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Paddy Bush: HomeGround 40th Anniversary Issue Highlights

Paddy Bush has written for HomeGround’s 40th anniversary special issue

A highlight of the epic, new 134-page issue of HomeGround Magazine just published online to mark 40 years of publication, is the contributions to it by Kate’s two wonderful brothers; Paddy Bush and John Carder Bush. Paddy Bush has written a beautiful new piece for HomeGround readers, “Our Journeys Through Time” – a moving reminiscence of what music, and the connections made through it, have meant to him on his own journey through life. I’ll confess I had a lump in my throat as I read it – he talks so movingly about the days spent working on the recording of Army Dreamers in 1980 with Alan Murphy, Brian Bath and Kate.

It’s good to know you are still there and that we are in a time continuum with a life of its own. Music has transformed us and carried us through time together. My life still overflows in musical instruments, they are the time machines that take me to places I wouldn’t get to any other way.

Paddy Bush, 2022

As well as checking out the magazine (it’s a FREE download, all details here!) please be sure to watch the marvellous Celia Lowenstein documentary that Paddy made in Madagascar in 1998 – Like A God When He Plays – on Vimeo below. Paddy says just skip through the blank bits where the ads would have played! Paddy’s journey is indeed a spiritual quest as he finds delight and enlightenment pursuing his musical hero Rakotozafy, and the legends of the music which invigorated his life at a time of self-doubt. The programme features Justin Vali, the famed valiha player who performed on Kate’s tracks Eat The Music and The Red Shoes. A wonderful insight into the country of Madagascar and it’s people, the programme makes a powerful yet simple point: music connects us all and sets our souls to flight. We have wings….

Paddy Bush and Justin Vali play charity concert in Cardiff!

Paddy Bush playing the marovany

Kate’s brother Paddy has dropped me a line to let you know about an upcoming concert in Wales. “There’s a Justin Vali concert coming up on the 22nd of this month in Cardiff, I shall be playing with him. It’s for a charity called Money for Madagascar, the concert marks a 200th anniversary…it might be of interest to some of your Welsh members.” Justin, as you will know, played on Kate’s songs The Red Shoes and Eat the Music, along with Paddy.

The show takes place in the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff on September 22nd at 7.30pm. As well as the Justin Vali Quintet with Paddy Bush, the evening will feature The Nidum Ensemble. Tickets are £17.50 (£15 concessions) and children under 12 are free. More information on the college’s website here.

From the event publicity:

Money for Madagascar “What are we celebrating? An amazing piece of Welsh history that started in disaster when, in 1818, all but one of the first group of missionaries died of fever within eleven weeks of landing in Madagascar. The survivor, David Jones, went back to Mauritius to recover but later returned to Madagascar. A third young Welshman, David Griffiths, and his wife Mary arrived there in 1820.

What followed was truly astonishing: Mary and the two Davids went up to the capital, learnt Malagasy and started schools, with girls included from the very beginning. By 1824, scarcely three years after their arrival, over 2,000 children were in school and being taught in their own language. The two Davids built a chapel and started preaching in Malagasy. With the help of their most able pupils they then set about translating the Bible and the first complete edition was published in 1835.

Justin Vali

At the request of King Radama and using the Roman script, they created a written form of the Malagasy language which is almost perfectly phonetic. As a result, learning to read has been a relatively painless process for generations of Malagasy children ever since. Music reaches every part of life in Madagascar and when King George IV sent King Radama the gift of a piano he was overjoyed. Some of the music composed by him in the 1820s will be performed in the concert.

The Nidum Ensemble

The Nidum Ensemble

Paddy Bush is Irish, not Malagasy, but he is a fine performer on the Valiha, the national instrument of Madagascar, and will be joining Justin Vali and his group for the concert. Welcome Paddy! We are delighted to have you. The Nidum Ensemble is made up of brilliant young Welsh musicians from big UK orchestras. They are well-known in South Wales where they have given many memorable concerts.

There will be crafts from Madagascar on sale in the foyer and also a showing of a short film about the first missionaries before the concert and during the interval.”

Bushtucker are back! Watch Paddy Bush and Colin Loyd Tucker’s new video

We’re very pleased to report that Kate’s brother Paddy Bush has been working on new music with his longtime collaborator Colin Loyd Tucker. After having both appeared on Kate’s The Red Shoes album, the duo released a wonderful album called “Skyscraping” under the name Bushtucker, that same year. Now, 25 years later, a new single and video have surfaced from Bushtucker -“The Abduction & Rescue of Lord Weir’s Daughter.” An album, which we believe won’t include this hypnotic single, is due to follow later this year.

Paddy tells me: “…you should know that ‘Lord Weir’ is not an actual human being and bears no resemblance to any possible other Lord Weir living or dead.  We haven’t gone into the business of kidnapping or rescue, my voice is not disguised for criminal reasons and you will never work out in a month of Sundays what I’m playing on the track…” Intriguing as ever!

Paddy Bush to give music talk in Switzerland on September 21st!

Kate’s brother (and lifetime musical collaborator!) Paddy Bush, has let me know that he will be giving a talk in Aarau, Switzerland on the 21st September. The talk is entitled: “The Beauty and Complexity of Malagasy Music“. The venue, Forumschlossplatz, is about 20 minutes from Zürich and the talk kicks off at 7.15pm that evening. Paddy says he may touch on how the music of Madagascar influenced Kate’s Red Shoes album. The talk will be given in English and Paddy will be playing some of his favourite recordings and playing a couple of tunes himself! The exhibition is called Listening to Madagascar – let your Swiss friends know! The Facebook Event page for Paddy’s talk is here.

From the event site: “The musician Paddy Bush, expert in Madagascan music, discusses his fascination for the complex rhythms and uniqueness of traditional music. He talks about the peculiarities of Madagascan pop and how Madagascar’s music has entered the sounds of Kate Bush. His presentation, in English, is accompanied with numerous musical tastings.”

Paddy Bush talk in Switzerland

About the exhibition (August 19th – Oct 1st):

“Madagascar! The sonorous name offers itself as a place of longing for free-flying fantasies. But how does “Madagascar” sound far away from fantastic performances and images? “Listen to Madagascar” invites you to an auditive journey to this huge island in the Indian Ocean. Teny, Tany, Tantara, are three important aspects for Madagascans. The exhibition leads to the differentiated Malagasy language culture (Teny), we hear what the people (Tany) means, and how they relate to their ancestors (Tantara).” –  download the exhibition catalogue (PDF) here

Paddy Bush – World Routes in Madagascar – Listen to programme 4!

It’s been a year since we heard the last part of this excellent BBC Radio 3 series, presented by Lucy Duran. As she says herself, “what makes this island of strange dreams, ancestral worship and sorcery so special is its music” Now back for part 4, Paddy Bush and Justin Vali join Lucy again on this musical journey. You can listen to it here. Perfect aural sunshine to rid us of the January grey.

Paddy Bush, Raprosy and Lucy Duran

Some photos from Paddy’s exhibition

I’ve been meaning to share these pictures with you. Earlier last month Paddy Bush invited me along to the opening of his exhibition “The Road to Marovany – the art and craft of Paddy Bush” at the Blue Wall Gallery in Co. Cavan in Ireland. See more photos here. The exhibition runs till September 10th.

Paddy Bush at the Blue Wall Gallery

Paddy Bush exhibition in Cavan, Ireland!

Paddy BushThis is fantastic. We’ve been following the travels and music of Kate’s brother Paddy since we started this site and this summer it is all being brought together in a unique exhibition called The Road to Marovany – The Art and Craft of Paddy Bush which takes place from August 13th till September 10th at the Bluewall Gallery, Co. Cavan, Ireland. Paddy tells me that the exhibition gallery is in a lakeland setting about 10 kms from Cavan town and will be full of photos and a lot of musical instruments including the ones that he has played on Kate’s music. The show mainly focuses on music and photography from Madagascar with many photos Paddy took during the trip he recently organised for BBC Radio3. Paddy’s work with glass will be on display and he’ll be giving a talk and demonstration on Wednesday 17th August at 3pm. More details at the gallery website here. (I’ve also just realised that with the release of Director’s Cut this year, Paddy is now the only musician, apart from Kate, to have performed on every single one of her studio albums!)

The Road to Marovany - The Art and Craft of Paddy BushFrom the exhibition publicity: “Marovany is not a place but the name of a musical instrument from the island of Madagascar. The road to Marovany is a biographic musical journey that follows Paddy Bush in his search for a musical instrument that is as controversial as it is endangered.
Starting in the 1970’s as a student of musical instrument technology when he first heard the music of Madagascar from the ethnomusicologist Jean Jenkins, through his recording career with his sister Kate Bush, from the pyramid of Glastonbury to the lakelands of County Cavan and eventually to the mysterious world of Madagascar’s music and magic. A unique exhibition of photographs, musical instruments and lampworked glass.”

The Road to Marovany - Paddy Bush

Catch-up #3 Paddy Bush plays on new Colin Lloyd Tucker album!

Colin Lloyd Tucker - new album Inner NutshellExcited about this as a) we haven’t heard much musically from Paddy for a bit, and b) Colin is rather excellent! Paddy is guesting on Colin Lloyd Tucker’s new album, ‘Inner Nutshell‘, more than two years in the making. The album is out now! Hear the album and read more about Colin here. For any ‘newbies’ Colin and Paddy collaborated as ‘Bushtucker’ many moons ago on the album Skyscraping. Colin also appears on The Red Shoes album. You can read about him working with Kate here. (many thanks to Ian for the update)

 

Christmas message from Kate plus Dec/Jan/Feb Newsbits

A short message from Kate on her official site: “Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. With love, Kate x”…

A concert in Joe’s Bar New York April 2nd features vocalist Theo Bleckmann interpreting the work of Kate Bush…Two Aerial posters signed by Kate on sale at Ebay in aid of Oxfam Haiti appeal…Polls and lists, boring…except when Kate is voted Greatest Female Singer of All Time by Dublin’s Newstalk FM!…hear Paddy Bush being interviewed on a (hilly!) journey through Madagascar in part two of the BBC series…Paddy Bush tells me that 1of 3 BBC radio docs on Malagasy music aired Sat. Joyous! Features Justin Vali & Paddy…clip from “King of the Mountain” vid shown on BBC’s Never Mind The Buzzcocks “Dr Who” special, with host David Tennant…Out-of-print “I Wanna Be Kate” tribute CD now available as download…

Paddy Bush – news on special Kate compiled CD (& Paddy’s documentary).

Paddy Bush, Kate’s brother, has let me know that the World Music magazine Songlines are including Kate next month as part of a series of regular features called “My World” (rather like a world music desert island discs). Paddy, who writes for the magazine and is featured in the current issue, persuaded Kate into selecting her top ten world music favourites, which will be featured on the cover mounted CD. We know that Kate’s choices include Justin Vali from Madagascar (who played on The Red Shoes album and has worked and toured with Paddy). Also chosen is music from Germany, Brittany and Ireland. Kate will have a comment on each of the tracks to go with the CD. The magazine is out on the 9th of December. Spread the word! Read more about ordering the Songlines magazine here.

Also, the excellent Madagascar film that Paddy did for for Channel 4 in 1998, Like A God When He Plays, has been shown on a US satellite TV station called Link TV and will be repeated throughout this coming week, see the channel’s website here for broadcast times. This is a beautiful film and I know from my emails that there are a lot of Paddy Bush fans who missed it first time out. Thanks Pad, congrats again on Kate’s top 4 hit single (Paddy, reluctant popstar, did the spooky backing vocals!). Paddy has also sent in a feature for issue 77 of HomeGround, which will be out in April. Read more about Paddy and the documentary at my original feature here. UPDATE: From the editor of Songlines: “not all the tracks on the CD are Kate’s playlist, the CD also includes our own editor’s choice selection, Kate’s selection includes Rolf HarrisAli Farka Touré with Ry Cooder and Justin Vali

HomeGround 66: New album and re-masters updates, plus new article from Paddy Bush….

Homeground 66

Press articles that mention Kate are often quoted on this site, but it’s only with the much-anticipated publication of each issue of HomeGround magazine that we get a comprehensive dose of the latest inside news, comment and reportage on the world of Kate Bush music all in one go. Issue 66 (Winter 2000) reports that, as she has affirmed herself, Kate continues to work on her eighth studio album. “As ever Del is engineering and already guest musicians are arriving to add their work…EMI are now hoping and planning for a release in Autumn 2001”.

They also update fans on the reissue situation, the schedule for release is said to have “slipped” a little. It now looks like The Sensual World and The Red Shoes will probably be released together in early Spring 2001. These will be followed by The Dreaming and Never For Ever probably in late Spring or early Summer and finally The Kick Inside and Lionheart in late summer or early Autumn. EMI hope these reissues will pave the way for Kate’s new album towards the end of 2001. The list of additional tracks, which it is hoped will include stuff not previously released, is still being settled.

There is much discussion and reader comment on the wonderful news of Kate’s son Bertie, and an analysis of what they describe as the “trashy” and “silly” tabloid reports Kate had to endure at the time. Elsewhere in yet another excellent edition the magazine publishes a second fascinating article by Kate’s brother Paddy Bush. This time Paddy tells the HG reader’s of his impressions of the country of Madagascar, writing from his most recent visit a couple of months back to the place which drew him “into the centre of a whirlpool of the most fantastic music I had ever heard”. The special offer on the album of Malagasy music he produced continues to run. As always, if you haven’t investigated HG it’s well worth taking a look at their information pages.

HomeGround 65 reports on new album, the CD remasters and that Dinosaur track…..

HomeGround Issue 65 Summer 2000As expected, HomeGround magazine’s latest issue has provided important updates on several interesting Kate news stories. The Summer 2000 edition reveals that “Kate is continuing to work steadily on a new album”. However they say that “the most realistic forecasts for a release date at this point is the latter part of next year”. The fact that Kate’s taking her own good time with the album will come as no surprise to seasoned fans, but as mentioned on this news page earlier there is something very special to look forward to in the meantime…

In April Kate gave the go-ahead to have the remaining six albums in her catalogue remastered and re-packaged as with the 1997 re-release of Hounds Of Love. Dave Cross of HomeGround and Steve Davis at EMI are working on the new digitally remastered and extended editions. HomeGround report that “each album is to be re-mastered at Abbey Road by Chris Blair, who cut the original Wuthering Heights single, and who re-mastered Hounds Of Love….the booklet of each CD is to retain the original artwork but will have additional photographs and new sleeve notes which will be written by the HomeGround editors.” Dave Cross says that “EMI are putting a lot of time and money into making sure that these re-issues look and sound great….Kate’s first four albums will especially benefit from the re-mastering.”

So, when are they coming out? The plan at the moment is to firstly release The Sensual World in September and then The Red Shoes in the early new year (Note: The Red Shoes will not be released in September also, as first reported), sleevenotes by HomeGround’s Peter and Dave respectively. The additional tracks for these first two releases will be contained on the second CD of a two-CD package.

CD Remasters

Following that in the Spring of 2001 we’ll have The Dreaming (sleevenote by Krys) and Never For Ever (sleevenote by Dave). Late Spring/Summer 2001 will bring The Kick Inside (sleevenote by Krys) and Lionheart (sleevenote by Peter).

HomeGround also mention that the Dinosaur track that Kate originally recorded for the Disney animated film was not used because the “suits in charge of the film” didn’t like Kate’s words and asked her to first change them and failing that they then instead wanted a “song without words…emotional background”. The magazine states that “at that point Kate threw in the towel”.

As if all this news wasn’t enough the magazine also prints Paddy Bush’s excellent article on the making of Justin Vali’s The Sunshine Within (order your copy today!), an article by veteran US Kate fan Andrew Marvick on how he feels about Kate in 2000, an edited version of my interview with Brian Kennedy (which I have always promised Brian would be printed in HG, so there you go Brian!), and all the usual features such as Five Years Ago, reader’s letters, and more news gathering than this website could ever hope to do. You can order your copy from the HomeGround Pages.

Paddy Bush special CD offer…plus the Kate CD remasters are coming….

HomeGround magazine has a very special feature in its next issue (65) due out in the next couple of weeks. Paddy Bush has written a fascinating article for the publication on his explorations into Madagascan music, from his early discovery of the music through playing the valiha on Kate’s Love & Anger and on to the new Justin Vali album The Sunshine Within which he has produced under his own record label Bush Telegraph Records. It’s been quite a trip so don’t miss out on reading this one. I’m very pleased to say that Kate’s brother has arranged a special mail order deal for visitors to this website and readers of HomeGround magazine. Also in HomeGround 65 it’s revealed that Kate’s album catalogue will indeed be getting a long-overdue CD remastering by EMI in the very near future. The magazine will be updating us on the official plans to throw some new light through these old windows so watch this space, and as always be sure to get a subscription to HomeGround, I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Paddy Bush Produces Justin Vali

Justin ValiDon’t forget to check out “The Sunshine Within” the latest album from Justin Vali (pictured). Produced by Paddy Bush, it has been highly acclaimed and made number 22 in the Tower Records critics chart of the 100 best World Music albums ever. Read more on my updated Madagascar page in Articles.

Kate & Rolf Harris

Kate & Rolf Harris

April 22nd: Following on from the story below a new book about Rolf Harris, also commemorating his seventieth birthday has just been released in the UK entilted “The Court Of King Rolf” edited by Mark Walker. Among its celebrity anecdotes and tributes it features a page long contribution from Kate and also a longer piece from her brother Paddy both of which praise Rolf’s musicianship and pioneering of World Music.

April 4th: March 30th marked the 70th birthday of Rolf Harris, the popular TV personality and artist. At the star-studded party Kate made an appearance and was photographed in OK! Magazine looking radiant as she chatted to the man who provided the all important digeridu on her 1982 single The Dreaming.

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