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Wild Man – No physical single

Despite what you may have heard on the radio, we have had confirmation from Fish People that there will not be a physical single release for Wild Man. You can however download it from all the usual places. See here

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44 Comments

  1. The Red Bruce

    That is very sad. Understandable in some ways, but it many others not. A nice 7″ available only from Fish People would have been no big deal for them, or am I wrong. Heck, unknown punk bands managed to do that. But anyhow, that is her decision and she has her reasons for it.

    • Yes – we would have loved a physical single. Certainly agree with NME who thought this was the strongest single release for some time.

      • Karen Newcombe

        That IS sad…even if they did a small run for the fans it would be nice – the passing of an era, I guess it was inevitable.

  2. Aww, I know it’s a sign of the times, but I love having those picture disks. With more than an hours’ worth of music, I won’t complain about not getting a B-Side but I kind of miss those kooky remixes. A 12 minute 12 inch of Wild Man boggle the mind 🙂

  3. giulio

    O no… I feel so very disappointed…
    So many of us still love physical records, and this time I really believed
    I could get a cd + vinyl copy of the wonderful ‘Wild Man’.
    I can’t believe we can only download it …
    Downloading is so cold and it really doesn’t do justice to Kate Bush Music…
    I feel very sorry 🙁

  4. edov

    ah c’mon people, times changes all the time… you can listen to the song anyway!
    btw, glad I don’t have to pay for ugly remixes or bad B-sides. They’re B side for a reason.
    Love the 7 minutes version of Wild Man, still growing on me.

  5. Why aren’t just grateful you live in a country where you can download the song!?

  6. emil mcmahon

    I believe that many of Kate’s fans would love the idea of a cd single or even better a 7″ vinyl, but it isn’t to be.. so lets just rejoice in the fact that there are two versions of Wild man to whet our appetite. a video would be great tho!!!

  7. Harrison Shinn

    …and as usual, no love for fans in the U.S.! It’s not even available on the U.S. iTunes!

  8. Robin Gow

    I guess this a practical decision and the costs of producing a physical release (CD or vinyl) are probably considered not to be viable.
    This is such a shame, however. There is nothing quite like holding a proper, solid, physical product in your hands – complete with artwork and possibly even a B-side or alternative version of the song…
    I remember Kate once in an interview recalling the thrill of racing to the shops on the day a David Bowie album was released… excitedly holding it in her hands after the never-ending, frustratingly long wait… and just looking at it for hours and hours…
    I’m sure Kate would have considered a physical release for the “Wild Man” single and, I guess, probably reluctantly decided it just wasn’t feasible! Shame, tho! 🙁
    What does make up for this, however, will be the album release itself. It looks as though “50 Words For Snow” will again feature a fantastic artwork ‘book’ that has accompanied Kate’s recent album releases.
    Roll on November!!!

  9. Very disappointed that the Fish People label are not releasing the single on cd. Seemingly they can give cd-r singles away to the media but can’t be bothered to make available cds to the fans who are willinging prepared to pay for them? But more worryingly, is this the thin end of the wedge? Its the single now but how long will it be before we’ll only be able to access the album by having it shoved down the telephone line? 🙁

  10. James

    If Kate wanted it to be released on 7″/12″ or on CD it would happen, as the costs of producing a physical release have nothing to do with it.

    I’d suggest she had no interest in Wild Man being released at all, as it’s just a track of the new album. The download is just marketing to say, ‘hey – new record out soon – here’s a taste if you want.’ If you need proof otherwise, the ‘artwork’ says it all.

    The ‘idea’ of what a pop-single is may still mean alot to Kate, but not for the work she has been doing recently.

    • I agree James, I don’t think the financial side has anything to do with her decision either. After all, Kate’s a multi-millionairess so she’s not likely to be bankrupt and destitute by Christmas just because she released Wild Man on cd.

      Judging Wild Man as a marketing advert for the 50 Words Of Snow album to follow then I think Kate has shot herself in the foot again. There is no question in my mind that had Wild Man been made available on cd and vinyl then sales would have been greater. Greater sales = higher chart position. Higher chart position = more radio plays. More radio plays = generates more interest. More interest = more sales etc etc…..and not just for the album but for the single itself. Its the ‘rolling a snowball down the mountain’ effect.

      Rihanna might be able to have a #1 single from MP3 downloads only but Kate isn’t Rihanna. Kate’s market (fan-base) is a lot older and needs to be targeted and treated differently.

      • Nanette

        Rob B says: “After all, Kate’s a multi-millionairess so she’s not likely to be bankrupt and destitute by Christmas just because she released Wild Man on cd.”
        No, she wouldn’t be, but her fledgling record label might. Company and private accounts are kept separate if you want to stay solvent and in business.

        • sinkers

          If Kate is so worried about finances why did she spend all that money on a video for Deeper Understanding and STILL not release it as a physical single.

          She is seemingly happy for her singles to limp to #85 or wherever it peaked?

          I thought that might have persuaded her that ‘download only’ is not the way to go. But clearly not.

          Also these seemingly independent ‘fledgling’ ‘record labels’ often end up being vanity projects supported by mainstream distribution and might….

  11. edov

    oh RobB, don’t be so sad, life’s just too beautiful 🙂 We don’t drive horse’s an carriages anymore anymore and they are nice to see as well! BTW, telephones will soon be done too! There will always be something else, live it up.

  12. Perhaps the second single will be physically releases =^.*=

    • I’m sure Kate will release her next single as a physical release……..if only just to shut all the moaners like me up. lol

      • 🙂 lets hope she does…. but not, seriously. The “WM is the FIRST single…” message is in the still vid and the press…. so I am hoping and counting on a second single. I am betting it will be Snowflake (no particular reason)

    • sinkers

      You mean the way the second single from Aerial was?

  13. Rob, the telephone is where she does her interviews these days!

  14. CD singles are a waste of plastic. Younger music buyers have no interest in them or CDs in general. If there had been a limited edition vinyl of the single, I would have bought it, but could care less about the CD.

    • James

      Who cares about ‘younger music buyers’? I’m also not sure how a cd-single is a waste of plastic and a 7″ isn’t. Call me old-school, but unless there’s a physical release then there is no ‘single’. It’s just a song of a forthcoming album.

      • Dreamtimetk

        Exactly, I could not care less about “younger music buyers”…. they are not the only ones who listen to music. A CD has a much better sound recording than the download version, simply because of compression… And how the CD is wasted plastic and the 7″ is not? It does not makes sense to me and surely this is not a good reason NOT to produce CD singles and 7” anymore…

  15. No one buys CD singles anymore. That’s the point. Why waste the money and plastic to make them when no one is going to buy them outside the hardcore fans?

    • James

      Because ‘the hardcore fans’ add up to a fair few people around the world who have been listening and devouring Kate ‘singles’ for over 30 years. If ‘Wild Man’ is to be considered as the latest in the long line of KB singles, then a physical release should and must be released to acknowledge it. Whether on 7″, 10″, 12″, cd-single, cassingle – anything.

      To think otherwise proves my original point – without such a release, Wild Man is no ‘single’.

      (Again, I may be more of a romantic on these things, but a ‘single’ and what it means/meant to many is worth remembering here, and why a ‘KB single’ is more than just a piece of plastic. It was world shared between the artist and listener, from the music, to the cover artwork, to the video. As we all know, KB was an artist who took full control of this and used the medium of the ‘single’ to create wonders that still resonate in all that still listen.)

      Lastly, how anyone can consider any KB release a ‘waste of plastic’ is beyond this single, wild man’s imagination.

    • Dreamtimetk

      If you have evidence of what you are saying this would be better, otherwise what you wrote it is just hearsay and it does not make a point at all!

  16. Alan

    The promo CD is going for extortionate prices on eBay so someone is still making money from CD singles!

  17. Here’s some info from the BBC about CD sales from January. Read toward the bottom and there is paragraph on CD singles. 1 million sales of physical singles vs. 5 million digital downloads. CD singles are, as I said, going the way of the dodo bird.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12120789

    As a fan of Kate Bush for 30 years and having a shed-load of memorabilia (including all the CD singles), it’s not “wild” to think of CD singles as a waste of plastic. With sales in decline, it makes no sense to produce them for such small sales return. Sorry, I’m just being practical.

    • Dreamtimetk

      Sorry, this is not prove you point yet, it is far too generic, still there are record labels (even big ones) who produce CD singles…. so I am afraid you have not been practical at all.

      Again one ‘evidence” (if I honestly can call it as such) does not prove your point I have to say….

      • I don’t know how the fact that the sale of 1 million physical CD single sales compared to 5 million in digital downloads is “generic” but all right then. lol

  18. Dreamtimetk

    Wild Man promo CD singles have been sold for between £ 50.00 (bid still not ended) and £ 134.00 (bid ended) on ebay with an average of 10 bids per listing …. so if someone else tells me either: people are not interested anymore or record labels do not make money from CD (still record labels, even big ones, produce them) singles I will laugh.

    • These are actually not “promo singles” as we would normally understand them, they are simply CDRs copied by the record company and sent out to radio stations for their convenience.

      • Dreamtimetk

        An example of that is the irish one from EMI sent out during the promotion of DU to radio stations (which was confused at the very beginning as a fake because it came in cd-r (which is the new way fro EMI to send out cd’s to radio station as they are very cheap to produce)

  19. I’m very late replying to this, but I have to agree with quite a few people here. It’s a real tragic shame there will be no 7″ or 12″ release of this, nor has there been one since Kate’s return in 2005. A lot of us grew up on vinyl, and whether it was Kate or another favourite artist at the time, a new single was always a huge deal. It never mattered either if the b-side was a recycled album track, it was something “new” to add to our collections.

    Most younger people today don’t understand the thrill of vinyl, or what it was like to collect it back in the day. Even record shops don’t promote an artist’s music like they once did. It was like Christmas when Kate or another artist had a new album out… you would walk into a record shop and the walls would be splashed with promos posters, things dangling from the ceiling and special cardboard displays set up everywhere… not to mention hearing the music being heard all through the store. You just don’t see that anymore.

    The price of progress, and what a price it is. I find it very unappealing downloading a song from the internet. I’m very visual, and I prefer visual and tangible things. People often knock the ’70s and the ’80s for a multitude of different reasons, but if you weren’t around, or old enough to remember, then you just don’t understand.

    It really IS the end of an era.

    I will say I’m thankful that Kate is still releasing her albums on vinyl. I would sincerely miss that the most.

    • You can still find that if you go into the indie record shops. We have a number of them around Atlanta and there are still posters and such. We don’t have any major record stores here anymore — Tower, Virgin, HMV all gone. People buy their albums either online from Amazon or at Wal-mart.

  20. JAMES COLE

    I absolutely love Wild Man which I regard to an innovative and exciting song. May be diffwrent to some of Kate’s other material and she has always been evolving, but her music is bound to change over the years.

    On another note does anyone know how long it normally takes to receive posting rights on the forum. I registered on sunday but I’m still waiting approval and si can just browse right now.

  21. JAMES COLE

    I’m now on the forum!

  22. sinkers

    The manic street preachers are a good example of a band who still release singles in multiple formats.

    Just because the market is much smaller that it was before doesn’t mean it should be ignored. Also 7″ vinyl single costs a fortune these days.

    A Morrissey 7″ picture disc was £6 in HMV this year – I’m sure there is decent money to be made with the margins on that.

    Someone hit the nail on the head earlier – Kate is simply not interested in singles anymore. No single to promote means less publicity, less demands on her time, less need for new material (b-sides) less hassle all round.

    The fans might ‘want’ a physical single but we also ‘wanted’ her to follow up The Red Shoes more quickly than 12 years later.

    I’m not saying she doesn’t care about her fans, but she will ultimately do what she wants.

    We’d have all loved some deluxe reissues in the ‘quiet years’ but again, Kate didn’t want to to this.

  23. Gordo

    Why doesn’t Kat do a good quality single on a CD-R up for the fans. I am a Sweet fan too and they have just released their first single in ten years and they have put together a limited release for fans. We got additional live versions of previous material as a bonus too.
    My experienceis that Kate’s B-sides over the years have been top notch (I have This Woman’s Work) even if they’re not on average quite as great as her album tracks. Alternative versions, live versions (I know there are not many) or even a demo that was not proceeded with would do just fine too I think. And what of all those early recordings with Dave Gilmour she said she’d never release. It seems like now might be the time to change her mind.

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