Brian Parker in Melbourne writes: The Nine Network (the most widely watched TV station in Australia) have been playing “This Woman’s Work” to promote the up and coming episode of the American show ER. As the ad is played (I think one of the doctor’s has a brain tumour and has lost a baby!) the bottom left corner of the screen says “This Woman’s Work, Kate Bush EMI”. The ad is played twice an hour. The song is getting more exposure now than it back in 1989! (thanks to Brian and to Cindy Ireland in Australia)
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Kate attended a special ceremony at the Royal Academy of Arts tonight as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubileecelebrations. The event honours the work of young artists to which the Queen donated prizes. Kate was introduced to the Queen with Mick Hucknall of Simply Red. It seems she had trouble recognising many of the big names. Sky News spoke to Hucknall: “I could not tell her we had met before – that would have been a faux pas,” said a gallant Hucknall, who stayed close to Bush throughout the evening. ‘I just said we were singer-songwriters. I’m not offended, after all she’s a grandmother’….Bush, who was introduced to the Queen with Dynasty and Tenko actress Stephanie Beecham and former Monty Python cartoonist Terry Gilliam, said: ‘She had to ask us all who we were…but she was lovely – she was radiant.” Gilliam later admitted to the BBC that he was amazed she hadn’t recognised people like Kate who are known worldwide.
In ‘Scotland on Sunday’ (12th May) on their weekly ‘Culture Test’ feature the interviewer asked several questions of Cara Dillon. Born in 1975 in Dungiven Co Derry, she began work on her eponymous debut album which was released to critical acclaim on Rough Trade Records last year. She supported the Indigo Girls at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh on Monday, has recently supported Brian Kennedy and was one of David Gilmours guests at his recent Royal Festival Hall dates which Kate also took part in. Interview excerpt: “Q: What would your Desert Island Disc be? A: Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love. Its such a beautiful, lyrical album and you could never mistake the voice of Kate Bush. She’s a one-off. Q: Which artist has had the biggest effect on your life? A: Kate Bush has inspired me musically but the poetry of WB Yeats really allows me to escape to another world.” I highly recommend Cara’s album, definite shades of Kate’s vocal style on some of the tracks (Craigie Hill, I Am A Youth That’s Inclined To Ramble) applied to trad standards and some great original songs. Cara is already receiving deserved widespread acclaim. (thanks to Malcolm Calder for the interview quotes)
Even More Newsbits!!: Michael Leitz has outdone himself this month, providing all of the following links and news: British comedienne Jo Brand did an interview for www.thisislondon.co.uk and was asked what song she associated with London: Q: “Name a song that you associate with London.” A: “‘Oh England, My Lionheart’ by Kate Bush, which has lyrics about Kensington Park, Peter Pan and ravens at the Tower of London.” Rock’s Backpages have a feature called “Girl Unafraid: Kate Bush 1978” with an introduction and three interviews by Harry Doherty that originally appeared in Melody Maker ’78, here. The BBC have a list with Kate’s appearances on TOTP (live appearances and showing of a video) here. Two of them you can watch by going to the “TOTP Video Gallery” (Wow March ’79 and HOL ’86) here. In the category “Rock And Pop Features 1978”, you’ll find an audio clip: “Wuthering Heights: Kate Bush talks about the problems of having a #1 with her first single “Wuthering Heights”, and the marketing of her sexual image. Suprisingly,”Wuthering Heights” was the first UK # 1 single written and performed by a woman. Kate also had further hits this year, with “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” and “Hammer Horror”. Listen to the clip here. The Independent has an article about the music industry and the influence of the major labels on the business. Kate is also mentioned here.
Oliver on the guestbook reckons it may be worth checking out the second part of the BBC Radio 2 documentary on Peter Gabriel…it will look at his collaborations with other artists, so there will be a mention of Kate (Saturday 18th May, 20.00-21.00)….The Top 100 Favourite Hit Singles of all time, as voted for in a poll conducted by the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles places Kate at number 40 with Wuthering Heights, 31,000 people voted, see here. (Thanks to Michael Leitz, Stewart)…Charlie on the guestbook told us that on May 8th “There 
was a half page article in the Brighton Argus today about Liz Pearson, who toured with Kate as one of her two backing singers. Liz said: “Touring with Kate Bush was a great experience. She did her own backing vocals in the recording studios for songs such as Wuthering Heights but, of course, when she went on tour singing live she needed two singers with her on stage”. The article is illustrated with a nice picture of Kate, and one of Liz Pearson, who is now runnning opera workshops for children in the Arun District.” (thanks Charlie)…Sozo Yamamoto in Japan has succeeded in getting the clip of Kate on the Tokyo Song Contestfrom 1979 re-broadcast. He says: “The clip is a few seconds shorter than the original broadcast, circulating on the Kate-Topia tape, but it is far better in quality (digital broadcast). The announcers talk around the clip was rather dull, about Kate’s high notes and ‘strange’ dance. Some viewers, including myself, recorded the program in D-VHS. So, someday, all of us have a chance of seeing the clip.” (thanks Sozo)…Eddie in The Netherlands writes about a recent Dutch TV piece on 1978 on “Typisch 70“: “Wuthering Heights was shown (the red dress-clip in the forest). Unfortunately, it was laced with interviews of local dutch celebrities speaking of their memories of Kate, comments about her hair, eyes, strange dancing and the fact that her music was so different at the time.” (thanks also to Brigitte Breemerkamp for letting me know)…Mike has written about the Heather Nova quote (see April 22nd news): “it was an interview I conducted for the Leicester University student newspaper, “The Ripple” backstage at Manchester’s Hop ‘n’ Grape during Heather’s “South” tour.”
Stuart Elliott has been interviewed on the “Drummer Interviews” site. Here’s some quotes: “I am doing a new album with Kate Bush. This is a lot of fun as she has kind of gone back to wanting drums, by that I mean by not restricted by not using 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…I plan to continue with the composing, and of course, look out for Kate’s new album!” (thanks to Michael Leitz for spotting this, the interview would appear to be genuine, though not part of any official site)
Newsbits: Singer Heather Nova comments that she’d like to work with Kate in a chat on her website here….Conrad Kelly of band The Undead has recently said this about Kate while choosing Lionheart as one of his favourite albums:”It’s too bad that modern singer-songwriters possess a mere half the talent it took Kate to brush her teeth”….Comfortably Numb (Kate’s recent live performance with David Gilmour) can now be downloaded (video too!) here (thanks to Shahaf)….Dutch fans can vote for Kate in the 3FM Radio album poll here….Kate featured in Metro(free daily newspaper in London) on Wednesday 3 April “on this day in 1979 Kate Bush had done her first concert.” (thanks to Rafferty)….Kevin writes to tell us to check out www.Kikiandherb.com. They have a very popular cabaret/comedy show. Kiki & Herb have performed covers of Running Up That Hill, This Womans Work and Moments of Pleasure in their shows….Antonello in Italy writes: “a very short clip of Kate’s appearance at the Arena in Verona (Sept ’78) was shown on “Cocktail d’Amore” last Monday night. Kate danced while performing “Wuthering Heights”, she was dressed in red and was accompanied by two men who rotated a huge kite which hid Kate from the public till she was revealed – the crowd just went mad, also Kate received a very important award, the gold “Telegatto” (a small gold cat that is visible together with other awards in a black & white photograph published in one of the early issues of the KBC newsletters) as the best foreign act in Italy in 1978 (thanks Antonello)….Magnus in Sweden spotted an article about Kate in the April edition of Classic Rock Magazine, a two-page feature, the author musing on the current activities of Kate Bush as well as going back to an old interview (thanks also to Neal Neofitou)….
The excellent HomeGround Magazine has just been posted out to subscribers last week. The big story is of course Kate’s live appearance with David Gilmour. Also featured is an interview with Simon Drake, Kate’s magician from the 1979 Tour Of Life, an article on The Big Sky video shoot and a piece on Kate and the narrative tradition, among other interesting features. On 18th May 2002 HomeGround is 20 years young! Amazing. Warm congratulations to a terrific team, producing the best fan magazine around – long may it continue.
Newsbits: Michael Leitz sends this link for the new Australian DVD release of The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball. From the blurb: “Kate Bush teams up with the man who discovered her, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour to perform “Running Up that Hill”, the legendary Bob Geldof takes the stage for “This is the World Calling”, Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler and the late Chet Atkins play a haunting instrumental rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Peter Gabriel is joined by the entire cast for ‘Biko’. A superb musical journey on DVD that captures the true heart and soul of a decade.” (Thanks Michael)…
Johnny writes to say he came across an article in a London listings magazine headlined “Hitting The Vaseline”. The piece is by someone who has written and is appearing in a show called The Beautiful Bend – A Drama With Music at a pub theatre in central London. He talks about having performed the original version of this show at the same venue last September where
“our closing night audience paid us the compliment of singing almost every single Kate Bush song to us in the bar after the show…prompted by hearing Wow which I played after the first act, they sang Army Dreamers, Babooshka, Hammer Horror, This Woman’s Work, Sat In Your Lap, Violin, Breathing, The Sensual World, The Dreaming, There Goes A Tenner and the whole of the Ninth Wave side of Hounds Of Love. I have never experienced anything like it before or since. It was decided on that strange and special night that we would incorporate a tribute to Kate Bush in our next production. By way of homage to George Cukor’s “The Women, we have done this by adding a lavish (for us!) Kate Bush-inspired fashion show. The show is a chop suey (rather than a pot pourri) of vignettes, short dramas and tableaux-vivants. An almost all male cast playing many characters (mostly women). This is an audacious plug for a show that I have written and appear in…don’t take my word for it….I say it’s the funniest thing you’ll see this year. If you think you might be in the mood for a a camp old time (or are a Kate Bush fan), you’re definitely going to enjoy it.”
It is on at the Central Space Theatre (at Central Station), 37 Wharfdale Road, London N1 (just by Kings Cross tube/BR station). Box office is 020 7278 3294. Performance dates are Tuesday 26th, Thursday 28th, Friday 29th, Saturday 30th March. Performances at 7.30pm. (Thanks to Johnny)
In episode three of the David Nicholls-penned BBC comedy-drama series Rescue Me it became apparent that one of its major characters – Eden magazine’s Chief Sub-Editor “Eddie Chisholm” (Stewart Wright) is a Kate Bush fan. Whilst reminiscing about a teenage daliance with religion, he reveals the content of a typical prayer to have been : “Please God, let me go out with Kate Bush…”. In a later scene, his 12″ vinyl music collection is rifled through by Daniela Denby-Ashe’s “Julie Carter” who exclaims: “Loads of Kate Bush, God, you’ve got some weird records!” (thanks to Wraith Ravenscroft)…
Stewart found a remix of Kate’s This Woman’s Work on www.winmx.com (Napster style site) called “Kate Bush and Maxwell – This Woman’s Work Speedbliss Club Mix” (thanks Stewart)…
Toddicus writes: “Maxwell‘s studio version of This Woman’s Work has been made into a video and will be premiered on MTV2 in the US this week. It is also available to see on his official website. The track is taken from last year’s album “Now”. Kate’s track is one of his most popular live songs. The singer says on his website: “I did it as a tribute to this little girl who came to a show in Los Angeles as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the summer of 1999,” he explains. “Her wish was to meet me and she passed away six months later from cancer. So I re-recorded the song for her.” In previous reports on these pages you’ll see that Kate has already given him very positive feedback about his recording of her classic song. In related news, Kate was mentioned in the Chart Beat section of Billboard Magazine last week. Columnist Fred Bronson talks about Kylie’s #3 debut then goes on to talk about Kate. “She hasn’t been off the charts as long as Kylie Minogue, but British national treasure Kate Bush is back on the Hot 100, as a songwriter. It’s been eight years since Bush had a credit on the singles chart; “Rubberband Girl” which she wrote, produced, and recorded, peaked at No. 88 in December 1993. Bush gets credit this issue as the songwriter of “This Woman’s Work” as covered in an R&B version by Maxwell. His Columbia album track enters at No. 75. That makes it the highest-charting song written by Bush in more than 16 years, since “Running up That Hill” reached No. 30 in November 1985. While this is the first time that “This Woman’s Work” by any artist has charted on the Hot 100, it peaked at No. 25 on the UK singles chart for Bush in 1989.” (thanks to Scott Silzer for the Billboard quote)
Newsbits: Robert Brown lets us know that Kate is featured on TOTP2 next Wednesday 6th March on BBC2 at 7.05pm (thanks Robert)…the UK’s best-selling men’s magazine, FHM, has included Babooshka in its list of the 100 sexiest music videos. “So she’s really talented and writes all her own stuff and lives like a recluse, but Christ will you look at this – 
chainmail bikini, thighs, wind-machine ebony hair, thighs, leather boots, thighs, and check out that knife! That’s gotta be bondage. Babooshka made a bona fide sex object of Kate and vies with Olivia Newton John’s Physical as the most reliable 3-minute arouser of its day. Sadly, Kate then went and built a studio in her house, and she’s barely emerged since.” See FHM website here…David Sheasby reads in the currrent Q Magazine that they mention the possibility of a Kate album later this year, “‘Though we have been waiting quite a while already,’ said a spokesman”…and one eager (but incorrect) website even lists the “new CD” as coming out this summer here…a tiny clip of the Babooshka video was broadcast last Monday night on the RAI2 programme in Italy “Cocktail d’Amore“, and Kate was also mentioned during the afternoon quiz “Passaparola“, Canale 5, which asked “Which Kate abandoned music to be a mum?” Antonello (who sent in this news) has contacted the TV station to let them know Kate hasn’t abandoned music!
Shameless plug: Thought you might be interested to hear that some friends of mine in the Dublin band Settler have been invited over to Chicago by “I Wanna Be Kate” tribute CD producer Thomas Dunning to take part in some shows around the city over Easter. Although no Kate songs will be performed (well, on stage anyway), the band will be involved in Tom’s famous Hoot Nite on March 27th in Schubas, the theme of the night is “The Cure vs Diana Ross”, so its battle of the big hair-dos! Those wanting to find out more about Tom’s tribute album (Kate loved his CD by the way, she said “I think it’s absolutely wonderful…”) go to this page. If you’d like to read more about a Dublin band on the up, read more about my Settler pals here. And finally don’t worry, while I’m away in Chicago The Duck will be here in case of any important updates. Just wanted to fill you in on an exciting site-related happening, many thanks again to Tom.
An event worth noting for UK Kate fans. Karl writes on the guestbook:”We will be holding a tribute concert honouring the great lady. The main performer of Kate’s work will be Lisa Redford. The venue is the Music Room of the Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich, Norfolk on the 26th April 7.30pm tickets £7.50 from Norwich Arts Centre 01603 660352 (50p booking fee) alsohere. Enquiries to Karl at 01603 452850. As well as Lisa Redford, who has performed in the same venue at a sold-out Nick Drake tribute concert, the gig will feature guests Alias Grace, Tim Bowness ‘No Man’, Lord Dieve Montague and Brett Anderson (Suede) if recording commitments allow, also more to be confirmed.” As Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze says: “brilliant! Lisa has a great voice” (thanks Karl)
Newsbits: Michael Leitz writes that “Earthrise: The Rainforest Album“, released in ’92 and out-of-print for some time, has just been re-released. It features “Don’t Give Up” & “Spirit Of The Forest”, on which Kate sings the line “Turn around, turn around, before it’s too late.” (thanks Michael)…the remix of Cloudbusting by Utah Saints (Something Good) was played during ITV’s ‘This Morning” Wed 20th Feb during a montage of clips from the early auditions of Pop Idol (thanks Iarla)…Will tells us that a recent Sky News entertainment piece claims that Kate will release a new single called “Bertie” (?!) in the near future with the new album appearing at the end of this year, they also played a little bit of the Sensual World video in the background. Hmmm. I’d say be very wary of this rumour. (cheers to Will)…the German daily soap “Verbotene Liebe” featured an extract from “The Man I Love” as background music in a restaurant scene, they’ve played Maxwell’s This Woman’s Work recently too (thanks to Ingo Pohl)…a new French Celtic music compilation, “Celtica Vol.3” includes Kate’s Mná na hÉireann, there is also a television commercial running for the CD which features Kate’s song. (thanks to Tristan and Jeremy).