Even More Newsbits!!: Michael Leitz has outdone himself this month, providing all of the following links and news: British comedienne Jo Brand did an interview for www.thisislondon.co.uk and was asked what song she associated with London: Q: “Name a song that you associate with London.” A: “‘Oh England, My Lionheart’ by Kate Bush, which has lyrics about Kensington Park, Peter Pan and ravens at the Tower of London.” Rock’s Backpages have a feature called “Girl Unafraid: Kate Bush 1978” with an introduction and three interviews by Harry Doherty that originally appeared in Melody Maker ’78, here. The BBC have a list with Kate’s appearances on TOTP (live appearances and showing of a video) here. Two of them you can watch by going to the “TOTP Video Gallery” (Wow March ’79 and HOL ’86) here. In the category “Rock And Pop Features 1978”, you’ll find an audio clip: “Wuthering Heights: Kate Bush talks about the problems of having a #1 with her first single “Wuthering Heights”, and the marketing of her sexual image. Suprisingly,”Wuthering Heights” was the first UK # 1 single written and performed by a woman. Kate also had further hits this year, with “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” and “Hammer Horror”. Listen to the clip here.  The Independent has an article about the music industry and the influence of the major labels on the business. Kate is also mentioned here.

Oliver on the guestbook reckons it may be worth checking out the second part of the BBC Radio 2 documentary on Peter Gabriel…it will look at his collaborations with other artists, so there will be a mention of Kate (Saturday 18th May, 20.00-21.00)….The Top 100 Favourite Hit Singles of all time, as voted for in a poll conducted by the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles places Kate at number 40 with Wuthering Heights, 31,000 people voted, see here. (Thanks to Michael Leitz, Stewart)…Charlie on the guestbook told us that on May 8th “There Liz Pearson as pictured in the 1978 tour programmewas a half page article in the Brighton Argus today about Liz Pearson, who toured with Kate as one of her two backing singers. Liz said: “Touring with Kate Bush was a great experience. She did her own backing vocals in the recording studios for songs such as Wuthering Heights but, of course, when she went on tour singing live she needed two singers with her on stage”. The article is illustrated with a nice picture of Kate, and one of Liz Pearson, who is now runnning opera workshops for children in the Arun District.” (thanks Charlie)…Sozo Yamamoto in Japan has succeeded in getting the clip of Kate on the Tokyo Song Contestfrom 1979 re-broadcast. He says: “The clip is a few seconds shorter than the original broadcast, circulating on the Kate-Topia tape, but it is far better in quality (digital broadcast). The announcers talk around the clip was rather dull, about Kate’s high notes and ‘strange’ dance. Some viewers, including myself, recorded the program in D-VHS. So, someday, all of us have a chance of seeing the clip.” (thanks Sozo)…Eddie in The Netherlands writes about a recent Dutch TV piece on 1978 on “Typisch 70“: “Wuthering Heights was shown (the red dress-clip in the forest). Unfortunately, it was laced with interviews of local dutch celebrities speaking of their memories of Kate, comments about her hair, eyes, strange dancing and the fact that her music was so different at the time.” (thanks also to Brigitte Breemerkamp for letting me know)…Mike has written about the Heather Nova quote (see April 22nd news): “it was an interview I conducted for the Leicester University student newspaper, “The Ripple” backstage at Manchester’s Hop ‘n’ Grape during Heather’s “South” tour.”