Kate Bush

[Guy Rowland]

How have we not had a Kate Bush thread by now?

I've always admired the hell out of her, while never been an obsessive fan. But I chanced across this 1979 BBC documentary today about the process of her going on tour for the first time (in fact this would also be her last tour, only doing one London residency in 2014 subsequently).



It's a fantastic look at a very different era. Even a tour of the scale she did felt like a homegrown family and friends venture. This tour was the first ever use of a headset mic, a DIY construction so Kate could sing and dance at the same time. But of course most of all it's her, one of those truly rare artists seemingly dropped by the Gods into our midst. She wrote her breakout hit Wuthering Heights at 17 (having never read the Bronte novel) and it sounded like nothing else, dropped into a sea of punk and disco. How on Earth is any of this possible? In the documentary we glimpse her superpowers - disarmingly charming and sweet, but with a core of steel in her determination to get things done her way. There is a lovely comment on the YouTube video:

She was an absolute joy to work with in every aspect, and the band too. I did the on stage sound engineering and developed the headset mic for her. (1979). Never has an artist or crew put so much effort and dedication into a tour.... and i did many.

She was and is, of course, staggeringly gorgeous, and I'm sure she had her fair share of unwelcome attention, but what I see is that the people around genuinely respected her as an artist and wanted to do their best for her. There's almost a feeling that everyone knew how special she was and they couldn't be the one to bugger it all up.

Hounds Of Love is reckoned to be her masterpiece, many years later. She remained a maverick and pioneer (did anyone use a Fairlight better?) That young talent didn't wither, quite the opposite. And it's no surprise when you see how she was. The best exchange in the interviews in 1979:

"You're now just over 21, and you've made it. What is there left to do now?"

"Everything."

Out of context, you might imagine a power-crazed maniac. But she is intensely private, and when not changing the face of music has spent entire decades living the quiet life. How brilliant. She just seems to have got everything right.

I have a few favourite songs - Cloudbusting is one (the late great Donald Sutherland in the video). But I think my absolute favourite is Breathing - those ambient guitars in the chorus and the fretless bass are something else. Who else would fuse a foetus and nuclear war?