In this new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán once again joins Darrell and Paul, this time to discuss the wonderful promotional videos for the singles that accompanied The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) albums. Who now owns the Molly Bloom dress from The Sensual World video? What became of all that fruit from the Eat The Music video set? And why was there a different video for Rubberband Girl for the US market? All this and more in this very enjoyable episode!
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes, Audible, Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Podcast Addict or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Wishing Kate a very happy 68th birthday today! We hope you’re having a fantastic day and having lots of fun. Gives us a chance to say THANK YOU for being you and for giving us your wonderful music! xxx
In this very special episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Darrell Babidge chats to Seán about a memorable day spent in the company of Peter Reich at Orgonon itself! Peter is of course the writer of A Book of Dreams about his father Wilhelm Reich, the book that inspired Kate’s Cloudbusting. The visit took place at the Wilhelm Reich Museum which Kate currently also shares a link to on her official website.
Darrell with a Cloudbuster at Orgonon!
Because Darrell has so much visual content from the day Seán also created the visual trailer below for you to whet your appetite for the podcast episode:
Orgonon is located in the state of Maine, USA and is where Wilhelm Reich established his laboratory and observatory where he conducted his work and research into orgone energy among other things. Peter’s father Wilhelm was memorably played by Donald Sutherland in the celebrated 1985 music film for the song Cloudbusting.
Kate’s film imagery was used as the cover image for these editions of ‘A Book of Dreams’ by Peter Reich
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes, Audible, Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Podcast Addict or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Darrell chats with Peter Reich at the Orgonon conference centreDavid Silver, Director of the Wilhelm Reich Museum, reads an excerpt from ‘A Book of Dreams’ to the author Peter Reich, in Wilhelm Reich’s study.A view of the Maine landscape at OrgononDarrell with Peter Reich at the Orgonon conference centre entrancePeter (Kate) discovers A Book of Dreams in his father’s pocket in the 1985 music video for Cloudbusting.
With many thanks to Darrell for sharing his day with us, to the wonderful Peter Reich, and to David Silver at the museum for all his efforts. Huge thanks to Brian Cloughley for his beautiful design work on our episode titles.
You can learn more about the Wilhelm Reich Museum at their website here.
The music video for Cloudbusting (1985)
The Hounds of Love Baskerville Edition Unboxing video (2023)Wilhelm Reich with his son Peter Reich, 1947
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Hilary Walker talks about Kate’s tour on BBC’s Nationwide programme in 1979
Very sad news today to learn of the death of Hilary Walker, via a post by Kate on her official site. Hilary was Kate’s one-time PA and representative and her de facto business manager for two decades. Highly respected in the music industry, Hilary was constantly seen accompanying Kate from the very beginning of her career, her contribution in that time period was enormous. We send our sincere condolences to her family and friends.
Formerly the head of promotions and the international division at EMI, she left the company to work for Kate full time in 1978. Hilary can be seen with Kate in Japan from the BBC report on the 1978 trip, speaking about Kate’s first show of the 1979 tour on the BBC Nationwide special and even joining Kate on the red carpet at the 2001 Q Awards in London. And of course we remember the cherished “Hil” being fondly thanked in the liner notes of so many of Kate’s albums – a guiding force. Hilary’s work with Kate over those busy years was very much largely unseen by fans, behind the scenes, but fans have been fondly recalling meeting Hilary at signings and other events, and recalling how helpful and kind she always was.
Hilary Walker with Kate and journalist Bob Friend, Tokyo, Japan 1978Kate arrives at the Lionheart album launch party with Hilary Walker – November 10th 1978 at the 14th-century Ammersoyen Castle in the NetherlandsHilary Walker interview in the February 18th 1978 issue of Music Week about women executives in the music industry – the week Hilary accompanied Kate to Germany for Kate’s first TV appearance. Detail from the January 1979 production schedule for Kate’s 1979 tour featuring Hilary Walker and other familiar names. (source: Richard Ames site https://roadstories.co.uk/content/1979/1979-kate-bush/)Hilary Walker (centre) and Kate, her brother John and crew have a tour meeting in Greenwich, early 1979. Hilary was thanked on many of Kate’s albums, often as just “Hil” as here on the Hounds of Love album in 1985. Kate at the 2001 Q Awards with Hilary Walker
On Kate’s official site, Kate today posted the below photograph of her friend and colleague and left this message, remembering her.
Hilary Walker (photo: Katebush.com)
Hilary was a beautiful person, full of life and much loved.
We had many adventures and went all over the world together. She was a wonderful companion, especially as she absolutely adored to travel. We started to work together not long after my first album was released. Hilary was a really important part of my work and my life for nearly twenty years. She was my trusted right hand and my very dear friend.
Hilary went on to travel the world again with her devoted husband, Peter. She was incredibly happy from the minute she met Peter, and never looked back.
We’re all going to miss her terribly. Thank you so much, dearest Hil, for always being there, for being such fun. Kate
Delighted to announce this! HomeGround and KateBushNews.com are proud to be working once more with Cabaret vs Cancer and The Royal Vauxhall Tavern to bring you another night of amazing music and cabaret, celebrating the one and only Kate Bush on Thursday 30th July … and YES, that is Kate’s birthday!
This show will be packed with world class singers and cabaret acts, each binging you their different and original takes on a whole range of Kate songs, from the much loved classics such as Running Up That Hill, Army Dreamers, This Woman’s Work and Wuthering Heights to album tracks and b-sides, if you love Suspended in Gaffa and Under The Ivy, as well as Babooshka and King of the Mountain, then this is the night for you.
The line up for this fith CvC Kate show includes, singer and comedian Sooz Kempner, Sarah-Lousie Young star and co-creator of An Evening Without Kate Bush), Queer dance collective Homoparody, plus Dosa Cat, Ripley, Ebony Rose Dark, Emma Dunlop and Michael Mayell on keyboards with the whole thing hosted and brought together by the amazing West End star Michael Twaits.
Advance tickets are £15 each, plus booking fee. No refunds Doors at 7pm, show from 8pm
PLEASE NOTE: This event will be mixed standing/seated with limited seats in the venue, first come first serve. If you have access requirements please contact [email protected]. ALL BAGS AND COATS MUST BE CHECKED IN. The RVT is an LGBTQ+ venue, please respect our space. No hen/stag parties. Money raised via ticket sales and a raffle on the night will go to supporting Cabaret vs Cancer, to help people affected by cancer. You can find out more about CvC at https://www.cabaretvscancer.co.uk/ [Artwork by Reece Connolly]
The animated short film, Little Shrew, that Kate directed, inspired by the war in Ukraine, is now a prize-winner! The four-minute film, which was released in late 2024, picked up the Animation prize at this year’s Carmarthen Bay Film Festival in Wales.
Kate has expressed her delight on the win in a short statement: “How wonderful! Little Shrew is incredibly excited that she’s been awarded such a huge honour. Thank you so very much from her, myself and all the team. We are over the moon!”
”What an incredible year it has been for the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival,” says festival curator Stifyn Parri. “This year’s success has been beyond anything I could have imagined – most notably because a lifelong inspiration of mine, Kate Bush, shared her remarkable work with us by entering her film.” Read more about Little Shrew at Kate’s official site here: https://www.katebush.com/news_article/meet-little-shrew/
Yanka Rupkina during her career with The Trio Bulgarka, and with George Harrison and Kate Bush
Truly one of the greatest singers the world has ever known, it was very sad to hear this morning that Yanka Rupkina, one of Bulgaria’s most celebrated folk singers and a member of TheTrio Bulgarka who recorded with Kate on both The Sensual World and The Red Shoes albums, has passed away at the age of 87 following a prolonged illness. Her voice was extraordinary, reaching stratospheric heights as it blended beautifully with the stunning voices of Stoyanka Boneva and Eva Georgieva of the Trio. Kate’s work with the exquisite, breathtaking, Trio Bulgarka remains one of the outstanding collaborations of her career to date.
A few years back I put together a podcast episode exploring Kate’s musical journey with The Trio Bulgarka which you can hear below.
An international ambassador of Bulgarian folklore, she was born on August 15, 1938, in the village of Bogdanovo, growing up immersed in traditional music, inspired by her grandmother, also a folk singer.
Kate with The Trio Bulgarka (1989) From left: Stoyanka Boneva, Eva Georgieva, Kate Bush and Yanka Rupkina (Photo John Carder Bush)
Although she initially trained as a nurse, Rupkina’s passion for music never wavered. She joined the Bulgarian National Radio Folk Ensemble in 1961 and became a soloist for three decades, recording hundreds of songs from the Strandzha region, preserving Bulgaria’s musical heritage for future generations. Her signature song, “Kalimanku, Denku mari hubava”, remains an enduring emblem of Bulgarian folklore.
Rupkina’s international fame was further cemented with the creation of the trio Bulgarka in 1975, whose collaborations included legendary musicians like George Harrison, Kate Bush, and Prince. She contributed to the Grammy-winning album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Volume Two, helping bring Bulgarian folk music to global audiences.
Yanka Rupkina performing at a public gathering in Burgas, on the Black Sea, May 6, 2022 (BTA Photo/Todor Stavrev)
Throughout her life, Rupkina remained devoted to sharing her art, performing worldwide, mentoring ensembles, and celebrating her roots in Bogdanovo, which inspired much of her repertoire. Her numerous awards include the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius and recognition as an Honorary Citizen of Burgas.
Reflecting on her career, Rupkina once said she worked “for the name, for the music, for Bulgaria,” dedicating 64 years to her craft. She leaves behind a legacy of musical excellence, cultural preservation, and inspiration that transcends generations.
Kate with The Trio Bulgarka (1989) From left: Yanka Rupkina, Kate Bush, Eva Georgieva, and Stoyanka Boneva (Photo John Carder Bush)
Reacting to the news of the singer’s passing, President Iliana Iotova said that “we have lost a voice that was close to the spirit, the East and life, a voice in which Bulgarian memory echoed”. “Bulgaria lost a personality that had her life dedicated to one of our biggest spiritual treasures: folk songs,” the President added.
Kate with Yanka in 1988 during the recording sessions for The Sensual World
The Culture Ministry, too, put out a message of condolences. “Her work remains permanently inscribed in Bulgaria’s cultural memory and continues to be a source of inspiration and a guide for fidelity to tradition. As a soloist in the Bulgarian National Radio Folk Ensemble, and as part of the vocal trio Bulgarka, she made a significant contribution to the recognition and promotion of Bulgarian folklore both nationally and internationally. Her performances are distinguished by deep emotionality, stylistic purity, and respect for tradition,” said the Ministry.
Kate with The Trio Bulgarka 1989 (Photo John Carder Bush)Kate with The Trio Bulgarka 1989. From left: Stoyanka Boneva, Eva Georgieva, Kate Bush and Yanka Rupkina. (Photo John Carder Bush)
Best of The Other Sides – Lothlorien Green Vinyl – signed by Kate March 2026!
Cabaret vs Cancer is a grant based charity that sends money where it is needed, to a number of other charities, including hospices and other support services to help people dealing with the effects of cancer. They raise money via live events, including brilliant Kate Bush themed shows, plus David Bowie, Twin Peaks, Star Wars, Doctor Who and others at various venues across London.
Signed Hounds of Love colour Fish People vinyl – signed by Kate in March 2026 for the CVC auction
They also run a series of annual online auctions, including the music auction (check it out online here). Now in its 6th year, Kate has donated signed items every year (!), and the auction has raised more than £25K for CvC. Dave Cross from HomeGround is a Patron of the charity and organiser of the auction, he tells us;
Kate’s support for Cabaret vs Cancer has made a huge difference to the music auction, not just in the money her items have raised but in the attention it has brought us, we are all very grateful. Thank you Kate. – Dave Cross
The auction also includes a whole range of signed items and special editions, from Taylor Swift to Kim Wilde, Cynthia Ervio to Elton John and much more.
Thursday 6th March 1986. We get the ’phone call from John Carder Bush: “Can you arrange about a hundred fans to be in a video?” “Yeah, no problem. Where is it?” “We’re not sure.” “Er… when is it?” “We’re not sure of that either. Sometime next week, very early in the morning in London.” “Ok, fine.” I put the phone down − PANIC!
– Dave Cross (HomeGround Magazine, 1986)
Dave Cross of HomeGround Magazine – The Big Sky video shoot, March 1986
The making of the music video for The Big Sky, 40 years ago today (!), was a unique event in that Kate asked the editors of HomeGround magazine to help organise over a hundred lucky fans to take part in the filming! On a side note (from Seán here) I’m always so proud of my HomeGround pals for doing things like this at the height of Kate’s early career – and, not that I’m the jealous type, but our own Peter, Krys and Dave would also go on to star in the Experiment IV music video later that same year! Amazing.
The Big Sky video shoot – photo by Dave Cross
Dave Cross wrote an account of organising the fans for the shoot in the pages of HomeGround. After a frantic postal mail-out and dozens of replies from eager fans via phone call, the day finally arrived. Dave writes: “The big day turned out to be Wednesday 19th March (Kate had done all her solo filming work on the Tuesday.) Two coaches were waiting to take everyone from Manchester Square…once at the Thorn EMI Studios in Elstree, we had to get into costume and have make-up put on. By the time the coaches had arrived and Peter came hurtling into the dressing rooms, Lionel (Sharon) and I had been transformed into the Wright Brothers…walking around the dressing room was quite an experience; one moment you were chatting to an astronaut, the next moment a German officer doing impersonations of the ‘Young Ones’ (“And now, the Aviators!”) Then you might be asking Amy Johnson where the tea was or showing Superman where the loo was…”
Paddy Bush (with didgeridoo) and Peter Fitzgerald-Morris of HomeGround in costume on the set of The Big Sky video
“We were supposed to start our first bit of filming at 8.00 am, which later turned out to be nearer 11.00. After that I reminded everyone that there were two coach-loads of cold bored Kate Bush fans still waiting out in the car park, so Paddy came outside with me. He looked pretty nifty in his green jumpsuit, but everyone thought my Victorian outfit complete with ‘tash’ hysterical. Finally, at around 11.45 everyone was ready for the first scene with the audience. This take involved Kate, and the guitarists Kevin McAlea and Al Murphy walking up the runway between two rows of aviators. We did this shot about about five times during which time Kate made them stay at one point, because she was worried about some of the fans getting burnt on the arc lamps at either side of the stage. Once the shot was completed it was time for lunch and we spent the time chatting and munching.”
The first shot of the afternoon was the biggest scene involving everyone. This was the climax of the video where we all rush forward, including the giraffes. We rehearsed a few times before bringing in the audience. During one rehearsal we missed the cue and no-one ran forward and Kate got caught up in her flying suit. The proper takes with the audience were without doubt the most exciting moments of the shoot. The genuine applause from the audience at the end of each take was thrilling and I’ll never forget Kate asking us aviators “Are you all boogieing?”
L-R: Del Palmer, Kevin McAlea, Kate, Dave Cross, Alan Murphy and Paddy Bush. Photo by John Carder Bush from his book Kate: Inside the Rainbow
We then had tea (yippee!) and went on to the final shoot of the day. This was another audience shot involving the dancers and some complicated camera angles. After about four takes, Kate had to make a quick exit from the stage feeling a little icky. She was okay, but as usual had been over-doing it and just needed some sleep…Wednesday ended with two coaches full of tired but happy people heading back to town and three HomeGrounders (including Krys Fitzgerald-Morris) trying to persuade Lionel’s car to start.”
On the Thursday there was another big scene: the moon, the jet bit and the opening scene, which meant filling the whole studio with smoke and some closeups. When I left at about 7.30 pm Kate was still working putting finishing touches on the moon shot. I really don’t know where she gets the energy from. Watching the finished film it seems impossible that it took so long to film, it all runs so quickly. After all that hard work The Big Sky has turned out to be Kate’s most lively and colourful production to date and of course we all had a great time helping to make it. Thanks Kate!”
Kate and crew on The Big Sky video shoot, March 1986
Kate wrote about the shoot in her fan club newsletter in 1986: “It’s such a good feeling to work with a big group of people….besides a large number of performers to fill a stage and give the effect of a live concert, we needed an avenue of people, from the Wright brothers to two astronauts, to simulate aviation history. The Wright brothers looked remarkably like Dave Cross and Peter FitzGerald-Morris, and one of the astronauts looked so like Jay…We also needed a large, enthusiastic crowd, so we asked Dave Cross to organise some members of the Club, and two hundred beautifully behaved people arrived on the day of the shoot. It was very moving, they filled us all up with energy – It made it feel like a real concert.“
Thanks to HomeGround, Paul Thomas and more for all the photos! Fantastic memories.
Del Palmer and Paddy Bush – The Big Sky – cartoon by Chris Tilley 1986Promotional lighter as used by fans on The Big Sky video shoot – March 1986
Count yourself lucky if you own one of these beauties! These The Big Sky promotional lighters were handed out to the fans who turned up to take part in The Big Sky video shoot crowd scenes on Wednesday, March 19th 1986. You can see the lighters in action best in the overhead shots surrounding the circular spotlight silhouette. Kate wrote in the Kate Bush Club newsletter in 1986: “All the film crew remarked on how incredible everyone was. They had been terrified with past experiences of invited audiences, but I told them they hadn’t met the right ones. Everyone left just as beautifully – nearly everyone with a burnt thumb from being a star in the sky holding up lighters and waving. I’d never been in the same room with so many stars before.”
Happy New Year! I hope you’re enjoying our updates on social media as Running Up That Hill returns to the highest reaches of global streaming and download charts in the wake of the Stranger Things series finale. We’ll have a full report on the chart action soon. Incredible. Meanwhile, in this new episode of our Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán introduces our first episode of 2026! Following on from their recent countdown from No. 20-11, Paul and Darrell now share each of their Top 10 Kate songs. There are a few surprises along the way! Did they miss out some of your favourites?
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes, Audible, Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Podcast Addict or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Happy Christmas! Have you seen Kate’s Christmas message on her official site? You can read it below also. Lovely as always to hear from her at this time of year. Seán introduces a fun new episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast in which Paul and Darrell share each of their top 20 Kate Bush song lists. This is part 1 where they count down from number 20 to 11, without knowing what each other’s choices are! They are surprisingly quite different, and they explain why they chose each song. Wishing all our listeners a lovely Christmas and a wonderful, peaceful New Year in 2026!
You can subscribe to the Kate Bush Fan Podcast on iTunes, Audible, Spotify or on any podcast app you happen to use, such as Podcast Addict or Tunein or listen below on Soundcloud.
Little Shrew continues to take part in international film festivals, and has been reaching out to different audiences. Thank you to everyone who has responded to the animation by making a donation to War Child or other charities involved in helping children caught up in wars.
Huge congratulations to the wonderful Duffer Bros for their latest series of Stranger Things. Bravo! It’s absolutely fantastic! You can see the enormous amount of craft and hard work that’s gone into every episode. It feels like every character is getting the chance to shine and the whole look of this series is stunning with just incredible visual effects. I feel so, so privileged and honoured that RUTH has been chosen as Max’s totem. I can’t wait to find out where it all goes.
It’s been wonderful to see the response to the vinyl release of Best of the Other Sides. To put the running order together, I had to listen to songs I hadn’t heard since they were first released. My favourite part of revisiting those songs was listening to the middle section of The Meteorological Mix of The Big Sky. My favourite line is delivered brilliantly by my brother, Paddy. It still makes me laugh… “That cloud looks like industrial waste“.
There are also lines in that section of the track that were spoken by my mother and father. I love to hear their voices. It makes it feel like they’re still with us. Over the last few years, I often wonder how they would’ve felt about the major events that have happened. Particularly the pandemic, the undeniable effects of climate change, and of course all the wars.
I think they appreciated that Golden Age we had until recently in a way we can’t imagine. They had lived through a war and seen the horror, they’d felt the exhaustion that Britain had experienced afterwards. My father had practised medicine before the introduction of antibiotics and my mother had been a nurse, but I still feel they would’ve been bewildered by the intensity and the speed of the many changes over these last four to five years.
I remember when I was little, how our parents would carry in the Christmas tree every Christmas Eve. It was always in the evening and made the Christmas tree even more special and magical because it was only with us for a few days. We always used the same decorations, going back years, and this real tree would be draped in tinsel. A rather worn fairy would grace the top of the tree in her faded pink dress.
The Christmas tree is still the centre of our festive Christmas decorations at home. Of course, like most people this goes up and is decorated weeks before Christmas Eve, but it still holds a truly special magic for me.
I really hope you all have a beautiful Christmas and who knows.. it might even be white!
As we have reported, Kate’s Running Up That Hill has been used yet again with Kate’s blessing in the newly released fifth and final season of Stranger Things on Netflix. Brief excerpts of the song are heard in three of the four episodes which have so far landed on Netflix on November 28th. Three more episodes will stream on Christmas Day, with a single movie-length series finale on New Years Day.
It has sent Kate’s biggest song rocketing back once again up to the upper reaches of the global streaming and digital download charts over the last week and more. The impact has been remarkable if not quite as seismic as what we saw happen in the Summer of 2022 – but how could we ever expect anything like that phenomenon again?! For one thing, the song finds itself in a global song chart situation chockful of seasonal Christmas hits that take over at this time of year. Also, the song was featured this time round in a more subtle, nostalgic way – not part of the epic action set pieces of Season 4 in 2022.
Mild spoiler clip above – Kate gets a very nice namecheck on Stranger Things But…the numbers of people listening to Running Up That Hill again is nevertheless extraordinary. Kate has re-entered the Billboard Global 200 chart this week at no.58 – that chart compiles streaming, radio play, digital sales and more from the entire planet – truly the world’s most significant chart. She has a new entry in the Official UK Singles Top 40 chart at #37 – making Running Up That Hill a hit single for Kate in her home country…AGAIN! In Ireland, the song has re-entered the Official Singles Top 40 at number 33!
Kate is back in the UK Top 40 singles chart this week!
Kate currently has a new entry at #43 on the Spotify Global Weekly Chart – your reminder that that’s the biggest music streaming platform in the world. The track even peaked as high as #39 on the daily Global Spotify chart, even as those Christmas hits started monopolising the Top 50. Kate has now sailed past the 1.5 billion total streams marker on Spotify, averaging almost 2 million streams a day now. Incredible.
Running Up That Hill has performed very well on iTunes, Apple’s prestigious music download marketplace. Since the new episodes landed on November 28th it instantly climbed to the Top Ten in many territories, and hit an incredible peak of #4 worldwide! (see screenshot above) As I write it is still at #13 worldwide on iTunes and reached #1 in places as far apart as India, Hungary, Italy and Argentina! The song has been in the Top Ten most searched for songs on the Shazam app worldwide in recent days – testament to many new listeners discovering the song again through watching the show. We’ll have to wait and see what the Volume 2 episodes and the Stranger Things finale have in store for this extraordinary chapter in the life of this now 40-year old song and album.
A scene from an upcoming episode of Stranger Things – will we hear Kate’s music blasting out of that cassette player?
Various Artists – Is This What We Want? Limited vinyl
A limited edition of 1,000 copies of the silent protest album, Is This What We Want? on black vinyl will be released on Dec 8th. It is available to pre-order from The State51 Conspiracy store here, at Rough Trade UK here, and other record stores. All profits from sales of the album will be donated to the charity Help Musicians. Here’s a report about the vinyl album in today’s Guardian newspaper which highlights McCartney’s involvement.
As we previously reported when it was released digitally in February, this is a silent album from more than 1,000 musicians protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law. The vinyl edition includes a bonus track from Paul McCartney. Kate contributed one of the tracks (see our best guess below at which one it is). The vinyl release is out on 8th December. Publicity one-sheet sheet here.
In February, Kate wrote on her official site:
Over one thousand musicians are jointly releasing this album today to protest the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law.
If these changes go ahead, the life’s work of all the country’s musicians will be handed over to AI companies for free. None of us have a say in it.
The UK is full of pioneering, highly creative and imaginative artists. The government’s willingness to agree to these copyright changes shows how much our work is undervalued and that there is no protection for one of this country’s most important assets: music.
Each track on this album features a deserted recording studio. Doesn’t that silence say it all?
I’m very happy to have contributed a track to this project and to join the protest.
Please help protect the music makers and our heartfelt work. We make it for you, not for it to be taken and used against us.
In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?
Kate
The album was released in February on streaming platforms including here on Spotify. It includes contributions from Kate, Damon Albarn, Tori Amos, Annie Lennox, Pet Shop Boys, Billy Ocean, the Clash, Hans Zimmer, Imogen Heap, Cat Stevens, Max Richter, and many other names.
The 12 track titles spell out the following sentence: The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies. And we note that the final silent track 12, “Companies” does faintly feature the birdsong of a dawn chorus, a lot of cat purring sounds and what sounds like the sipping of hot tea (at the 3 minute 10 second mark)! So, do we think this is Kate’s contribution to the project? Listen and see what you think…
Various Artists – Is This What We Want? Limited vinyl
Various Artists – Is This What We Want? Limited vinyl is available to pre-order from The State51 Conspiracy store here, at Rough Trade UK here, and other record stores.
Well, perhaps inevitably, it has now been officially confirmed that Kate’s Running Up That Hill will feature again in the fifth (and final) season of the smash hit Netflix television series, Stranger Things. As we all know, the song became nothing short of a global phenomenon, becoming the biggest song in the world across global charts for the summer of 2022 and delighting Kate and her fanbase in the process – her biggest ever hit single.
We’ll keep an eye out for any chart action, but it’s very unlikely that we could ever see a repeat of that sort of worldwide impact again, and we don’t know how extensively the track will be used this time. Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, the writing/directing team, the Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross), reveal that the song will return with Kate’s support, and also that she gifted them a beautiful bird-themed present:
Max and her original Kate Bush cassette – Stranger Things season 4 (2022)
“Season four, which came out in 2022, had a sizeable impact on pop culture. Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) soundtracks a pivotal scene, when Max (Sadie Sink) finally escapes from the villainous Vecna in the Upside Down by using the song as a kind of anchor. The subsequent exposure gave Kate Bush her first UK No 1 single since 1978. “We had no idea it would go viral in the way that it did. We were surprised, and Kate was surprised, by how much it connected with younger people. Kate thought that was really cool,” says Ross (Duffer). There is even more Running Up That Hill in season five.
“Again, she’s been so great about it,” says Matt (Duffer). Did she send a cake or flowers, to say thank you? “We did get a gift from Kate Bush, but it was way cooler than flowers,” says Ross. “It was this gilded bird cage with animatronic birds inside it, and you wind it up, and the birds chirp a little song. It’s very cool, very unique and very Kate Bush. Only Kate Bush would give this present.”
Set photo from Stranger Things Season 5 – showing Hounds of Love cassette tape
The hints that the character of Max would still be relying on her love of Kate’s music to help her, began with on set photos posted by Ross Duffer back in March 2024. Among them are shots of the actors Sadie Sink and Caleb McLaughlin who play the characters of Max and Lucas, drawing attention to the cassette tape lying on the bedside locker in Max’s hospital room – Kate’s Hounds of Love.
While the actress Sadie Sink is awake and smiling in the photo above we are to understand that in the show she is in a coma due to the injuries she sustained in the dramatic finale of season 4 with the monstrous Vecna. The trailer for Stranger Things Season 5 also shows Lucas carrying Max in her hospital gown into an elevator along with her cassette player – and presumably Kate’s album! In the plot of Season 4, Kate’s music was the only thing that could save Max from the clutches of evil.
Set photo from Stranger Things Season 5 – Lucas comforts a comatose Max in hospitalPublicity photo from the Stranger Things Season 5 trailer – Lucas tries to save Max (and her favourite Kate Bush music!) from demonic forces
In a red carpet interview for the Season 5 premiere party (above), actress Sadie Sink (Max) interestingly mentions that she still loves when she hears Running Up That Hill and not only that “…but her entire catalogue“. The Duffer Brothers also mentioned on the red carpet that the involvement of Kate in the show has allowed them to secure the rights to another “needle drop” for the final season from an artist who normally doesn’t allow their music to be used in TV shows – another viral music chart hit for them? Who knows…
Best Of The Other Sides vinyl – features Running Up That Hill 12″ version
Perhaps we are no longer surprised that Kate has made a small selection of Running Up That Hillmerchandise available on her official site as well as just recently releasing her new Best Of The Other Sides compilation digitally and on CD and vinyl – it features the 12″ remix of Running Up That Hill with cover art from the original single cover shoot. The album also opens with a new 2025 mix of Experiment IV, a song we’ve always felt was very ‘Stranger Things’ coded in many ways.
Stranger Things Season 5 is being released on Netflix in three parts. Volume One, consisting of four episodes, is released at 1am (in the UK and Ireland) on 27th November, followed by Volume Two (three episodes) on December 26th and lastly, The Finale, airs on New Year’s Day.
