Jazz
Drummer Peter Erskine Confirms He Is Playing On The New Album
 December 30th: Reza Sayeed on Club Gaffa has posted the following
news: "In an interview conducted on 30 November 2000, the American jazz
drummmer Peter Erskine talks about working with Kate on her new
album. Interviewer: "Kate Bush? Tell us more about that. I didn't know
she had a new album." Peter Erskine: "First one in a while, I
guess. I think it will be about another year before it comes out. Wonderful
poetry and great songs; beautiful voice, and a lovely woman. Cool drum
tracks, too, if I may say so ..." Erskine comments that he makes his
conga-playing debut on the album! Other artists he's recently worked with
include Joni Mitchell, Ricki-Lee Jones and Diana Krall. Read the full
transcript here.
 December 30th: HOMEGROUND 68 IS OUT NOW! Yes, they haven't let us
down, the Winter 2001 edition of the Kate Bush magazine has been
posted to subscribers in time for the Christmas holidays. Regular visitors
to the site will know how much I recommend subscribing to the magazine. The
News pages are a-buzz with recent Kate happenings (mostly courtesy of Q
Magazine). Peter comments on the significance of both the Classic Songwriter
award and the very high placing in the Q poll: "Kate's work is clearly
seared into the collective consciousness of all music lovers...". As
for the digital remasters? "Clearly all previous timetables for these
releases have come and gone...as far as we know at the present time EMI are
hoping to release them in the spring, and we understand they will be worth
waiting for." The issue contains the usual great articles and artwork,
readers letters and stories. As always read more at the HomeGround
Pages.
Kate's Christmas Message To
Her Fans
December 21st: Here's Kate's recent letter to the members of the Kate
Bush Fan Club:
"It's been a while since
I was last in touch with you all. Thank you for your cards & letters of
congratulations on the Q award I received recently. It was a great honour to
receive the award and I found the audience's response quite overwhelming.
Things have been really hectic and I so appreciate all your feedback and
encouragement. Sometimes the progress of the album is painfully slow but I
find I get so busy being a Mum - however, I think the work is going well. I
get so little time in the studio that my approach is very different, I'll be
really interested to see what you all think when it's finished. Bertie is
very excited about Christmas this year. I hope you all have a fantastic
Christmas and a very Happy New Year. Lots of love,
Kate xx"
For details on how to receive these updates from the KBC please read the FAQ
page.
December 21st:
A contributor to Club Gaffa has posted this newsbit:
"In a recent interview, Elton John mentions the profound effect
that the Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush duet 'Don't Give Up' has had
on his life. The interview is dated 28 September 2001, and has been
published on an Italian website: Elton says: "When I took drugs, in the
worst period, that is when I was perfectly aware of where I was slipping, a
song helped me resist: 'Don't Give Up', by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. I
was listening to it and I was continuing to repeat aloud: "I will not
let go, I will not throw in the sponge". The problem was that I did not
know how to abandon the hole into which I was hurled. Then I understood; I
would have to ask for help: to say "I need help" ... I will never
forget that track from the album 'So' by Peter Gabriel. Every time that I
allowed the situation to beat down, every time that I thought that this life
was not worth anything, I put on 'Don't Give Up' and I convinced myself yes,
it is worth the pain. Still now I cry, when I feel it."
 December 17th: The former lead
singer of the rock group Big Country has been found dead in the
United States. Stuart Adamson went missing last month from his home
in Nashville, Tennessee. The 43-year-old was found dead in a Hawaii hotel
room on Sunday. In 1986 the band recorded the title track of their album The
Seer, with Kate on backing vocals. At the time Adamson said: "It's
based on a tale of a Scottish woman called the 'Bramin Seer' and the song's
about some of her prophecies coming to fruition. We asked Kate Bush if she
would come and sing on it and she agreed - she was just amazing." Kate
recalled in a KBC newsletter at the time: "They were lovely to work
with - I really enjoyed it. They asked if I'd like to do some backing vocals
and I went in for an evening. They were really nice." Adamson and his
band had a string of hits in the 1980s including Look Away, Wonderland, In a
Big Country and Fields of Fire.
 December
8th: Worth pointing out, and perhaps it's not illustrated
fully by the quotes selected in the news piece below (Dec 5th), but Kate
makes it very clear that she perceived a distinct sense of disappointment from people with the way
The Red Shoes album, and particularly the accompanying film, The Line, The
Cross & The Curve, were received. Kate says in relation to the 1993
film:
"I
shouldn't have done it, I was so tired. I'm very pleased with four minutes
of it, but I'm very disappointed with the rest. I let down people like
Miranda Richardson who worked so hard on it. I had the opportunity to do
something really interesting and blew it. Also I was viewed in quite a
negative light at that point, more so than after The Dreaming where I was
viewed as some kind of nutter. It dissipated my energy severely and threw me
into a state of severe exhaustion. You just get worn down...I slept, I spent
a lot of time sleeping, enjoying bad televison."
The article is
entitled "The Big Sleep", and the writer John Aizlewood found Kate
in "robust" health, and tells Kate "all people care about is
whether you're happy". Kate has obviously been through
a rough time, and has come out of it the other side re-energised. As for
when the new album may be released, Kate has to admit that she can't give a
definite date: "It's hard to say when because it's a matter of how
much time I get to work on what's left to do, so I couldn't actually measure
it in time."
 A Happy Kate Gives Her First
Full Interview Since 1994!
"If
I'm really honest what I find so exciting is that people want to listen
to my music when I'm not thrust in their faces. In this fast-moving
world, people do forget, but they're incredibly patient with me"
(Kate Bush, London, Nov '01)
December 5th: Kate fans
in the London area have been the first to get
their hands on the new Q Magazine and Kate interview. Kate is pictured
looking very happy and relaxed and speaks of how life's been treating her
since The Red Shoes album, her break from making music and her obvious happiness
now with Bertie and his dad, guitarist Danny McIntosh. Kate admits that she
found the immediate aftermath of The Red Shoes difficult.
"I needed to stop
working because there were a lot of things I wanted to look at in my life. I
was exhausted on every level. There was part of me that didn't want to work.
I'd got to a point where it was something I didn't feel good about. It was
as if I was testing myself to see if I could write, but I didn't like what I
was writing. I thought, No, if you don't want to do it, it will be rubbish.
Basically, the batteries were completely run out and I needed to restimulate
again."
The writer of the article sums
up Kate's story of the last few years: 'Eventually, Bush tentatively set
about writing her eighth album. Then she found herself pregnant.
The father was Danny McIntosh, responsible for most of the guitars on The
Red Shoes, although in the late 70s he was a member of hard rockers Bandit
...three years ago,  Bush gave birth to Albert, destined to go through life
as Bertie...little Bertie has his father's hair (auburn), his mother's eyes
and the broadest grin you ever did see. Bush's guard comes tumbling down. "Although
I hadn't always wanted children, I had for a long time. People say that magic doesn't exist but I look at him, think I gave birth to him and I know
that magic does exist."'
 "I am really happy. I
feel I've got the balance right where Bertie comes first and then the album.
Some people say the best work comes from suffering: I don't agree with this.
Hounds Of Love is one of my best albums and I was very happy then. I'm very
happy with Danny. I feel very lucky and that I've achieved a lot of the
things I was looking for after the last album."
And what's it like (the new album)?
"I'm not sure, because I don't get to
listen to it. You see, with my other albums I used to listen to stuff such a
lot. It's very different now because with Bertie I don't have the time. I'm
quite pleased with it, though. There's quite a lot of it done, but I can't
really talk about something that's not finished, it's like talking about an
event that hasn't happened."
[This edition of Q also features
an excellent cover CD, featuring "the best music of 2001", with
REM, Ed Harcourt, Starsailor, Air, Daft Punk, The Strokes etc...as if you
needed any more reason to buy it...Q magazine - music fans, and especially
Kate fans salute you! (Huge thanks to Dam Bryce,
additional thanks to Reza Sayeed)]
  Kate at No.3 in Q Magazine's
Women In Rock Poll
December 4th:
As if recent events weren't enough to confirm Kate's
status and influence in the world of music, she has made the number three
spot in Q Magazine's Women In Rock Poll, which will be published, along with
a new interview with Kate, in next Friday's January 2002 edition of the
music publication. PJ Harvey has topped the poll, with Madonna beating Kate
to the second position. 200,000 readers (!) are said to have voted in the
poll. Tori Amos and Bjork were in fourth and fifth places respectively.
Reuters report that: "Harvey beat off competition from classic artists
including Janis Joplin (10th), Stevie Nicks (9th) and Aretha Franklin
(11th). Big-selling pop idols who failed to make the top 20 included Britney
Spears at 24th, Mariah Carey (46th) and Whitney Houston (71st)."
(thanks to Boolbar, Brian and Stewart)
November 22nd: Some newsbits (remember those?): UK theatre
performer Ruthie Henshall has a new solo album, and covers The Man With
The Child In His Eyes, read more at her official site here. (thanks Robert)....a morning show on French TV called
"Morning Live" includes a segment called "Le Tube du
Grenier" in which they play an music video on a green screen and the
host dresses up as the singer and imitates them. They played Babooshka
recently and the host dressed up as Kate in black and danced with a
cardboard cutout of a bass (thanks to Jeremy and Tristan in France)....part
of "Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake" was played on UK
Channel 4's Brookside last month, the character Adele was playing it
in her KB festooned bedroom. This was not long after another young character
described her as a "meff" for liking Kate! (thanks to
Boolbar)....Peter & Krys at HomeGround hope to have the next edition out
in December, meanwhile check out their back issue sale here.
More From This Month's Q
Magazine
 November 13th: As far as Q
Magazine were concerned, the magic moment of the awards came when Kate
persuaded John Lydon to sit down and have their picture taken. They
write: "Who'd have thought it? Kate Bush out of
hiding and John Lydon proving vaguely approachable!".
John Lydon is
asked "You're obviously quite a fan of Kate Bush?", to which he replied:
"Kate Bush is a true original. It's not nice that she's been imitated -
Torrid Aimless, sorry, Tori Amos. But Kate Bush is a genuine talent. She
went through the same shit I did when she started, "Oh that's not
singing". Who the f*&k wrote the rules about music?."
 Nigel
Godrich, winner of Best Producer for
Travis and Radiohead said that the best thing for him so far in 2001 was
meeting Kate: "I'm in awe of her. Her records fundamentally enforced
what I am as a person. When you listen to stuff as a teenager, you identify
with elements in the music. There's a real hidden wisdom there. It's
beautifully written. If
she needs anyone to mix her new album, I'm after the job....I'm going home
to listen to Kate."
Elsewhere Midge
Ure wistfully recalled his first encounter with Kate: "It was in
the late '70s and I was in The Rich Kids and we were appearing on a TV show
together. I was desperately trying to get off with her and get a lift back
in her limo." QTV (the magazine's digital televison channel) reports
that Midge introduced Fran Healy, Travis lead singer, to Kate, but
that he was so in awe of her that he was lost for words! The magazine also
pictures Kate chatting to Donovan (Kate recorded his
"Lord Of The Reedy River" as the b-side to Sat In Your Lap in
1981).
Mini
Interview From The
Current Q Magazine
 November 11th: As we await the new
interview with Kate in next month's Q here is the transcript of the
mini-interview with Kate from the Q Awards on Monday 29th October (from the
current edition - see Nov 9th news):
 Where are you from and what
are you on? I've just come from the stage where I've picked up my Q
Award. I'm not eating anything because I'm too excited. I've been drinking
water. Bottled, still water of course. What was the best thing about
2001? Giving up smoking, but I'm not a fanatical anti-smoker. What was
the last thing you won? An inflatable hammer a few months ago at a fair.
Actually, it wasn't me who won it--it was my son Bertie. I can't tell you
where the fair was because I don't really want to.Who is the best act in the
world today? My son Bertie when he's doing his Elvis impression. Presley
or Costello? Er, Presley. I think. What's the last record you
bought? The Bob the Builder one. Not the Mambo thing, the one before
that whatever it is called. Was it for me? Of course
it wasn't. I don't really keep up with things like that. What's next? Well, right
now a few of us are going for a little drink somewhere. No, I can't tell you
where. More generally, I have to finish off my new album.
November 9th: Roger Shoesmith has
downloadable clips of Kate at the Q Awards at his website http://www.shoesmith.net
Q Magazine announce interview
with Kate next month.
 November 9th: The
January edition of Q magazine (published December 7th) will feature
"an exclusive, revealing new interview" with Kate. Meanwhile, the current
issue of Q has just been published with articles about the awards and some photos of Kate
arm in arm with Johnny Rotten.  The magazine's website says that this current
issue features "pictures, anecdotes and, of course, the
results of this year's bash. See John Lydon share a sofa with Kate Bush..." (thanks to Michael Leitz). Whether
next month's interview is a
strong indication of more new album stirrings or purely a reflection on the award
the magazine has given to Kate, we have yet to see. It seemingly coincides
with the delayed Women In Rock poll results, so it may mean that Kate has
done well in that vote...in any case it's an event in itself, the
first published interview with Kate since 1994!
Kate At the Q Awards - Latest Updates!
  Seán Writes:
I've had a
tonne of very complimentary emails and guestbook messages since Monday's
event, it's been great to hear how useful you've all been finding the site,
even when there was no news of Kate much to speak of. Thanks for that, the
site is a pleasure to continue doing, in fact sometimes I log onto it myself
to see what's happening, before remembering I have to get the next lot of
updates up first! I'm just writing this note to mention the fact that Peter
& Krys at HomeGround
are hard at work putting together the next edition of the magazine.
HomeGround is the number one source of inspiration for this site, and no
doubt the best coverage of all Kate Bush happenings will always be contained
within its pages. So do make sure your subscription is up-to-date,
HomeGround will always be a most essential part of any fans collection.
Remember, they've been doing this since before The Dreaming came out in
1982! Amazing. Very proud to call them my friends, warm wishes to you both
guys! Okay, back to the newsy stuff...Seán :-)
Update: The sponsors of
the event, Orange, now has the clip of Kate receiving the award at their site
here.
Q Magazine's website also have a Quicktime clip here.
Kate thanks her family, Del, Lisa and EMI among others. Before reading her
speech she said "I know it's a bit naff but here it goes..!"
 October 30th: Everyone's
talking about Kate today it seems. Midge Ure presented Kate with her
award yesterday afternoon, and he made an appearance today on ITVs 'This
Morning' TV show. Questioned about yesterday's ceremony he replied, "I
gave Kate Bush the Q Award - the Classic Songwriter. It was lovely - the
place just stood up for her and just hailed her as a genius that she is. It
was fabulous."
Kate's appearance at the show
certainly caught fans by surprise, and there has also been quite a splash
made across the media as a result of the award.  In
today's UK newspaper The Daily Express, there is a half page feature
(above) under the headline: "Blast From Past As Kate Bush Says: I'll Be
Back" It goes on to write: "Reclusive Star Gets Top Award And
Makes Promise To Fans". The paper quotes Kate as saying: "I know
that it seems like a long time but I really have been working on making a
new album. If it seems like it's taking a while it's because I'm really
enjoying spending time with my son. He's the most important thing in the
world to me. Getting this award has been amazing and I thank everyone who
voted for me. My albums have always taken me a long time to record but I
hope this one will be ready next year".
 magazine's own
website
has ran a story: "Kate Bush To Return - New LP on the way". It
says that she also thanked Dave Gilmour and Elton John for their help and
guidance through her career, adding a special thanks to her father for
"putting up with me banging on all those years ago".
In
the US, Billboard
Online also lead with news of Kate's award: "The
uniquely British Kate Bush received a rapturous welcome today (Oct. 29) at
the 12th annual Q awards in London, honored in the category of classic
songwriter by readers of the U.K. music magazine. Clearly wowed by the
warmth of the reception from musicians and industry professionals alike at
the event, the notoriously slow-working Bush admitted, "I am actually
making an album, [but] it's just taking longer than I thought."
 Reuters news agency
reports: "Kate Bush won the Q Classic songwriter award to mark nearly
25 years in the charts with singles such as "Wuthering Heights"
and "Running up that Hill". Channel 4's Teletext service
"PS News" quotes
John Lydon (aka Johnny  Rotten) at the ceremony: "I want to say hello to
Kate Bush, who is brilliant!". The service also mentioned Kate's award
under the headline "Kate Plans New Album". A "well-behaved" Liam
Gallagher was apparently among the first to rise to his feet to applaud
Kate, according to DotMusic.
The Sun newspaper also run a picture of Kate today and mention the
"huge cheers" she received from the audience. Also, from The
Independent newspaper: "[...] But while the attendant stars,
including New Order, Super Furry Animals, Coldplay, Feeder and Liam Howlett
from The Prodigy, refused to be roused by Lydon's lone antics, the room rose
united to give a standing ovation to Kate Bush, who won this year's Classic
Songwriter award – and whom even Lydon graced with complimentary
words." (thanks to Michael Leitz). Highlights of the awards will be
shown at 10.15pm Saturday November 3rd on UK Channel
5.
|
 Click
here
for a page full of shots from the TV coverage of the event from both BBC
Choice yesterday and GMTV this morning. The shots are large so the page
may take a while to download. (Huge thanks to John Harper for supplying
these - be sure to visit John's Kate site at http://www.ran-tan.co.uk)
|
 Kate Wins Q Songwriting
Award
(and mentions new album)!
October 29th: I'm delighted to tell you
all that Kate has won the Best Classic Songwriter award at the 12th
Annual Q Magazine awards. Kate was there to receive her award! The ceremony
took place at the Park Lane hotel in London today. The
BBC website reports: "The awards, which are well respected
within the music industry, also singled out veteran singer Kate Bush for a
special classic songwriter award. After receiving a standing ovation she
said: "This is just great, I am making an album but it is just
taking a little longer than I thought and I have been having a great time
with my son." Congratulations Kate!
 The sponsors of
the event, Orange, held a live webcast of the ceremony, but highlights are
promised at their site here.
Other winners at the star-studded event included Radiohead, Starsailor, Ash,
Travis and Elvis Costello. Visit the Q magazine website,
which promises more updates on the awards over the next week. (Special thanks
to Jane, who rang me from Scotland to tell me that "Kate looked so
beautiful!!" after she saw the news.)
October 29th: Newsbits: Courtney Love,
singer with the band Hole, has commented on her site's guestbook in a
"battle of the bands" between PJ Harvey and Tori Amos. Courtney
posted: "Polly (wins) hands down. Also dont forget for
ducks sake there is someone named KATE BUSH- if you like tori for all that
glossy beauty doll stuff you might like kate better (never forever and
lionheart)"...longtime Kate fan Andrew Marvick has posted on the
love-hounds mailing list that "[...] he thought
he should mention that the word "gaffa" (with that
spelling) will be published in the next edition of the Oxford English
Dictionary, and Kate Bush (writing in an old issue of The Kate Bush Club
Newsletter) will be cited as the "first" to have used this
spelling in print."...new cover version of Cloudbusting from a band
called Novembre from the album 'Novembrine Waltz'. "It's
a kind of dark and impressive gothic metal." writes Achim Riehn from
Germany (thanks Achim)....A programme aired on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday
afternoon (21st Oct) called 'Adventures in Poetry' which explored the
poetry and writings on Emily Bronte. During the 30 min programme there was a
clip of Kate singing 'Wuthering Heights' and an old interview clip of her
saying where she got the idea for the clip from. (thanks to Simon
O'Donovan)....Danny Diess updates us on progress of his Kate tribute
show: "We are starting rehearsals on November 17th and rehearsing up
until February. The songs and the sets have been chosen and the set list
consists of 10 tracks, with some live musicians and a cast of 8 people.
The songs are Running Up That Hill, Hounds Of Love, Waking The Witch,
Breathing, Lily, The Sensual World, Cloudbusting, Get Out Of My House, Sat
In Your Lap and Wuthering Heights. We are planning to perform in Europe in
July 2001" (thanks Danny)....In an interview in the Radio Times,
impersonator and comedienne Ronni Ancona, best known for her
impression of Posh Spice on Alistair McGowan's BBC TV show, has been asked
about whether there is a song lyric that means something to her. "There
is a line form a Kate Bush song Oh England my Lionheart - 'Peter Pan steals
the kids in Kensington Park', I always remember that line and think about
it, I don't know why". (thanks to Lorraine in St Helens)....Talia Nix
writes: "The instrumental section from "Jig of Life"
was used on BBC2's "The Ad Factor" - a documentary about marketing
Guinness in Ireland."
October 16th: UK Chart
Update: She's back! Kate has 2 albums in this week's official chart.
The Whole Story is at number 62 (with sales of 3,500), whilst Hounds Of Love returns at number 46
(4,500 sales). It is worth noting that Hounds Of Love has now spent a full
year (52 weeks) on the UK album chart! We can expect both CDs to fall from the chart pretty quickly as the stores end their
sales. (thanks again to Matt Hutchinson)
 October 16th:
Singer/songwriter,
actress and TV presenter Toyah Wilcox has been interviewed on the BBC
website in their "Music Memories" feature in which music
fans discuss memorable songs/albums and how they've affected them. In a
soundclip on the site Toyah discusses how she "adores" Kate, even
though she admits she was always described as "a poor man's Kate
Bush" and she says she finds the "pure form of femininity"
that Kate produces in her work to be wonderful. In a soundclip on the site
you can hear how Toyah responded whilst driving to a tape of Moments Of
Pleasure - she was so moved that she actually crashed her car! See and
hear the whole feature here.
(thanks to Dennis Simcott)
October 16th:
Newsbits: This Woman's Work was featured on the second episode of
Alias, a new show by the creator of "Felicity" that airs on Sunday Nights on ABC in the US. The
show is about a young woman who just happens to be a secret double agent for
the CIA and its enemy organization SD-6. Creator J.J. Abrahms is clearly a fan,
This Woman's Work appears on the Felicity soundtrack....Kate fan Ingo Pohl
has taken part in the German quiz show Risiko (see August 8th news).
We are happy to report that Ingo won the quiz, his chosen topic being Kate
of course, taking home 13,000 DM for his troubles. Test yourself on the
questions posed to Ingo over the show's 4 programmes on this separate
page....Bart writes: Guitar One and Rockrgrl magazines have released a special
'Women Who Rock' issue, to celebrate the contributions of 100 of the most essential female
musicians in pop. Kate is of course mentioned, starting with this quote from
Kate:
"Keep laughing and you stand a chance of getting through it alive. I'll
always be tough on myself. But I find strength in being alone, fighting a battle and emerging satisfied that I've done my best. Perhaps that's what
is strange about me. It's music that says it; it says it eloquently
enough." The article continues:"The immensely talented and innovative Kate Bush has enjoyed succes
commensurate with her abilities. Discovered while still in school by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Bush has since developed a reputation as a true
musical original, creating and executing ever more sophisticated work. Her early discs like 1980's Never For Ever, were lauded for their style, but
her later works - 'Running Up That Hill' and 'Cloudbusting' - were stunning in scope, mind-boggling triumphs of vision and craftsmanship. Today, though
the 43-year-old records sporadically, she is still recognized as one of the most uniquely accomplished artists of her
era."
....also, Kate gets mentioned in
the new issue of the Dutch magazine OOR in a special issue on "30
years of pop music according to OOR" on the 1978 pages, and there is
also a small piece on the 1982 pages....Hideaki Nishihara
writes from Japan:"I have a video tape of Japanese TV programme "Tribute
To The Great Song". A Japanese female singer Mimori Yusa
covered Kate's Wuthering Heights, L'Amour Looks Something Like You & Army
Dreamers on the 2nd October. Mimori Yusa is a famous singer in Japan and an ardent Kate Bush
fan
ever since she listened to Wuthering Heights. She explained that Kate has had a strong influence on her life and
music"....
October 8th: Chart update: Thousands
of copies of Kate CDs are currently winging their way out of UK record shops
due to the special offer prices being offered by UK record sellers. The
Whole Story has re-entered the official UK album chart at number 45. Hounds
Of Love (now on sale at HMV for an unbelievable £2.99 - yes, it's the
remastered version with extra tracks) is hovering outside the top 75 at
number 78, and is expected to join The Whole Story in next week's chart -
it's certainly been a while since two of Kate's CDs were in the UK charts.
(thanks again to Matt Hutchinson for the chart lowdown - follow the UK
charts at www.dotmusic.com).
October 5th: Some people who contact
the site wonder when they'll ever see a Kate album in the charts
again. How about next week? Here's some interesting chart news from Matt
Hutchinson: "Keep an eye on this Sunday's album chart, Kate could be about to feature!
The Whole Story is subject to some heavy discounting at the moment (mainly at
HMV). As a result the album has spent the last 6 weeks hanging around the lower end of the top 200 albums chart. But for some reason this week she is selling even more, and looking at today's mid week chart she has moved from number 113 up to number 72. Nearly 1200 copies of the album have been sold so far this week, easily ahead of recent releases by such acts as Geri Halliwell, Hearsay and Tori Amos! Not bad for an album that is about to celebrate
its 15th birthday." (thanks
Matt)
In a related
newsbit: Caroline Corr (of The Corrs) was asked on the Mojo
magazine website: "What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time
favourite album?", she replied: "The one I listen to most is Kate
Bush's The Whole Story".
October 5th:
German Newsbits: (from Andreas Ströbl):
"On Sunday, 30th September the political talkshow "Sabine
Christiansen" (German TV-Station ARD), featured a trailer at the
beginning of the show (which was about how terrorism could be dealt with
after the attack in New York). It repeated the beginning and end of Kate's Under
Ice as very impressive background music - showing pictures of recent
events...also last season the "Hamburger Schauspielhaus" ran a piece
called "Alle Lust will Ewigkeit" which connects love songs from
different centuries, cultures, languages and music styles and featured
Kate's "Wuthering Heights"...the actress did quite well,
singing the song just accompanied by piano and cello and in the end climbing
through the audience and up a balcony, looking for Heathcliff, which was
quite comic." (thanks Andreas)
 September 19th:
The
Kick Inside has just been reviewed! Well, it's actually a re-listen by a
writer to an old favourite in the online US arts review Deep
Magazine. "When I was thirteen, The Kick Inside sounded so
sophisticated. It was an album filled with dramatic and dreamy songs about
love set in Berlin bars and casinos and candlelit dinners and the dark
brooding passion of that classic misanthrope Heathcliff, all mixed up with
the philosophies of Gurdjieff and a Gnostic Jesus and Sufi dervishes and Om
Mani Pad Me Hum and a hippie-dippy new age vibe that somehow didn't offend
me at all...the other day I pulled it out and listened to The Kick Inside
for the first time in years. Within seconds I was slack-jawed and on the
verge of tears. I was back in my youth, back in my moments of longing for
something more, something pure, and something innocent." Read
the full review (which will instantly make you put your copy of the album
back on rotation) here
Japanese visitors will want to know that Sozo in Japan
has updated his Japanese version of this news page (thanks Sozo, find
the site here).
September 14th:
Celebrities
can't seem to stop talking about Kate these days; Tori Amos is
questioned by readers of the latest Attitude magazine and Brian
Chambers of Brixton asked, "How many Kate Bush records do you
own?" to which Tori replied, "Well I owned two, which are of course
Hounds Of Love and the one after, The Sensual World. I really love those two.
Someone gave me The Red Shoes, but then someone stole it ..." (thanks to
Boolbar) and on the 4th September, the UK Channel 4 show "The Big
Breakfast" interviewed film star Nicole Kidman. She discussed her
role in the film musical "Moulin Rouge" and said that she had
insisted on singing all her songs herself. When asked what singers she liked
she replied "Ella and Kate Bush". (thanks to John Lang).
September 14th:
Newsbits: Q magazine's
music TV
channel, where you can call up and request videos, are featuring 'Hounds of
Love' this month...Tracy Story writes that "I have posted the new
interview with Kevin McAlea in the photo section of my Yahoo Clubs
site" If you've been keeping up with Tracy's site you'll know that he's
interviewed Charlie Morgan and Simon Drake. Kevin McAlea's work with Kate over
the years will be well known to Kate fans, read more about Tracy's club in
June 27th news or click here
to visit the site...James Lagner tells us: "I recently authored a web
site, an online version of the book "Cathy" by John Carder
Bush, I think fans who have not seen this sweet tribute from a brother to his
sister, might enjoy viewing it" (find it here)...in
the US the CBS network is using This Woman's Work in the commercial for
the new fall episode of "Jag" (thanks to Chris)...Marinuz
writes: "I just finished reading a book called 'Juno & Juliet'.
It's about an 18 year old identical twin. Juliet, one of the two sisters, who
listens to Kate Bush music. She has a tape of 'Hounds of Love' Juliet got to
know about Kate's music through her brother Paul. In the book a few characters
go see the play of 'Wuthering Heights'. Sounds like the Irish writer, Julian
Gough, must be a Kate Bush fan himself."
 August 25th:
Kate's
music artist fans have been talking about her in recent interviews promoting
their latest albums. Firstly, on Friday Björk
was asked by fan Rudi de Jong in a question and answer session on The Times website:
"Would
you like to work with Kate Bush? I see a lot of parallels between you and
her." She responded "I like Kate Bush very much. Regarding working
with her, I've thought about it in the past but not recently. I guess the
obvious parallel is the fact that she is an artist who wrote and produced a
lot of her own material." Björk
has previously commented that she feels honoured to be compared to "such
a genius". Read all of the Q&A with Björk here.
She was promoting her inspired new album Vespertine. Read more at her
own site here.
Also
Maxwell has been interviewed in the LA Times about his new album "Now".
Here's an excerpt from the interview: Now
includes the studio version of a favorite concert song of yours, Kate Bush's
"This Womans Work", which you also performed on "MTV
Unplugged." What drew you to the tune, which is so quintessentially
female? To me, the perfect song can be sung by anyone from any genre. It
doesn't live and die in that place that it (came from). Also, it was a good
way to let women know that men get it. When we go through (relationship)
things, we do have an emotional factor as well. You mean the emotional
burden she's talking about isn't strictly women's work? Yeah. I think
about my future children to come, or just matrimony, and romance and stuff. I
think a lot of guys carry that energy. They just don't, our society doesnt set
us up to really represent it that much. You can't be sitting around with
your guy friends dreaming about your wedding day? Exactly. So what we do
is we go get music. We say, this song right here is telling you how I feel.
That's kind of what made me want to do music in the first place. It was a way
of saying something that couldn't be spoken. That was some powerful stuff. Did
you ever get a reaction from Kate Bush? She sent me a letter, giving me
props. I was kind of worried, because songs are like people's children. It was
nice to get the nod from the parent, that I did a pretty good job watching the
kid. (thanks to Scott Silzer).
August 25th: Newsbits:
The Right Stuff, distributed by EMI
Music Distribution (USA), released "Hats Off" by Roy
Harper on June 19, 2001, a 14-track set featuring a mix of Roy Harper's
solo work and all-star collaborations. It contains "You (The Game Part
II)" with Kate, originally released in 1980. Roy says of the track
"'You' is remarkable for Kate's
vocal. On the day, she picked the song up by the scruff of the neck and shook
it up for me. It was quite an experience."
For more info, you can
visit www.royharper.co.uk
(click on the "Hats Off" banner - thanks to Michael
Leitz)...more Q Magazine polls (!) Q asks
for votes for the top 5 albums (no Greatest Hits) released during the
magazines life, since September 1986, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes are
thus eligible, email your  Top
5 to q@emap.com
(the magazine's
Women In Rock poll will be published before the end of the year)....a new Kate
site detailing the
"unofficial" & "bootleg" CD's of Kate's music &
interviews from John Harper at www.ran-tan.co.uk.
August 11th:
NEW KATE
BUSH ART GALLERY. I
have put together a gallery of the Kate Bush inspired art of Steven Brown.
Steven has sent me some of his
prints and cards, and I recommend them. Some are based on John Carder Bush's
photographs of Kate as a child (see "Sleeping Kate" left) & are
available to order on the gallery page. Really beautiful creations.The gallery can be found on the
HomeGround Pages (which are hosted as part of this website) here.
 August 8th:
Larry
Adler has died at the age of 87. The famed harmonica player collaborated
with Kate on their 1994 single The Man I Love (from The Glory Of
Gershwin tribute album). Many news reports have mentioned his work with Kate,
BBC TV in the UK played part of the track's monochrome video in it's tea-time
news reports. Read more on his musical legacy at the BBC website here.
August 8th: Newsbits:
Ingo Pohl writes to
tell us that he "took part in a German quiz show
called Risiko, which is broadcast every day in the afternoon on German
television (ZDF). This is a show in which candidates bring along their own
special topics. The shows are pre-recorded and will be aired about 2 or 3
months later, as you might have guessed by now, my topic was Kate Bush. The
four shows will be broadcast on the 4th, 5th, 8th and 9th of October, and they
will feature extracts from the videos of Love and Anger, Cloudbusting, Running
Up That Hill, Rubberband Girl (American version) and This Woman's Work as well
as audio clips of Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, The Sensual World, The Man
With The Child In His Eyes and The Dreaming. (thanks Ingo)....Michael
Maugeri has "stumbled upon the web site called "Am I
Annoying or Not?" and
Kate is #1 on the "least
annoying celebrity" side, with Thom Yorke of Radiohead currently second.
Fans of Kate are encouraged to keep her #1 status up!....Michael Leitz reports
on a triple CD from Dressed 2 Kill records called "Take 3 Girls",
cover versions of tracks by Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman and Kate, the tracks
are the same as those on the tribute CD by Eclypse featuring Jemma Price,
available on www.cdnow.com.
Also Michael tells  us about a (relatively) new (issued late 1999) Kate
song/music book entitled "MIDI Kate Bush" by International
Music Publications Ltd. "The music is usually in the original key, and is
shown as a single melodic line in normal music script, with a chord symbols
and lyrics for each song. The data is GM (General MIDI) standard. Songs
include: Wuthering Heights, Running Up That Hill, Babooshka, Hounds Of Love,
Cloudbusting, Moments Of Pleasure and Rubberband Girl.....Darren Brown heard
Kate's The Man With The Child In His Eyes used to accompany a lingerie
challenge on Channel 4's off-the-wall comedy 'gambling' programme Banzai!....Danny
Diess says "we are having a dance tryout in October for additional people
to perform in the tribute show", if you're interested in Danny's work
read more in previous stories (or the review in a recent HomeGround) and
contact Danny by email....Midge
Ure was featured in a recent Review section of The Guradian
newpaper:
"Another favourite studio album is Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. 'I knew
the engineer who mixed that, and it was done on a desk that wasn't meant to be
used at all, so you have all these strange noises coming up where they
shouldn't to make this fantastic sound. I'd like to think that she's still
making music, but the last time I saw her she was talking about giving it all
up, which would be such a shame." [Please note that Midge doesn't mention when
he last spoke to Kate and that Kate is still working on new material!]
(thanks to Steven Owen)....Herb Leonhard has a couple of new paintings
in his Kate art gallery here
including an interpretation of Under The Ivy (pictured above).
  HomeGround
Glastonbury 2001!! The
2001 gathering takes place the day before Kate's birthday, 3pm, Sunday 29th
July, Glastonbury Tor. No formal events, just come along and meet
other fans. Afterwards at a local pub (probably the Rifleman's Arms). Read
more at the HomeGround
Pages!
July 25th: HomeGround 67 Is Out!
The Summer 2001
edition of HomeGround, the Kate fanzine has now been mailed to subscribers.
Main news points to note include "Kate continues to work on new
material" and Dave Cross
is quoted as saying that the delayed reissues have "taken much longer to
pull together than we had hoped, but we are moving forward and it is likely
that all the CD reissues will see the light of day this year. All the albums
will have extra tracks and improved booklets". HomeGround as usual offers
great articles, artwork, readers letters and more. For more info on this issue
be sure to check out the HomeGround
Pages for details..it's another good one for
the collection.
June 27th: Kate News Now In Japanese!
Our friend
Sozo in Japan has taken on the mammoth task of translating this website's news
pages into his native language. You can see the results of all his hard work here.
(thanks and well done to Sozo!)
New Interviews with Charlie
Morgan & Simon Drake
 June 27th: Tracy Story has this month
carried out interviews with two of Kate's collaborators, Charlie
Morgan who used to play drums with Kate, and Simon Drake the
magician from the Tour of Life. The interviews are nicely done and should be
very interesting to all Kate fans. They are featured as part of Tracy's Kate
Bush forum at Yahoo! Clubs - "Rolling The Ball". Tracy writes:
"The interviews don't really break much new ground, but they are quite
interesting in places. (They were for me anyway...) I'm hoping this will be a
regular feature at the club. The interviews are featured in the "photo"
section of the club. Another new feature in the photo section is an album
called The Players, where there are photos of people who have worked or
collaborated with Kate in someway in the past." Join the club at its
website http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/rollingtheball
June 27th:
Newsbits: James Raftery, songwriter for Rat Wakes Red has been in
touch. He writes; "Kate Bush is my number one influence and has been an
enormous force in my life. I reference her in one of my songs off my album,
"Dizzy on Daddy" called Widows Burn. The lyric goes "Kate woke
the witch, now look where we are." Check out my album if you want, you
can go to my site at http://www.ratwakesred.com......Keith
De Weese writes to recommend the film "Valerie & Her Week Of
Wonders" to all Kate Bush fans. He writes: "If a work of art
exists in a parallel universe with that of Kate Bush's, particularly her early
work, it is that of Jaromil Jires. Not only does 13 year Valerie
(Jaroslava Schallerova) bear a striking resemblance to young Kate Bush, but
the films' themes, motifs, music, etc. are so Bushian that I can't help but
hope that Kate might have seen the film at some point in her life.... Boolbar
writes: "A good chunk of "Feel It" was played during Brookside
last night. Adele the 15 year old is accidently pregnant and she was lying on
her bed listening to Kate whilst wondering what to do when her Mum (a Nolan
Sister I'll have you know) came in. The scene cut just before the
"Synchronise rhythm now" line." (Thanks Boolbar, for more on
Brookie's obsession with Kate see February 26th news)
June 13th: A special TV trailer highlighting the
current storyline in the UK soap Coronation Street featuring the
character Alma Halliwell (who has been battling cervical cancer), features the
opening vocals from Kate's This Woman's Work. The storyline is proving the
biggest ratings winner currently on UK television. (thanks to Jon Bishop and
JPH)
June 10th: Homeground Glastonbury 2001!
Please
see the Homeground Pages
for details of this year's popular fan gathering on a "bloody great hill" in
Somerset...
 June 10th: International covers: Sozo from Japan
tells us of a cover version on This Woman's Work by ACO. It is
featured on her 5th album called "Material". Read more at Sozo's page.
Loek from The Netherlands writes: On his album De Tuin (The Garden) Dutch singer
Maarten Mourik covers Kate's Deeper Understanding. I didn't hear it on CD yet, but I saw him performing this
song during one of his concerts and it was breathtaking, because he combines it with
sign-language....Information about it can be found at www.maartenmourik.nl
(thanks to Sozo and Loek)
May 28th: The
closing date for entries in the Q Magazine 100
Greatest Women In Music poll (see May 2nd 2001 news) has been extended to
mid-June by the magazine, so I'd get any last minute nominations in before
then if I were you. The email address to send entries to is: q@emap.com...a
website verifying the truth or falsehood of so-called "urban
legends" mentions Kate's unusual UK 12" release of The Sensual
World in the section on double-grooved pressings, see www.snopes.com....the
book "Rock Confidential", (compiled) by Coral Amende,
which is really a scrapbook of quotes, facts, trivia and the like associated
with rock/pop stars includes one tongue-in-cheek quote from Kate which
headlines the "Performing Rites" chapter. "Whenever I see the
news, it's about the same depressing things - wars, hostages, and people's
arms hanging off with all the tendons hanging out, you know. So I tend not to
watch it much. I prefer to go and see a movie or something where it's all done
much more poetically. People getting their heads blown off in slow motion,
very beautifully". (thanks
to David McInnes for all the above items)
May 26th:  The
June edition of Record Collector magazine features a six page article
by James Blandford on the history of the "Early Years" and
"Cathy Demos" bootleg recordings which have surfaced since 1989. A
complete listing of all known demos is given. Also there is a page long
article by the same writer musing on Kate's current musical activities. He
writes: "And while we await the highly
anticipated new studio album there have been whispers for some time now that
EMI are in the process of remastering Kate's back catalogue for a series of
reissues spanning a year. And, with the prospect of previously unreleased
tracks on the horizon, Kate Bush fans can relax a little, finally having
something concrete to look forward to. It has been a long and winding road,
but we're still behind her." See also www.recordcollectormag.com
(thanks to Michael Leitz and Matthew Hutchinson)
May 26th:
In the just published interview with
Karen Bliss on Rolling Stone magazine's website, Fran Healy, lead
singer of Travis is commenting on what he likes about working with
ex-Katydids singer Susie Hug: "...Healy describes Hug's material
as very "feminine," and says it is that quality that he most
admires. "Joni Mitchell writes brilliantly and is very feminine," he
says. "I can't say I know women very well because you can't read people's
minds, but it appears to me that there are very few female artists who are
very successful at expressing themselves in that way. There's Joni, there's
Kate Bush. There's a few, but I think guys are better at bullshitting
basically." (thanks to Kyla for the news)
May 26th:
Michael Leitz writes: The Whole
Story, re-released on the Simply Vinyl Label, has taken the place
of Hounds Of Love as a best seller (see Feb 15th, 2001 news) and is now being
featured on the label's homepage http://www.simplyvinyl.com
"This sterling compilation of Kate Bush's greatest hits has all the
ingredients for a wonderful package filled to the brim with great music."
(thanks Michael)
May 19th: 
This website is being featured as one of BBC Online's three music website
picks of the week. Thanks to Adam Slade at the BBC for letting me know, you can
view the music listing by clicking the logo above and selecting
"Entertainment" and then "Music"...other newsbit: Bart
writes: "Kate is 42nd (down from 37 last year) in Record Collector's 2001
top 500 Collectable Artists (May edition of Record Collector)...
 May 2nd: Q Magazine
has announced that it is releasing a special issue on the 100
Greatest Women In Music. Readers are asked to submit their Top 5
nominations and state why you think your choices stand out above the rest of
the competition. The voting details are listed in the June (Travis cover)
edition of Q. The email address to send your votes to is: q@emap.com
Entries must be received by mid-June...elsewhere in this issue Q also
reviewed the new REM album 'Reveal' and describe one track thus:
"Without a doubt, Saturn Return will be a highlight for most
people. It's in the musical neighbourhood of Nightswimming and Perfect Circle,
but the haunting piano line may also remind you of early Kate Bush." (5
stars for the album). They go on to review singer/songwriter Carina Round
(album "The First Blood Mystery") as "...like a darker,
more sinuous Kate Bush..." (thanks to Ben Bishop & Boolbar)
May 2nd:
Boolbar writes: "Last
night on BBC1 just before the News At 10, they had a few minutes to spare in
the schedule so they stuck a 5 minute program about the Top Of The Pops
albums that used to be around in the 70s (older UK people should remember
those leggy models that adorned each cover). They mentioned that all the
tracks on these albums were recorded with session musicians and
showed a clip from the Wuthering Heights video followed by someone saying how
completely unlike Kate the TOTP album version of Wuthering Heights was. They
played a bit of the TOTP version saying that it sounds more like Olive Oyl
from Popeye." (thanks Boolbar)
 April 29th: Newsbits: The recent issue of "Stereo",
one of the leading German magazines that deals with testing audio equipment
and reviewing music, comes with an extra booklet called "Stereo CD Guide:
100 Audiophile Pop, Jazz and Classic CDs" and features Kate's The Whole
Story, "...this compilation of Kate Bush's most important hits and tracks
is impressive because of great variety and musical quality. And its sound
quality is smashing too...". (thanks to Michael Leitz)...Kate
was voted No. 45 in the 100 Best Voices Of
The Century by BBC Radio2 in a programme presented by Paul Gambicini over
Easter. Frank Sinatra topped the poll. Read the full results here
(thanks to Jane Blackley, John Lang and Simon O'Donovan)....Carlton
Home Entertainment will re-release "The Secret Policeman's Third Ball"
VHS video on June 11th (update: video release now
brought forward to May 21st), (cat# 3037051653). The video has been out of print in
Europe for a long time. It features Kate's 1987 live performance of Running
Up That Hill with David Gilmour on guitar. (thanks to Michael
Leitz)....fan reaction to Channel 4's "Pop Princesses" programme
(see April 10th news) has been largely unfavourable. Kate was listed at number
4 in the Top Ten chart and comments about her veered wildly from "weird
white witch" and "jug-eared" (!) to "the one great English
female singer-songwriter". You can download a clip here.
Also, as a result of the show, the UK magazine What's On TV had an
article "Where Did Kate Go?". You can see a scan of the article by
Chris Twomey (no relation/connection to me) here....John
Lang sends a link to a CD by the late guitarist Alan Murphy here.
April 15th: Some newsbits: Gered Mankowitz, the famous
rock photographer is to exhibit some of his works around the UK in the near
future (no dates yet sorry). It will feature Kate photographs from the
Lionheart cover (thanks to Claire)...two unauthorised Kate
Bush remixes on Napster Moments
of Pleasure (Speedbliss
mix) and also Candle In The Wind (Speedbliss mix)...a
new cover version of "Don't Give Up" by the Canadian band Saga
on their brand new CD single "Money Talks/Don't Give Up". You can
listen to a 30 sec long MP3 at the record label's website here.
Alannah Myles is doing Kate's vocal part. (thanks to Michael Leitz)
April 10th:
Thanks to everyone who's reminded me to tell you that Kate
will be featured in next Saturday night's "Top Ten Pop
Princesses" programme on Channel 4 in the UK. The popular series has
featured everyone from the Top Ten "one hit wonders" to the Top Ten
"electronica" acts. The show will be presented by Cerys Matthews (of
Welsh group Catatonia) and pop singer Betty Boo. It promises to "take a
look at pop's female icons" and will also feature Kim Wilde, Sade,
Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue and Suzi Quatro among others. Don't expect any
new interview material from Kate, but there may be some clips of the rarer
variety. It airs at 10.10pm on Saturday 14th April. (thanks to Phillip Lau,
Big Stripey Brian, Tracy Story, Patricia Campbell, Jeanette Payne, Alex
McLauchlin, Cheryl Simon, Jon Bishop...phew!)
March 22nd:
The major (and award winning) online Salon magazine
has a new feature on Kate in their "People" section. Read the
article here.
(thanks to Tom Dunning)
March 17th:
Last night Comic Relief held it's telethon of
excellent comedy on BBC 1 television in the UK. I was reminded of Kate's
involvement with the charity over the years on hearing her voice from Don't
Give Up used in a heartbreaking sequence on the women of Rwanda. I can't
emphasise enough how worthy a cause this is, so please consider giving a
donation at http://www.comicrelief.com
and you can also view the clip of Alan Partridge performing his hilarious live Kate
Bush medley! Jon Bishop adds: "Also on Comic relief night, after
midnight they played the top 50 comic relief moments including Do Bears (well
part of it), then directly after that they played Alan Partridge's Kate
medley." (thanks Jon)
 March 17th: David Sheasby sends in his report on Kate's inclusion in
the new book from Q magazine: "I've just been to my local newsagent and
found a special limited-edition 'Collectors Special' glossy paperback by 'Q'
magazine called  "The 100 Best Record Covers of All Time",
which features Never for Ever on pages 110-111. The article includes a
photograph of the Never For Ever front cover, some extracted artwork
(black bat, butterfly on bleeding rose...) and a summary of the various scary
creatures issuing from Kate as she stands on the hill. Nick Price, the artist,
is quoted as saying, "She gave me a specific brief. Light and dark
creatures coming out from under her skirt. I think the meaning is unequivocal,
but I did ask her at the time. She just gave a big grin." Elsewhere Kate
has commented on the mixture of optimism (as personified by her white swan
appearance on the record label) and despair (represented by the Kate as black
bat) which is part of music and the creative process. On a different level
entirely, it was therefore amusing to read of her dilemma when choosing a name
for the album, after the artwork had been completed: "We had to be
careful," she says. "My skirt was blowing about but there couldn't
be anything about wind in the title or that would make the album one big
fart." (big thanks to David, also thanks to Orla Murphy)
March 17th: Newsbits:
American R&B singer Maxwell,
who has been known as a Kate admirer and has a cover of This Woman's Work in
his "Unplugged" album, is going to release a new studio album
(called "Now") with a studio version of TWW in May (thanks to Sozo)....Greg Gilligan writes to tell us about "A Band Called
bUrt" reviewed as follows at http://www.electromancer.com/
"With some songs, you have to listen twice to know if you like them.
That's always struck me as strange, but there are some songs that just grab
you from the first few notes. "Home" is one such piece.
"Home" could've been the lost track on album The Hounds of
Love" (any Kate Bush fans out there)? This track has the slick yet
understated/subtle groove that characterized an era when some of the best pop
songs were made. Period. The combination of excellent production values,
really wonderful vocals, and an engaging synthesizer line that will follow you
around like the vision of a girl that you just can't shake. This a must
listen--for KB fans and non-fans alike." Greg says Mark Wheadon from the
band credits Kate as an influence....(thanks to Greg and Sozo)
February 26th: Kate on Brookie! Colin Dowd from Belfast writes: "On
Tuesday 13th February, Channel 4's (UK) soap opera "Brookside"
featured a character, named Adele, and you could clearly see a collection of
Kate Bush posters on her bedroom wall. The only surprising thing is that Adele
is only supposed to be about 18 yrs old, so it is debatable if she would
really have known much about Kate. The actress seen in the photos plays her
mother, Diane. I reckon the TV programme's Props Department must have been
asked to supply some posters for a teenager's bedroom and could only find ones
that had been lying around for about 20 years!!!" (Seán says:
"Adele" has a more (ahem!) recent Rubberband Girl poster too...so
she's obviously just a really big fan!..click on the photos for the full sized
images. Many thanks to Colin for his report and the pictures.)
February 15th:
Despite being told in advance I ommited to tell you all
that a Kate clip was to be featured on Top Of The Pops 2 on Wednesday 14th for
Valentines Day. As it turns out it's being repeated on Saturday 17th February
at 5.35pm on BBC2. You can watch Kate's 1986 performance of Hounds Of Love
from the show. The clip seems to have generated some "where is she
now?" questions from viewers and I'd like to welcome several new visitors
who were curious enough to find this site as a result! (Thanks to Bart, Talia
Nix, Jane Blackley and Derek)
February 15th:
Michael Leitz writes: "Hounds
Of Love, recently re-released on the "Simply Vinyl" label, is
now being listed among their "best sellers" and featured on their
indexpage www.simplyvinyl.com
(thanks Michael)
EMI have not scheduled album
for this year...
February 15th:
In a recent post to the discussion group love-hounds,
Peter-Fitzgerald Morris of HomeGround fanzine has passed on the latest
confirmed update from EMI: "Last year, as we reported in the last
HomeGround, EMI were looking hopefully at this Autumn. Now we're in this year
it don't look so realistic. To get a release even in late Autumn would mean
the album would have to be finished by June-July at the very latest, that's
5-6 months away. Unfortunately but realistically it looks like next year at
the earliest, Summer/Autumn 2002. I wish it were otherwise, and I would
happily like to be proved wrong, but Kate is working on this album in her own
time in her own way. We all know what that means. EMI are still hoping to get
the rest of the reissues (plus extra tracks) out this year...we pass on what
we hear, EMI's hopes and our guesses. I doubt if even Kate has any real idea
of when the album will be finished and released. Hopes and guesses are all we
have. What we know for sure, because Dave Cross has just confirmed it with
EMI, is that they have not scheduled a Kate album for this year." (thanks
as ever to Peter, Krys and Dave at HomeGround for keeping us as up-to-date as
they can!)
Website News:
Well, after
the above news we'll focus on dem reissues for now. Sending big warm wishes to
Kate as she crafts and shapes her new sounds. Expect some interesting new
features to coincide with the resissue CDs whenever they happen. I still
intend to get my long-delayed section up and running focusing on the fantastic
artists who've worked and collaborated with Kate, and very soon I'll be
putting up a really good gallery of Kate-related art which I think you'll
like. The site's been listed in the new UK "It's On The Net"
magazine, so thanks to them for an unexpected boost! (Thought I'd mention that
the Hello
Earth site have an interesting listing of every single Kate
Bush track there is...do you have them all?!!...I know I don't!)
January 28th:
Newsbits: Sozo has contacted the site to
let us know that he has a listing of Kate-related news from Japan at
his site here...Mark
on the guestbook tells us that in a New Years message to her fans Chrissie
Hynde says that she is listening to a lot of Kate Bush and Pearl Jam, but
that they won't be influencing her new record...Sky Movies used Wow
recently in the trailer to their screening of Return to Oz (thanks to Jon
Bishop)...Ofer Shinar from Israel writes:"Momus, the not so famous
but very intelligent alternative musician, is now working on an album
inspired, among other things, by Kate. Here's what he writes on his website:
"The theme for this record is 'Kahimi goes Prog'. I have attempted to
make a medieval-flavoured Prog Pop sound. My models are songs like 'Bohemian
Rhapsody' by Queen and 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush." Read more about
Momus here
 January 28th: Herb Leonhard is exhibiting some of his Kate
Bush-inspired art (such as "The Sensual World", pictured) at his
website here.
UPDATE:
Herb now has an excellent new gallery of oil paintings based on each song of The
Ninth Wave cycle. (Which reminds me, a great new gallery of paintings will soon be debuting on
the HomeGround Pages, watch this space).
 January 5th: Thanks to everyone who's emailed to let me know that Channel
4 in the UK will be screening a programme presented by Graham Norton of
the top 100 singles of all time, the TV trailer of which features Kate in the
elusive "red dress" version of Wuthering Heights...which
may well be shown on the night...VCRs set for stun! It will be shown at 8pm on
Saturday 6th January. Update: Kate's track
was voted in at number 49 out of a possible 900 singles, Michael Leitz has a
low quality video download of the Kate segment of the show here
(1min 50 secs, heavily compressed, approx 500kb). (Thanks to Darren Brown, Talia Nix, Simon O'Donovan and Big Stripey Brian
in Dublin)
January 1st:
Happy New Year! Thought I'd kick off what should be an
interesting year for Kate fans with some newsbits:...as well as The
Whole Story being released Simply Vinyl are also reissuing their 180g
deluxe vinyl pressing of Hounds Of Love, read more here...Dale
Sherman let me know that he has written a new book entitled 20th Century
Rock & Roll: Women In Rock (ISBN
1-896522-29-7), the book, out on the 10th January, features a well-researched
essay on Kate's career among over 90 other entries...Michael Leitz has
unearthed a previously unknown version of James And The Cold Gun by a
Japanese band called Pageant. Apparently, it's an old track from the 80's, but
the album it's on has been re-released, read more here
(Gaffaweb
is a great resource for looking up versions of Kate's songs by other artists)...DVD
Express are still listing an unconfirmed imminent release of
The Line, The Cross & The Curve on the format...VH1 (UK) will be screening
the little-seen video of The Man I Love (Kate & Larry Adler) on
Sunday 28th Jan @ 17.00 GMT...Danny Diess got a great reaction to his
performance of Get Out Of My House (see below and current HomeGround), Danny
is seeking sponsorship to help him to put on his 75 minute show "The
Song Of Solomon" based around 13 of Kate's songs, using costume,
dance and mime and very simple sets, email him here...(newsbit
thanks to Michael Leitz, Danny Diess, Dale Sherman, Collin Kelley and John
Harper)
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