To celebrate 20 years of the Aerial album, we’re putting together a time capsule each day this week leading up to November 7th (the release date anniversary). It’s a daily miscellany of the events, people and objects that relate to Kate’s extraordinary eighth studio album. We can’t believe it’s been two decades, for so many of us this still feels like a “new” album, and the album’s beautiful gifts just keep revealing themselves…
Aerial – Happening of the day
It was August 31st 2005, the last day of that Summer, that Kate finally announced the title and release date of her eighth studio album, Aerial, to the world. The gap since The Red Shoes album in 1993 had sometimes felt interminable. To put in some sort of context, the entire lifetime of 10 seasons of the sitcom ‘Friends’ happened between the releases of KB7 and KB8. The World Wide Web was beginning to change all our lives, in fact this website started in January 1998, and even close friends of Kate exclaimed “a news site, mate?” in friendly disbelief when I’d explain to them what I was doing.
Yes, for her longtime fans, time had started to take on a different meaning and patience became an essential virtue. In her Christmas 2004 fanclub newsletter she had let everyone know the album was finally coming: “The album is nearly finished now and will be out next year – we’ll let you know when…I’m so pleased with everyone’s work on this record. There are some lovely performances and I hope you will all feel it’s been worth the wait.” That earlier announcement resulted in an explosion of press coverage – but the album announcement proper sent seismic waves of excitement out across the press media and fan community alike. She was back.
Set for release on November 7th, we also discovered that it was to be a double album and that the first single was to be King of The Mountain, released on October 24th. Fans, of course, knew it was coming. For several years guest musicians and Kate herself had confirmed she was working on new material during (what was then!) her longest gap between studio albums, 12 years. Oh and, no big deal, but this website, katebushnews.com, was the first place on the planet that carried the news that morning, by special arrangement with EMI Records at the time. Kate’s own official website wasn’t quite ready for launch and social media as we now know it didn’t yet exist. A very proud moment for me.
The reveal of the Aerial cover art confirmed that this was to be a record steeped in delicious mysteries, the start of a low-key marketing campaign for an artist who had now re-shaped her approach to the media at large. Kate was not retired, but she was also no longer a ‘pop star’. We would have no TV performances, no on-camera interviews, no talk shows or album launches, only a modest selection of tasteful publicity photos, a small bunch of print and radio interviews with Kate and a real desire on Kate’s part to let this incredible, richly layered new music simply speak for itself across the two discs – A Sea of Honey and A Sky of Honey.
The cover at first glance seemed to show a series of rocky islands, caught in a golden sunset moment, reflected in a gently rippling amber sea. Slowly the TV ad campaign, and ultimately the album booklet artwork itself, revealed that this was of course a soundwave of blackbird song, one of many ingredients plucked from the beauty and mystery of everyday life that ties the two album sides together.
The first disc was seven separate songs; the forthcoming Elvis-inspired single King of The Mountain, her incredible ode to the number π, followed by Bertie, a song of adoration about her then 7 year old son, the mysterious piano ballad Mrs Bartolozzi, a knowingly tongue-in-cheek bit of domestic spellworking in How To Be Invisible, Joan of Arc marching magnificently into battle in Joanni and A Sea Of Honey was closed out by a career highlight, the deeply personal, poignant, A Coral Room.
The album would feature her son Bertie’s voice, his own artwork and even photographs of him and his mum in the album artwork; themes of motherhood and everyday domestic life are everywhere on the record, with the second disc, A Sky of Honey, presented as a single conceptual piece of music revelling in the changing light and birdsong of a midsummer day. It begins on ‘a lovely afternoon’ and ends ecstatically with the next sunrise.
Kate’s revisiting of the conceptual format of The Ninth Wave in another form twenty years later was another reason why fans were beside themselves with excitement – we couldn’t wait to hear what Prelude, Prologue, An Architect’s Dream, The Painter’s Link, Sunset, Aerial Tal, Somewhere in Between, Nocturn and Aerial held in store. The good news was that they would be some of the finest work Kate had ever recorded, up there with her very best. And we’d never hear the call of a wood pigeon, or the sweet chirrup of a blackbird in the same way again.
A French TV advert (of which there were several versions) even had a snippet of the song Sunset:
When Kate’s official site debuted in November just before the album release date, it focused on the release of the upcoming single, King of The Mountain (much more on that in future time capsule posts!), but she later had a little fun with her new online presence, when the following image appeared as part of the accompanying gallery!
Aerial – Person of the day
We were sad in February 2022 to hear of the passing of the great Gary Brooker, lead singer and keyboardist with Procol Harum. Aged 76, he had been receiving treatment for cancer, but died peacefully at home. Famous for his 1967 hit single with that band, A Whiter Shade of Pale, he played on Kate’s live performance of The Wedding List in July 1982 along with Midge Ure, Phil Collins and Pete Townsend.
In 1993, Gary graced her 7th studio album, The Red Shoes, on the tracks And So Is Love, Constellation of the Heart and, perhaps most memorably, You’re the One with his trademark shimmering Hammond organ. For the Aerial album Gary once again provided backing vocals on Sunset, vocals and Hammond organ on Somewhere In Between and Hammond organ on Nocturn.
Speaking to Uncut Magazine in 2010, Gary said: “I first met her at a Prince’s Trust concert at London’s Dominion. I was playing with Pete Townshend, Phil Collins, Midge Ure and Kate. She said she was going to do The Wedding List. It was quite complicated, and l asked, ‘What was that chord there?’ She said,’I’ve no idea!’ She didn’t have any recollection of how it went on record; she’d just done it.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing on her records. She expects a lot of the musicians she gets in, and l did things I’d never done before. On The Red Shoes, there were the bare bones of a track, and you had to make up what you thought would fit. She didn’t have a perfectionist’s iron grip in the sense of: These are the notes you will play. She drew you in the direction she wanted to go. She comes across first as a woman and a mother these days. Sometimes I’ve told her l’m playing somewhere, and she’s come along. She’s not holed up. l don’t blame her for being a bit defensive. She has been bombarded by the media from very young, when she had this huge No 1. She’s one of our best. Kate hasn’t made enough records. But that’s up to her. Whatever she has done has been remarkable.”
Kate was so moved by Gary’s playing on her song You’re the One, that she paid tribute to his involvement on the song with the lyric “doing cartwheels ‘cross the floor” from A Whiter Shade of Pale.
Aerial – Artefact of the day
(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)
The original vinyl release of the Aerial album was delayed till just before Christmas 2005, as Kate was initially unhappy with the quality of the pressing. When we finally got our hands on it, we discovered the huge album booklet that was included inside – a chance to really pore over the artwork inside in sumptuous detail. Unlike the CD version, A Sky of Honey had to be split across two record sides, and Side Three of the vinyl record ended with Aerial Tal, so instead of running straight into Somewhere in Between, we instead got extra birds singing as the side ran out. Bonus! Geeky fact: subsequent Fish People reissues of the album on vinyl had an ever-so-slightly smaller booklet inside.
Meanwhile, a handful of EMI territories abandoned Kate’s preferred cardboard digipak for the CD release and issued Aerial in a standard jewel case – now very collectible. In Indonesia, they not only had a jewel case CD release but also the only official release of Aerial on cassette tape anywhere in the world!
Aerial – Trivia of the day
One of the most memorable moments of marketing for Aerial was this huge 96-sheet billboard that appeared in London. A subtle but brilliant addition to the striking album cover artwork, was the presence of over thirty fake birds sitting atop the billboard admiring Kate’s new album announcement. Inspired work by the team at Peacock Design on this!
Aerial – Bird of the day
Included in Prologue (Before the Dawn), the Siskin is a small finch, with a fine, pointed bill and deeply forked tail, which is easily visible in flight. Male is mostly bright yellow (especially around the head and breast) with a whitish belly and yellow-green back. The female is a more muted version of the male and is more streaked. Male also shows a black crown and tiny bib. Both sexes have black and yellow markings on the wings and tail and a yellow rump. Mostly found in coniferous woods and in winter frequents alder woods. Readily comes to garden feeders in mid-winter.
Many thanks to Brian Cloughley for the lovely 20th Anniversary badge artwork!
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