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
Detail from Child of War by Peter Doig, one of the pieces in the auction.
Kate is harnessing the power of her global hit Running Up That Hill in collaboration with leading names in British art to raise money for children caught up in global conflicts. From the announcement in TheGuardian newspaper today:
“The singer-songwriter invited 52 visual artists to respond to her lyric “If I only could, I’d make a deal with God” from her 1985 anthem. One of her best-loved songs and hailed as “one of the greatest songs of all time” by Rolling Stone, it became a hit all over again in 2022 when it featured in the fourth season of the US TV series Stranger Things.
Maggi Hambling, once described as the “original bad girl of art” and Peter Doig, whose paintings have sold for millions, are among those to contribute works interpreting the lyric for the fundraiser Sound & Vision, named after David Bowie’s 1977 hit. All the works will feature in an online auction, from 28 October to 13 November, with starting bids at £100, to raise money for the charity War Child, which protects, educates, and stands up for the rights of children living in war zones.”
The exhibition catalogue can be viewed online here (Note: that the auction site has more detailed information than the catalogue about the inspirations for the Kate lyric inspired pieces.)
Announcing the project, Kate said: “All wars leave horrific scars; ruined lives, families ripped apart, life-changing injuries, trauma, and loss on a massive scale – but it’s the children who suffer the most in so many ways. Their past, present and future melt away into fear and uncertainty.
“It is more important than ever we support War Child and their invaluable work providing immediate aid to children caught in conflict all over the world including in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and Syria. Projects like Sound & Vision harness the power of art and music to make a real difference to children living through war.”
Boo Saville – Kate on Wogan, 1985
The Guardian reports: “Doig has contributed two signed pieces: The Hill, on the theme of the crucifixion, and Child of War depicting a child looking at a figure on horseback. Hambling’s contribution is titled Midnight Wave.
Charlie Calder-Potts, Britain’s youngest female official war artist who worked with the British army in Afghanistan, and who has since travelled the world creating work in Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan and at Yazidi refugee camps in Iraq, has created a new work.
Artworks created for the Sound and Vision auction based on Kate’s Running Up That Hill lyrics.
So too have Corbin Shaw, known for textiles, prints and flags capturing modern-day Britishness through ancient crafts; Susie Hamilton, a former artist-in-residence at St Paul’s Cathedral whose portraits of doctors, nurses and patients facing Covid-19 are held by the Science Museum; and Unskilled Worker, AKA Helen Downie, who discovered painting aged 48 and shot to industry-wide fame, growing an Instagram following of more than 280,000 followers.
Midnight Wave by Maggi Hambling. Photograph: Maggi Hambling
The exhibition, curated by ART on a Postcard and sponsored by DHL, will go on display at Iconic Images Gallery in Piccadilly, London, from 4-8 November. Contributors also include LUAP, Hannah Lim, Kate McCrickard, Erin Lawlor, Gill Button, Adam Dix, David Harrison, Gideon Rubin, Boo Saville, Shezad Dawood, Natalia González Martín, while Peter Messer and Nick Grindrod will return after taking part in last year’s Sound & Vision.”
And If I Only Could I’d Make a Deal With God by Susie Hamilton. Photograph: Susie Hamilton
Kate follows in the footsteps of Bowie as a supporter of War Child. Bowie helped curate a fundraising exhibition for the charity in 1994 called Little Pieces from Big Stars, which 30 years later was the inspiration for the first Sound & Vision last year with artists responding to the lyric “We like dancing and we look divine” from his song Rebel Rebel.
From today’s Guardian piece: “The curator Gemma Peppé, the founder of Art on a Postcard, said Bush’s lyric had “prompted some great contemporary artists to produce some vibrant and evocative work”. She said Doig had asked if he could take part. “I nearly fell off my chair. That’s a testament to the great work War Child does.”
Charlotte Nimmo from War Child UK, which is present in a number of active conflict zones including Ukraine and Gaza, said: “We are delighted to announce that Sound & Vision is returning, this year inspired by lyrics from the incredible Kate Bush. This is made possible thanks to the immense generosity of both Kate and her team, as well as the iconic artists that are creating and donating pieces inspired by Kate’s lyrics.”
War Child’s Sound & Vision 2025 will be exhibited at Iconic Images Gallery from 4-8 November. The online auction takes place from 28 October to 13 November via Givergy.
Kate has just announced on her official site a new 11-track compilation release, Best of The Other Sides. From her official site announcement:
Fish People are delighted to announce the release of Best of The Other Sides. Digital Release 26th September. Coloured vinyl (Lothlorien colour) release and also CD are available from 31st October. The Other Sides was a collection of all the B-sides and other songs that didn’t exist on any album. It was part of the Remastered Box Set that was released in 2018. That set is no longer available. Three of the tracks have been slightly reworked for the release. Pre-order is here.
Best of The Other Sides – CD package – open view
Best of The Other Sides has been designed for people who didn’t have access to that original box set. The title is self-explanatory.
Kate writes: “We have remastered ‘Experiment IV’ and ‘ You Want Alchemy?’ and both include a small edit. I felt ‘ Experiment IV’ would benefit from a longer intro featuring Alan Murphy’s magnificent guitar. ‘You Want Alchemy?’ also has a small edit that tightens up the outro and we’ve re-eq’d the track. ‘Walk Straight Down the Middle’ has also benefitted from being re-eq’d. Hope you enjoy the tweaks!”
Best of The Other Sides – photo from Kate’s official site
Interestingly, Kate reveals for the first time that “You Want Alchemy? was meant to be one of the tracks on The Red Shoes album, but because there was already so much material, it ended up as a B Side. I love Michael Kamen’s orchestral arrangement in this song. It really takes us to that lovely afternoon, up in the hills with the mad beekeeper.”
The remaining material from The Other Sides will be re released digitally at a later date.
Kate has updated her official site’s store with Running Up That Hill themed t-shirts (black or white), long-sleeved t-shirts (also available in black or white) and a black tote bag. The shirt designs include the photo of Kate taken by her brother, John Carder Bush, which features on the rear sleeve of the original 1985 single release and which also became the cover image for her rarities CD compilation The Other Sides and on two of the vinyl sleeves from her Remastered in Vinyl IV box set. The song lyrics calligraphy that John drew on Kate’s back for the shot is also replicated in the design.
Rear of white long-sleeved Running Up That Hill shirt
We have no clear idea yet why Kate has chosen to make this range available at this time but the 40th anniversary of the release of Running Up That Hill is mere weeks away on August 5th. Also, there may well be renewed interest in the song with the return of Stranger Things this autumn. Since her Fish People site and store relaunch in 2023 she has only released new merch lines in conjunction with happenings such as her Fish People logo rebrand, and items related to her illustrated vinyl series releases when they happened. We’ll have to wait and see if there’s a reason for these items appearing. Meanwhile in KBN site and podcast news, just around the corner we’ll be spending 30 days honouring something very, very special…
Image taken from promotional video for Is This What We Want? silent album
A new Kate Bush studio recording dropped unexpectedly today? Well, kind of, yes! As we saw in her recent Christmas message, the challenges and concerns posed by AI technology are not far from Kate’s mind of late and in a letter in today’s UK Times newspaper she joins many prominent artists and writers in a protest at the UK government’s AI copyright proposals. Many media reports single out Kate’s involvement in their headlines this morning. A similar campaign has paid for prominent wrap-around paid advertising on all major UK print newspapers this morning with the slogan “Make it Fair“.
Paid for advertising by the campaign on all major UK newspapers this morning
The letter states “There is no moral or economic argument for stealing our copyright. Taking it away will devastate the industry and steal the future of the next generation.” It is signed by Simon Beaufoy, Barbara Broccoli, Kate Bush, Stuart Camp, Matthew Dunster, Sam Fender, Helen Fielding, Rachel Fuller, Sir Stephen Fry, David Furnish, Dame Pippa Harris, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Sir Elton John, Paul King, Simon Le Bon, Dua Lipa, Alastair Lloyd Webber, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Martin McDonagh, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Lucy Prebble, Sir Simon Rattle, Philip Ridley, Michael Rosen, Dame Hannah Rothschild, Ed Sheeran, Sting, Sir Tom Stoppard, Pete Townshend, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Matthew Warchus, Jeanette Winterson, Andrew Wylie.
As part of this campaign, a new “silent” album, called “Is This What We Want?” has been released today on streaming platforms including here on Spotify. The album 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. Kate has written about the project 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 recordings of dormant music studios and performance spaces, represents the impact on artists’ livelihoods if the government pushes ahead with its plans, according to Ed Newton-Rex, the British composer and former AI executive behind the idea. He warns that livelihoods are under threat from these proposed changes to copyright law. According to an article in The Guardian today, “…the album contains 12 recordings with more than 1,000 artists credited as co-writers, with the individual artist behind each of the dozen “silent” tracks uncredited. However, it is understood that Kate Bush has recorded one of the dozen tracks in her studio. Bush said: “In the music of the future, will our voices go unheard?”
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.
Kate’s tradition of sharing a most-welcome Christmas message this year lands, appropriately, on Christmas Eve. As many of us prepare to spend time with family, today she has shared a Christmas Eve message on her official site that, while acknowledging the global strife and war that led to her creating her acclaimed Little Shrew animation, reflects on the possibilities of brighter revelations ahead for all of us.
A Monet Christmas Eve to All!
It’s been really exciting to see the wonderfully positive feedback to the Little Shrew animation. Thank you so much to all of you who made a donation to War Child. They have been absolutely delighted with the response.
Little Shrew will be getting a bowl of especially delicious earthworms this Christmas morning.
It’s been another year of exceptionally dark news. It just keeps getting worse, doesn’t it?
The wars keep raging. We helplessly stand and watch as those poor people are caught up in the horrors of it all and of course there are the children…
It’s hard not to focus on the worry we all feel about these conflicts and the massive changes that are happening around us, but I’d like to try to find something positive to say for this Christmas message:
Happy Christmas Eve! My favourite day of the year. When I was a child, it used to have a special feeling. It even had a sort of Christmas Eve smell… a mixture of smoking coal fires and damp leaves, all bundled up in a drizzly English frozen fog. If I really work on it, I can still summon it up on the day. I’m working on it now…
I went to see the Monet exhibition. Twenty one paintings in two rooms – all featuring the Thames in the smog. They were incredibly atmospheric. The fact that they were all of the same environment made you feel like you were there yourself, wrapped up in a mysterious smog of muddy sulphurous yellows, sun-starved pinks, car-sick greens.
You could only make out vague, blurred shapes through the etherial, swirling veils…a majestic bridge here, a wispy boat there… these paintings were completely mesmerising. They transported you to London at the turn of the last century.
Monet thought that the smog was beautiful and that London would’ve looked utterly uninteresting without it. For him it was the smog that created the magic of the place.
I imagined him ready at first light, stood at his easel spluttering and coughing as he peered through the polluted air, with no choice but to gasp at its beauty.
It made me smile to read that although he sketched them while he was in London, he took them home and finished them off in France. Ha ha! So all is not as it seems – that sun-starved pink was actually lavish Giverny pink.
Is that us? Standing in awe at the dawn of AI, the symbol of modernity, as smog was for Monet at that time in the newly industrial London? Do we only see the twinkling light of the new invention, which so often catches the eye of our imagination… and what are those vague, dark sardonic shapes we can see in the background, behind the theatrical gauze?
It’s hard to make them out, but could they be our human pods, like those from the Matrix, being readied for us by eager, playful digits? Or maybe they are freshly painted bridges – robust, and lovingly built to carry us all into a much longed-for new age of healthy thinking?
All will be revealed when the smog begins to clear.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it’s a really joyful one for you all.
Kate’s official site now has a Little Shrew T-shirtavailable to pre-order, featuring an image of Little Shrew on the front and the following lyrics on the back: “THE WORLD IS SO LOUD, KEEP FALLING, I’LL FIND YOU”
Snowflake Christmas card and decorative envelope
Also available to buy now are packs of 5 Snowflake Christmas cards featuring the artwork from the back of The Polar Edition illustrated reissue of 50 Words for Snow and including a decorative envelope.
Wishing Kate a very happy 66th birthday today! Hope you have a wonderful day, Kate. Xxx
@allontheboard on the London Underground celebrate Kate’s birthday
UPDATE AUGUST 15TH: Kate has thanked fans on her official site for their birthday wishes:
Thanks for the Birthday wishes
Hope you’re all enjoying the summer although it seemed rather reluctant to arrive. I really loved all that rain!
Thank you so much to everyone who sent through birthday wishes. They’re very much appreciated. It’s really lovely to know that you’re out there with your positive messages amongst all the negativity in the world right now.
I also want to say a big thank you to Shepherd’s Bush railway station. Some friends sent me the notice board above. It’s such a lovely gesture and I’m very touched.
Kate has posted a very thoughtful and reflective Christmas message on her official site, attempting to find the Christmas spirit in a troubled world! Lovely to hear from her, as always. Happy Christmas, Kate!
I hope you’re all looking forward to Christmas – just around the corner now. I wasn’t much looking forward to it, but in the last few days, I really am.
I was very excited to see the positive feedback about the reissues and the redesign of the website. It’s been a lot of work, but when you see such lovely comments, it all makes it worthwhile. It really does. Thank you so much.
What a year it’s been. I’d always hoped that the human race would become more spiritual, gentle creatures as we moved into the future but it has proved to be the absolute antithesis. The world is at war while the planet burns…. What is going on?
I‘m among a group of friends who don’t watch the news any more. It now seems to be a global trend. Of course we want to stay informed but sometimes elements of the visual reporting feel horrifically voyeuristic.
I’ve tried to write this piece three times so far, looking for something positive to focus on, but that’s been hard to find.
I stand in awe of running water. Especially hot, running water. It is a miracle. You turn on the tap and hot, clean water gushes out of the tap. A miracle! Yes, but then I think about the people caught in the many wars that are raging right now and at the very heart of these are the children caught up in the wars. They don’t always have clean water and they really need a miracle. Christmas is a time for little children: a time of wonder and the promise of magic… looking towards a new year, to a future.
It makes me feel so lucky that we can celebrate Christmas in the way we do, but also so sad. The effect of war on all people is massive, but on children…
It’s so incredibly important that charities like War Child, UNICEF and the NSPCC are there to support and help children. Their incredible work might be more important than it’s ever been when the modern world seems to make few concessions for children at the hands of evil created by adults.
I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas, with the promise of magic, and let’s all pray for a year ahead that brings us some opportunities to talk about happy things.
Detail of the Hounds of Love (Baskerville Edition) illustrated inner gatefold sleeve
As was promised earlier this year when Kate moved her distribution to The State51 Conspiracy, special presentations of Hounds of Love have just been announced on Kate’s newly re-launched official Fish People site. And they are quite extraordinary. They include an “illustrated vinyl” 12″ edition (known as the Baskerville Edition) as well as the album being presented on two boxes (called The Boxes of Lost at Sea). Additionally, the coloured vinyl we reported on last month is available to pre-order. Elsewhere, the new site features new notes and specially chosen footage by Kate on all of her albums as she reissues her full album catalogue.
Hounds of Love – The Baskerville Edition 12″ vinyl
The 12″ vinyl Baskerville edition (available from December 1st, pre-order here) features new illustrations by Timorous Beasties on the front (shown above – two hounds!), centre gatefold (Kate, being hoisted by sea creatures, in her life jacket with flashing solar powered red LED light!) and back (including a solar panel to charge the light battery in daylight!). The inner sleeve features the Cloudbusting silhouette. The Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love is intended to be the first in a series of illustrated editions of Kate’s albums. The Dreaming will be the second in the series of illustrated editions, also illustrated by Timorous Beasties. This will be released in time for Valentine’s Day, 2024. More details will be available nearer the time.
The illustrated centre of the vinyl gatefold sleeve with Solar Powered flashing LED
The site says that “the best way to charge this solar panel is in bright sunlight (but not with the vinyl LP, it might warp!) In that situation it will charge really quickly, within ten minutes. Smoked glass doesn’t work well at all and neither does a very cloudy day. LED indoor lightning won’t work at all, but halogen lightning should be good. Do not put the solar panel closer then 10 cm from an artificial light source as this could cause heat damage to the solar panel. We hope you will experiment and please be patient if it’s a little temperamental. This is an innovative idea and designed to be environmentally friendly.”
The back of the vinyl sleeve with solar panel and ‘little light’ charging instructions and an illustrated scroll lyric excerpt from ‘And Dream of Sheep’
The Baskerville Edition is accompanied by a beautiful new Cloudbusting-themed video which depicts a young Peter Reich (actor Gus Turner) receiving the record and telling his story. Extremely touching! See it below.
The Baskerville Edition Unboxing Video
On the official press release for the reissues Kate says:
It’s been great fun putting together these new versions, including coloured vinyls for independent record stores. They’ve been designed as a ‘set’. It’s very exciting to see the resurgence of appreciation for the physical presence of albums released on vinyl. It’s how it’s always been for me, especially when I was a teenager. The whole buzz of the record store was part of the experience. Buying an album was an event. There’s a special emotional connection that happens between the possessor of an album, the music and the artwork, when it exists in the real world. It’s something we can treasure in a unique way.
Kate Bush, November 2023
Uncropped Timorous Beasties illustration for the Ninth Wave
The Boxes of Lost at Sea
If that wasn’t enough Kate has created two pieces of wall art, The Boxes of Lost at Sea (available from December 1st, pre-order here), each consisting of two boxes, each containing one side of the Hounds of Love album. In a second accompanying video, Kate explains via on-screen text, that she was inspired to expand upon a piece of work she first created for a special War Child charity auction in 1994 (see our news item here on the original artworks). Kate was thrilled to find the ITV clip of her idol, David Bowie, admiring her original artworks.
David Bowie admires Kate’s artwork on ITV in 1994
The boxes, which can each be wall mounted, also feature flashing LED lights powered by two AAA batteries. A donation will be made to War Child with each box that’s bought.
Kate says: “The idea was to create a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall. They’re based on something I designed for an auction for the charity War Child”
The Boxes of Lost At Sea – outside of boxes
Inside The Boxes of Lost at Sea are two vinyl records, described as “UV print on a side without grooves, on white vinyl.”
The Boxes of Lost at Sea – inside the two boxes
Like the 1994 original piece, each has an inscribed plaque, with versions available for pre-order in a braille version also:
The boxes are also accompanied on Kate’s updated site with an unboxing video which features a voiceover by Sir Ian McKellan!
The Boxes of Lost at Sea – Unboxing Video
Fish People are also reissuing the regular vinyl and CD versions of Hounds of Love and believe it or not (Stranger Things fans, ahoy!) a newly reissued cassette version – all three out on November 20th as previously reported. Elsewhere on the site, you can pre-order something for “those cloudbusting kind of days…” ……a rather fetching umbrella!
A momentous milestone today, Kate has surpassed 1 Billion streams of her song Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) on Spotify! It is, of course, the first of her songs to do so in the modern streaming era. Kate becomes the first female artist to hit this milestone with a song released in the 1980s. In that crazy whirlwind of chart activity and success in 2022 that followed the song going viral and becoming her biggest career hit to date, it was often difficult here on the news site to get a satisfying snapshot of this truly global phenomenon that occurred. How could we illustrate how massive a brand new hit the song had become and the sheer number of people around the world who were now listening to it? What helped greatly to show this were two sources in particular, the Billboard Global 200 chart and also the daily/weekly Global charts on Spotify. In this article we’ll explore just how significant Kate’s achievment is.
Update: Kate has added a lovely post to her official site (appropriately accompanied by a NASA photograph of the Ganges river delta) clearly blown away by today’s news!
‘ONE BILLION STREAMS FOR R.U.T.H’
A billion streams! I have an image of a river that suddenly floods and becomes many, many tributaries – a billion streams – on their way to the sea. Each one of these streams is one of you… Thank you! Thank you so much for sending this song on such an impossibly astonishing journey. I’m blown away – Kate
Why is Kate’s achievement such a big deal?
Reaching 1 billion streams with a song on Spotify really is a huge deal in 2023. So much so that only around 400 songs have managed this feat in Spotify’s history, the VAST majority of them, as you might expect from a service launched in the last decade, are songs recorded in the 2010s and 2020s – only 10 other songs from the 1980s have achieved it.
This is why Kate is in very rarified company in terms of music released by artists from the 1960s-2000s – Spotify’s user base skews younger, and much more contemporary – the “Billions Club” is full of the likes of Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Post Malone, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Drake, Ariana Grande and Dua Lipa. In fact other established, huge-selling acts from previous decades like Madonna, Whitney Houston, U2, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, ABBA, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and many more have yet to achieve the “billion” with a song as Kate has done. The Beatles only achieved their first billion streaming song last year with Here Comes The Sun.
Spotify also has all 400+ songs included in their popular Billions Club playlist below and fittingly they have revamped the cover photo of the playlist this evening!
How did Running Up That Hill do it?
Since hitting just over 8 million streams a day at its peak last June, Kate’s song has continued to reach almost 1 million streams daily ever since, and a year later this has now nudged her total streams past the 1 billion mark. Spotify is the world’s largest music streaming platform with over 80 million songs and updated streaming numbers are made available each day. When the Netflix show Stranger Things first catapulted Kate’s 1985 hit back into the charts in early June 2022, it represented an 8,700% increase globally in streams of the song on Spotify. The day Stranger Things launched on May 28th the song achieved a whopping 1 million+ streams – but that was just the tip of the iceberg! The following week saw the song rise to the number 1 position in the Spotify chart globally, with 57 million+ streams in one week alone and averaging over 8 million streams a day. Kate’s achievement that week has put her firmly in the All Time Top 20 most streamed songs ever in a single week on Spotify, and only 13 other No.1 songs on Spotify have achieved more average weekly plays.
Kate would reach the weekly summit of the Spotify weekly chart twice more in July, AND a staggering 17 individual days on top of the daily global chart in June and July. By the end of September she had racked up over 600 million streams since May. Kate remained in the Spotify Top 100 well into December, even receiving a considerable boost again around Halloween when the song was clearly being used in all manner of Stranger Things themed parties. Running Up That Hill continues to achieve almost 1 million daily streams to this day.
Does she get an award or something?
Yes, Spotify will send Kate out a special plaque celebrating her 1 billion streams success. As the Spotify logo on the plaque takes the form of a silver bowl shape, several artists have celebrated their achievement on social media by posting photos of them eating out of it. Others, like the singer Shakira above, are happy to simply pose with the award and thank their fans etc.
Was the Spotify success mirrored on the Billboard Global 200 chart?
Resoundingly, yes! Kate achieved a jaw-dropping chart run on this truly World chart-of-charts, which each week ranks the top songs globally and is based on digital sales and online streaming from over 200 territories worldwide. Kate had the biggest song in the entire world for three weeks!
(Many thanks to Brian Cloughley for creating the graphic at the top of this feature!)
Well, it’s a case of fourth time lucky for Kate as she is officially announced today to be one of the seven music acts to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the USA along with Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Missy Elliott, Sheryl Crow, George Michael and the Spinners. Congratulations to Kate!
I have to admit I’m completely shocked at the news of being inducted into the Hall of Fame! It’s something I just never thought would happen. Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me. It means a great deal that you would think of me. It’s such a huge honour. Now as part of the initiation ceremony I get to find out about the secret handshake… there is one, right?
Kate
Eligible for nomination since 2004 (nominated artists must be at least 25 years into their careers), Kate had previously been nominated in 2018, 2021 and 2022 before finally being inducted this year, her massive US chart success last year perhaps making this inevitable.
These honorees will be celebrated in an induction ceremony and concert to take place November 3rd at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Obviously there is no word as of yet if Kate wishes to attend or perform at the ceremony. Hall of Fame president and chief executive Joel Peresman told Rolling Stone that he hoped Kate would perform at the induction ceremony: “We open that door. It’s up to her.” If she did perform, it would be her first live performance since her 2014 London concert residency, Before the Dawn. More about the Hall of Fame inductees here.
There are six more inductees beyond that list, with the distinction of being selected by a select Hall of Fame committee to join the seven performers who were voted in via general balloting. These are singer Chaka Khan, instrumentalist-producer Al Kooper and lyricist Bernie Taupin, all in the “musical excellence” category; pioneering rock guitarist Link Wray and hip-hop originator DJ Kool Herc in the “musical influence” division; and “Soul Train” TV host Don Cornelius as the recipient of the annual Ahmet Ertegun Award.
It was very sad to hear today that the wonderful Scottish guitarist, Ian Bairnson, has passed away after a long battle with dementia. The news was confirmed by a post on his wife Leila’s Facebook page. Ian played guitar on many tracks on Kate’s first two albums and also backing vocals on Oh To Be In Love and beer bottles on Room For The Life. Later he recorded bass voices on the song Delius and went on to play guitar on Leave it Open from The Dreaming album. He is probably best known to fans for his iconic guitar solo on Wuthering Heights which closes out Kate’s hit single. His stunning work on these songs will forever have a place in our hearts.
Update 21st April: Kate has added her thoughts on Ian’s passing on her official site:
Ian
I was very sad to hear the news about the death of Ian Bairnson. He was a very sweet man. He was a huge talent and had a fabulous voice with an extraordinary vocal range but he was mainly known for his guitar work. We lost touch after we worked together on my early albums but I remember he had a lovely, warm smile and he played the inspired solo on Wuthering Heights with a broken arm. He was still wearing the cast! He was in a lot of pain but soldiered on and like all great artists, he truly suffered for his art. Making my first album was pretty daunting and I was working with people I’d never met before. Ian was kind and supportive and that meant such a lot. Thank you, Ian. Kate
He was a session guitarist before joining up in 1973 with former Bay City Rollers musicians David Paton and Billy Lyall in the band Pilot, and contributed the harmony guitar parts to their hit single, ‘Magic’. Ian was best known for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. A glittering career included work on over one hundred albums and a huge amount of live work with artists such as Al Stewart, Joe Cocker, Jon Anderson, Chris DeBurgh, Mick Fleetwood, Neil Diamond, Sting, Eric Clapton, Beverley Craven and many more.
Sending our sincere thoughts and condolences to his wife, family, friends and loved ones today.
Interesting news this lunchtime, Kate’s official Fish People site and social media channels have been updated with a brand new logo design. The logo has been designed by Timorous Beasties who previously designed the Between Two Worlds sea/sky artwork for the Before The Dawn concert programme which later also featured on the Remastered CD box sets. (UPDATE: her site now also features some wonderfully hidden fishy secrets – see bottom of this post!) The updates come as she announces via her official site that from March 1st 2023 she is moving her album catalogue from Warner Music Group over to The state51 Conspiracy with the following albums:
The Dreaming Hounds of Love The Sensual World The Red Shoes Aerial Directors Cut 50 Words For Snow The Kick Inside (USA only) Lionheart (USA only) Never For Ever (USA only)
Kate will be re-releasing the Hounds of Love album in special presentations of vinyl and CD later in the year. A brand new range of Fish People merchandise featuring the new logo design has also been launched, including a soon to be released jigsaw, vinyl slipmats and aprons! The news item finishes with this note: “Fish People continue to have an ongoing positive relationship with WMG.” You can read more about The state51 Conspiracy here. Update July 2024: An additional Fish People logo beach towel has been added to the range.
UPDATE: Kate is clearly having a lot of fun with this business refresh! Be sure to click on the “O” of the word PEOPLE on the new logo on the landing page of www.katebush.com – it will reveal some wonderful, cryptic Fish People secrets! FISHY SPOILERS BELOW
From the hidden section behind Kate’s new logo :
Fish People were a civilisation which became lost around 900 BC. Little is known about them other than they walked out from the seas onto the land one day when no-one was looking. It is believed that they were centuries ahead of their time. Their culture was not defined by wealth or social status and they abolished all violence as they believed in the harmony of nature and the equality of all oceans.
Their mystical language was thought to originate from The Tethys Trench. They could speak simultaneously to all aquatic creatures and to most of the humans in the Western Hemisphere. There were certain frequencies in their language that could only be understood by small crustaceans and very young children.
The full meaning of where their distinctive letterforms came from, has been lost. Many believe that these originated from the complex migrational paths of birds and a cellular-level understanding of the underwater mammals that had moved around them.
Fish People were said to have walked back into the seas one night when everyone was having dinner and it was foretold that they would again return to land when their teachings would be needed to heal a wounded world.
Faber are publishing the paperback edition of ‘How To Be Invisible: Selected Lyrics’, by Kate, officially released 6th April in the UK and 9th May in the USA. The new paperback edition features a brand new introduction from Kate and a new cover design by Jim Kay. Can you spot the hidden KT symbol on the cover?
The book will be available to pre-order from today (18th January). A very limited number of signed copies will be released and can be pre-ordered from selected bookshops and record shops (including Waterstones and Rough Trade), from 9am on Friday 20th January (UK only).
Kate has also written a message in invisible ink in a very small number of the signed copies, which will be distributed at random: the notes will be revealed to the lucky recipients when they place the signature page under an ultraviolet light.
‘The greatest singer-songwriter of the past forty years, whose work is complex, ethereal and filled with so many secrets that one can listen to the albums for decades and still discover new delights every time [. . .] There’s not a spare word anywhere in Bush’s work. Everything means something.’ Irish Times
