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The following is a short story written by Kate Bush. It's
called "A Could Be Story", and was printed in the fourth Kate Bush Club
Newsletter, which came out in the late summer of 1979.

                     A Could Be Story

    When the Shades went into Priory Street Studios to make their
third album they were working on a very tight schedule. Their first album
had made the top sixty but their second had hardly done anything at all,
and now their third one had to be good or they would have difficulty in
getting another recording contract. They felt they needed to find a
Christmas single that would help them out of their troubles, but they
only had until the end of November to get this together. Any later
than that and the record company would be unable to bring a single
out -- even November was cutting it pretty fine! They had decided
to try something different on the new album and had become interested
again in the music that was around in the middle 50s.
     They had come across a song that none of them had ever heard of
before, and it could be the one they were looking for. The song was
called "I'm Riding with Santa Tonight", by someone called Billy Smith.
They decided they would give it a very genuine Bill Haley treatment,
with saxaphones and lots of shoo-bops-doo-wah-woo-bops-di-wops.
     They worked on the rhythm track the first day, putting onto tape
the drums, bass guitar and some funky rock-and-roll piano, with
a rough voice-track to keep it all together. Late that night they played
the various takes they'd done, to choose the one they would keep. Half
way through listening to the first take the recording engineer started to
look worried and began pressing buttons and pulling down slide controls
on his mixing desk where all the sounds were controlled. When he was
asked what was the matter, he said he was starting to pick up
interference on the track that certainly hadn't been put on there by any
of the band during the day. This was the first time he had worked in
Priory Street Studios, and he was not used to the equipment. He played
back the bit that he thought was wrong, and there was quite clearly a
whining sound breaking in on the track. It could have been a loose
connection, or even one of the band's stomachs rumbling.
    They listened to all the takes, but the interference was there
on each one, and the engineer couldn't find a way of shifting it.
This meant a whole day of studio time had been wasted, and feeling
pretty disappointed with their first attempt at a comeback, the
Shades slid back home in the early hours to get some sleep before
starting again the following day.
    At two o'clock the next afternoon they turned up at the studio and
did the rhythm track once again. But on listening to it that evening,
instead of the interference having been cleaned off, it was now even
more noticeable, and the engineer could not understand what was
happening. It put him in a difficult situation because the band were now
talking about using other studios; but he'd been booked for the next
two months to do the album, and he was determined that was what he was
going to do. After a lot of arguing and shouting the Shades were sitting
on one side of the studio and the recording engineer and his assistant
on the other and they weren't talking.
     At that point the roadie who looked after the Shades' equipment
came bouncing into the studio hoping to get an earful of what had
been going on for the last couple of days. When he saw the glum faces
he knew something was up, and had great difficulty in persuading the
engineer to let him hear the tape. Eventually he was persuaded, and the
roadie sat back and listened with a critical ear. The Shades knew that
he never missed spotting a potential hit single and they often used him
as a test of their music.
     When the track came to the bit with the heavy interference the
roadie began to brighten up, much to the surprise of everyone else in
the room. When the track had finished, he said it was one of the best
things he'd ever heard, and how on earth did they get the amazing
effects? The engineer had to say that it was a mistake, and they'd
been trying to get rid of it. The roadie said that that was ridiculous,
and he managed to persuade everybody that if they pretended it wasn't
interference but a very interesting form of synthesiser, it could be
the hook needed on the record to make it sell. So it was agreed that
the Shades would come back in the next day and put down some guitar
work and talk about the vocals.
     On the third day, at the end of the evening, they played back an
almost completed track, apart from the lead vocals. Once again, the
interference was there, and once again, if anything, it seemed to be
a lot more dominant. But they had to agree with the roadie that it
certainly did give the song a lot of crackle and bite. When the lead
vocal was put on and the track finished and ready to go off to the
record company for their approval -- and hopefully then for release
as a single -- they all gathered for one final listen.
     The odd thing was that the interference now seemed to have
mellowed out, and was almost adding a very strange sort of harmony to
the lead singer's voice. But everyone agreed that the track was good,
and that it could work.
     When "I'm Riding With Santa" eventually reached number ten on
the hit parade, the Shades arrived at the Top of the Pops studio to
appear for a Christmas edition and sing their hit single. While they
were waiting in the canteen to be called up to perform, they talked
with a producer friend and mentioned that they had recorded the single
at Priory Street Studios. He nodded his head to show that he knew the
studios, and then asked them if they'd had any trouble with the ghost.
     The Shades looked at each other, and went whiter than the white
make-up they wore on stage. The producer explained to them that Priory
Street Studios had a reputation for its ghost, and that at one time
the owners had thought of closing down the studio because of the
electrical interference they kept getting on takes. They had gone as
far as taking out all the equipment, having it thoroughly looked at
and put back in again, but this had made no difference. In the early
70s the Studios had been completely re-modernised, and he'd assumed
that the troubles were over, but he had heard that occasionally they
still had problems.
     The Shades didn't say anything, but after doing a strong
appearance -- though it was a rather shaky one -- on the television,
they went for a celebration party at a friend's house. They now had
a good talk about the ghost story they'd heard, and they were all
wondering whether it was the ghost that had made the single a success.
     The following day they sent their roadie off to the publishing
company where they'd found the song, with the job of looking through
the catalogues and finding anything he could about the song and the
songwriter. That evening he met them at the studio with some very
interesting news. It seemed that Billy Smith, who had written "I'm
Riding with Santa Tonight", recorded his first and only album at
Priory Street Studios. All the songs on the album were his own
compositions -- this was quite unusual in those days, as most of the
early rock-and-roll singers in England sang other people's songs.
     Unfortunately, just after the album had been completed he'd
been electrocuted in the Studios when something had gone wrong with
his electric guitar. The record company hadn't thought much of his
album anyway, so it was shelved and eventually completely forgotten.
     The Shades thought this was a pretty good reason for a ghost to
hang about the studios and, wondering how they could best express their
thanks to the dead rock singer, they decided to put a credit on the
album -- "Ghost Synthesiser by Billy Smith".
     Apparently there has been no more trouble with interference at
Priory Street Studios, which probably goes to show that a ghost
is quite content when his music has eventually reached his public.

-- Kate

     Perhaps it's worth mentioning that this story came out at about
the same time that Kate was working on the early version of
her Christmas recording, "December Will Be Magic Again," which she also
performed on Top of The Pops; and that more than once since then she has
commented on the powerful sense of history she experienced while
working in Abbey Road Studios.

A second story by Kate will appear in Love-Hounds soon.

-- Andrew