Category: Hounds of Love 40th Anniversary

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

In June last year, we were very sad to hear the news that the great Canadian actor, Donald Sutherland, had died at the age of 88 after a long illness. He was the star of well over 100 films including Don’t Look Now, Kelly’s Heroes, M.A.S.H and The Hunger Games, but Kate Bush fans will of course always remember Donald for his appearance in the Cloudbusting video in 1985, playing the role of Wilhelm Reich.

Donald spoke about making the video with Dazed in 2015: “Barry Richardson, who was the hairdresser on Nic Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, asked me if I’d do a music video with Kate Bush. I told him no and we went on to other conversations. A couple of days later there was a knock on my door. I lived in the Savoy Hotel (in London). On the river. Suite 312. I loved it there. So cosseted. So private. Only the floor butler rang the door. I opened it. There was no one there. I heard a voice saying hello and I looked down. Standing down there was a very small Kate Bush. Barry had told her where I lived. What can you do? She wanted to explain what her video was about. I let her in. She sat down, said some stuff.

All I heard was ‘Wilhelm Reich’. I’d taken an underground copy of his The Mass Psychology of Fascism with me when I went to film (Bernardo) Bertolucci’s Novecento in Parma. Reich’s work informed the psychological foundations of Attila Mellanchini, the character Bernardo had cast me to play. Everything about Reich echoed through me. He was there then and now he was here. Sitting across from me in the person of the very eloquent Kate Bush. Synchronicity. Perfect. She talked some more. I said OK and we made ‘Cloudbusting’. She’s wonderful, Kate Bush. Wonderful. I love that I did it. (What do I remember) about doing it? I remember being in the car and the hill and them taking me, taking Reich, away and looking back through the back window of the car and seeing her, seeing Reich’s son Peter, standing there.“

In 1985 interviews (and ever since) Kate expressed her delight and good fortune at having secured Donald to play the part in her film: “When we were thinking about someone to play the part of the father, we just sort of instantly came up with Donald Sutherland, and everyone laughed, because it’s like, you know, he’s one of the greatest actors in the world, really, and we jokingly thought “yeah, yeah wouldn’t it be great.” So we did actually approach his agent, who immediately said no, he couldn’t because he’s just too busy. But a friend of ours knew a friend of his, who asked him, and he gave us three days of his time in between shooting two other films. And I still can’t believe he did it.

It was a wonderful thing for him to do, give us that time. Made it a very, very special thing for me…I still can’t get over the fact that he did it! It was great! It means a lot to people that someone who is supposedly so famous and inaccessible makes the effort to make themselves accessible for such a little project. I was extremely moved by the fact that he did it; it meant a tremendous amount to me. And to work with him – Jesus, I thought I would never have the luck. I was his co-star! Ridiculous!…He puts out such an energy of sensitivity to the situation that I just had to re-act to him. He was – As far as I was concerned, whenever we were shooting, he *was* my dad. He’s wonderful.”

Hounds of Love – Happening of the day

A delightfully unique performance of the song Cloudbusting from Kate happened in December 1985 on the Fantastico programme on the Italian TV channel RAI. She would also perform Running Up That Hill on the same broadcast. Prior to Before The Dawn, Cloudbusting was only ever performed by Kate in the flesh a couple of times, and it’s a blessing that Youtube is here to let us see it as it happened. Seemingly recorded in London and sent over on tape for the show, it underscores the joy and exuberance in the track, with Kate smiling throughout, a precursor for how she would deliver the song on stage on 2014.

Joined by nine friends on stage, firstly Paddy Bush and then Del Palmer who stands right beside Kate, they all have opened umbrellas as they sing along with her. It was also the first time since her 1979 shows that Kate was joined in a performance by other females. And, you just know that if time had allowed, Kate would have had a rain machine in there! An utterly lovely performance.

Hounds of Love – Artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

Well, after featuring the performance above, today’s artefact just had to be this Cloudbusting umbrella, which unlike many of the items we have been featuring, is actually easy to get hold of as it’s for sale on Kate’s official site! The brolly is something she describes on her Hounds of Love site page as being “for those cloudbusting kind of days … ”

It features a spiral design with the following lyrics from the song: “Every time it rains, you’re here in my head, like the sun coming out, I just know that something good is gonna happen, I don’t know when, but just saying it could even make it happen” When this item first went on sale in November 2023 it sold out instantly, Kate’s team underestimating the demand. It has been restocked several times since.

Hounds of Love – Trivia of the day!

In 2014, for the stunning filmed sequences of Kate in the life jacket projected on screen at Before The Dawn, several days filming in a huge water tank and a large team of film professionals and divers at Pinewood studios were called for (Kate contracted mild hypothermia too!). However back in 1985, a more intimate arrangement was decided upon.

The photo session was of course conducted by Kate’s brother John Carder Bush. In his (essential!) 2015 book, Kate: Inside the Rainbow, John describes the set up for the shoot: “I had sent off for an Australian garden pool, a primitive circle of corrugated metal with clips to hold the plastic pool in place. With the flowers and weeds arranged, we were back in the pre-Raphaelite world of Cathy. I was on a scaffold hanging over the pool, and again, this was right: the warm water that was poured in from the kitchen tap looked black and menacing.”

John also wrote about this shoot in 1985 for the Kate Bush Club newsletter: “This was in many ways much simpler to organise, but a lot harder to take. Because it relates very specifically in image to The Ninth Wave, Kate had to be in water. To be comfortable in the right clothes–in this case a Victorian nightgown–the water had to be warm. To get the feeling of night, sea, the proximity of a large ship, etc., studio lighting was essential. We found some big tanks used in the film business, but they weren’t right visually–and they would pose the problem of filling them with a couple of hundred gallons of warm water and then getting rid of it.

We eventually located a large but shallow paddling-pool, and adapted this so as to minimise the quantity of water we would have to deal with while allowing enough to suggest deep sea and cold night around Kate. Because of the large amount of electricity being used in the lights, leaks of water or big splashes could have been dangerous, and someone was standing by the mains throughout the session. I threw some pond weed into the now steaming water and added the flowers to hint at the debris from a shipwreck. The logistics involved in setting up and blending with Kate’s work in the studio had left no time for rehearsals, so Kate went straight in and I hovered around, first on a ladder, then on the ground, looking for the right angle. And it’s in these cases that polaroid is so useful: I was able to take polaroids and show them to Kate, and in this way we decided that I had to get in the water too in order to get the best angle.

It was while I was printing up the best shots that I noticed that the viewer’s perception of the scene changed dramatically when I altered the natural horizon by printing the photo slightly out of true. So actually, in the original negative, she is obviously lying on her back in water, but in the final print she appears to be standing or floating or running or flying. Also, this change of perspective made the “sea” into a very surreal backcloth, so that you wonder is she part of it, is she in it or what?”

Extra trivia: Apart from the original album back cover shoot and the Before the Dawn filming, there was a third occasion that Kate posed in a water tank in a life jacket – her photo session with Trevor Leighton for the Before the Dawn announcement, poster and publicity in March 2014.

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

Kate’s Cloudbusting music video, directed by Julian Doyle, is a stunning visual representation of the song’s hauntingly beautiful lyrics. The video tells the true story of Wilhelm Reich, a controversial psychoanalyst who believed in harnessing the power of orgone energy to control the weather. The video’s striking imagery and captivating storytelling perfectly complement the song’s emotional depth and make for a truly unforgettable viewing experience. Cloudbusting is widely regarded as one of the most iconic music videos of all time and is a testament to Julian Doyle’s creativity and talent as a director.

Kate wrote in the Kate Bush Club newsletter: “I worked with Julian Doyle as director. He was suggested to me by Terry Gilliam. Terry is one of my favourite film-makers, and I was so honoured that he got involved; and we worked very hard for about five-six weeks.” Julian also served as technical advisor on Kate’s 1993 film, The Line, The Cross and The Curve. As well as Julian and Terry Gilliam who hail from the world of Monty Python, Kate also worked with Monty Python costume designer Hazel Pethig and with the late Terry Jones himself in the elaborate visuals that accompanied Director’s Cut in 2011.

Julian spoke to Dazed magazine about making the Cloudbusting video: “Kate came to me with a storyboard, which I remember had the sun coming up with a face on it. She was a lovely lady, with a great smile that she gave generously. I understood her influences…I also knew about Wilhelm Reich…I thought it should look like a real story – like a film, not a pop video. I wanted to point out the story was real, which is why I had Kate take out the book. I also wanted more time so I doubled up a section of the music.

I was pleased we got up early to get the (shot with the) sun rising behind Kate falling down. I was also pleased with the track to close-up (on Donald Sutherland) where he changes from smiling to worried and then I pan into light flare. (When Donald had finished shooting his scenes) I said to him, ‘We have finished with you, thanks – but I just want you to walk away down the hill towards the sun.’ He looked great taking off his jacket. The very last shot of the shoot was the very last shot of Kate punching the air. There are only seven frames before I cut.”

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

Promoting her work by conducting interviews is not something Kate particularly enjoys but feels she must do after the years spent working so hard on her work. For the Hounds of Love interviews, quite a complex album to explain, Kate often had a carefully prepared explanation for each song she was asked about and tended not to stray much from those main points unless the interviewer was particularly engaging!

An example, infamous in fan circles, of how interviews can go wrong, was her interview with Night Flight, a variety television show that originated on the cable TV network USA Network. Kate had made a rare trip to the USA to promote Hounds Of Love in 1985 and this interview, and watching Kate endure it, is cringeworthy indeed.

As fan Ronald Hill described it on the rec.music.gaffa newsgroup in 1991: “…the most excruciating of all Kate Bush video-clips. For more than half an hour Kate sits absolutely still before an unblinking stationary camera, answering with remarkable patience and professionalism an interminable series of asinine and shockingly ill-informed questions…as usual, Kate suffers through all of these indignities with perfect grace.” Amazingly we have the full 37 minutes of raw, unedited footage that you can watch now, but…it’s not an easy watch.

Watch Kate visibly stopping herself laughing at the interviewer describing the songs on the album as “dance songs” (1:44); multiple instances of assistants interrupting the talk to mess around with her mic, clothing and hair (4:16), the interviewer constantly incorrectly referring to her previous album as “Dreaming” (9:07), her obvious bemusement at being asked which male figure she considers a “sex symbol” (32:39), having to repeatedly explain that she didn’t use backing singers on certain Hounds Of Love tracks despite the interviewer’s insistence that she did (in a wonderful Freudian slip, watch Kate say the word “prat” instead of “track” at 18:50) and, most astonishingly of all, a moment at the end of the video where she is asked to record a special clip explaining what “attracts [her] the most” about a man (36:49). She eventually grits her teeth and says “a gently spoken Englishman”. We wonder whether Kate began writing the lyrics to How To Be Invisible during this ordeal…

Hounds of Love – Artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

Big thanks to Pekka Hiltunen for sharing this image of a very rare item – an original Running Up That Hill record shop display stand, which would have graced the likes of HMV or Virgin Megastore in the UK in 1985, and offered the 7″ vinyl record to customers as they sent the single on its way the the UK #3 position! Decades-old record shop displays like these often don’t survive in great condition, but in the rare case when they do, they are a wonderful artefact from a pre-streaming, pre-Spotify era in the music industry.

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

During its 22 years of operation, the space shuttle Columbia was flown on 28 missions in the Space Shuttle program, spending over 300 days in space and completing over 4,000 orbits around Earth. As we know, tragically Columbia disintegrated on February 1, 2003, during atmospheric re-entry after a 16-day scientific mission, killing all 7 crew members on board.

There is something haunting about the snatches of astronaut audio that lead into the stunning Hello Earth on The Ninth Wave. The pieces of short dialogue that Kate used are from the landing of the very first orbital space flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle program, with the Columbia shuttle crewed by astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen, on April 14th 1981.

The sections of dialogue can actually be heard in this Youtube clip here – timings are 4:30 “Columbia now at nine times the speed of sound” and 5:10. “Roger that, Dan, I’ve got a solid TACAN locked on, er, TACAN 2 and 3” Other lines heard are: “The, uh, tracking data, map data and pre-planned trajectory are all one line on the block” and “Show your block decode.” TACAN incidentally is the acronym for Tactical Air Navigation System. “Dan” refers to Daniel Brandenstein who the astronauts were communicating with back at mission control.

When Kate performed Hello Earth in her live shows for Before The Dawn, the astronaut audio was extended with dialogue recorded during the take off of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, the first spaceflight to land humans on the Moon.

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

Well known now for his work on albums by artists including Elton John, Roy Harper, Pete Townshend, Judie Tzuke, Clannad, Tracey Ullman, Gary Moore and Nik Kershaw, drummer Charlie Morgan‘s place in the Kate Bush musical “family tree” stretches right back to her pre-fame days, when he was part of the band Conkers along with Brian Bath, Del Palmer, Barry Sherlock and Ivan Penfold, in the mid 1970s. Later, when Kate needed a band to help with early promotional duties as she got ready to release her debut album, drummer Sergio Castillo was replaced by Charlie at the recommendation of his old pals, and thus it was Charlie who appeared on Kate’s very first TV performance with his old bandmates on the legendary Bio’s Bahnhof in February 1978, in Germany.

Other 1978 TV appearances featuring Charlie include Saturday Night At The Mill (25th February 1978) and Revolver (aired May 1978). Charlie performed drums on the Lionheart album, recorded in France in the summer of 1978 (Wow, Kashka from Baghdad) but by the time the 1979 tour swung around he had amicably moved on to other commitments. It wouldn’t be till Hounds of Love that Kate would once again work with one of her favourite drummers, or “Charlie Warlie”, as she affectionately called him!

Nearing the completion of the Hounds of Love album, Kate wrote in the Kate Bush Club Magazine of Charlie’s involvement on the album after Stuart Elliott had completed the bulk of his work on the record. “There were still a couple of tracks that needed drums to be sorted out, and Charlie Morgan was the man for the job. I last worked with him on the Lionheart album, and it was very exciting to work with him again. He is very open-minded and is well up to date on all the latest drum-sampling equipment, etc., and also happens to be a great drummer. We worked with Charlie for two full days, and had him pop in for half days to do some more overdubs at a later stage.” Charlie can be heard on Hounds of Love, Cloudbusting, The Big Sky (hand claps!), Waking the Witch and Jig of Life.

Charlie would go on to play on The Sensual World album (The Sensual World, Reaching Out, Deeper Understanding, Walk Straight Down The Middle) on Kate’s version of Rocket Man (spot him on the Wogan performance and in the music video!), and on The Red Shoes album (The Song of Solomon). Here’s a clip of Charlie, fondly talking about working with Kate:

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

On 7th September 1985, Kate appeared performing Running Up That Hill on Show Vor Acht in Germany. Just as with the Extratour performance, here we again just have Kate, Charlie Morgan and Del Palmer. It’s a treat to unearth all the performances of this classic song. Kate would also perform Cloudbusting on the show.

Hounds of Love – Artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

Check out this lovely 1985 Canadian release of Hounds of Love on Pink/White marbled vinyl (Capitol Records/EMI Canada). I read that this release was ‘pulled’ due to the fact that the quality of the vinyl was poor, producing inferior sound quality, later re-pressed on black vinyl. Looks great though. Kate herself would finally embrace colour vinyl in a big way just recently with her Fish People indie editions released in 2023 – this time instead of pink/white she went for “Raspberry Beret” colour.

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

Cloudbusting was the first Kate Bush single to have a special extended version created for the music video. The Cloudbusting (Video Mix) was only ever released as a B-side on CD1 of The Red Shoes single in 1994, and was omitted from both the This Woman’s Work (1990) and The Other Sides (2018/2019) compilations. At 6 minutes 57 seconds, it’s considerably longer than the album version (5:08) and even longer than the Cloudbusting (Organon Remix) (6:34). Worth tracking down for the dreamlike “It’s you and me, Daddy” interlude!

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

Today we think of a dazzling, genre-defying percussionist, Morris Pert, who had worked with Kate on some of her most famous recordings, including percussion on the songs Strange Phenomena, Kite, Wuthering Heights, Breathing, playing Boo Bams on the song Room For the Life and timpani on the song All We Ever Look For. On Kate’s 1977 recording of Wuthering Heights he played crotals, similar to disc-shaped glockenspiels. His studio session work included recordings with Paul McCartney, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, John Williams, Mike Oldfield, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. On the Hounds of Love album he performs on The Big Sky.

Morris was described as a shy, retiring man who lived quietly in his chalet near Kinlochbervie in Scotland, best known for his work with the pioneering group Brand X. In 1977 America’s Billboard magazine voted him the fourth best jazz and rock percussionist in the world, and the famous drummer Buddy Rich said he was one of the greatest drummers he had ever played with. He produced five CDs and wrote three major symphonies and featured on many BBC radio programmes. Here is an exciting example of his work, entitled Orinoco. Morris died on April 27, 2010, at his home in Balchrick, Scotland, at the age of 63. You can see some nice clips of Morris discussing working with Kate on the unofficial documentary – Kate Bush Under Review – watch a clip here.

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

Broadcast on November 30th 1985, Kate performed two songs on the Peter’s Pop show on German TV – Running Up That Hill and this very rare (and exuberant!) performance of The Big Sky. Peter’s Pop was broadcast annually by ZDF between 1985 and 1993. The show was presented by Peter Illmann. With thousands in the audience and many more thousands watching the programme on television, it was the biggest music show in Europe. Joining Kate on stage are Del Palmer, Kevin McAlea, Martin Glover (Youth) and Stuart Elliott on drums. Love how they follow Kate off stage in a line at the end! Fun fact: For whatever reason, stock images taken at this performance became the most used worldwide of Kate in 2022 by press and media when RUTH exploded on the global charts all over again. I guess they had a bulk deal going!

Hounds of Love – Artefact of the day

Released on April 21st 1986, The Big Sky (Special Single Mix) was released on 7″, 12″ and in this limited edition 7″ picture disc in clear pvc wallet. The b-side was the brand new track, Not This Time. Photography by John Carder Bush. This is one of the few 7″ picture discs Kate has released, along with This Woman’s Work, And So Is Love and King of the Mountain.

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

At the end of the song Hello Earth, a voice intones the words “Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein Licht.” This is German for “Deeper, deeper, somewhere in the depth there is a light.” While many believed this was Kate reciting the line, it was in fact recited by Gabi Zangerl, who is thanked in the album notes – a friend of the Bush family who was visiting at the time of recording. In the 1990s, a German Kate Bush fanzine had the title “Irgendwo in der Tiefe”.

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

A lovely example of a lasting, mutual appreciation between Kate and another musician. In a 1985 interview, Kate was enthusiastically recounting the process of sending tapes to Eberhard Weber, her favourite ECM artist, and then joining him in her studio to run through his parts. “I must say, it’s just delightful to be able to work with people you’ve admired. The parts are very much his. I would only question a note here or there, only because of my stubbornness… how I see things. But what I love is his personality, which exudes through everything he does. Beautiful, consuming sounds. So emotional. And, really, you ask people like that to come in so that you can steal that little bit of personality and put it on your track.“

A German double bassist and composer, Eberhard was always known for his highly distinctive tone and phrasing. His compositions blend chamber jazz, European classical music, minimalism and ambient music, and are regarded as characteristic examples of the ECM Records sound. He first heard from Kate out of the blue in 1982, while returning to his hotel in Hamburg after a concert, the receptionist handed him a note with a telephone number written on it. “A certain Frau Busch called while you were out.”

From Eberhard’s biography, A German Jazz Story: “Busch, Busch, a Frau Busch – who could that be? A number with the UK country code – 0044. Calling back didn’t help – there was no answer. I had to wait until I returned home and mail from England landed in our letter box. Frau Busch turned out to be Kate Bush. We exchanged telephone numbers and were able to communicate verbally from then on. With neither the Internet nor mobile phones available back then, communication was often more complicated and protracted than it is today. Needless to say, I knew Kate as a popstar after all, Maja, my wife, was a fan of hers and owned a few of her LPs. I knew of Kate’s exceptional voice and talent for arrangements.

Surprised that she knew my music and claimed to be a big fan of ECM, I became curious about her reason for contacting me. She then let the cat of the bag and asked if I could fly to London to record a special bass melody which I was to think up for one of her tracks. Next, she sent me a tape – I can’t recall the medium, probably a DAT. I thought of a few possibilities that matched her voice, scheduled a date for the recording and flew to London. When I arrived at the airport with all of my junk, she was there to pick me up in person with one of her brothers, and we drove to her flat…”

Eberhard played exquisite double bass on Houdini for The Dreaming album and was later called up again for the Hounds of Love sessions. “This time, I didn’t have to prepare anything in advance. I was flown in to record straight onto the tape. That, too, worked. Maja came with me this time. She and Kate had a lovely conversation in the evening.” You will hear him on Mother Stands for Comfort and Hello Earth. Eberhard also played on The Sensual World and Aerial – recordings for the latter carried out at Kate’s home studio with Eberhard treated royally as Kate’s house guest. Despite a debilitating stroke seriously impacting his playing career in 2007, Kate did find another lovely way to feature her German friend in her work.

From his biography: “During one of our cosy evenings together, over a wonderful meal accompanied by several glasses of red wine, Kate hinted at the fact that if she was ever to give concerts again, she would want me to be there. When I found out in the summer of 2014 that the time had finally come, and Kate was going to get back onstage for the first time in thirty-five years, my phone didn’t ring – I had told her long ago that my musical career had been cut short. Instead, I later received an email from her. What she wrote moved me: “Did I tell you that we played your stunning Pendulum CD in the venue before each and every show as it’s my very favourite album!” So I had been there all the same! Right from the start I have found Kate to be a truly endearing person, warm-hearted, generous and humble. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to think of anything negative to say about her. My detractors will be shocked: Weber, the eternal critic, is full of praise! She reacted splendidly to my strokes of fate – my stroke in 2007 and the sudden, unexpected death of my wife Maja in 2011. An admirable, exceptional woman.“

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

Kate’s third release from her album, the title track, was issued as a single in the UK on February 17th 1986, and spent 5 weeks in the UK singles chart. On 6th March, Kate performed a great performance of Hounds of Love (lip-synched of course) on the BBC TV programme Top of the Pops, with plenty of personality, backed by Paddy Bush and Jonathan Williams on double basses, Del Palmer on keyboards, and both Stuart Elliott (on the left) and his brother Lindsay Elliott (on the right) whacking those drum kits. Both brothers would be seen on double drum kit duties again in The Big Sky video, filmed at Elstree studios just a couple of weeks after this TV performance.

The single (then at it’s peak position of #18) actually dropped to number 24 the following week (these things were really important then!) but regardless, 1986 would of course continue to be a wonderful year of success for Kate, chartwise. This would be Kate’s last appearance on Top of the Pops for another 8 years, when she surprised fans by performing her single, And So Is Love, from The Red Shoes album on November 17th, 1994, her last time on the show.

Hounds of Love – artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

Kate’s third single from the album, the title track, Hounds of Love, was released in the UK in this nice textured sleeve 7″ vinyl. If you were lucky to catch the first run of these, they were issued with a limited pair of black stickers with the title on it. (Seán would love a copy with these stickers, readers, so do let him know!). The front cover features a portrait of Kate by her brother John Carder Bush. From his book, Kate: Inside the Rainbow, John writes: “We created the ‘Hounds of Love’ single cover using a composite with a shot I took of a sunset over Lough Corrib in the west of Ireland, and a studio shot of Kate. I am always fascinated by how halving a face can produce yet another dynamic interpretation of the same portrait.“

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

The chant heard after the choruses of Hello Earth is a Georgian song called “წინწყარო” (Ts’ints’q’aro, often transcribed as Tsintskaro, meaning “at the spring water”). Kate had first heard it in the 1979 Werner Herzog film Nosferatu the Vampyre, which uses a 1978 recording by the Rustavi Ensemble with soloist Hamlet Gonashvili.

A few years back, I was invited to speak at a panel in Dublin during a playback of the Hounds of Love album and I asked Kate’s brother, John Carder Bush, if he had any anecdotes about the making of the album that I could share. One thing he wrote to me about was the Nosferatu music:

“As you know, the choral piece from ‘Hello Earth’ was the result of watching Herzog’s ‘Nosferatu’ and being enchanted by the Georgian choir. However, at that time, we did not know where the music originated from, and it was my job to track it down. I couldn’t get  hold of Herzog, but I managed to speak on the phone with Florian Fricke in Munich, who, with ‘Popol Vuh’ had been responsible for the original music in the film. His initial enthusiasm to be speaking with Kate’s brother about the music in the film diminished rapidly when I pointed out that it was not his music we were interested in but the bit of choral church music. He had no idea where it came from, or if he did he wasn’t going to tell me, but dismissed it as folk music. Well it didn’t sound like folk music to me, but more like Greek or Russian Orthodox church music.

By chance, the old Church nearly opposite the Farm had been taken over by the Greek Orthodox church, so I set off with a cassette player to find the resident priest. Not so easy as he did not open the church every day; I eventually found him with his family in a council maisonette. Of course, he could not speak a word of English, but I played him the music, and he just grinned at me through his beard and shook his head. In the end it was transposed from the film’s soundtrack because we had ground to a halt in finding anything else out about it. Those were still the days of books and telephones, word of mouth and obscure record shops. Today, I would have had the answer in a minute. I still find the piece, whether Kate’s version or the original, terrifyingly beautiful.” – Fascinating. Thanks, as always, John!

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.

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

There can be some delicious little mysteries to be had when scouring the sleeve notes of Kate’s albums. Who was “Dan-Dan the Sushi man” thanked on The Dreaming album? Was “Madame Maria Nanky” really a pseudonym Kate had for herself? Poor Old Flea by Nanky was Kate’s favourite cover of one of her own songs, after all…I must ask Nicholas Wade next time I see him. And “John, John, John, Jon, Jon” thanked on Never For Ever presumably know exactly who they all are. So, seeing the actor and comedian, Robbie Coltrane‘s name on the sleeve notes of Hounds of Love was a head-scratcher for me when I came across it first.

And then the penny drops. Robbie’s distinctive Scottish accented voice (“You must wake up!”) can of course be heard among the first voices trying to rouse Kate’s shipwrecked character from sleep at the beginning of Waking The Witch. Kate has befriended and worked with many luminaries of the British comedy scene over the years. Robbie later played the Charles Bronson/Ken Livingstone character, the subject matter of Kate’s song “Ken”, in the Comic Strip Presents film, G.L.C in 1990. And, in 2011, he memorably starred in the official music video for her re-recorded Deeper Understanding as a man helplessly lost to the sinister influence of his computer. For millions around the world, of course, he’ll always be known as the loveable giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter films as well as starring in the BAFTA-winning UK TV series, Cracker.

When Robbie sadly passed away in October 2022, Kate posted about her friend on her official site: “I was very upset to hear the news about Robbie.
I’m really grateful that he agreed to star in a video that we made some years ago. It was incredibly exciting to watch him at work and to be in the presence of his deeply profound intelligence and earthy wit. He was so much fun. I’m really going to miss him. I had so much respect for his many talents and his generosity of spirit. We’ve lost one of our great treasures…“

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

A full 10 years before Kate’s signature hit single from the Hounds of Love album, Running Up That Hill, became a global phenomenon, the song was heard, beautifully reworked and updated, by millions of people watching the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Featuring a brand new vocal from Kate, and leaning into elements of the 12″ mix of the single, Kate’s 2012 remix was featured in a crucial section of the closing ceremony, after the entry of athletes, and whilst a pyramid was built in the centre of the Olympic Stadium from blocks representing each of the Olympic events, prior to the presentation of the medals for the Marathon. Also known as A Symphony of British Music, the ceremony was held on the 12th August 2012 in the Olympic Stadium, London.

According to event designer Es Devlin, Kate had filmed something for the event intended to be screened in the stadium, but she ultimately scrapped it, possibly due to time constraints. There was still something very powerful about hearing Kate’s new remix, with a freshly recorded vocal, belting out the song to the millions watching. Kate posted a brief note about it on her official site: “Hi there, I hope you all enjoyed the remix of Running Up That Hill this evening at the Olympics Closing Ceremony. They certainly put on a brilliant show.” Such was the interest that the song was issued as a digital single (some CD promo copies with a RUTH graphic sleeve were printed up also) and rocketed to No.6 in the UK charts the following week! What we didn’t know, of course, was that re-working a song like this in her more mature voice, as with the previous year’s Director’s Cut, would help lead her to sing her classic song, and so many others, live on stage again in 2014. Thank you, Olympics!

Hounds of Love – artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

Released in card sleeve with generic white paper inner sleeve, this little gem was the first ever commercial or promo Kate CD single to be released anywhere in the world. This 1986 USA promo CD single of Cloudbusting was produced to promote ‘The Whole Story’ compilation album, which explains the inclusion of The Man With The Child In His Eyes and Sat in Your Lap on the tracklist. It features of course the iconic photograph of Kate on the cloudbuster by her brother John Carder Bush. Keen-eyed Kate geeks will spot that the fourth track’s mix of Cloudbusting is incorrectly called the ‘Meteorological Mix‘ (a name which actually belongs to The Big Sky remix) rather than the correct Organon Mix. We’ll try to sleep at night, regardless.

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

The names of the two dogs who are photographed on the cover of the Hounds of Love album with Kate are Bonnie & Clyde, a pair of Weimaraners belonging to Kate’s Ma & Pa. In an interview Kate said “The two dogs are friends of ours. And John, my brother, who took the photograph, had a lot of trouble keeping them under control. I think he had a very strong word with them and got them to behave, and it really was just a matter of patience, because we’d get the whole scene set up, and then the dogs would come in and they’d be walking all over me and everything, and it would be totally ruined in five minutes, so we’d have to start again. They did eventually (behave)…to the point where they just went to sleep!” And of course, they are sweetly thanked on the album sleeve notes: “A big woof to Bonnie & Clyde”

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

The brilliant drummer Stuart Elliott has put his unmistakable stamp all over Kate’s catalogue right from the very beginning, playing drums on eight studio albums from The Kick Inside through to Aerial. What a career! Playing drums on tracks like Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Breathing, Army Dreamers, Love & Anger, Rubberband Girl and Sunset to name just a small handful of Kate’s songs that Stuart has played on. And Kate is just one of the many famous names Stuart lists on his dazzling CV. Stuart was the original drummer with Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, which lead to him being picked by producer Andrew Powell to play on Kate’s first album. Kate said about him: “He’s so easy to work with because he knows what I’m like. Occasionally I’ll even ask him to use cymbals on a track now! He’s been through that whole stage where I just couldn’t handle cymbals or hi-hats.“

It’s likely that of all Kate’s albums, Hounds of Love is the one he is now most frequently asked to talk about, having shared drumming duties on the album with the one and only Charlie Morgan. Stuart plays drums on Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love, Mother Stands For Comfort, Cloudbusting, Watching You Without Me, Jig of Life and Hello Earth. Amazing. In 2018, Stuart spoke to Musicradar about how Kate’s approach to drum sounds in her production had changed. “Hounds of Love…it’s a different form of production, a one-man-at-a-time job. So you had to come in and play to Fairlight-sequenced parts. It was more bitty, not live at all. It’s a cracking album though. There are no hi-hats or cymbals. That was a challenge, I would look for things to play in the higher register that would give it motion – little hand drums, not shakers or anything too obvious. It’s all acoustic drums.”

By the time he was working on the Aerial album Kate had switched up her plans for drums on the record, with Stuart telling one interviewer her approach was to allow hi-hat and cymbals “…and not relying on all that massive gated reverb stuff. She has opted for a more sensitive, even jazzy approach which, as chance would have it, I have also gravitated back towards….I bought a Sonor Jungle snare for about $100.00. It is about ten inches in diameter and two inches deep. What a sound though! It’s Kate’s favourite at the moment…” Look out for Stuart in the video for The Big Sky!

Hounds of Love – happening of the day

Kate sometimes shows up at awards shows, and sometimes she doesn’t! In recent decades we saw her surprise everyone by attending the Q Awards in 2001, nervously pick up an award for 50 Words For Snow in 2011 at the South Bank Show Awards, and most recently she was memorably seen beaming at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in 2014, where she won an award for Before The Dawn. If the ceremony is being held overseas though, it’s ….a little less likely she might attend (sorry Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2023!).

So, while she didn’t attend the CMJ New Music Awards in the US in November 1986, when she won the award for Best Female Artist, she did send a very fun and silly taped acceptance speech, flanked by the two giraffes that had starred with her earlier that year in The Big Sky music video! Even a genius who produces a musical masterpiece sometimes just likes to hang out with her long-necked pals, hair in pigtails, waving a thank you to those “absolute dahlings” who threw her a nice gong to add to her collection. Spiffing!

Hounds of Love – artefact of the day

(Brought to you in association with katebushcollectibles.com)

This rather unique item was the very first release of Kate’s to mark Record Store Day, something she has continued to get involved with by issuing special vinyl releases occasionally. Only 1,000 copies were produced in the USA in 2011 by Audio Fidelity of this ‘Collector’s Edition’ 10″ Hounds of Love limited edition pink vinyl release in card sleeve with white paper inner sleeve and cream labels. It featured just two tracks from each side of the album. Tracklisting: Side A – 1) The Big Sky, 2) Cloudbusting and Side B – 1) Watching You Without Me and 2) Jig Of Life. The Record Store Day event sees artists releasing special and collectible editions on vinyl for sale in independent record shops. Kate would later go on to be an Ambassador for Record Store Day in 2024, continuing her long affection for vinyl pressings.

It was also very nice to see The Ninth Wave photograph by John Carder Bush used as the main front cover for an official Kate Bush release – so far the only time this has happened. A colour photograph from the same session did appear on the back sleeve of one of the exclusive vinyl albums in the 1990 This Woman’s Work box set.

Hounds of Love – trivia of the day!

The scenes in the Cloudbusting video featuring the men from the government in their suits and hats was filmed on the marble staircase at the Old Marylebone Town Hall in London – where a few members of The Beatles and many other famous (and regular) people have gotten married!