Belfast
born Brian Kennedy is one of the most successful Irish
singer-songwriters working today. At the time of this interview his last
album was A Better Man (1996) which shot straight to the top of the
Irish charts and spawned three hit singles, garnering huge airplay. As
we spoke he was on the brink of releasing Now That I Know What I Want,
which has since also hit Number One. Brian is well known for performing
with Van Morrison many times, both live and in the studio, in 1998
touring with Van, Bob Dylan & Joni Mitchell in the USA. I met up
with Brian at Belgo's restaurant in Dublin's Temple Bar area where he
was there that day to perform a live set for a John Rocha fashion show
in aid of the Dublin AIDS Alliance. Brian managed to find time after his
sound check and before he was due to perform to give his impressions of
what Kate Bush's music has meant to him and how he eventually came to
meet her. I started by asking him about whether, as some Kate Bush fans
had wondered, there was some link between Brian's well-known song
"Captured" from his debut album and Kate Bush, because of what
he had said in a Hot Press interview about hearing "The Man With
The Child In His Eyes" for the first time...
Brian Kennedy:
Well, the link would be that I went to see the Trio Bulgarka sing in the
Hackney Empire in London, and I just was so blown away. And I was lucky
enough that the person I was with, her friends were connected with the
promoters and they were having a party for the Trio Bulgarka back at
their house. I went to that and to thank everybody for the party the
Trio Bulgarka sang in the garden, which was just the most extraordinary
thing. So the first verse of Captured goes "Oh I just heard a
melody, and it almost made me cry"...that’s about them. And then
I went onto "That’s not all, there’s something else.." all
that whole kind of lyrical thing. Then the second verse talks about
"You spoke to me with another tongue, but I understood
alright" and that was because I was talking to Yanka Rupkhina,
who’s the featured singer, but she doesn’t have a word of English
and I don’t have a word of Bulgarian, but we understood each
other. And then the second time I went to see them at the Barbican I
bumped into Kate Bush, I saw her across the hallway and went over to say
hello. And she was very friendly, a bit shy, but very friendly, and I
just said "Look I just wanted to say hello I’m a big fan".
And that was that.
ST: Was this
before you had sent her your album?
BK: Way before.
And I just asked her what was happening with her record, you know, and
she gave a kind of laugh and said "ah well...it’ll come out
whenever it’s ready", and I certainly know what that feeling is
like! So, then I went on and made my record, the first record (The Great
War Of Words), and dutifully sent it off to her assistant, who was
called Vivian I think at the time. And that was it. I went on tour with
Suzanne Vega around America for two months, and this was me starting the
promotion of the first album. When I came back after having been away
there was a pile of mail and on the top was this funny wee card that had
this lovely kind of very erratic pen...y’know ...big strokes, and it
said Brian "Wennedy"!.
ST: (Laughing)
BK: And I was
kind of laughing, did exactly that, "Wennedy?", what’s
that?! So I opened the card and it was kind of slightly lavender
fountain pen ink.
ST: Wow.
BK: And, I was
reading it and it was saying some very complimentary things about my
record and if I ever fancied a cup of tea give us a ring, and the number
was in the top right hand corner. And I was thinking, hmm, who’s this
from? And it looked a bit like kind of "Wale...Blush" or
something, y’know "Wate..." something. And I was looking at
the envelope and I’d seen the way the K had been written...for
Kennedy...and I thought, oh that’s the way they write their K’s,
it’s very loose, so that’s "Kate". Okay...oh
goodness....it’s Kate Bush! So, I got very excited and all that and a
few days later I gave her a ring, when I’d calmed down enough, and
called her up and left a message on her machine, and she called me back
a day later and that was very nice, and I went to her house for dinner
in South London. And that was fantastic, she just kind of opened the
door...no shoes and socks, and welcomed me in. And Del Palmer was there
and Stuart Elliott the drummer was there also. And he left, and that
night we went to a Chinese restaurant, and I had...
ST: We’re
getting the menu as well! (Laughs)
BK: ....I had
crispy seaweed for the first time in my life, I’ll never forget it.
ST: Great
BK: Because she
suggested it, she said it was a really good thing.
ST: This week
you’ve been doing a radio show on RTE...
BK: Yes.
ST: Which is
great.
BK: Thank you.
ST: Very
good...
BK: Thank
you...one more night left tonight.
ST: Tonight as
well?
BK: Mmm hmm
ST: Great,
I’ll listen in...
BK: Actually
you should listen in tonight, there’s some nice things on...
ST: Cool, and
you played Maxwell’s version of This Woman’s Work.
BK: Yes.
ST: A great
version.
BK: Which I
love, yeah...
ST: And I think
This Woman’s Work now is probably her best known song in America,
because it’s been used in all sorts of TV programmes...
BK: Oh really
is that true? Wow..
ST: It’s a
lot more popular than people even realise, y’know, ‘cos it didn’t
chart hugely here.
BK: No, I
know....
ST: But it’s
really well known...
BK: One of my
best friends had a baby the week that that came out, that single, and so
I couldn’t think what to get her, so I gave her a really lovely
version of the This Woman’s Work....
ST: Oh great
BK: ....the
Kate Bush single, ‘cos it was about birth and all that.
ST: Yeah, I was
just thinking, what I was gonna ask you was have you ever been tempted
to record a Kate Bush song?
BK: Many times.
And in fact I talked with Kate Bush about it because we were going
to...she was going to produce some of my second record.
ST: Wow! No
Way!
BK: I know,
it’s amazing ‘cos...
ST: This is
when...‘95?
BK: 1990 was
when I met her...and then I did the Sweetmouth record (Goodbye To
Songtown), so I’d made those two records, so I met her, let’s see,
when did I meet her properly? ‘92 probably. Then I think that my
record company had sent her "Town"...that song
"Town" as a possible reissue, y’know if she would consider
re-mixing it or recording it or re-recording, something. So she
said she was really keen..and would be very interested to get involved
in something. So of course I was beside myself with excitement...but my
record deal fell apart, so, things got a bit tricky...and then once she
started working on her new record she....I suppose she’s like
everybody else, you just concentrate on what you’re doing and that’s
it. So the time kind of fell apart, and I took off travelling by myself
around America.
ST: And you met
Jeff Buckley.
BK: I sang with
Jeff Buckley on that trip, that’s true. How did you know that?!
(smiles)
ST: You
mentioned it once in an interview...
BK: Did I.
ST: I was just
thinking, how, y’know, I was obviously very jealous that you’d met
Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush etc... and I just thought, God he’s met Jeff
Buckley as well...and...obviously a tragic story there...
BK:
Really tragic story. I remember being in New York, and had taken the
train from New Orleans and gradually crawled around right to New York.
For a couple of purposes. I wanted to see the Matisse exhibition that
was on there in it’s full splendour. And I went along to Sin È with a
tape. My friend Catherine Owens, said to me, y’know you should check
out Sin È, that’s where people go and play, especially Irish people.
So I went down there and I was very surprised that they had heard of me,
and they knew my first record, ‘cos this is New York we’re talking
about. So they very graciously gave me a couple of gigs, and they said
look come tonight, there’s somebody playing tonight. So I went along
that night and it was Jeff Buckley.....and he had this hilarious
character called Tree Man..literally a man bound with twigs (mimes
this)...
ST: (Laughing)
BK: ...and I
noticed on his "Live At Sin È" EP he thanks Tree Man on that,
and I met that man....
ST: And of
course he does that wonderful Van Morrison song on that.
BK: Yeah!
"The Way Young Lovers Do". And he was really friendly, I just
got introduced to him, my friend Catherine said, "oh he’s Tim
Buckley’s son" and I had heard of Tim Buckley, and I’d often
been compared to him. So it registered and I was curious. And we just
started talking, saying hello, and he was by the piano and we sang a
bit...he was starting to sing bits of "You Send Me". We were
talking about songs we liked and I was like "Oh I love Sam Cooke,
do you know You Send Me?". So we did a bit of that together. And
his girlfriend at the time was saying "Oh God you should get him to
sing on your record" and all this, and he hadn’t yet made
"Grace". This was just before "Grace" was made. And
so he was really friendly....just a really straight ahead, kind of very
friendly, very handsome fella y’know.
ST: You must
have been...it must have been...how did you feel when you heard that he
had died?
BK: I
was..well...I was devastated..because I mean, what a loss on every
level. On every single level.
ST:
Unbelievable.....
BK: And I’ll
tell you who told me, Ron Sexsmith told me.
ST: Oh
wow...really?
BK: Yeah...and
we were at a festival.
ST: He
supported you a few times...
BK: He was my
fantastic special guest one time. A couple of times....but we were at a
big outdoor festival and he wanted to meet Van and I was going to
introduce him to Van, ‘cos I was doing a set with him that night, and
he said "God it’s terrible about Jeff Buckley isn’t it?",
and I thought he was going to say something like, y’know his
record’s gone back again or y’know, something. And I was going
"Well what’s that?" So he told me he drowned and everything.
I mean I wouldn’t say I knew Jeff Buckley, I met him, I sang with him
once, certainly not knowing him. But even then I was really
disturbed....all day, all the next day....
ST: Shocked...
BK: And you
just didn’t know what to do....y’know...amazing.
Belfast
born Brian Kennedy is one of the most successful Irish
singer-songwriters working today. At the time of this interview his last
album was A Better Man (1996) which shot straight to the top of the
Irish charts and spawned three hit singles, garnering huge airplay. As
we spoke he was on the brink of releasing Now That I Know What I Want,
which has since also hit Number One. Brian is well known for performing
with Van Morrison many times, both live and in the studio, in 1998
touring with Van, Bob Dylan & Joni Mitchell in the USA. I met up
with Brian at Belgo's restaurant in Dublin's Temple Bar area where he
was there that day to perform a live set for a John Rocha fashion show
in aid of the Dublin AIDS Alliance. Brian managed to find time after his
sound check and before he was due to perform to give his impressions of
what Kate Bush's music has meant to him and how he eventually came to
meet her. I started by asking him about whether, as some Kate Bush fans
had wondered, there was some link between Brian's well-known song
"Captured" from his debut album and Kate Bush, because of what
he had said in a Hot Press interview about hearing "The Man With
The Child In His Eyes" for the first time...
BK:
Really tragic story. I remember being in New York, and had taken the
train from New Orleans and gradually crawled around right to New York.
For a couple of purposes. I wanted to see the Matisse exhibition that
was on there in it’s full splendour. And I went along to Sin È with a
tape. My friend Catherine Owens, said to me, y’know you should check
out Sin È, that’s where people go and play, especially Irish people.
So I went down there and I was very surprised that they had heard of me,
and they knew my first record, ‘cos this is New York we’re talking
about. So they very graciously gave me a couple of gigs, and they said
look come tonight, there’s somebody playing tonight. So I went along
that night and it was Jeff Buckley.....and he had this hilarious
character called Tree Man..literally a man bound with twigs (mimes
this)...