To mark 40 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
A truly fantastic and renowned musician with impeccable timing and touch, we have been blessed to have had Kevin McAlea‘s wonderful contributions to Kate’s work going all the way back to her 1979 tour! Kate described getting to work with Kevin on the tour as “an incredible find, because I’ve never met anyone else who plays the piano, or who can play it if he wants to, so like me. My style is really quite simple, and that’s the problem. Professional pianists tend to sort of flourish everywhere, and that doesn’t work in my songs because I use a simple style.” Kevin played piano, keyboards, saxophone and twelve string guitar on the tour.
Hailing from Belfast, Kevin played keyboards with bands like Skid Row and having done session work with X-Ray Specs vocalist Poly Styrene, he joined Kate for the Lionheart Tour in 1979. Interested in electronic music, McAlea built his own synthesizers, one of which he used on the Tour. On the liner notes of the album Never For Ever, Kate thanks him: “Kevin McAlea for his ingenuity and for playing me Chopin.” Over the years, Kevin has also worked with Bees Make Honey, Clannad, Barbara Dixon, Dr Feelgood, Enya, David Gilmour, Roy Harper, Kirsty MacColl, Seal, Poly Styrene, and Kim Wilde. He has his own band, Celtic Orbis.
For the Hounds of Love album, Kevin is credited with synthesizer sequencing on Waking The Witch and plays his own designed synthesisers on The Morning Fog, and you can spot Kevin making several TV appearances with Kate during the promotion for the album. Things came full circle in 2014, when Kevin became the only musician from the 1979 tour to perform on stage again with Kate, playing keyboards, uilleann pipes and accordion.
Jon Carin (keyboards, guitars and more on Before The Dawn), shared the photo below on his Instagram, and described his friend Kevin as “one of the loveliest, smartest & most talented persons I’ve ever shared a stage with. The only musician Kate Bush invited back from her first tour in 1979, Kevin is a prodigy playing on Kate’s albums, even designing his own synths he played on Hounds of Love.” And, fun fact: in 1984 Kevin also found time to write the English lyrics for Nena’s worldwide hit 99 Red Balloons! Hats off, Kevin.
Hounds of Love – Happening of the day
On February 10th 1986, at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, Kate gave a performance of her forthcoming single Hounds of Love at the BPI Awards, which are now widely known as the ‘Brits’. The single, the third from the album, would be released a week later. This was the sixth edition of the prestigious annual event, and saw performances from other big name acts including Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins and Tears For Fears.
On stage with Kate are Paddy Bush and Jonathan Williams (both on cellos), Del Palmer on keyboards, Stuart Elliott and brother Lindsay Elliott both on drum kits, and Charlie Morgan in the centre of them (sporting a fitting fedora) hitting an electronic kit. At the end of the performance, Gow Hunter appears and does a twirl with Kate in a wonderful moment, fresh as they both were from having completed the music video the previous month.
Kate was nominated for Best British Album for Hounds of Love, and was competing with Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required, Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, Eurythmics’ Be Yourself Tonight and Tears for Fears’ Songs From The Big Chair. And while now the album is considered one of the greatest albums of all time, Kate lost out to to Collins, and actually went home with no awards from the event, despite also being nominated for Best British Female and Best British Single for Running Up That Hill. Kate would, however, triumph at the following years awards in 1987 when her status in the industry was simply undeniable.
Hounds of Love – Artefact of the day
(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)
There are some interesting variations in track listings across territories when it comes to Kates 7″ and 12″ single releases. Take this 12″ USA 12″ vinyl release of The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix) for example, on card sleeve with grey ‘EMI America’ labels (Cat Number V-19213). While every other territory had Not This Time (a great Hounds of Love b-side! Too-ree-ay!) and The Morning Fog as the b-sides, this edition is unique in having the special single mix of The Big Sky on the b-side, instead of The Ninth Wave’s closing track. Extra value for US fans who had already bought the album, then!
Hounds of Love – Trivia of the day!
Did you know that one set in particular for Kate’s Before The Dawn concerts went through 12 different designs?
The exquisite Watching You Without Me on The Ninth Wave is one of my favourite tracks from the album and one of the eeriest dreams/nightmares that the shipwrecked character in the song suite experiences. Kate explained the song in her fan club newsletter in 1985:
“..it’s about how she wants to go home. That’s really the thing she wants most, just to be in the cosy atmosphere of her belongings all around her, and the security of those four walls and the firm ground, and being with the one that she loves. She finds that she’s there in spirit, and there’s her loved one sitting in a chair by the fire, but she hadn’t conceived the idea that she wouldn’t actually be there in real terms. She’s not real. And although she can see her man, he can’t see her – she can’t communicate with him in any way. It’s more of a nightmare than anything so far, because this is the closest she’s been to any kind of comfort, and yet it’s the furthest away.“
For the Before The Dawn concerts, when Kate would finally visualise the song on stage and in performance, she turned to designer Dick Bird. Dick says: “I haven’t done rock n roll before and it was the most extraordinary 18 months of my life. In a way, it started very unusually for me because she started by assembling a team like the Magnificent Seven – slowly putting together a team of reprobates and drunks and knocking them back into shape till they are a fine fighting crew!” laughs Dick. “That is sort of what Kate did, slowly assembling this fascinating team, but she wanted everything to be completely original. So we did a lot of workshopping. We would hire the Hammersmith Apollo for a week to do our experiments in – or go off to some incredibly draughty hangar in Northampton and play with silks and LED screens. I’ve never made so many models for one show.“
The stunning Living Room set went through 12 different designs before the final one was chosen. In the show, it was rolled silently on to the stage and tilted from side to side throughout, as if in the sea waves itself, making the TV set in front slide amusingly left and right. A hidden panel meant that “spirit Kate” could appear suddenly when a door was closed over, to audible gasps from the audience, a neat trick. Above, life-jacketed cast members observed from the “roof” of the structure as a domestic comic scene played out between actor Bob Harms and Kate’s son, Albert McIntosh…as they wondered why “Mum” was so late…
For Dick Bird it was the chance to meet a boyhood idol. He laughs: “I was absolutely, madly in love with her when I was 13. She was my first big crush, so it was very interesting to meet her 35 years later. Dick’s friend, costume and props maker Rob Allsopp had worked with shadow puppets – as Kate wanted to – and Rob recommended she see a show Dick had also been working on using puppets.“
But before Kate phoned him, Dick had been sounded out in a slightly mysterious way about whether he’d be free to do the show. He recalls: “About three-quarters of an hour before, someone else rang up and said ‘Would you be free at this time but I can’t tell you why I’m asking!’. “Then 45 minutes later the phone rang and it was Kate Bush – my unrequited crush of 35 years!” laughs Dick. “I was very tongue-tied, but she was saying ‘I really love your work!’ and I was replying ‘I really love YOUR work!’. She’s a very extraordinary and wonderful person.”
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