To mark 4o years of Hounds of Love we’re putting together a time capsule each day for the month of September – a daily miscellany of the people, events and objects that relate to this momentous work, whether back in 1985 or right up to the present day…
Hounds of Love – person of the day
“I had an idea of what I wanted to say in the song (Running Up That Hill) and I actually asked Del to write me a drum pattern, and he wrote this great pattern in the drum machine. So I just put the Fairlight on top of it and that was the basis of the song, with the drone, which played quite an important part.”
No-one, apart from Kate herself, knew more about what went into crafting the Hounds of Love album than the irreplaceable Del Palmer. He was there by her side throughout the entire process. We miss him terribly. His beautiful skill as a bass player had always been plain to see on Kate’s early albums and live work, but it was in teaching himself to be a recording engineer (keenly observing and learning from the array of studio talent Kate assembled for The Dreaming album) that Del would flourish and help Kate to realise her unprecedented new musical ambitions.
Kate built this album around the studio demos; Running Up That Hill is famously driven by the LinnDrum rhythm that Del programmed and then later augmented by Stuart Elliott’s toms and snare. As much as Del would always credit Kate with just about everything in his rare, gracious interviews, Kate likewise had no problem tipping her hat to her then romantic partner and closest musical collaborator. Speaking to Tony Myatt in 1985 for the HomeGround/KBC fan convention interview, Kate said:
“I think a very big influence was Del Palmer, who when I was initially coming up with the songs… I would actually get Del to manifest in the rhythm box the pattern that I wanted. As a bass player I think he has a very natural understanding of rhythms and working with drums, and he could also actually get the patterns that I could hear in my head and that I wanted, so it’s sort of through him that we started off with the rhythmic basis that was then built upon and was very much what I wanted.”
In interviews, Del also had endless praise for Kate’s work “There have been lots of times when I’ve had quite heated arguments with her. I’d say something wouldn’t work, to which her response has been, ‘Indulge me…Just do it.’ For example, on the Hounds of Love album there’s a part that goes ‘Help me, baby, help me, baby,’ which cuts in and out very quickly, which she wanted to do by turning the tape over and cutting in and out with the record switch. I said it would just be a mess, but she said, ‘Look, just do it, will you?’ So I did it and of course it worked, and I had to eat humble pie. I’ve eaten so much humble pie over the years that I’m putting on weight!”
In a 1984 issue of the Kate Bush Club newsletter, Del wrote in great technical detail about a day recording the string session that would be used on Cloudbusting. He was happiest when getting stuck in to the literal nuts and bolts of the studio environment, explaining terms like “EQ“, “cardioid mic” and “PCR – Pre Choral Refrain” (Kate’s own term) to us fans. “When Kate enters a studio it’s a bit like a magician working on new tricks. It becomes so involved…” Del had great memories of their trip to Ireland during the making of Hounds of Love where they stayed for about a month, “roughing it up and down the west coast of Ireland, and then we went to Dublin for two weeks. The second side was mostly written there and the rest of the songs were done in London”, he remembered. I spoke at length with him in Dublin in 2018 about that Irish trip for our podcast episode chat. I miss so badly not being able to pick his brilliant brain about those times now. Ah, Del. You were great.
Hounds of Love – happening of the day
Well, you’re not going to make such a landmark album and not make a big splash about it are you? On this very day 40 years ago, September 5th 1985, Kate launched her magnificent album at a dazzling party in the London Planetarium. The entire album was played accompanied by a (then cutting edge!) laser show by a company called Laserium – in fact you can still see what Waking The Witch was like here, although, I’m sure you had to be there in the venue to appreciate it. It was attended by Kate’s family and many of the musicians who had worked on the album…and even a hound or two.
The press were of course out in force, already wowed by her comeback single and about to be amazed all over again by her stunning new album. There were more photographs taken of Kate at this one event than in many years prior, and partly that was because she had made the decision to step out with her then boyfriend, Del Palmer, publicly for the first time.
Kate was asked about that by Hot Press in 1985: “There was a launch of the album, and it was really a decision, whether we didn’t go together or whether we’d go together and just behave normally. And we thought it was silly not to go together – so we went together. And everyone wanted photographs of the two of us. It was quite a shock for both of us – It’s been a long time since there’s been that many cameras going off for me. And I don’t think Del had experienced anything quite like that before. So it’s not that it all suddenly came out in the open. There was a launch and he was there. But they loved it!”
Hounds of Love – artefact of the day
(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)
If you had been lucky enough to attend the Hounds of Love album launch at the Planetarium 40 years ago today (like our very own Dave Cross, we’re not remotely jealous, Dave!) you could well have picked up one of these lovely items – a Hounds of Love promo press pack. It consists of an oversize ribbon-tied folder sleeve containing the (sometimes stickered) commercial vinyl release and variously, 2-page biography, 1-page track list, merchandising insert and 3 or 4 publicity photographs of Kate. Pretty.
Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!
The opening lines of the song Hounds of Love, “It’s in the trees… It’s coming!” are taken from the 1957 horror film “Night of the Demon” directed by Jacques Tourneur. In 1993, Kate’s film The Line The Cross And The Curve also drew inspiration from the same horror film, the idea that the possession of a small slip of paper with mystic symbols can confer great power…passing the runes.
In an interview, Kate said “I think that everyone is scared of relationships on some level or other, but actually the song in many ways was inspired by an old English black and white movie called Night of the Demon, which is just one of those great movies that managed to get through a whole phase of other movies that were incredibly corny and not effective, and has a real atmosphere about it.” The line from the film was also rendered in calligraphy by John Carder Bush on the rear sleeve of the Hounds of Love single.
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