, singer, composer, activist, and inventor Nomi Abadi is the President of the Female Composer Safety League (as they state “Women are severely under-represented and under-protected in the field of composing, and we are setting out to change that”).

A Need for a New #MeToo Movement for Female Film Composers and Scorers

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ALTHOUGH Hollywood…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rafael Russano Silva

did see a #MeToo movement that helped bring about change and highlight the toxicity within the industry, there was not an equivalent movement for artists. Spotlighting and fighting against sexual harassment, sexism, and abuse, it was a revolution in Hollywood that has brought to justice many men who were protected by their prestige and power in the industry. I have written before asking why there was not a #MeToo for music. A recent article from The Guardian uncovered a worrying and long-running issue facing female composers and film scorers. Whereas #MeToo did reach most areas of film, it seems like there is a need for change and progression when it comes to composers and scorers who are subject to bullying, harassment, and the fact that many do not have their work credited. The article also highlights the brilliant Female Composer Safety League, which mentions how women are under-protected and under-represented in the field of composing. With Nomi Abadi as their President, here is a virtuoso pianist, singer, composer and activist who is battling to see things change. I shall come to segments of that article in a bit. It is horrible to read about how so many women within the composing sector have been treated! We have so much to be thankful for when it comes to their incredible work. I know that the incredible composer and musician Hannah Peel has been working with The Ivors Academy for the past years, and she told me that some major things have taken place involving setting up a complaints system and ethics committee. That is very much a group effort from the Ivors, who are trying to change the culture so that there is greater equality and security for women.

As International Women’s Day is on 8th March, that will be day when we not only recognise and celebrate female composers and film scorers. We also need to battle for better rights and protection. I want to detour ever so slightly. On 8th March, Scala Radio are presenting a very special selection of shows:

“To celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th March, Scala Radio will be providing a selection of female-led programming across the day, alongside a new series of She Scores, which begins on Sunday 5th March.

Returning for a third series, this year in partnership with Girls On Film, She Scores will welcome an enviable selection of women composers, all who have had great success in composing screen music and who will be sharing their own musical influences and inspirations.

This year the programmes will be hosted by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch whose credits include the Bill Nighy-led Oscar contender Living, Jocelyn Pook who scored Eyes Wide Shut, The Wife and The Merchant of Venice, Amelia Warner whose credits include Wild Mountain Thyme, Mr Malcolm’s List and Mary Shelley and Natalie Holt who is the first woman to score a live action Star Wars project with Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi as well as Marvel’s Loki and Paddington. Both Emilie and Amelia are also nominated for Best Composer at the 2023 Girls On Film Awards, taking place on 23rd February, when Nainita Desai will present the award to the winner.

IN THIS PHOTO: Composer and artist Isobel Waller-Bridge

The first series, broadcast in 2021, featured Pinar Toprak, Isobel Waller-Bridge, Jessica Curry and Nainita Desai as hosts, and in last year’s series the guest presenters were Rachel Portman, Germaine Franco, Lisa Gerrard and Laura Karpman.

On International Women’s Day itself, Scala Radio will be celebrating inspirational women in music across the day, solely playing music by women composers, and/or starring women soloists and conductors from 9am to 10pm.

There will be special guest curators, such as the world-class conductor – and Scala Radio Residency presenter – Marin Alsop, who will curate an hour of recordings starring women conductors at 4pm, with Penny Smith on Drive. Sam Hughes will also welcome the acclaimed trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth to her show (1-4pm) to perform live in the Scala Sessions.

Since its inception in 2019, Scala Radio has been championing women within their programming and through their long-term work and partnership with the likes of DONNE, Women in Music which saw the station launch a first of its kind Women Composers station last year, The Ivors Academy and Girls On Film”.

I shall come to the article from The Guardian. It is harrowing to hear that there is such a widespread problem when it comes to abuse, harassment and terrible working conditions for female composers and scorers. From burn-out and their work not being credited, to abuse and predatory behaviour, let’s hope that there is definitely change soon. It is brilliant that articles like this have come to light, as it emphasises that, still, there is a long way to go until women can feel safe and protected:

“In the wake of the #MeToo movement that toppled Harvey Weinstein and made the entertainment industry tremble, an up-and-coming musician named Nomi Abadi vowed to expose one of Hollywood’s last dirty secrets: the toxic, abusive work conditions that run rampant behind the closed doors of soundtrack composing studios.

Abadi, a former child piano prodigy turned singer and composer, was a sexual abuse survivor and knew of many others in a part of the industry where men still vastly outnumber women and much of the work goes on unregulated at all hours of the day and night.

She was also aware of other hidden indignities that dozens, perhaps hundreds, of composers’ assistants – men as well as women – went through every day: punishingly long hours for little pay; the refusal of many composers to share credit, or royalties, even when an assistant had done all the work on a musical theme; and a frequent blurring of personal and professional boundaries.

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Lola Beltrán/The Guardian

She knew of assistants – who despite the name are highly qualified musicians, many with advanced degrees in scoring and composition – being forced to clean toilets, babysit, close porn websites left open on composers’ work computers, watch uncomfortably as their bosses ranted or drank themselves into a stupor, and worse.

“Every woman who goes into composing has been through it on some level,” Abadi said.

The Guardian spoke to more than a dozen industry veterans who, while they requested anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, confirmed these stories and told many others of their own. Like the director of music at a gaming company who looked for employees on Tinder and tried to hook up with them. Or the composer who sexted with a girlfriend while an assistant sat at the same computer screen. Or another composer who liked to mess with the thermostat when nobody was looking and then took perverse pleasure in blowing up at his assistants about the studio being too hot or too cold”.

It is hardly a new insight that musical talent can give rise to big egos, or that those egos are apt to bruise the people around them. The award-winning movie Tár, in which Cate Blanchett plays a prominent orchestral conductor facing a comeuppance over her personal demons, is a fresh iteration of an often told story – the temperamental, self-centered artist who believes using and abusing people is justified by her (or, more usually, his) undisputed brilliance.

Music is also a sphere in which young performers and composers tend to look to their teachers and bosses as mentors. This can give rise to all sorts of power abuses, especially in the cut-throat entertainment world where everybody is hustling for the next job and proteges can quickly bloom into serious competitive threats.

Still, those who have been through the Hollywood composing mill say the system has also become dysfunctional in unique and underappreciated ways. First, there is little or no regulation. Most assistants can be fired at will and work on hourly salaries with no benefits. If abuses occur, they have nobody to complain to, because the composers themselves mostly work freelance, and even the music production supervisors who hire the composers tend to be independent of any studio or corporate structure. So there is no human resources office to turn to; and composers, unlike instrumentalists in Hollywood, have no union”.

I know that there is still abuse and misogyny in the film industry at large but, after the #MeToo movement and continued pressure and awareness, things have improved greatly. It does seem that female composers and scorers have been overlooked to an extent. Thanks to the likes of Female Composer Safety League, there is this invaluable body that aims to create an industry that is free from sexual abuse, harassment, prejudice, and marginalization. Given the phenomenal work of female composers, they deserve an industry where they are not only made to feel safe and secure, but their work is given a bigger platform and celebration. Let’s hope that this changes very soon. It is clear that the film industry would be so much weaker…

WITHOUT them.

FEATURE: Collaborations: A Network and Social Channel for Music Lovers

FEATURE:

 

 

Collaborations

PHOTO CREDIT: Rodolfo Quirós/Pexels

A Network and Social Channel for Music Lovers

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THIS feature has been provoked…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

by an event I went to a few weeks or so back. London-based artist IAMDDB was premiering the video for her latest single, Where Did the Love Go?, at a local cinema. I was lucky enough to be among those invited to see it. There was a screening, Q&As, and a big vibe of love and support. In that room, there was this overwhelming and powerful togetherness. I work long hours at my full-time job and this blog, so choosing social events and networking opportunities is a selective process. It is not often that I have that much energy to venture out. One of the big regrets of that night is not getting to know more of the people there. I briefly spoke with a few people, but I am not sure whether I will be able to get in touch or connect again. From a network and social aspect, speaking with them would be beneficial and great. Also, I have seen online recently quite a few journalist contacts state that opportunities have been taken away. It seems that a lot of website and publications are scaling back and, with that, losing people. I have seen people ask to be retweeted to see if there is a chance for them to do any writing/editing and that sort of thing. It is a hard time at the moment, but there are opportunities out there still. I do not know of social and business tools for artists. There are a couple of smaller websites that sort of integrate LinkedIn and Twitter, but nothing really on a large scale.

From a personal level, I would like to connect with people who have been to the same events and run in the same musical circles. Getting my writing out there more, but also finding out about freelance opportunities in the U.K. and worldwide would be awesome. Somewhere I can connect with major and upcoming artists who are very much my taste and sound would help. It is hard to wade through all the music out there finding out what you like. There is that social aspect too. Whether friendship or dating, a network or social media channel where things would be more bespoke and simpler would definitely attract more people. It is quite a wide remit and pitch in terms of what could be included. I know there are many others out there who find they miss out on chances and potential networking. Connecting like-minded people and journalists with editors etc. There is a whole world of possibilities that could kickstart this community. You could also bring in a music buying aspect, where local and national record shops are listed. You can also have music recommendations from others. Have oldskool fan clubs and fanzines. Whatever someone wanted to use it for, it would be there. Social media as it is connects people and reaches a large audience, but it is not exactly honed and perfect for musicians, journalists and music lovers. That could change easily enough.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

I think that, at a time when there is this intense passion for music, but it can be difficult finding people to link with and getting your work heard, a separate site or platform would be ideal. I know it would have been very useful for me. I have rued the chance to connect with some I recently came into contact with. As someone who follows journalists and creatives, there are some struggling and deserving of better. It is very difficult navigating through Twitter and Instagram and getting those hook-ups. I am not sure what the new site would be called, but it would not mean people dispense with their normal social media accounts. They could all be linked and integrated. I know there is a very passionate and dedicated music community that could really gain from a site and channel just for them. From the small connections that could turn into professional relationships, through to potential personal relationships, and even minor or major friendships, so many people would benefit. I am not sure how easy it would be to get it going, but there would be an uptake and vast interest. This is just a brief feature, but it has been provoked by missing out on some connections and opportunities. Many other people experience the same thing so, ensuring that happens less often would be a bonus. Maybe it is just me, but I think that many would agree with my sentiments and ambitions. It would be interesting to hear…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels

WHAT people think.

FEATURE: Beyond Their Ken… Why Losing the Legendary Broadcaster Is a Massive Blow for the BBC (And to Us All)

FEATURE:

 

 

Beyond Their Ken…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Bauer Media/PA

Why Losing the Legendary Broadcaster Is a Massive Blow for the BBC (And Us All)

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THIS is meant to be a celebratory feature…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Bauer Media/PA

but it started with some anger. Yesterday (24th February), Ken Bruce announced that his last show on BBC Radio 2 will be on Friday (3rd March). He already made the sad announcement that he was departing the station to work at the wonderful Greatest Hits Radio. Proudly featured and spotlighted on their homepage, the station is clearly very excited to have the legendary Bruce in their ranks. I think the oriignal plan was he was going to work at BBC Radio 2 until the end of March. Bafflingly, the station have asked him to leave earlier! The Guardian were among those who reacted to the shock news that Ken Bruce’s departure was moved forward:

“Ken Bruce has suggested he has been forced to leave the BBC earlier than he intended with his final Radio 2 show scheduled for next week rather than at the end of March.

The 71-year-old Scottish broadcasting veteran will present his final 9.30am-to-midday show on 3 March.

He wrote on Twitter: “I will be presenting my last show on Radio 2 next Friday. I had intended fulfilling my contract until the end of March but the BBC has decided it wants me to leave earlier. Let’s enjoy the week ahead!”

Vernon Kay, 48, is returning to the BBC to replace Bruce on the coveted mid-morning weekday show, the broadcaster announced earlier on Friday.

Bruce announced last month he would be stepping down from presenting on Radio 2 after 31 years.

The BBC confirmed Gary Davies, host of the station’s Sounds of the 80s, would present the mid-morning show from 6 March until Kay joined on a yet to be confirmed date in May.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Ken decided to leave Radio 2 and it’s always been known he’s leaving in March.

“Returning to [BBC Two’s base at] Wogan House for a week after a month of broadcasting the Piano Room sessions at Maida Vale provided a natural break. We wish Ken all the best for the future.”

Bruce is joining Bauer’s Greatest Hits Radio in April to present a new mid-morning show from 10am to 1pm.

He has hosted the current incarnation of his show since 1992, and prior to that had worked at the broadcaster since 1978.

There has been widespread criticism of Radio 2’s recent effort to rejuvenate its lineup.

Longstanding DJs Paul O’Grady, Vanessa Feltz, Craig Charles and Simon Mayo have all left or announced their departures in recent months. Their replacements – such as Rylan Clark and Michelle Visage – are all younger, leading to ageism complaints from listeners.

Steve Wright also left his weekday afternoon show last year, replaced by former Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills, but still hosts Sunday Love Songs and occasional specials”.

What was going to be a much-deserved and noble end of a career at the BBC now seems tainted and rushed! Bruce would have liked to have left when he originally intended, and I am not sure what logic can be applied to him being asked to wrap up next week. It is a massive sign of disrespect for one of the country’s most beloved broadcasters! I wish congratulations and praise to Vernon Kay on taking over. He will be a great replacement…and we always knew Bruce would not stay at BBC Radio 2 forever! The fact he is going to another station means we still have him in our lives. Not moving too far from Wogan House – Greatest Hits Radio is situated a short walk from that London Fitzrovia location in Golden Square, Soho -, we get to enjoy Bruce in a new setting. He joins a station that has broadcasters like Simon Mayo among their ranks. It is a great new home where Bruce will get to spin classic hits and terrific songs. Many of his listeners will follow him there, and he will recruit an army of new listeners and fans. I think we are going to see Bruce keep going on radio in the same way his BBC Radio 2 colleague Tony Blackburn has. Blackburn, now eighty, shows no signs of slowing down. Let us hope we have at least another decade of the magnificent Ken Bruce on the radio! It seemed like a slap from the BBC. The fact he is leaving and has been so respectful and professional has not been reciprocated.

I guess BBC Radio 2 will have a host of temporary presenters on his morning slot until Vernon Kay officially takes over later this year. We all love and admire Mr. Bruce very much! Someone who has been a stalwart of BBC Radio 2 for years and years, his iconic PopMaster quiz has brought the nation together. We all stop and play along at around 10:30 every weekday morning. It is a radio institute that he and he alone owns and is master of. I am glad that, alongside some nick naks and presents, he will be moving PopMaster with him to Greatest Hits Radio. I titled this feature what I did because, not only is Ken Bruce ‘our Ken’. He belong to an adoring worldwide audience. He seems like a relative who takes care of us each morning and makes us laugh! The fact that the BBC has chosen to let him go earlier than everyone likes will hit them very hard. It is beyond their comprehension how much he will be missed and what a loss he is to the station. Without doubt one of the major reasons the station is as popular as it is can be attributed to Ken Bruce! Vernon Kay will do a mighty job, but there is nobody like Ken that is for sure. After such loyal and loving service to the station, there is something almost hurried about his leaving. I should turn things to something more positive and lighter…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Merry

One can only imagine the mood inside and outside of Wogan House on Friday. I know there will be people waiting outside the building when he leaves for the final time. There are bound to be gifts and celebrations from his colleagues. Showing their affection for someone who has not only been with them for years. Ken Bruce has mentioned and inspired so many of his colleagues. A veritable messiah and sensei of the airwaves, there will be a massive void when he leaves. As this fellow article from The Guardian explains and explores, Bruce is a huge signing for Greatest Hits Radio. Someone who could have gone to any station he liked, he is with one of the best in the business. A station that plays a selection of classics from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it has a verve for life and energy that is attractive to both younger and older demographics. My heart goes out to colleagues of his like Richie Anderson (who presents travel on Ken Bruce’s show), and Zoe Ball (who presents early breakfast before handing things over to him at 09:30). That walk out of Wogan House on Friday. It will be very sad and strange knowing that he may never come back! If foolish and unwise to let one of their greatest ever broadcasters go early, let’s hope that they have at least laid on something incredible when it comes to commemoration or leaving gifts. A simple card and cake is not sufficient or close to good enough when it comes to acknowledging how Ken Bruce has changed radio and created something truly magical and unique.

I am going to sign off soon but, rather than jab the BBC, it is worth highlighting how they have helped him grow this gigantic army of fans. There are so many reasons as to why his show has their biggest audience. Not only the must-hear and almost deified PopMaster. It is Ken Bruce’s warmth, his incredible humour and sharp wit, in addition to the way he can bond with the listeners and, as I say, almost seems like a family member. And, when a family member leaves us, the effect it has on us is devastating. Of course, we will adapt and follow him to Greatest Hits Radio - but things will not be the same without him at BBC Radio 2. Let’s hope that the station fully understands that and realises they will never have anyone like him at their station. He really was one of a kind. We all thank Ken Bruce for making our mornings so much brighter. How will he sign off? I’d like to think he’d start a speech and then give himself the PopMaster ‘clock’ (where, if a contestant does not answer quickly enough, there is a jingle that counts them down from five). When he appeared on the Fortunately… with Fi and Jane podcast back in 2019, he was asked about what he’d say if he ever left. Bruce made it clear there would be no huge speech and a lot of tears.

He would simply sign off and throw to the news. I suspect there will be more than that. I know there will be some tears. He will choke up a bit when he realises, whilst saying his thanks and goodbyes, just what has happened in the world since he joined the station. It is the end of an era. There will be a lot of thanks and I am sure colleagues will pop by to show their love and sadness. So will we all. We will be there. Whilst there is going to be an intense and very palpable sense of upset in the air and on the air on Friday at midday (when, I guess, he will pass things to Jeremy Vine), we have a lot to be happy about, knowing what he has done for broadcasting and millions of listeners. I hope Bruce has a chance to grab a Scotch someone close to Wogan House and reflect on everything he has given the nation (and the world) since he came to BBC Radio 2. He starts this exciting new venture at a terrific station that is going to ensure they keep him for as long as they possibly can! Bruce seems like he is already comfortable and happy there. Knowing that Greatest Hits Radio will allow him to do PopMaster and present the sort of show he wants, it will be exciting tuning in to his first broadcast there. I am not sure whether I have done justice to Ken Bruce or tried to vocalise what millions of people feel. He means something different to everyone, but I was compelled to react to the news he posted on Twitter yesterday – concerning the fact the BBC wants him to leave at the end of next week rather than nearly a month later. It will be so sad to hear his final broadcast, but we know he is going to a fantastic station and is very much going to be in our lives for many years to come. We wish the magnificent, irreplaceable and hugely loved Ken Bruce…

ALL the thanks and luck in the world.

FEATURE: The Sample Generation: Is Creativity Suffering Because of the Legalities and Costs of Using Other People’s Music?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Sample Generation

PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels

Is Creativity Suffering Because of the Legalities and Costs of Using Other People’s Music?

_________

THAT may be a big question…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Public Enemy

and one that seems quite dramatic! A few weeks back, I did mention sampling and a website, Tracklib, that offers free-to-use songs and sounds. There is quite an arsenal in there but, when you consider the extent of music and everything that has come before, so many songs are either not included or would be expensive to use. As a random example, I have been listening to Kylie Minogue’s 1994 song, Confide in Me. I wrote a feature about it but, in the course of doing so, it occurred there are elements of that song which would be perfect for sampling. The breathy and sexy vocals in the chorus, together with the strings would provide a great injection and mix in a song. Maybe a Hip-Hop track. I am thinking ahead to the fiftieth anniversary of Hip-Hop later this year. Once was the time when samples were heavy in the genre. Together with social and political rage, that was the oxygen and motivation for so many artists. It was frequently paired with eclectic samples that brought a richness and depth to the compositions. I think that personal openness and something less political has come into Hip-Hop. The scene has shifted generally, so there may not be as much call for samples. I am not sure why I am so hooked on the subject but, as Hip-Hop is in my mind, I do feel there needs to be a shift in music clearance.

It is not only Hip-Hop that uses samples. Pop has also utilises samples through the years. As I have said many times before, sampling allows people to discover artists and songs that might be new to. Whether it is a Jazz artist from the 1950s or a slightly obscure act from the 1970s, it is such a rewarding experience. I have heard classic Hip-Hop albums and discovered other artists through the use of samples in songs. Not to say there is stagnation in music but, when you consider what samples can offer an album, it seems a shame things are still so rigid. Sites such as Tracklib are great, as there is a library there you can choose from. Whilst a lot of sounds are available there, there are thousands of songs that are either not included or would involve a very high price. I will drop this subject after this feature, but I wanted to raise the question. Are sampling laws and restrictions damaging creativity? It is definitely limiting genres like Hip-Hop. Artists do still sample, but you tend to find there are fewer (samples) on albums. Maybe a few will be sprinkled through various albums, but it is quite rare. There are a lot of modern artists and songs that would fit nicely into other songs. It is a frustrating situation that seems to be forever impossible to resolve. There are ways and procedures when it comes to getting clearance.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Pexels

Why get so worked up about a subject not many other people are covering?! Well, for one, so many classic albums have used samples. It was a big reason why we remember and cherish them. It seems like a different climate now to what it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. Maybe there were fears artists would profit from others and there was no sense of accountability. I think it is not the case now. With social media and the fact that artists do not really make a huge amount anyway, I am not sure what the issues are. You are not taking away money from artists or stealing their work. If the samples are credited, then I have never really understood why money comes into it so much. I can appreciate estates and artists feel aggrieved if artists make a load from songs that uses their samples. Unless you are a massive act like Taylor Swift or Paul McCartney, how much money are you making from album sales?! It does seem very tough and unfair. I do feel like there needs to be some progression when it comes to this. I think it could revitalise Hip-Hop in terms of the way sampled music appeared on classic albums. Other genres could benefit and, as I said, it would be a way of introducing different artists to people who might not know about them. From Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988), to The Avalanches Since I Left You (2000), there have been some masterpieces where samples have definitely driven the album – and, in the case of the latter, it was entirely sampled music. For the final time (for a while at least), I wanted to highlight an injustice. For future generation, for artists, and even for artists being sampled, the laws and restrictions need to…

BE reviewed.

FEATURE: Daisy Jones & The Six: Why This Upcoming New Mini-Series is Timely and Hugely Inspiring to Me

FEATURE:

 

 

Daisy Jones & The Six

PHOTO CREDIT: Pamela Littky 

Why This Upcoming New Mini-Series is Timely and Hugely Inspiring to Me

_________

I have sort of bemoaned…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Lacey Terrell/Prime Video

the lack of music-related T.V. shows and series. There are biopics in cinema but, when it comes to the small screen, we do not see many series that integrate music in a very big and meaningful way. That diegetic touch that is missing from the screen. Happily, Daisy Jones & The Six comes to Prime Video from 3rd March. That is actually the same day De La Soul release six of their studio albums to streaming and physical formats…but I digress. I am going to explain why the series is so important, timely and, to me, inspiring and encouraging. First, Esquire published a feature that explains more about Daisy Jones & The Six and its literary origins:

“For the uninitiated, Daisy Jones & The Six is an adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s novel of the same name. The story follows a fictional band, inspired by Fleetwood Mac, that was doomed from the start. Set in the '70s, the plot chronicles a tortured romance between the band’s two lead singers. Sound familiar? Here's everything you need to know about Daisy Jones & The Six.

What is Daisy Jones & The Six About?

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, baby. Daisy Jones & The Six is narrated by the members of the band, years after they split up. Each character gives their version of events in a juicy tell-all interview—and their vivid retellings weave together a story of love and loss. According to the show's synopsis, the miniseries will follow the format of the book. “In 1997, Daisy Jones & The Six were on top of the world,” the synopsis reads. “The band had risen from obscurity to fame, and then, after a sold-out show at Chicago’s Soldier Field, they called it quits; now, decades later, the band members agree to reveal the truth.”

Who Stars in Daisy Jones & The Six?

Riley Keough, the daughter of the late Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley, stars as Daisy Jones. Sam Claflin plays her love interest Billy Dune. The rest of the cast includes Suki Waterhouse (Karen Sirko), Camila Morrone (Camila Dunne), Will Harrison (Graham Dunne), Sebastian Chacon (Warren Rhodes), Josh Whitehouse (Eddie Roundtree), Nabiyah Be (Simone Jackson), and Timothy Olyphant (Rod).

Does Daisy Jones & The Six Have Original Music?

Absolutely. In fact, the band’s first single, “Regret Me,” is available to stream right now. In the brooding track, Daisy and Billy belt the lyrics: "you regret me and I regret you/you couldn't handle your liquor and you can't seem to handle the truth." You may be wondering what, exactly, the truth is. Well, dear reader, you'll have to tune in and see.

How Can I Watch Daisyones & The Six?Daisy Jones & The Six will air in four parts. The series hits Amazon on March 3rd. Each week, the streamer will release a new episode until March 24. In the meantime? Rock on, people”.

There are the Fleetwood Mac comparisons hard to ignore. The show is described thus: “In 1977, Daisy Jones & The Six were on top of the world. Fronted by two heat seeking missiles in Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne, the band had risen from obscurity to fame. And then, after a sold-out show at Chicago's Soldier Field, they called it quits. Now, decades later, the band members finally agree to reveal the truth. This is the story of how an iconic band imploded at the height of its powers”. Fleetwood Mac released the seminal Rumours in 1977. The band were going through relationship break-ups and tensions. It was a fractious recording and time but, out of it, one of the greatest albums ever came about.

I have wondered why there has not been a Fleetwood Mac biopic set around the recording and release of Rumours. It is the one biopic that has not been done that would definitely be a success. Margot Robbie recently revealed that, if she had to play a musician on screen, then it would be Stevie Nicks. It is exciting to see what comes about from Daisy Jones & The Six. I am familiar with most of the cast, and I am a particularly big fan of actor and musician Suki Waterhouse. She is an amazing talent that I am excited to see in this series. I hope that, as the show comes out, it does spark a curiosity for more series like this. With a band and music very much at the heart, it will go to show how powerful, popular, and important it is. From what I have seen and read; it seems Daisy Jones & The Six will be fantastic. Let’s hope that it also compels discussion around a Fleetwood Mac biopic too. I think that whole era in American culture and music is fascinating. With such a strong cast, it is going to be a big success. It has also got me thinking about a project and film that I am working on that has been hard to get off the ground and engage.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac circa 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Hutson/Getty Images

One of the main reasons is that it is hard to get a script or treatment to anyone or get it to that first step. Anyway, it is a music-based U.S.-set comedy that is taking place in the 1980s. It gives me encouragement that there is an appetite for a music-themed series that is set in the past. Even though Daisy Jones & The Six is more dramatic, it is something I am going to be watching closely for inspiration and guidance. I think that the series will be as big success and it will get a lot of great reviews. There has been a general absence of music shows and films – compared to other genres and themes -, so this is a very welcomed and timely release. I think that Daisy Jones & The Six will inspire similar ideas, or at least it will broaden the horizon a bit so that there are more dramas and comedy with artists and music at the core. Such a thrill to anticipate the forthcoming Daisy Jones & The Six, as it is going to be a remarkable series. With the background of the 1970s – and the comparisons to Fleetwood Mac and their relationships in the same year (1977) -, it will be fascinating seeing what comes. It is going to be…

ARRESTING viewing.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1989: Will Johnson (Pulse!)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush 

1989: Will Johnson (Pulse!)

_________

I have been writing…

quite a few Kate Bush features, because she has featured quite heavily on BBC radio and T.V. lately. Her music has always been popular and known but, because of this series of shows and spots dedicated to her, it is going to open it up to new people. I said I would end my series of Kate Bush interviews. There is one that I found that I want to include. I have looked through, and I don’t think I have included Bush’s talk with Will Johnson of Pulse! from 1989. It is a great interview from an American publication. At that point, Bush had been to America, but she had not visited it too often. The Sensual World was being publicised. It reached forty-three in the country, and it was a period where her work was becoming better known there. Of course, Hounds of Love (1985) helped that, but The Sensual World took things to a different level altogether. I love 1989 and Bush’s career. It was a time of change and transition. She was now in her thirties, and her music was changing. If albums like The Dreaming (1982) and Hounds of Love strayed away from the personal and romantic more, The Sensual World seems to be he most heartfelt and revealing album to that point – and perhaps the most revealing of her career. No wonder that so many people wanted to speak with Bush about it. I like this interview, as she interesting answers and revelations come about:

“But The Sensual World shows Kate Bush at her best. Innovative, novel, unique, but above all *different* -- she possesses a talent impossible to pigeonhole, a mystery very hard to solve. The title track commences to the sound of church bells, followed by those breathy, childlike Kate Bush vocals: "Mmh yes, Then I'd taken the kiss of seedcake back from his mouth/Going deep South, go down, mmh, yes/Took six big wheels and rolled our bodies/Off of Howth Head and into the flesh, mmh, yes/He said I was a flower of the mountain, yes/But now I've powers o'er a woman's body -- yes."

Once again, Bush's lyrics manage to caress those old erogenous zones; they sensually combine art with eroticism. The idea for the song came from Molly Bloom's snaking soliloquy (which fundamantally concerned sex and lust) at the end of James Joyce's epic "Ulysses."

"The original piece, right, was just the most beautiful piece of writing I've ever read," she enthuses in a soft voice slightly colored by a South London drawl. "It's like this never-ending sentence, this long train of thought, and the only thing that punctuates it is the word 'yes' and it very gradually accelerates. I just thought it was just one of the most sensual pieces ever written. When I came to write this album, I suddenly remembered this writing, and the original lyrics were from the book. I just picked it up and all the words fitted perfectly to the music. I couldn't believe that the two things would just come together.

"But when I applied for permission to use the words I was refused, so I was *extremely* disappointed," Bush continues. "Then I had to rewrite the words trying to keep the same sense of sound, but obviously I'm not James Joyce, so it was a question of keeping the same shape and creating a new story. So it gradually turned into Molly Bloom stepping out of her speech in the book and into the real world. In the book she's a very sensual woman, and it was the idea of her stepping out of this black-and-white world into the real world and being hit by the power of the sensuality of the world, the environment, the elements."

”And at first with the charm around him, mmh, yes/He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts/He'd rescue it, mmh, yes/And the spark took life in my hand and, mmh, yes/But not yet, mmh, yes/Mmh, yes."

"A lot of people have said it's sexy," she continues. "That's fine, that's nice. The original piece was sexy, too; it had an incredible sensuality which I'd like to think this track has as well. I suppose it is walking the thin line a bit, but it's about the sensuality of the world and how it is so incredibly pleasurable to our senses if we open up to it. You know, just simple things, like sitting in the sun, just contact with nature. It's like, for most people, their holidays are the only time they get a real burst of the planet!"

The title track contains the usual Celtic influences that characterize so much of Bush's work, with an Irish contingent of Davey Spillane blowing the uillean pipes, Donal Lunny twanging away on the bouzouki and John Sheehan on the fiddle. Bush's elder brother Paddy is on whips. But what's her approach to songwriting -- each LP seems to be taking longer to produce, each more sophisticated as a result?

"You see," she says, "the thing is, I always want to do something different from the last record, and in some ways it's a question of putting space before the last project before you can even start. After the last album I just wanted to spend some time and just come down to earth again. I suppose this record took about two years in total to make; we took lots of breaks in between so the project actually felt like it had been going on longer, even though it's not been intense work. I found it very difficult to write some of the songs on the album -- some were very quick, but others were long and painful. I always find lyrics very hard, anyway, and the whole thing was very much a layering process, just sort of putting in all the different elements, putting the jigsaw together. It's not by choice it took so long; it's never fun being involved in a project that long, but I just couldn't do it any quicker. It's something that happens in phases, where you get times when nothing's happening -- and that's a good time to take a break, or else you're continually working on lyrics and stuff and you get a breakthrough. You might write a song and it comes very quickly, and you've maybe got lyrics and melodies for, say, another two, so you get musicians in and build on those tracks. Then you let them sit for a bit and go off and do something else. I think it's useful that you do 10 or 11 tracks on an album, so you can keep dotting round, so, even though you always end up getting sick of hearing them, you can at least keep diverting."

As her career progressed, Bush has gradually been able to gain more control over her music and output. Two things have been important here: firstly, the acquisition of her own recording studio somewhere in darkest Kent (southeast England), and secondly, the cementing of her relationship with longterm boyfriend/bassist/ engineer Del Palmer.

"Having the sort of creative freedom that I've now got," she explains, "having my own studio, taking the time to make albums, not putting something out 'cause there's pressure to, working very closely with Del as engineer, I just felt incredibly lucky to be in this kind of situation. It's a real privilege and I'd hate to abuse that. I think that the problem with writing songs is that you want to care about what you're doing, and sometimes the stuff you come up with is just so banal, you just have to really wipe through it. Get rid of all the shit, do you know what I mean? [laughs]. Hounds of Love was very much the main step, 'cause that was the first time we had our own studio, and I suppose the progression from that one to this is that we've upgraded the equipment. Also, on the last album, I was working with lots of different engineers who could only give me a certain amount of time, because they'd block-booked to someone else, and because I work so experimentally, I didn't want to block-book too far ahead or I wouldn't be ready for them. Working with Del, I've managed to get a bit closer again to the whole process. You know, if it's not working, then we can just go home. If I have an engineer in, it would be difficult to have that freedom and also to feel relaxed; there's a lot of time spent getting to know each other."

The Sensual World LP features 10 new Bush tracks, all written and produced by the enigmatic songstress, recorded by Del Palmer and mixed by Kevin Killen, whose most recent credits include Elvis Costello's Spike. ("Walking Straight Down the Middle," [sic] an atmospheric tale of the reluctance of human beings to face up to their fears that features some truly shrilling vocals by Bush, is only available on cassette and CD.) The first single, "Love and Anger," is probably the meatiest track on the LP. Throughout there's an African beat, the sound of Zulus raiding at dawn, interspersed by some slumbering fretless bass lines (courtesy of Eberhard Weber), and a "big" chorus orchestrated by the power chords of Pink Floyd alumnus Dave Gilmour and Bush bellowing as best she can. It took her a mere 18 months to piece together.

On "Heads We're Dancing," Bush warns the female of the alluring male: "They say that the devil is a charming man/And just like you I bet he can dance. .. A picture of you, a picture of you in uniform.. .. Hot down to the floor/But it couldn't be you/It couldn't be you/It's a picture of Hitler."

But it's the overall feeling of sensuality, of Bush's concept of the being and its relationship with the outside world, that underscores the entire album. In particular, it's the way in which the child comes to realize and experience his or her environment. The solo violin of the aforementioned Nigel Kennedy is accompanied by cello, Celtic harp, whistles, the mysterious Dr. Bush, and Kate's manic witch-like laughter on the eerie, "The Fog": "The day I learned to swim/He said, 'Just put your feet down child'. .. . The water is only waist high/I'll let go of you gently/Then you can swim wiht me." [sic]

"I do like the quiet life," she replies almost bashfully. "I do like having privacy; it's incredibly important to me, because I do end up feeling quite probed by the public side of what I have to do. I'm just quite a private person, really. You just end up feeling quite exposed; it's this vulnerability. After I've done the salesman bit, I like to be quiet and retreat, because that's where I write from. I'm a sort of quiet little person."

Which my explain why it's taken so long for this idiosyncratic yet compelling artist to break in the States. "Yes," she says perkily, "I've really had no success in America at all, apart from the Hounds of Love LP. That did quite well, and it was really exciting to think that there were people out there wanting it. But I've never seen it in terms of you make and album and then conquer the world. I must say it's never really worried me that I've not been big in America, but I'm with a new record company over there now, and I really feel good about the people -- they're lovely to talk to and to deal with. It's quite exciting for me. I just hope people out there will have the chance to know that the album's out. Then, if people want to hear it, they can. If they don't, well, that's absolutely fine.

"You know," she continues, "what I like about America is that there's a tremendous sort of hyper energy that I really like. Especially in New York -- there's a much stronger social setup, especially between artists. It's a very isolated setup here, because London's so spread out and everybody's off doing their own thing. You don't seem to bump into people the way you do over there; it's exciting to have that interchanging of ideas, just to talk to people who're going through similar things. It's real modern energy stuff. And also, I really like the positivity of the Americans. I mean here, although I love being here and I love the English, we're very hard on one another, very critical, whilst they have a wonderful willingness to give everyone a chance. We're really hard on people trying to get off the ground -- it's really unfair".

So much was to change after the release of The Sensual World. Bush’s personal and private life was impacted. She would endure loss. Her final album of the 1980s is one of her most enduring and finest. Containing classics like The Sensual World, and This Woman’s Work, it is the deeper cuts that really intrigue me. Kate Bush is fantastic in all interviews, but I do love the promotion from 1989. She is great in this interview. I wanted to highlight the incredible interview from Spin! Bush proved, as if there was any doubt, that she is…

A true treasure.