50 Words For Kate: #39 - Delight

Am I the only one that misses singles? I'm not talking about downloads, or limited vinyl pressings, or online exclusive previews. I mean proper physical singles you could pick up with your hands, after waiting impatiently for the day of release. They had sleeves, usually with new pictures of your favourite artists, and B-sides, that could often be as thrilling as the main song.

These days, for artists like Kate Bush, singles are almost irrelevant. Kate has released just one single apiece from her last three albums, really as a promotional tool to get radio interested, and only one of those had a physical release. How different it was back in 1980, when to stir up anticipation for her forthcoming third album, Kate released not one, but two singles ahead of its launch. Breathing had performed respectably, but it was her next single that would firmly signal that Kate was back in business.

"Babooshka is about futile situations: the way in which we often ruin things for ourselves."

That was Kate's take on her new single, set out in her fan club newsletter. Babooshka is indeed a tale of misadventure, of mistrust and jealousy leading to deception and disaster. It tells the tale of a woman who tests her husband's fidelity by posing as a secret admirer. You just know it's all going to end in tears. Let's see what happens in this stunning performance from German TV.

Despite it's dark subject matter, Kate's catchy tune and hooky chorus caught the public imagination and she had her biggest international hit since Wuthering Heights. The song's broad appeal wasn't hurt by the costume Kate chose to represent the temptress in the video, which has perhaps become her most iconic look.

Oh, and that smashing glass sound at the end of the track was achieved by Kate and her band breaking box-loads of crockery in the recording studio. Apparently the canteen ladies were less than impressed.

Sometimes in life, everything just comes together to create perfection. That's the case with Babooshka. The song, the visuals, the routine; it all synched. It is Kate, the storyteller, at the height of her powers. A strange delight indeed.



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50 Words For Kate: #40 - Breathing

Oh, the days before 9/11. What an innocent world we lived in... Wait, what is that terrible sound? And what is that in the distance? It's like a huge cloud. A huge, mushroom cloud!

Yes, back in 1980 we didn't have to worry about global terrorism. What kept us awake at nights was the very real fear that the USA and the USSR (that's Russia now, you know, that nice Mr. Putin) would blow each other to kingdom come with their ridiculously huge arsenal of nuclear weapons. That is after laying waste to Europe, of course, where most of the American bombs were based. Ah, happy times.

I know, you're thinking "why didn't somebody try to stop this madness!" Well, dear reader, somebody stood up and warned the world to think twice about the Armageddon we faced. A brave woman, willing to rock back and forth in a a huge inflatable ball and wade waist deep in water to get her message across. Yes, that's right, Kate Bush was back, and this time there was not a sign of a leotard. She had something important to say.

Kate's new single was called Breathing, and it explored the the threat of nuclear war through the eyes of an unborn child in the womb, forced to breath in the fallout from a nuclear blast. So intent was Kate to ensure we stopped the madness, she appeared on the BBC current affairs programme, Nationwide, to explain why she felt the need to speak out.

This was the first time we had heard a Kate Bush track over which she had complete artistic freedom. She called the song her "mini-symphony" and it is indeed a complex piece. Breathing clocked in at a whopping 5 minutes and 30 seconds, Kate's longest composition to that point. The backing was layered and textured, with the use of voice overs and sound effects to create the right atmosphere. This was a game-changer.

The visual side of Kate's work also took a leap forward. No longer just an interpretation of the song through dance and movement, the video for Breathing had an elaborate set, location filming and video effects that wouldn't have looked out of place in Doctor Who.

For all of Kate's production wizardry, at the heart of Breathing is a stunning ballad. It is one of the few songs recorded post-1980 that Kate has performed live. Here she is reinterpreting it as a piano solo at a Comic Relief show in April 1986.

For such a complex song, it did well to reach number 16 on the UK chart. It marked a turning point in Kate's career; what would she hit us with next?


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50 Words For Kate: #41 - Special

The first two years of Kate Bush's career are remarkable by any measure: a number one debut single, two top-ten albums, a critically-acclaimed live tour, Kate had come from nowhere to become a household name. In light of these achievements, the BBC decided that Kate merited her own TV special: a rare honour.

Simply entitled Kate, the 45-minute show was broadcast on 28 December 1979. It featured a number of previously unheard songs, hinting that work was already underway on the third album. Among the new tracks was a real curiosity, a waltz that told the tale of a cheating wife and a cuckolded husband. Kate played the husband, naturally, and the routine of The Ran Tan featured Gary Hurst as the world's largest baby, and Stewart Avon Arnold giving some serious face as the wife. The choreography was truly stunning.

Kate's special guest on the show was ex-Genesis front man, Peter Gabriel, who had released two highly creative solo albums. His third, released the following year, would feature Kate on backing vocals on two tracks, Games Without Frontiers and No Self Control. Working with Gabriel would prove to be highly inspirational to Kate, not least through the discovery of the Fairlight synthesiser. But more on that soon. As well as performing Here Comes The Flood, Gabriel duetted with Kate on a Roy Harper song, Another Day. It is considered by many fans to be a classic. Although it is rumoured a studio recording of the song was made, it has yet to see the light of day.

Another highlight was a dramatic tale of love, murder and revenge. The Wedding List finds Kate at the altar, only for her groom to be shot dead in front of her. Who was that mystery man? Do you think she'd ever let him get away with it? Hell no! She'll put him on the wedding list...

Kate was a wonderful way to round off Kate's first two years. It underlined her success, showed how much she had grown as a performer and singer, and signaled that she was moving in an exciting and decidedly experimental direction with her music. What would 1980 bring?


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50 Words For Kate: #42 - Touring

So Kate Bush is playing live again: what's the big deal, I hear you say? Given the extensive media coverage and general hysteria around the announcement of Kate's forthcoming live shows, you might be forgiven for thinking that the primary reason for fans' excitement is the fact that it is 35 years since she last went on tour. It is not.

For Kate fans, the excitement is down to the fact that we know that when Kate puts on a show she redefines the very notion of a pop concert. Her one and only tour in 1979, which has become known as The Tour Of Life, saw Kate blend music, dance, mime, poetry and magic in a bravura performance that stunned critics and thrilled fans. Among the innovations:

• the show was divided into four distinct "acts", with elaborate choreography and costume changes.
• to allow Kate to sing and move, her sound engineer invented the first known head-mic... out of a coat hanger.
• Kate shared the stage with a poet, her brother John Carder Bush, a magician and illusionist, the now quite famous Simon Drake, and two dancers who became an enduring part of Kate's performances on TV and video, Stewart Avon Arnold and the late, lamented, Gary Hurst.

Kate's live shows broke the mold and raised the bar. The legacy of that one tour can be traced right down to today (yes, I'm talking about you Madonna, and you Lady GaGa, and yes, even you Katy Perry). For Kate to consider performing live again she must believe that she has something new to show the world, another revelation in how music could be performed live on stage.

Anyone expecting to rock up to the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo and see Kate standing in front of a mic and banging out a selection of hits is going to be in for a rude shock. Despite a veil of secrecy that shames our national security agencies, news has filtered out that Kate recently spent a few days in a water tank at Pinewood Studios filming material for the show. This will not be a "gig", it will be theatre of the highest order, operatic in scale and majestic in its visual mastery. How can I be so sure? Well the best evidence we have to go on is what she did last time, so here's a peek at one of the showstoppers from The Tour Of Life. Enjoy.

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50 Words For Kate: #43 - Spinning

There is a dark side to my love for Kate Bush. A story of shame that I have never shared with the world... until now. This is a tale about desire, confusion, obsession and crime.

It was 1979 and, after what seemed like a long absence to an 8 year-old, Kate was back in the charts with another song that completely fascinated me. It had a hypnotic, twirling, spinning introduction that led into a verse of strange foreboding. Then there was this incredible, explosive chorus, where Kate seemed ecstatic and amazed, only for that foreboding feeling to return once more. What could it all mean? Who was all alone on the stage that night? Why wouldn't they make The Sweeney? What was so unbelievable?

Despite my pleading, nobody bought me the single, so I had to make do with a poor tape recording I'd made off the radio during the Top 40 countdown. I just couldn't understand what Kate was singing about, I needed to see the words written down. In those olden days, before the Internet, the only way to get song lyrics was to buy a music magazine, like Smash Hits. One afternoon on the way home from school, I found a magazine which had the words to this enigmatic wonder. Only slight problem... I had no money.

I knew it was wrong, but I just had to have that magazine, so I could listen to the song again and pour over the lyrics to unlock its meaning. I slid the magazine inside my navy blue Parka and tried to casually walk out of the shop. Clearly I was no master criminal in the making, as before I was even halfway to the door, I heard, "Here, are you going to pay for that?" Luckily, the kindly owner knew me and pretended to believe my tearful explanation that it was an accident. He put it under the counter and told me to come back and buy it when I'd got my pocket money. I was shaking like a leaf. I have never stolen another thing in my life.

That was the hold Kate's music had over me, I was willing to risk everything to unlock its secrets. It turns out the song's about an ageing thespian and a starlet who sleeps her way to the top: the perils of life as an actor. It would be years before I understood the Vaseline reference. That's probably just as well.

Oh, and it's still one of my absolute favourite Kate songs.

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50 Words For Kate: #44 - Roaring

"Looking back, I don't really think that Lionheart actually expressed the true phase I was in at the time, whereas all the others have."

Kate Bush learnt a harsh lesson about the commercial demands of the music industry very early in her career. After being cossetted by her record company, EMI, and allowed a couple of years to craft a debut album, its huge success meant they gave her slightly less time to produce a follow-up: a few short months in fact. Luckily Kate still had a large number of songs she'd not used on The Kick Inside, and EMI gave her a whole four weeks to write some new material. How generous.

The recording sessions were less than happy. Andrew Powell, the producer EMI had chosen to guide The Kick Inside, was back, but this time Kate was less happy to hand over full creative control. She grew frustrated when the tracks didn't sound like she heard them in her head. It didn't help that Powell replaced her band with his own session musicians. This would be the last time Kate did not produce her own music.

The resulting album, Lionheart, could be unfairly seen as a mix of cast-offs from the first album and some hastily written tracks. Despite Kate's chagrin, for many fans the album is a treasure. It was the first Kate album I owned and it is why I am so deeply devoted to her.

I had never heard anything quite so magical, nor had music taken me on such a journey of discovery. The characters, landscapes, emotions, stories and melodies were like nothing I'd ever experienced. Kate sang about having great sex, becoming an astronaut and finding Peter Pan, thighs as soft as marshmallow, a serial poisoner and Hammer Horror stars. My 14 year-old mind was well and truly blown.

The one aspect Kate had complete control over was her voice. Her vocals on Lionheart are just extraordinary. She finds a greater range and depth than on The Kick Inside, she is playful, sexy, mournful, terrified, mad, wistful... I could go on and on. Kate is as much an actress as she is a singer, and Lionheart is a theatrical triumph.

The one song that means the most to me from this album is Oh England My Lionheart. Being English and patriotic is never straightforward in these postmodern, post-Empire days, but Kate managed to write a fitting paean to our homeland, as much about loss and regret as it is about love and pride.

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50 Words For Kate: #45 - Loving

The music scene in the late 1970s in the UK was an interesting jumble. Punk had arrived and succeeded in shocking the establishment with its harsh sounds and anarchic fashions. Disco ruled the dancefloor, the ultimate good-time sound. Matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs fought for chart supremacy with the Smurfs. ABBA and Boney M tussled over the number one spot. And then there was Kate Bush.

It is easy to forget these days, when Kate is rightly acknowledged as an icon, that such a legacy was far from assured at the start of her career. Serious music journalists, while intrigued by Kate, where initially sniffy. First of all, she was a woman, so what did she know about rock? Also, she had committed the deadliest sin of the English: being born into a nice middle-class family.

And yet for all the punk posturing and prog preaching of that era, I contend that the most truly subversive music moment of the 1970s came from Kate. Don't believe me, then read on...

In September 1978, fresh from recording her second album, Lionheart, Kate popped in to have a chat with the genial Michael Aspel on his BBC 1 afternoon children's show, Ask Aspel. Kate seemed relaxed and happy and she and Michael chatted for several happy minutes, answering a range of questions sent in by the young viewers. Then Kate took to the piano to sing a song about two lovers, Kashka From Baghdad, from her new album. Listen carefully to the lyrics.

Just to remind you:

• It's 1978
• It's children's television
• It's the BBC
• It's a song about gay men
• It's a song about gay men in a happy relationship
• It's 1978!!!

And not a complaint was heard and Mary Whitehouse managed to sleep that night, while thousands of impressionable young minds were opened that little bit further.

Not Punk? Pah! No wonder Johnny Rotten bloody loves Kate!


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