A sound clip featuring about 60 seconds from “She Moved Through the Fair”, the duet that Kate (relatively) recently recorded with Rolf Harris, has surfaced on Youtube here. It is unclear at the moment whether the clip has been uploaded by someone associated with Rolf or whether Rolf himself played the clip at a recent UK radio appearance. The 80 year old Australian artist and musician has frequently mentioned the duet in interviews and has been anxious to see it released. Featuring Rolf’s trademark didjeridu along with swirling Irish whistles and a soaring vocal from Kate, this has certainly got us excited to hear the full version of this up-tempo treat. This then, the first time we’ve heard Kate singing new material since Lyra in 2007, nearly three years ago.
Update: At the request of Rolf’s publisher, we have removed the audio from the clip that was posted on Youtube, it appears to have been an unauthorised leak. The publishers will update us on plans to release the song when that has been decided.
Some sad news. The Scottish musician, Morris Pert, was found dead at his home in Balchrick on Tuesday, aged 62. He had worked with Kate on some of her most famous recordings, including percussion on the songs Strange Phenomena, Kite, Wuthering Heights, Breathing and The Big Sky; 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. Morris was described as a shy, retiring man who lived quietly in his chalet near Kinlochbervie. 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. In recent years he was seen contributing to the Kate Bush: Under Review DVD documentary (you can see Morris talking about the Kick Inside sessions towards the end of this clip 
Older news I missed, sorry! Kate pays tribute to her friend Peter Gabriel in the April edition of MOJO magazine. “The art-rock guru looks back on his astonishing 40-year career. From fronting progressive masters Genesis to solo pop success, his is a story of restless toil and adventure. With a new album set for release in March, Gabriel guides us through a unique life in music. PLUS! Kate Bush, Elbow and Vampire Weekend salute the legend!”
This morning BBC Radio Scotland broadcast an interview with double bass player and Pentangle founder member Danny Thompson about his friendship with John Martyn, who passed away last year. During the chat Danny discusses his current projects, including “Recording – how about this – with Kate Bush, a week ago. What a lovely lady she is. She’s so fantastic. Stunning.” Danny has previously played on The Dreaming and Hounds of Love albums. We obviously don’t know if this is work on Kate’s next album, but welcome news nonetheless. (with thanks to Al Lehgori on our forum). Hear the interview 
So this fascinating piece of news has completely caught me napping! For some time it’s been known that songwriter Lionel Azulay (the drummer with ‘Company’, the original band that was later to become the KT Bush Band) was gearing up to release an album of his original work. In the early 1970s Company comprised of Lionel, Del Palmer and Brian Bath and were also occasionally joined live on mandolin by Paddy Bush. Unfortunately, at that time in the 1970s Lionel had a serious road accident and was forced to leave the band, being replaced as drummer by Charlie Morgan, thus missing his chance to play live with Kate. His Myspace page has recently reported that a song called “Wouldn’t Change a Thing” was recorded with Kate on prominent backing vocals but has remained unreleased untill very recently! The song is featured on the new CD “Out of the Ashes”. It was recorded in the 1990s. Lionel says on his site: “The now legendary and hugely all round nice person Kate Bush kindly lent her unique and wonderful voice to one of my songs (Wouldn’t Change a Thing, engineered and produced by Del at The Farm, Welling).” Luckily permission to include this song has been cleared in time for the album release. And we get to hear some previously unheard Kate!
HomeGround issue 78 celebrates 25 years of the publication of the longest running Kate Bush magazine. From Peter & Krys: “The issue includes: a sixteen page exclusive interview we did at HG Towers in March with DEL PALMER; a 3 page feature written for us by GUY PEARCE on his passion for Kate’s music; a two page feature written by Beck Sian plus beautiful photo of Beck when she was a child, with Kate – (Beck is Kate’s cousin’s daughter), new poems by John Carder Bush, an appreciation of the work of John Carder Bush by fellow poet & writer Collin Kelley, great poetry, photos, a wonderful article by a teacher on introducing Kate’s work into the national curriculum, plus a feature about Aerial in perspective with Kate’s earlier albums. Anyone who would like to renew their subscription can do so easily by using the Pay-Pal buttons on the HomeGround Page. I’ve read the interview with Del and it’s fantastic, do not miss. Get your Paypal orders in now!
Placebo are releasing their cover version of Kate’s Running Up That Hill in the US to coincide with the release of their iTunes only ‘Covers’ album. The track has been described as a “slowed down version of Kate Bush’s unbelievably beautiful classic…taking an already gorgeous song and covering it in a way that makes you fall in love with it again”. There was huge digital download demand for their cover of Kate’s song after it recently appeared in The O.C. Placebo are recruiting fans to star in the forthcoming video for the song. Placebo fans have been submitting single-camera video clips of themselves singing the cover. From an UnderGroundOnline interview with Placebo’s bass guitarist, Stefan Olsdal: UGO: What made you guys want to cover Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill?” Stefan: We cover songs that we like. For us it is something that we do for fun in B-side sessions. We’ve covered a variety of bands, usually from the ’80s. We did a Depeche Mode cover and Robert Palmer even. We’re fans of Kate Bush so, when it came to this track, we thought that the lyrics had a real depth and you can’t really get that in the original because she’s singing it so fast. We wanted to slow it down and it felt really good, and we’re really proud of it. UGO: Have you heard whether or not she likes it? Stefan: Yes we did, actually. We met and she does like it and we’re relieved by that fact because we’re big fans. Full interview 