No Subject

                                Kate

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     <The following "letter" appeared in the ninth issue of the
_Newsletter_, (spring 1981).>

                           _Letter_from_Kate_

Dear Everyone,
     Hope you are all well after all the eruptions of the New Year.
What with the news being so heavy at the moment, I think some
sunshine could brighten it up a lot for all of us.
     Mind you, I've been having a great time getting back into writing.
I'd forgotten how frustrating it gets. I seem to have accumulated
a lot of songs in the last few months, and am hoping to go into the
studio and record two or three with the hope that one will be a single.
I feel--as far as an album goes--that I still have a lot more to write.
In many ways my recent writing has been on an experimental basis. I've
felt it so important to change my attitudes to writing. I've been
working much more with rhythmic ideas, and at last I feel I am changing
direction, slightly more towards the way I wish it to go. It's
difficult to explain, but sometimes the song will write me instead
of vice versa, so I don't always feel I've accomplished what I set
out to; and I'm trying to control this a little more. The addition
of new toys to my work has been invaluable. It's sad to say that I
was reaching the point where I was becoming bored with my "patterns".
I think any writer sits in riffs that become hard to move away from,
and my new toys--such as rhythm box, analogue delay system, CS-80
synthesiser--put some new magic back into it for me.
     Apart from my writing, I've been doing the occasional interview
(and have been haunted by domestic failures such as duff pancakes!).
I very much enjoyed doing the Radio 1 programmes with Gamba. <Paul
Gambaccini, who invited Kate to co-host two programmes on December 30
and 31, 1980, during which she played many of her favourite pieces
of music by other artists.> He is a very funny man, and it was
wonderful for me to have the freedom of choice in music. I felt it
very important to concentrate on music and artists that I felt
were either very underestimated or relatively unknown, and that were
very special to me. We all know how hard it is to get airplay if
you're not happening "at the moment." If you happened to hear it,
and there were any that you particularly liked, there is a detailed
list further on. In fact, I'll be looking up a couple myself, as
some of my copies are worn out.
     It's great to hear some really good music coming back. Wasn't
Phil Collins's _In_the_Air_ a masterpiece? <Kate had been present
at the sessions for Peter Gabriels' third solo album, during which
the distinctive and now ubiquitous drum sound heard on _In_the_Air_
was developed by Collins, Hugh Padgham and Gabriel. The influence of
this drum sound is clear in Kate's next album, _The_Dreaming_.>
Well, while I'm trying to organise some tracks to record, I hope you
will be having a positive March forward.
                                 Lots of love,

                                 Kate xxx

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     <Here is Kate's article for the tenth issue (summer 1981).>

                         _On_Videos_and_Tapes_

     I've been lucky enough to be tucked away in the studio through
all the riots, and only catching the muggy weather in between sounds.
I hope everything has been good for you during this summerless time.
We all know that "things they are a-changing."
     Piecing the album together is becoming like a big musical
jigsaw, and we're only halfway through. One particular phase at Abbey
Road became bizarre, as recording plus video met at the same point in
time, and at the same place. We'd been working on two tracks in the studio,
just taking the odd day and evening out for rehearsals; and with getting
in early for meetings, it was a very busy time for everybody.
<One of these tracks is _Sat_In_Your_Lap_, for which the video was
taped at Abbey Road. The first single for the new album, it had not
yet been released when Kate wrote this part of her article, although it
had come out by the time the _Newsletter_ reached fans. The other track
Kate refers to is _Night_of_the_Swallow_ (see below).>
Some days became very unreal, as, while going for a cup of tea you would
swear you heard the sound of tinkling bells as the tip of the
brightly coloured jester's hat disappeared around the corner. And once
when I ran out into the corridor, what should whizz by but a dunce
on roller-skates chased by four bulls who were being followed by
a flying book and an unbelieving door attendant.
     The video was filmed over two days, one part at a video studio,
the other at the audio studios. The former provided the quick, easy
technical sides to be performed, the latter provided the space and
presence. The large parquet floor was to be a feature, and Abbey Road's
past, full of dancing and singing spirits, was to be conjured up in
the present day by tapping feet to the sound of jungle drums--only
to be turned into past again through the wonder of video-tape.
The shots were sorted into a logical order: all long shots were
audio studio, all others were video studio. A storyboard was drawn
up and was very closely worked to, being hung on the wall on days of
shootings. The editing was a long, difficult job, as it was comprised
of many sections which had to be edited together (just like the
big musical one). The editor worked all day and into the next morning
with great skill and patience, and only when someone told us did we
find out it had been his birthday and he'd worked it all away.
     One of the exciting things about making the video was the
"accessories" we used, such as the lovely costumes and props. The
jerk-jacket which we used in _Army_Dreamers_ was used again for a
short sequence, and although there's a silver wire, it feels like
flying. Out of the harness and into the light of a timeless tunnel,
as a little magician's box springs to life and the room is filled
with laser and skaters.
     Meanwhile the album was still in progress: we were working on
backing tracks. We used all three studios for one of them <_Night_
of_the_Swallow_>. It started with feeding
the drums down into the largest studio through
speakers, and with microphones positioned near to them they were
brought back to the control room of the studio we were working in,
sounding very ambient. Then we found the piano and initial drum
sounds too dead, so we moved the drum kit and musicians to another
studio downstairs, where we preferred the sounds, and we set up.
After getting all the leads from upstairs connected to downstairs,
there was one very tired and worn-out engineer dedicatedly smiling
through sleepy eyes, closely tailed by an equally smiley and
sleepy-eyed assistant. After all our hard work, the backing track
sounded great, and as the song is all about a swallow flying over
the water, it seemed only right to fly over to Ireland in a big, shiny
bird, into the arms of Planxty's magic. There for a day, due back
too soon, and the big bird wouldn't wait, so we worked all night.
The pipes and whistles swooped and dived, fiddles stole our souls
away, and bouzoukis got us up onto our feet and made us bolt the
doors lest our souls flew away forever; and by seven the next
morning the track felt very proud of itself and there were tears
in our eyes as we heard it all back, and then were rushed back
to London on the metal-winged thing.
     I went straight to the studio, and as I drooped over a hot
cup of canteen tea, my ears were full of pipes and what was yet to
come--a sea of overdubs, guitars, voices, instruments being whirled
around and around, becoming an aeroplane. And there was I, still
back there, looking down at the Typhoo in my china cup.
     I hope I've managed to convey some of the wonderful things
that have happened, and I hope you catch the sun when it next
pops out.
                              Lots of love,

                              Kate xx

P.S.: Thank you for the wonderful assortment of cards and presents
that you've all sent for my birthday, and I really do appreciate
the fact that you think of me. Sorry that I haven't been able to
thank you personally, as I'm really busy.

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     <Here is Kate's article for the eleventh issue (Christmas 1981).>

     I know I am not alone in saying that this year has flown, and
we are heading towards Christmas like something being thrown at
a wall. I must admit that I really am looking forward to it, and
I really hope we have some more snow.
     As you all know, I've been working on the album, and it is
definitely the hardes one so far. Yet somewhere inside me, I do
feel that it could be the best one yet.
     I've also been experiencing things on this album that I have
not come across before, and although these are invaluable in terms
of learning, I think perhaps they have made things a little harder
for me rather than helping while I'm trying to work in the studio.
I am not the only one who has been finding it difficult to work on
this albu, either. I have many visions of my faithful engineers
with puzzled, worried expressions on their faces, all of us fumbling
around the desk at three or four in the morning, doing nothing more
than chasing our own tails, really.
     I think the main reason for the problems is that we are
experimenting with new methods and attitudes, the throwing away
of some old routines. So, of course, this causes problems. Also,
my involvement in production is leading me further into the world
of responsibility and trying to be sensible. I really do enjoy
the whole process, though, and that is why I do it; otherwise
it could be quite a relief to hand all the worries over to someone
else. But in my hear I don't want to--wrong or right, I don't know,
but as long as I have this love for it, and can manage to cope,
I'd like to continue.
     One of the new feelings in me is wanting the album to be complete
as soon as possible. Ideally it would be finished already; whereas
normally I want to hold on to it for every last moment possible
until a deadline makes me leave it alone. I think this new attitude is
much more positive. Hopefully it will help me to be more detached
and objective about it all. It seems, too, that because the album
is behind, so am I with a lot of my other projects, but I always
do seem to be. I'm just glad that all my friends and the people I
work with are so patient with me. Otherwise I would be unforgiven
for the way I am.
     Having worked on this album constantly for a long time, I
reached the point where I had lost all impetus--again, something
I had never experienced. I found it hard to even listen to the
tracks. Some would call it saturation point, the time to take a
breather. I just needed to be normal for a while, and get away
from the intensity of the mole-life situation in the studios. You
can never tell what time of day it is in most studios, because
there are no windows to the outside. It could literally be any
time, and the studio environment is constant. I think this
can tire you out mentally. Plus the constant noise--not just
the music but the hiss of tapes, the monitors, buzzing lights.
It's not until all the machinery is off at the end of the day do you
feel your brain relax and you suddenly realise all the sounds you
have been hearing without even realising it. That silence is like
heaven.
     I felt like it was time to get out of London, so one evening,
driven by the desire to visit the Loch Ness Monster, we decided
to act upon the impulse of the moment and go as soon as we could.
We travelled by train, something very nostalgic for me. I don't
often travel on trains now; obviously it's not always easy for
me to mingle, so I normally travel by car. We waved goodbye to
Zoodle and Pye in the arms of Lisa and Rob, and the train pulled
away.
     Journeys overnight on "public vehicles" are always atmospheric.
Planes, ships, coaches, trains--for some reason they always make
me think about the past. The mechanical movement, the smells of
upholstery, no real traces of people being there before you but
the knowledge that they have been. Maybe it's to do with the process
of leaving things; normally when things are left behind or lost,
there is a need to recall memories--maybe to assess if your decision
to leave or lose was correct or not. I think sometimes this can
be a sad thing, but I was very happy to be leaving London; and,
cocooned inside our sleeper-berths, away from the elements, we
were off to Scotland.
     I've never really been to Scotland before--I have been there,
but I've not had a chance to see it. It is one of the most perfect
settings I have ever seen. Brilliant for film locations. In fact, in
a spy programme we recognised their so-called German border as
being the road beside Loch Ness! At that time of year, the trees
of which there are so many are a multi-coloured mass, with the cold
winds challenging each leaf to turn a shade brighter before it's
torn away from its source of colour and has no choice but to fade away.
     There is so much to see, unlike those compartments where, when
the people go out, the cleaners come in dusting, spraying, erasing.
Here, when people die out, nature cleans up but she leaves their marks
behind. Castles, burial mounds, standing stones, monsters; and all
surrounded by untouched land bearing Nature's marks. Great gaps in
the earth, revealing hard rock better than any recorded on tape,
and mountains that you can climb--maybe, as with us, for the first time.
     Just as it was getting dark one evening, we pulled up by a sign
at the edge of the road. It told of a fort from the fifth century,
B.C., the ruins of which were in the heather-thick field beyond the
sign. It also mentioned a phantom battle which had supposedly
taken place very near to the site. As we were about to drive
away, I noticed three lights in the sky, descending in a diagonal
line. Then they formed a horizontal line and remained static just
below a layer of cloud. There were huge circular orange lights; and
we set off in the car in hot pursuit. We thought maybe they were some
kind of stadium lights, but they were too near to the clouds; and we
had never seen aircraft with such big lights, nor that colour.
     As we turned a bend we could no longer see them, but
kept our eyes pinned on the sky. A few minutes later they came into
view again, and this time we could see that they were completely
unattached to any form of structure on the ground; and now there were
only two lights. They remained stationary until we lost them a little
while later, for good. All the way back to the hotel our heads
were pointed out of the windows in anticipation of another sighting,
and we wondered if instead of finding Nessie on our search, we had
found another strange phenomenon. What do you think?
     The Loch itself is an unbelievable place. It's so beautiful,
yet so remote. The first day the water was like the sea, it was so
rough. The Loch is really big--twenty-three miles long, and they
don't know how deep. They say that sightings of the monster usually
happen when the water is as still as a mill pond, which seemed
impossible when we saw the waves crashing around the Loch. But on
the last day it was so calm that it was like a twenty-three mile-long
mirror, and our hopes were up. After a quick visit to the monster
exhibition, which features numerous photos taken of Nessie,
we sat down beside the Loch and discussed the stories we
had heard from the locals about the appearance of the monsters--for
they say there is more than one. We had no luck, but we did have the
pleasure of seeing on the news some film--taken from a plane--of
the Loch Ness Monster under the water. It was very convincing, and
was taken only one week after we had been there.
     The Scots rested and fed us, and we returned to London; and I
return to the studio within the next few days, and can't wait to get back
in there.
     Abbey Road celebrated their 50th anniversary last month, quite
an achievement considering the ups and downs the music business goes
through. Helen Shapiro and I were asked to cut a cake they had
made specially. It was five foot by four foot, covered in fresh
cream and kiwi fruit and topped with fifty birthday candles. The
studio, which has been filled with orchestras for so many years,
on that night was holding a choir of people who have loved Abbey
Road, a huge cross-section of fame and talent making their
chitter-chatter music-talk and completely filling the old
studio--which is hard to fill because it is so big.
     It was great for me to bump into faces I hadn't seen for a
time, and there were a lot I hadn't seen for a _very_ long time.
Geoff Emerick, the man who engineered my first professionally recorded
tracks, was there; I hadn't seen him for years. He was wearing
a white suit and was tanned and smiling from working in exotic
studios.
     Having cut a huge slice of cake, I started to cross the room
that was very hard to move in because of the swirling crowds. But with
a cream cake aimed at their party clothes, the room practically
cleared like the parting of the waters, revealing a white suit
and some friends who looked like they needed to eat some cake.
However, because the cake had been under heavy camera lights, the
cream was beginning was starting to wither a little. But nonetheless
it all went within minutes.
     Which takes us back to Christmas, where anything that resembles
food is consumed by us, the Consumers--who are fed with adverts and
shop decorations which get put up nearer to Guy Fawkes <Day> every
year. But as long as we all want it to be, we can still make Christmas
a very special time.
     Happy Christmas
                              Lots of love

                              Kate


                          _Tansa's_Guitar_

     Weston was going on his winter tour and needed some focal point
to make the tour more complete and relevant. He had recently bought
a guitar at an auction in New York. The guitar had been beautifully
made in California by a small company with a reputation among the
leading rock musicians.
     The guitar had a strange history, and was meant to have passed
through the hands of a number of guitar heroes at the end of the
sixties and early seventies. There was no documentation with the
instrument to indicate who had owned it over the years, but the
original bill showing that it was bought from Tansa of California
had come with the instrument.
     Weston hoped that he could use this instrument as an extra
dynamic in his act. For a moment he remembered how the auctioneer had
held the guitar by its neck, looking as though he was acknowledging
the roars of a crowd at the end of a concert, with the handmade gold
machine-heads on the instrument suddenly reflecting the lighting of
the auction rooms. Weston had known instinctively as a professional
musician that his excitement at seeing the guitar was nothing to do
with the external appearance of the instrument. It was something deeper,
almost like seeing a beautiful girl in a crowded place and then seeing
her eyes turning to meet his, and not turning away.
     There was a great deal of carving on the instrument, not unlike the
sort of tooling and decoration that used to be found on muskets.
The instrument was heavy, but Weston liked a heavy guitar, liked to
feel its weight pulling down on his neck and centering in his stomach.
With that sort of stability, his hands could flit around the neck and
body of the instrument like white spiders.
     When the rehearsals for his tour began, Weston realised that the
guitar was no ordinary instrument. At first it wouldn't work at all.
He felt clumsy, he felt as though he'd only been playing guitars for a
couple of years, he felt as though his bones and muscles were reacting
to the cold winter air like thick oil. But after a couple of hours the
instrument began to sing, and by the end of the rehearsal session
Weston was feeling good. When he had finished, he handed the guitar
to his roadie. The roadie made it quite clear that although he thought
the instrument very beautiful it was, in his terms, a "weird axe",
and Weston would be better off leaving it alone. Weston laught this
off--if the guitar had any sinister connections, he was going to blow
them to pieces with his playing.
     As he was getting ready for the first gig of the tour a message
came through that Tansa of California were phoning from America, saying
that Weston owed them for a guitar he had recently purchased at an
auction. This puzzled Weston, as he had personally handed over the money
to the auctioneer, but he had no time for these sort of problems, with
only half an hour to go. As he warmed up in his dressing room the
instrument responded well and Weston felt that the night was going
to go in a positive direction. But when he got out under the lights
in front of the audience and roars of appreciation had quietened down,
he began to feel that same thick, oil-sump movement in his hands. He
asked the management to put up the heating on the stage during the act.
But things didn't get very much better, and by the interval he had
changed his guitar and was back on one of his standard favourite
instruments. When the second half ended, he pulled the place together
and during his last number the audience had begun to dance at the
back.
     On the second gig, a similar situation occurred. With only a few
minutes left before going on stage a message came through that Tansa
wanted to talk to him about payment for a guitar. And again, when he went
on to the stage the same thing happened: he couldn't make the instrument
function properly.
     It was during one of these moments, when he was on
the verge of deciding whether to try a particularly tricky solo on the
instrument, that he noticed a man sitting in the front row of the
audience, clearly lit up by the stage lighting. This man was looking
at him with something more than just the expression of a fan
lost in a dream of appreciation. He was definitely trying to catch
Weston's eye, and it wasn't to indicate to him that liked what he was
doing.
     Again he had to change over to another guitar for the second
half, and again the gig took off as soon as he'd made the switch.
Afterwards in the dressing room, he was told that there was somebody
at the back stage entrance demanding that he see Weston about payment
for the guitar. Weston dismissed it; but as they were driving away from
the gig, and as usual many faces pushed themselves against the window
of the car to look at Weston, staring into the back seat through the
warm glass of the window was the face he'd seen in the front of the
audience. The man was shouting something at him and he appeared angry.
Weston gave instructions to the driver to go faster, and they cleared
the crowd without any mishap.
     By now the rest of the band were quite familiar with the weird,
unpredictable playing of their front-man and were trying to persuade
him to leave the instrument alone. Weston, however, took it on stage
on the third gig, and after the first hour of the first half, having been
unable to make the instrument sing and soar, he flung it across the
stage, where it smashed into a stack of amplifiers and fell to the
ground, with the whole of the back-plate coming apart and tinkling on
the wooden stage floor. He picked up one of his other guitars, but
the anger and frustration that had caused him to sling Tansa's
instrument away from him seemed to have affected his guitar playing,
and the concert was not a success.
     This gig was in London, and by the time they'd finished and were coming
down backstage, Weston could hear a strange silence through the dressing
room windows, and he knew immediately that the whole of the city was
encased in snow. Depressed and puzzled, he got ready to make a run for
the car. As he was doing this, his guitar-roadie came in with the
broken instrument, pointing out that there was no real damage and
that it was nothing he couldn't sort out in a couple of hours.
     Weston wanted to get back to his bed and sleep, so he went
with the roadie in the crew van. As they were pulling away from the
theatre down a narrow alley, a man came running out of a shop doorway,
and immediately Weston recognised him as the man who'd been watching
him from the audience. The roadie pointed out to him that it was the
same man who'd been hanging around the stage door saying he was from
Tansa and needed payment.
     As they accelerated away, the man ran faster and faster, and
although the vehicle was quite easily doing in excess of 40 mph on
the wet and sludgy road, the man was still gaining on them. They
could hear him shouting that he'd come for payment, that payment was
needed and that until Weston had made the payment he would never be
able to play the guitar in fron of an audience. The people inside
the van were beginning to panic now, as on a straight run up a deserted
and quite Oxford Street they hit 55, almost 60 mph--but the man was
still gaining.
     The roadie suddenly kicked open the back door of the vehicle and
slung the guitar out into the snow towards the running man. He slammed
the door and they skidded round the corner and were away. The last
Weston saw of the guitar was the man gently picking it up out of the
sludge, talking to himself--or to the instrument. Then a shop window
full of Christmas decorations blocked his view. Weston didn't feel angry,
but still he wanted to know what the hell his roadie meant by throwing
his best guitar out of the back of the van. The roadie, who was
quite shaken and upset, took a piece of paper from out of his pocket.
     "I found this stuck inside the back of the guitar."
     It was a bill from Tansa, and written on it were the words:

"One handmade custom guitar--material and sundries:
                                                              $2000.00.

Special effects for enchanting & capturing the minds
of audiences, _our_fee_:
                                                               One soul.

                         -- Kate Bush

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     <This article was written by Kate for issue number 12.>

     It's been a very long time since I spoke to you. It was
last year--can time really keep going faster? I would
like to apologise for the long gap since the last magazine
and fill you in on what's been happening. It seems that
every time I do something, it takes me longer to do. This
album has taken one year to record and I have never done
anything so involved before. After all this time, I do
feel happy with the results and I just hope that you will too.
     I have had a lot of help with this album. I never could
have done it alone, and each person has contributed something
very special.
     We worked between several studios, getting time where we could
at the studios with the facilities we required, eventually
settling in at Advision Studios, where we finished all the
overdubs and mixed the tracks. We also worked at The Townhouse and
The Odyssey, and at Abbey Road Studios, where all the backing tracks
were recorded.
     I used several engineers, working with Hugh Padgham, Nick Launay,
Haydn Bendall and Paul Hardiman. All of them were very important
and all played major parts in how the album has ended up sounding.
     Hugh worked on _Sat_In_Your_Lap_, _Get_Out_of_My_House_, and
_Leave_It_Open_. Hugh was a lot of fun to work with and as the
first engineer on the album, he started it off in a very productive
and positive way. I met Hugh when I had the pleasure to sing some
backing vocals for Peter Gabriel, and I was very impressed with the
sounds and the creative atmosphere. Hugh has worked with The Police,
Genesis and XTC, just to mention a few.
     We felt very pleased with the backing tracks and were excited at the
results; however, Hugh was too busy to continue, and so I worked with
Nick Launay, who had been trained by Hugh. Nick worked on "Houdini",
_Houdini_, _All_the_Love_, _There_Goes_a_Tenner_, _The_Dreaming_ and
_Suspended in Gaffa. The majority of the backing tracks were recorded
with Nick at The Townhouse.
     We were working through the warm summer last year, and much
dedication was required from all to stay in the studio all day
without succumbing to the sun.
     Nick is a very young engineer and has already worked with Public
Image, Phil Collins and John Martyn. Again there was a great working
relationship and we were all sad that Nick was too busy to continue
and that the time at The Townhouse had run out.
     I moved on to Abbey Road, working with Haydn Bendall. I met him on the
last album when I was working with Jon Kelly. Haydn was co-producing
Sky and I found him a very patient and understanding engineer. Haydn
also engineered Roy Harper's last album and among many other artists,
helps up and coming writers to get their ideas securely on to tape,
often securing record contracts at the same time. Haydn worked on
_Night_of_the_Swallow_ and _Pull_Out_the_Pin_. Our assistant
engineer Danny Dawson, affectionately known as Dan-Dan, became part
of the working team on the two tracks, and it was really enjoyable.
It always is fun when you work with nice people.
     The two tracks are finished and Haydn's time runs out too,
so...I find Paul Hardiman, with a lot of help from Hugh Padgham.
     Paul has worked with a great variety of acts, from Slade to
Keith Emerson and Soft Cell. We worked at Odyssey Studios up
until Christmas <1981>, and by then Paul and I
had a great working relationship. I felt I could communicate with
him very easily and he could get the sounds I needed to hear,
very quickly. We ran out of time at Odyssey and Paul suggested
Advision, studios he knew from experience. He took me around there
one afternoon on a Sunday. The studio was deserted and we went down to a
small control room that proved to have a brilliant sound. We were
sitting listening to tapes at full blast and I was falling in love
with the room when the door slowly opened and a rather anxious
looking studio manager edged around the door. He saw Paul and sighed
with relief, and explained how he'd expected a gang of thugs to be
tearing up the studio while listening to tapes of their choice--
as far as he had known, the studio was empty. We asked him if there
would be any time for us to use the studio, and the three weeks we
booked were to turn into more like three months. Paul and I were
very excited about settling in to one studio, and Paul had some
wonderful effects for sounds that he'd put away for a rainy day.
I'm pleased there was a lot of rain to come.
     Although all the engineers were invaluable, Paul was of special
value. He became a constant companion during the album and I
would often ask he advice, knowing I would get an honest answer.
He is also a very funny man, so he kept us all laughing--
donning silly hats and pulling funny faces.
     At Advision we met Dave Taylor--he was the assistant engineer,
and he worked with us for months until the album was finished
and mixed. Dave was also the maintenance engineer, and on quite
a few nights, when we went home to bed, he would be up all night
twiddling inside machines or trying to figure out why the digital
machines weren't working. Every night we ate take-away food,
watched the evening news and returned to the dingy little
treasure trove to dig for jewels.
     Now it's all finished, I think of the beginning. Twenty demos,
ten of which became the album. In these demos all the moods and
sounds were captured, and all the way through the album these
demos were referred to. Often the session would stop, we'd dig out
the 1/4 inch tape of the track we were working on, and with the
original flavour and sounds strong in our heads, the session
would begin again. In many ways it would have been interesting
to have used the demos as masters, they were so spontaneous.
     Del Palmer engineered all the demos and every night he would sit up
in the cramped little control room, getting different sounds for
each track. He sat through hours of harmonies and takes of lead
vocals, replying "I'm not bored" as many times as there were cups
of tea, and nodding "Yeah, Kate, I think it sounds great!", a
phrase to be echoed by Hugh, Haydn, Paul--Bless you all.
     Perhaps I could now walk you through the album, track by
track, starting with:

_Sat_In_Your_Lap_

     I already had the piano patterns, but they didn't turn into a
song until the night after I'd been to see a Stevie Wonder
gig. Inspired by the feeling of his music, I set a rhythm on the
_Roland_ and worked in the piano riff to the high-hat and
snare. I now had a verse and a tune to go over it but only a
few lyrics like
    "I see the people working,"
    "I want to be a lawyer," and
    "I want to be a scholar,"
so the rest of the lyrics became "na-na-na" or words that happened
to come into my head. I had some chords for the chorus with the idea
of a vocal being ad-libbed later. The rhythm box and piano were put
down, and then we recorded the backing vocals "Some say that knowledge
is..." Next we put down the lead vocal in the verses and spent a few
minutes getting some lines worked out before recording the chorus
voice. I saw this vocal being sung from high on a hill on a windy
day. The fool on the hill, the king of the castle... "I must admit,
just when I think I'm king."
     The idea of the demos was to try and put everything down as quickly
as possible. Next came the brass. The CS80 is still my favourite
synthesizer next to the Fairlight, and as it was all that was
available at the time, I started to find a brass sound. In minutes
I found a brass section starting to happen, and I worked out an
arrangement. We put the brass down and we were ready to mix the demo.
     I was never to get that CS80 brass to sound the same again--it's
always the way. At The Townhouse the same approach was taken to
record the master of the track. We put down a track of the rhythm
box to be replaced by drums, recording the piano at the same time.
     As I was producing, I would ask the engineer to put the piano
sound on tape so I could refer to that for required changes.
     This was the quickest of all the tracks to be completed, and was
also one of the few songs to remain contained on one twenty-four
track tape instead of two!

_There_Goes_a_Tenner_

     "Everybody synchronize watches. Remember there's only half an
hour to do the job. We've been rehearsing for weeks, so nothing
should go wrong. Let's run through it one more time:

     "I go in and distract the guard,
     Frank's out the back in the getaway car,
     The sign on the door turns from open to shut,
     We keep them all covered, you blow the safe up,
     We grab the cash, make a hasty retreat,
     And tear across London using the backstreets.
     Remember, be careful, give nothing away,
     The arm of the Law is as long as they say."

_Pull_Out_the_Pin_

     We sat in front of the speakers trying to focus on the picture--
a green forest, humid and pulsating with life. We are looking at
the Americans from the Vietnamese point of view and, almost like
a camera, we start in wide shot. Right in the distance you can see the
trees moving, smoke and sounds drifting our way...sounds like a radio.
Closer in with the camera, and you can catch glimpses of their pink
skin. We can smell them for miles with their sickly cologne,
American tobacco and stale sweat.
     Take the camera in even closer, and we find a solitary soldier,
perhaps the one I have singled out. (Sometimes a Vietnamese
would track a soldier for days and follow him, until he eventually
took him.) This soldier is under a tree, dozing with a faint
smile and a radio by his side. It's a small transistor radio out
of which cries an electric guitar. I'd swear it was being played
by Brian Bath, but how could that be, way out here on our stereo screen.
     I pop the silver Buddha that I wear around my neck into my mouth,
securing my lips around his little metal body. I move towards the
sleeping man. A helicopter soars overhead, he wakes up, and as he
looks me in the eyes I relate to him as I would to a helpless
stranger. Has he a family and a lady waiting for him at home,
somewhere beyond the Chinese drums and the double bass that
stalks like a wild cat through bamboo?
     The moving pictures freeze-frame and fade--someone stopped
the multi-track, there's more overdubs to do.

_Suspended_in_Gaffa_

     Whenever I've sung this song I've hoped that my breath would
hold out for the first few phrases, as there is no gap to breathe in.
     When I wrote this track the words came at the same time, and this
is one of the few songs where the lyrics were complete at such an
early stage. The idea of the song is that of being given a glimpse
of "God"--something that we dearly want--but being told that
unless we work for it, we will never see it again, and even then,
we might not be worthy of it. Of course, everybody wants the
reward without the toil, so people try to find a way out of the
hard work, still hoping to claim the prize, but such is not
the case. The choruses are meant to express the feeling of
entering timelessness as you become ready for the experience, but
only when you are ready.

_Leave_It_Open_

     Like cups, we are filled up and emptied with feelings, emotions--
vessels breathing in, breathing out. This song is about being open
and shut to stimuli at the right times. Often we have closed minds
and open mouths when perhaps we should have open minds and shut mouths.
     This was the first demo to be recorded, and we used a Revox and the
few effects such as a guitar chorus pedal and an analogue delay system.
We tried to give the track an Eastern flavour and the finished demo
certainly had a distinctive mood.
     There are lots of different vocal parts, each portraying a separate
character and therefore each demanding an individual sound. When
a lot of vocals are being used in contrast rather than "as one,"
more emphasis has to go on distinguishing between the different
voices, especially if the vocals are coming from one person.
     To help the separation we used the effects we had. When we mastered
the track, a lot more electronic effects and different kinds of
echoes were used, helping to place the vocals and give a greater
sense of perspective.
     Every person who came into the studio was given the "end backing
vocals test" to guess what is being sung at the end of the song.
     "How many words is it?"
     "Five."
     "Does it begin with a 'W'?"
     It is very difficult to guess, but it can be done, especially when
you know what the song is about.
     I would love to know your answers.

_The_Dreaming_

     We started with the drums, working to a basic Linn drum machine pattern,
making them sound as tribal and deep as possible. This song had to try
and convey the wide open bush, the Aborigines--it had to roll around
in mud and dirt, try to become a part of the earth. "Earthy" was the
word used most to explain the sounds. There was a flood of imagery
sitting waiting to be painted into the song. The Aborigines move away
as the digging machines move in, mining for ore and plutonium. Their
sacred grounds are destroyed and their beliefs in Dreamtime grow
blurred through the influence of civilization and alcohol. Beautiful
people from a most ancient race are found lying in the roads and
gutters. Thank God the young Australians can see what's happening.
     The piano plays sparse chords, just to mark every few bars and the
chord changes. With the help of one of Nick Launay's magic sounds,
the piano became wide and deep, effected to the point of becoming
voices in a choir. The wide open space is painted on the tape, and
it's time to paint the sound that connects the humans to the earth,
the digeridu.
     The digeridu took the place of the bass guitar and formed a constant
drone, a hypnotic sound that seems to travel in circles.
     None of us had met Rolf (Harris) before and we were very excited
at the idea of working with him. He arrived with his daughter, a friend
and an armful of digeridus. He is a very warm man, full of smiles
and interesting stories. I explained the subject matter of the song
and we sat down and listened to the basic track a couple of times
to get the feel. He picked up a digeridu, placing one end of it
right next to my ear and the other at his lips, and began to play.
     I've never experienced a sound quite like it before. It was like
a swarm of tiny velvet bees circling down the shaft of the digeridu
and dancing around in my ear. It made me laugh, but there was
something very strange about it, something of an age a long, long
time ago.
     Women are never supposed to play a digeridu, according to Aboriginal
laws; in fact there is a digeridu used for special ceremonies, and
if this was ever looked upon by a woman before the ceremony could
take place, she was taken away and killed, so it's not surprising
that the laws were rarely disobeyed. After the ceremony, the
instrument became worthless, its purpose over.
     It's interesting how some songs attract lots of ideas--this
was definitely one of them, and because of the amount of ideas
in this song, it made me concentrate on others, so they would
not be neglected or left behind. Percy Edwards was among the ideas
for this song, and he too was a real pleasure to work with. He
really is the only man who imitates the voices of animals to
the extent that he does, and is greatly respected for his talents.
It is so beautiful to watch him burst into birdsong in a studio
in the middle of London. I had images of him waking with the dawn
chorus, taking part with blackbirds, the sparrows, the thrushes...
but we were in the studio with Percy, and there was work to do,
so he became sheep, dingoes and Australian magpies. The light
grew dim and we were out in the bush on a warm windy night by the
light of Percy, our fire.
     Percy is a true professional, and he kept us all in awe with his
wonderful ways. He was, however, a little upset by the treatment
of the kangaroos, but after Paddy and I
explained it was the only way to get the sound
we wanted, he completely understood the situation and tried to
communicate to the kangas what they had to do. The only problem
was he couldn't remember the kanga word for "Dang" so he worked
on "Boing" with a "D".

_Night_of_the_Swallow_

     Ever since I heard my first Irish pipe music it has been under my
skin, and every time I hear the pipes, it's like someone tossing
a stone in my emotional well, sending ripples down my spine.
     I've wanted to work with Irish music for years, but my writing has
never really given me the opportunity of doing so until now. As
soon as the song was written, I felt that a _ceilidh_ band would
be perfect for the choruses. The verses are about a lady who's trying to
keep her man from accepting what seems to be an illegal job. He is
a pilot and has been hired to fly some people into another country.
No questions are to be asked, and she gets a bad feeling from the
situation. But for him, the challenge is almost more exciting than
the job itself, and he wants to fly away.
     As the fiddles, pipes and whistles start up in the choruses, he is
explaining how it will be all right. He'll hide the plane high up
in the clouds on a night with no moon, and he'll swoop over the
water like a swallow.
     Bill Whelan is the keyboard player with Planxty, and ever since
Jay <Kate's eldest brother John Carder Bush> played
me an album
of theirs I have been a fan. I rang Bill and he tuned into the idea
of the arrangement straight away.
     We sent him a cassette, and a few days later he phoned the studio
and said, "Would you like to hear the arrangement I've written?"
     I said I'd love to, but how?
     "Well, Liam is with me now, and we could play it over
the phone."
     I thought how wonderful he was, and I heard him put down the phone
and walk away. The cassette player started up. As the chorus began,
so did this beautiful music--through the wonder of telephones it
was coming live from Ireland, and it was very moving.
     We arranged that I would travel to Ireland with Jay and the multi-track
tape, and that we would record in Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin.
As the choruses began to grow, the evening drew on and the glasses of
Guiness, slowly dropping in level, became like sand glasses to tell
the passing of time. We missed our plane and worked through the night.
      By eight o'clock the next morning we were driving to the airport to
return to London. I had a very precious tape tucked under my arm,
and just as we were stepping onto the plane, I looked up into the sky
and there were three swallows diving and chasing the flies.

_All_the_Love_

     Although we are often surrounded by people and friends, we are all
ultimately alone, and I feel sure everyone feels lonely at some time
in their life. I wanted to write about feeling alone, and how having
to hide emotions away or being too scared to show love can lead to
being lonely as well.
     There are just some times when you can't cope and you just don't
feel you can talk to anyone. I go and find a bathroom, a toilet or
an empty room just to sit and let it out and try to put it all together
in my mind. Then I go back and face it all again.
     I think it's sad how we forget to tell people we love that we do love
them. Often we think about these things when it's too late or when an
extreme situation forces us to show those little things we're normally
too shy or too lazy to reveal.
     One of the ideas for the song sparked when I came home from the studio
late one night. I was using an answering machine to take the day's
messages and it had been going wrong a lot, gradually growing worse
with time. It would speed peoples' voices up beyond recognition, and
I just used to hope they would ring back again one day at normal speed.
     This particular night, I started to play back the tape, and the machine
had neatly edited half a dozen messages together to leave "Goodbye",
"See you!", "Cheers", "See you soon"... It was a strange thing
to sit and listen to your friends ringing up apparently just to say
goodbye. I had several cassettes of peoples' messages all ending with
authentic farewells, and by copying them onto 1/4" tape and re-arranging
the order, we managed to synchronize the "callers" with the last verse
of the song.
     There are still quite a few of my friends who have not heard the album
or who have not recognised themselves and are still wondering how
they managed to appear in the album credits when they didn't even set
foot into the studio.

_Houdini_

     The side most people know of Houdini is that of the escapologist,
but he spent many years of his life exposing mediums and seances
as frauds. His mother had died, and in trying to make contact through
such spiritual people, he realized how much pain was being inflicted
on people already in sorrow, people who would part with money just for
the chance of a few words from a past loved one.
     I feel he must have believed in the possibility of contact after death,
and perhaps in his own way, by weeding out the frauds, he hoped to
find just one that could not be proven to be a fake. He and his wife
made a decision that if one of them should die and try to make contact,
the other would know it was truly them through a code that only
the two of them knew.
     His wife would often help him with his escapes. Before he was bound up
and sealed away inside a tank or some dark box, she would give him a
parting kiss, and as their lips met, she would pass him the key which
he would later use to unlock the padlocks that chained him.
     After he died, Mrs. Houdini did visit many mediums, and tried to make
contact for years, with no luck--until one day a medium called Mr.
Ford informed her that Houdini had come through. She visited him
and he told her that he had a message for her from Houdini, and he
spoke the only words that meant for her the proof of her husband's
presence. She was so convinced that she released an official
statement to the fact that he had made contact with her through the
medium, Ford.
     It is such a beautiful and strange story that I thought I had very
little to do, other than tell it like it was. But in fact it proved
to be the most difficult lyric of all the songs and the most
emotionally demanding. I was so aware of trying to do justice
to the beauty of the subject, and trying to understand what it
must have been like to have been in love with such an extraordinary
man, and to have been loved by him.
     I worked for two or three nights just to find one line that was
right. There were so many alternatives, but only a few were right
for the song. Gradually it grew and began to piece together, and
I found myself wrapped up in the feelings of the song--almost
pining for Houdini. Singing the lead vocal was a matter of conjuring
up that feeling again and as the clock whirrs and the song flashes
back in time to when she watched him through the glass, he's
on the other side under water, and she hangs on to his every breath.
We both wait.

_Get_Out_of_My_House_

     _The_Shining_ is the only book I've read that has frightened me.
While reading it I swamped around in its snowy imagery and avoided
visiting certain floors of the big, cold hotel, empty for the winter.
As in _Alien_, the central characters are isolated, miles (or light years)
away from anyone or anything, but there is something in the place with
them. They're not sure what, but it isn't very nice.
     The setting for this song continues the theme--the house which is
really a human being, has been shut up--locked and bolted, to
stop any outside forces from entering. The person has been hurt
and has decided to keep everybody out. They plant a "concierge"
at the front door to stop any determined callers from passing, but
the thing has got into the house upstairs. It's descending in the lift,
and now it approaches the door of the room that you're hiding in.
You're cornered, there's no way out, so you turn into a bird and
fly away, but the thing changes shape, too. You change, it changes;
you can't escape, so you turn around and face it, scare it away.

     "Hee Haw"
     "Hee Haw"
     "Hee Haw"

     Lots of love,

     Kate

     xxxx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here is Kate's article for the thirteenth issue (summer 1983).>

     It's been a long time since our last issue, and I must apologise
for the long absence, but due to lack of activities, there has really
been very little to tell you about.
     Last year, after the album was finished, I decided to promote it
as fully as possible. When you've spent nearly a year making an album,
you can't let it go out into the world without helping it. In fact, the
business has certainly changed in the last couple of years. Everyone
has to work much harder, and with an absence of two years from the
public eye, I had to show my face again, to prove I was still alive.
I did lots and lots of press--I haven't done so much since the first
album. It was refreshing to find that the majority of journalists
actually really appreciated and understood the album, but I had to
explain time and time again that the album hadn't taken two years
to make! <IED supposes that next year, when (if) KBVI is finally
released, she will have to explain time and time again that the album
hadn't taken _four_years_to_make!_>
     I also did some TVs in England and Europe, with two dancers:
Gary, who you all know, and Dougie, a dancer I had met years ago
when he was working in Lindsay Kemp's company.
     We worked in Italy and Germany, and the response was wonderful.
It was interesting that as we worked more and more on the routine,
_The_Dreaming_, it became tighter and tighter, and little bits were
added here and there, until it was so much better than the video that
I wished we had had made the video after the TVs.
     It was a very interesting trip--we went to Rome, and as Lindsay
Kemp was visiting at the time, we got a chance to see Lindsay, and
we had a lovely evening. He cooked us a meal, and after we were so
full that we could hardly move, he got out boxes of his old photos
and we fingered each one with magical memories: shots of _Flowers_
from The Collegiate Theatre, the first time I saw Lindsay perform.
Lindsay dressed as Mr. Punch, leaping for joy. I remember the theatre
being full of adults rather than children, and all of us shouting
"Look behind you!" and "Oh, no, you don't!" Adults transported to
childhood in a matter of moments--but that's the craft of Lindsay's
magic.
     Fond memories spread across the floor--the passionate and dramatic,
Lindsay's shows in photo form. We carefully put them all back in
their boxes, a farewell dance and a big kiss goodbye.
     There is a fountain in Rome where you can make a wish and
throw a coin--a very magical place <the Trevi Fountains>: marble
horses, pulling themselves from marble waves, being driven by a
marble Neptune. They say the wishes come true. I've yet to see.
And there's a hotel in Rome where we stayed, and on the night we
arrived, there was a diplomatic meeting on a higher floor. The
hotel was full of young soldiers--boys with guns just in case
of any trouble. It was a very sad sight.
     I had to rehearse my number in my room, and not having a
European plug, I took the old one off and began to stick the bare
wires into the plug socket, which was hidden behind the table.
All the lights went out in the room, so I ran into the hall--no
lights. I was half expecting to see soldiers cocking their rifles,
having traced the source of the light failure. I went into my room,
and a few minutes later the lights came back on. Gary and Dougie
came up later, and when I told them they started laughing--apparently
the whole hotel had blacked out, and the soldiers in reception had
been a little on edge, to say the least. So I won't do that again,
and I recommend calling reception to see if they'll help you out if
you ever find yourself with two bare wires in a foreign hotel!
     We travelled to Milan, and then to a place near Venice, where
they were holding the Venice Festival. We performed _The_Dreaming_.
The festival is held in a theatre with an audience of a few hundred,
and goes out on TV at the same time, so it was a live event, but
performed to pre-recorded backing tracks. The Italian audiences are
absolutely wonderful, they adore anything to do with art and applaud
quite spontaneously if they like something. Each time they liked
a step in the routine there would be a ripple of applause, and it
was quite hard to keep going without badly needing to smile because
it was such a lovely feeling.
     The video _The_Dreaming_ had been made in between press and radio
and the trip abroad, and we were very lucky to be able to do all the
shooting in one day. It was an extremely ambitious shoot, which
included live birds, lasers, flying wires, people being buried
completely under sand, not to mention a beautiful set which was
built of polystyrene rocks, dead spikey trees and a cardboard moon
and sun.
     As the hours rolled on, we were sure we would have to leave at
least one idea out, but with a crew who were just as eager as us
to see the film complete and as it should be, we worked on into the
night--past the rope made of laser light and the painted men who
walked out of trees to a mouth moving in the sand (all we can
see of a man deep under the sand; somehow it looks remarkably like
Paddy, and it's the last shot in our video).
     Within two months we had done Europe, P.A.s and two other videos.
I have never made so many videos in such a short space of time, but
there was too much to do, so no more time could be spent on them.
A video of _There_Goes_a_Tenner_ was made to promote a single in
this country, and a video of _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ was made for the
single release in the rest of the world.
     As we all know, _There_Goes_a_Tenner_ bombed in this country,
with no airplay and a handful of the worst (and funniest) reviews
I've read. The video was not shown at all, but a compilation video
called _Kate_Bush:_The_Single_File_ is due out some time soon, so keep
your eyes open for an official release date in the music papers.
Perhaps then you could get a chance to see it, along with all the
others. _There_Goes_a_Tenner_ was set in a derelict old room where
there was a big safe. There are five of us in the gang, and you might
just recognise two of the faces belonging to two of my favourite
musicians in the band!
     Although the single in this country did not do well, it is nice
to know that in Europe, _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ has been quite warmly
received.
     The video of _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ was to be done as simply and
quickly as possible; as always with very little time to complete
it in, the simpler the better.
     I saw it as being the return to simplicity, a light-hearted
dance routine, no extras, no complicated special effects. <In fact,
however, there are many very sophisticated and subtle technical
effects in this video, and the production design is very impressive.>
As we were all so pleased with the previous sets--put together under
the supervision of a very clever man, Steve Hopkins--we asked
him to build another, this time an old barn with large gaps in
the walls where we could allow the light to streak through. We
used a combination of natural and artificial light, and everyone
was thrilled with the sense of realism that the set achieved.
Steve brought in huge branches of trees that were behind the
gaps in the set, and a dedicated helper called "Podge" sat
up on a piece of scaffolding for six hours and enthusiastically
shook a piece of tree to make the light move and dance as if
motivated by a furtive wind. The video did remain uncomplicated--just
a few effects and just one extra: but a very special. one. There
is one section where a child's voice says, "Mother, where are the
angels? I'm scared of the changes." And there was only one person
that could be addressed to--my mother.
     When I asked her to appear in the section, contrary to my
concern about her nerves, she was more tha obliging and said, "Yes."
She was definitely the star of the day, and waited patiently hour
after hour as we slowly moved through the bulk of the shooting to
eventually reach her debut. I was amazed at her grace and stamina:
as all of us began to wane and wilt, my mother continued to
blossom and glow, and her only worries were getting back home in
time to get dinner and hoping she would not succumb to an attack
of giggles during the vital moments of being on screen.
     She needn't have worried, for she is a natural professional,
a real star and my favourite mum. (You can see us together in action
on the back page.)
     Besides all the promotional activities, because of the decision
to release another single, a 'b-side' had to be written. It is
always this way for me: even if things are carefully planned,
things always happen at once--and in a big way. I've always loved
the idea of singing in a foreign language, and I thought this
b-side would be a perfect excuse for doing so.
     Really the only language I know enough of to be able to
work creatively with is French, so I thought of all the odd words I
know, and tried to piece a story together. It's surprising how
inspiring it can be to work from a slightly different tangent.
     The tune came straight away, and I filled in all the lines
that I had no proper words for with pseudo-French sounds. Luckily
Patrick, who worked on _Lionheart_ with us in Superbear <Studios,
in France> was staying with Paddy to work on some tracks, so,
between him and a friend Vivienne, we worked out the complete
lyrics, and _Ne_T'enfuis_pas_ was put to tape.
     Just one more trip abroad, to Paris and Germany to promote
_Suspended_in_Gaffa_, and that was nearly the end of the promo, and
the year.
     I had a wonderful Christmas, very quiet--a nice end to a very
busy year. This year has been very positive so far. It doesn't
have the same air of doom that '81 and '82 seemed to hold--I hope
it's the same for all of you.
     I'd like to take this opportunity to say a big thankyou
with a hug and a kiss for all of you who sent the beautiful
Christmas presents and cards. I'm afraid I can't thank you all
personally, but they're very much appreciated. It's incredible
that so many of you should think of me when there's always so
many people to think of at Christmas. Also, thank you to all of
you for the feedback on the album. I've had so many letters saying
that you really like it. It's wonderful that you are all so open
enough to try to understand it. It means a lot to me that it's
got through to the people that matter.
     It was also really good to see those of you that made it to
the P.A.s again. Your feedback on the album was so positive--I
really needed it then, it had only just been released and it
certainly helped to ease my anxiety a little.
     Already that seems such a long time ago--last year, all over.
I was really hoping to put a show together this year, but it just
seems impossible yet again. Will it ever happen, I wonder? Yes,
but when? I don't know.
     The problem is that if I don't make an album this year,
there will be at least another two-year gap before another one, and
the way that business and politics are, it would be a negative
situation. <We can all be grateful now that Kate resisted the
"business and politics" enough to take two full years, after writing
this letter, to complete _Hounds_of_Love_.> So here I am writing
away, or trying to write--determined to get a new album together.
If only time would slow down a little for me, I could do it all
and go away on holiday!
     I seem to have hit another quiet period. I intend just to
keep on writing for this first part of the year, so yet again I
slip away from the eyeball of the media to my home. <Actually,
Kate was busy moving to a new home outside the city during this
period.>
     It's almost impossible for us to put an interesting newsletter
together while all my energies are channelled into the creative
side of making an album, and so, if you can bear with us for a while,
we will only be issuing a magazine when we have enough information
and pictures to fill it, and will probably not be able to bring
a quarterly issue this year, but hope that our part-colour issues
will make up for this.
     Thank you for being so patient.
     Thanks for all the feedback.
     Thanks for caring.
     Thanks.
                          Lots of love,

                          Kate xx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here are Kate's article and another interview section from
the fourteenth issue of the _Newsletter_ (written in the fall of '83).>

Dear Friends,
     Since we last spoke, the weather has been incredible--it was the
best July since 1659, they say--but for me it's like 1976. Do you
remember that year? It was a particularly special year, when things
were full of adventure.
     I was dancing every day, and singing and writing all night. I
used to go to London by train every day. It was the time of bomb
scares, and everyone would stare uneasily at unattended bags, and
the trains were full of paranoia. It was brilliant for me--I'd get
back to my newly acquired roommates, Zoodle and Pye, who were only
kittens, then, and I'd open all the windows and wail away all
night. I only got one complaint from someone who had to get up at
4:00 a.m., and as I was creating noisily until at least that time,
they were somewhat unhappy at their lack of sleep. But only that
one complained.
     I feel in many ways that '76 and this year are linked together,
for me. This year I've been seriously trying to work for an album,
but found that in the first part of the year I just needed to rest,
really. It's hard to say how I was feeling after the last album,
but I needed to breathe. There are always post-album blues, but
this time I think I just wanted a break, just to think and to
gather stimulus for a new direction. After the demanding lands
that my last set of songs took me to, I had to think again about
where to go--maybe somewhere a little sunnier. I can honestly
say I feel so much more relaxed having had time to put my
pieces back together; have some time with my family and friends,
which I was really missing; and also to indulge in some books,
films and records.
     After lasting three months on Chinese take-aways during
the last part of the album, I realised food was a terribly
important factor to a healthy mind and body. So now I make
sure I cook one good meal a day, and have cut out all junk food--which
is unbelievable for me. It is definitely true that convenience
is not always a good thing. Cooking, especially when you're
not handling carcasses and gristle, can be a delightful thing.
I always find it a miracle to turn a few vegetables and some
flour and margarine into a complete meal--it's a bit like the
five loaves and two fish. It's times like this, when I'm doing
a lot of cooking, that I realise how glad I am and how lucky I
am to be a vegetarian, to be eating nothing but fruit and
vegetables--all the wonderful colours and textures. Of course,
the big trouble with cooking is time, but I make myself set
aside the time to cook an evening meal, and I really miss it
now if I'm out and not able to devour my nutritious foods, and
it'll take a while yet before I'll be able to handle a Chines
take-away.
     I have also found a wonderful new dance teacher. Her name
is Dyane Gray, and she is an incredibly beautiful dancer. Not only
did I feel I needed to be fit again, but I really wanted the
stimulus and inspiration that comes from true teachers.
     Having found her, and since taking more care of my body,
I feel recharged again. It's too easy to let bad food and no sleep
catch up. I can't tell you how good and happy I feel since I've
taken these few steps.
     As you probably know, a trip to America and Canada was due,
and was unfortunately cancelled. It was very disappointing, as
I was greatly looking forward to trying to help _The_Dreaming_
along out there. But I feel I was probably meant to carry on with
the album and perhaps also to have been able to enjoy the first British
summer for seven years. <The papers printed stories that
Kate's scheduled American trip was scratched solely because her
planned mode of transportation, the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner,
was diverted from its schedule for service in the Falklands at the
last minute. According to the news reports, Kate simply cancelled
the America junket rather than consider flying, allegedly because
of an overpowering phobia of airplanes. Although she does seem to
have made such a decision, her heavy reliance on air transportation
up until this time discredits the stories of air phobia.>
     I had a really good birthday this year. In fact, it was
definitely one of the best ever. Thank you all so much for your lovely
presents and wishes. It means a lot to know you're all thinking of me.
     Just a word about the compilation video that was promised in
April!! (You _must_ be used to this by now.) Unfortunately, due to
delayed business transactions, there is still no release date,
but we really do hope it will be settled before the end of the year!
(Hopefully, there will be advertisments around the time, to let
you know if we can't get an official release date to you.) But as
a sneak preview, here is a proff of the artwork at this stage.
     Well, I'll return to my work, and wish you a very happy autumn.
     Until our next letter.
                              Lots of love,

                              Kate xx

                              _Interview_

     Do you watch the chart positions of your albums and singles?
Do you know their positions before they are broadcast, or do you
have to wait and listen to the radio?
     "Yes, I suppose I do keep an eye on the charts to a certain
extent, but I don't know the chart positions until the day you hear
them on the radio. I usually hear via a telephone call from the record
company, and they don't know them until that morning."
     Have you ever sung in any foreign language other than French?
     "Yes, but only once, when I was in Japan at a Japanese business
conference. I sang a well known song of their country, in their
language."
     Who is Tamlain, mentioned in _The_Empty_Bullring_?
     "Tamlain is a girl in a traditional fairy story, who is locked
up in an ivory tower."
     Do you actually read up and research for your songs, or is it
information already in your head--especially _Breathing_?
     "This really depends on the subject matter of the individual
song; but in the case of _Breathing_, most of the information came
from a documentary about a man who had been following up the negative
results of nuclear products."
     On _Never_For_Ever_ and _The_Dreaming_, you are credited as
playing a CS-80. What is this?
     "The CS-80 is a synthesiser made by Yamaha. It has been
a particularly favourite synth. of mine, as it is one of the few
that has a touch-sensitive keyboard."
     Do you ever go to concerts? If so, who?
     "I very rarely go to gigs, as I don't really have much free
time; but it's always nice to go and see artists whose music I
enjoy, especially when the shows are as spectacular as _The_Wall_."
     Who is the man on the cover of _The_Dreaming_?
     "Why, Houdini, of course!"
     Were the brightly coloured trousers with zips and ties that
you wore for the Virgin p.a. last year and for a number of photos
specially made for you, or did you buy them?
     "Quite a few people have assumed that they were specially made.
However, I did buy the trousers--from a boutique called Splash."
     Do you know of any records available featuring whale music?
     "I think if you look around, there have been quite a few,
but I understand that some, including _The_Song_of_the_Humpback_Whale_,
have been deleted, so you would probably only find them in
second-hand record shops."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here are Kate's pieces for the fifteenth issue (Christmas, 1983).>

Dear Friends,
     Here we are at Christmas again, so soon. Looks like a white one
this year, with thermal underwear doing a booming trade.
     Hopefully by now the video _The_Single_File_ is readily available
in the shops, and I hope those of you who have invested are pleased
with the contents--I'd love to hear your comments.
     As you will notice, we have a newcomer in this issue: Gray Levett,
who has written us a Christmas article, and will be bringing us
news in every issue from across the ocean in his _Letter_From_America_.
     I met Gray a long time ago, when I went to stay at his house
by the sea. He was very charming, and we talked of many interesting
things. He was a perfect host, and we had a wonderful time. We've
kept in touch over the years, through letters and calls, and since
Gray moved out to America, his career has blossomed and grown, and
now he is a very busy and sought-after man. But he still finds time
to carefully research and compile his information and send it here
to us, and I hope that you will feel as we do, that his material in
our magazine is exciting and keeps us in touch with all the news,
views and progress in America. <In fact, however, the readers--at
least the American ones--did _not_ find Mr. Levett's material very
satisfactory. IED was not the only American fan who wrote to this
"American" correspondent to help him out and set him straight on
some of his "facts", without ever receiving any acknowledgement
or reply. Finally, after two more "Letters from America", Mr. Levett
quietly dropped off the _Newsletter_ writing staff, and he has not
been heard from since 1984.>
     I'm afraid there has been a delay with the boxed single set,
and this will probably be released early next year now, rather
than before Christmas. But as with the video, I hope the finished
thing will dispel any disappointment from waiting. <Again, fans
were not entirely pleased with this product, when it finally did
arrive. There were numerous complaints about the poor quality of
the re-pressings and their flimsy picture-sleeves. IED, for one,
has always admired the design of the box, even if some aspects of the
product as a whole were disappointing.>
     I hope you enjoy our Christmassy stories and games, and may all your
Christmasses be white.
                              Lots of love,

                              Kate xx

                          _On_the_Road_Home_

     It had been a good day, and as I tied the tree on to the roof
it showered me in its green perfume. For just a moment it took me to
that place where all my Christmas days meet as one; where there are
reindeer and chimney pots and blazing fires. It hung in my head for an instant
and then was gone as I checked the clock and made for the shops.
     It was unusually quiet for an afternoon so near to Christmas. It
had even snowed that morning, and the shop attendants seemed almost
happy at their work. It felt like some kind of magic, wrapping everyone
and everything up.
     The ever-growing list was finally getting smaller--tick, tick,
tick: the turkey, the pudding, the crackers. Tick, tick: a present
for David, a present for Granddad.
     With just five minutes to spare, I had finished the shopping and
was wading back to the car through the snow. It really was quiet that
night, and it had been dark for a good hour. I opened the car boot and
wedged as much as possible into the already full space.
     It was great to be in the car and on the way home. Everything
looked so beautiful in the snow! It was like driving down a tunnel
of trees to Narnia. I was in no hurry, and didn't feel like the radio
-- the snow and my thoughts were just right together. Not too fast,
remember the driving conditions, ease off the accelerator, check the
mirror (no-one around), nice and easy...
     It was just as I started thinking about checking the tree on
the roof that I got this feeling...this feeling that there was
someone else in the car. I dismissed it--ridiculous, I'd have
seen them. Check the mirror. There. Nothing. But what if he's lying
down on the back seat and I can't see him?
     I slowed right down, and twisted my head round. Nothing.
     Check the mirror. It must be paranoia. I'm going just a little
faster now. I know it's nothing, but it's just this feeling...
     Then his face is right there, in between the two front seats:
     "Look out, look out...Stop."
     My eyes turned from his moving lips to the road, my foot
already reacting on the brake. I skidded to a stop. After just a
few seconds I had taken in that there was nothing in the road. Nothing
in front, nothing behind...and no-one in the back of the car.
     The thought of having to get out into the night--out of the car--
was more terrifying than staying in it, so I started up the motor,
put my foot steadily on the accelerator and turned on the radio--
light music, nice and loud.
     By the time I turned into the drive I was wondering if it had
really happened at all. I was shaking, and hadn't checked my mirror
once since I'd had to stop. I ran into the house. As soon as I
saw David I released the tears.
     I don't know if he believed me or not, and it didn't matter at
the time. He acted like he did, that was all I needed. After all, I
was seriously doubting it myself.
     It was a week later, and we were all to go out for the evening.
We arranged for our friends to pick us up on the way. It was Christmas
Eve--the first time for years we'd left the house on that night.
We were looking forward to the break, and once we were at the party
we relaxed and enjoyed the rest from the rush. None of us really drank,
but we ate as much as possible, working our way up the table--the
food was delightful; and like perfect guests, as soon as we'd had our
fill we left, in order to be in our homes to celebrate Christmas.
     Since we'd arrived the weather had broken into a storm--heavy
wind and rain. We piled into the car--our friends in the front, David
and I in the back--and rolled toward home. After a while I realised
what route we were now taking on the way to our house: past the
shops...My eyes fixed on the road ahead. I felt uncomfortable --it was
that same feeling--I would not panic--
     We came to the spot where I had stopped that night, that figure
shouting in my ear. We were travelling at a fair speed. Then there he
was--standing in the road, waving his arms to and fro. He was right
in front of us.
     "Look out, look out...Stop."
     The words came out as if they were not my own.
     The car ground to a halt, all four of us staring ahead. Still
held by my fear, the other three slowly turned their faces toward mine.
     "God, what's the matter with you?" shouted David, his face
pale.
     "Didn't you see him?" I screamed.
     "See what?"
     I couldn't believe it--he must be joking.
     "What did you see?" queried my two friends, now laughing a little
as they shook off their fright.
     "The man...in the road!" I gasped.
     As I pushed open the back door and got out, I looked back--
nothing. I looked ahead of the car--nothing. I would not have this!
I knew I had seen him this time--he was real. The car headlights
-- the light beams filled with rain--stopped dead about six feet from
the car. After that, darkness. Maybe he had fallen down. He must have
been further ahead than I had thought. My friends, now concerned by my
worry, were sitting with knitted brows in the car.
     "Please," I said, "move the car forward very slowly--I need the
light on the road."
     The light slowly moved across the tarmac. I waited for a shoe, a
hand. Then the edge of the light hit a rough brown surface.
     "There's something here!" I shouted. The light steadily moved
forward and revealed the huge bough of a tree. It must have been a
twenty-, thirty-footer, fallen in the storm. The car stopped. All
four of us stood, fixed on the object.
     "The speed we were going..." David said. "How did you see it?
it?"
     "I didn't," I answered. I hadn't seen it.
     None of us could say anything--we were too shocked. We couldn't
believe it. It had been close. So strange.
     In the distance the clock struck the first chime of Christmas day.
     And in the distance but coming towards us was the constant buzz
of an engine. We'd all heard it. Something travelling fast: a motorbike,
and now he's in view, he's coming straight towards us. He's not wearing
a helmet, and with his hair pelted back by the rain, his face is white
and stark in the night. His face is very like that man's--that man
who was first shouting, then waving, is now coming straight for us.
     "Look out, look out...Stop."

-- Kate Bush

     <Judging from the phobia of driving in this story, it's fair to assume
that it was written about the same time that Kate was learning to drive
(she's said she learned during the hiatus between _The_Dreaming_ and _Hounds_
_of_Love_). Also of interest are the image of car headlights (as in _Full_
_House_ and _Don't_Push_Your_Foot_on_the_Heart_Brake_); the shifts from
shifts from past to present tense at crucial dramatic moments; the phrase
"something traveling fast" (as in _Hello_Earth_); and the reference to a
meat Christmas--not the first time Kate has let ideologically antithetical
traditions override her personal convictions for the sake of their
beauty, or of their associative or artistic power.>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here are Kate's article and interview from issue number 16.>

     As spring arrives, the songs are being finished, and it's
lyric time. I'm in Ireland, and it is incredibly beautiful; a
very creative environment. It's not until you're somewhere this
quiet, this peaceful, that you realise all the distractions there
are at home. There is no television, no phone except for a wind-up
one that is reluctant to produce an operator at the other end,
and the nearest house is made of stone and has no roof and only
three walls--it is bliss.
     Having written most of the "tunes" for the album, and feeling
like I'd done most of the hard work, I remember now how difficult
it can be to work on the lyrics! And when that is finished, and
I'm feeling smug, I'll suddenly remember all those wonderful problems
that start when you begin to record--and I can't wait. It's been
quite hard this time to decide which songs to use--not that there's
a great choice, but it is still nice to be able to choose. However,
there can be a time problem even when you have made your choice.
The last link in the chain is definitely the weakest.
     Even when you get a beautiful cut, after the record is mass-pressed
in the factory the result can be heart-breaking, and the only way
to help this situation is to cut down the time on each side, getting
a deeper cut. Especially rock music has to heed this, as classical
or acoustic music can get away with a slightly shallower cut because
they don't usually have the kind of bass frequency that requires
a deep cut. <Let's hope Kate doesn't let the limitations of this
antiquated vinyl format induce her to shorten tracks on KBVI!>
     I find this the ultimately frustrating part of the process.
It seems wrong to me to have to cut down on tracks to get a great
sound. Surely people pay enough for an album (and _wait_ long enough
in some case) without finding there are only six or seven short
tracks on the whole album. Until there is a universal compact
disk, or everyone decides to change over to cassettes from records,
unfortunately this can't be solved.
     But this is the nitty-gritty of the Biz, and not much fun,
and it couldn't be more remote from this spot in Ireland. It is
like "Old" England--I've never stepped thro' a time-warp before--I
definitely recommend it.
     While we're here, I'm hoping to get together with Bill Whelan
(who did the fantastic arrangements on _Night_of_the_Swallow_), as
I am hoping he will be able to do some arrangements on the coming
album.
     I am so pleased at the reaction, both to the video and the
boxed set of _The_Single_File_. It was a buzz for me to get the
video released, and to see five years sitting in a little green
box, but the feedback to them is stunning. Thanks to all of you
for feeding-back.
     There were three dates planned for me to go to W.H. Smith
and sign anything anyone had, but unfortunately only two of them
were executed. The first was Cardiff, and I would like to take this
opportunity to explain what happened. Without mentioning any names,
a certain person representing EMI who accompanied me "misjudged"
the train departure time, and I will never forget the look on
their face as we walked thro' the gate and the train pulled away.
The next half an hour consisted of running from platform to platform,
and eventually ending up on a train which happened to be going the
wrong direction! Now, we could say that my profession is renowned
for a certain untogether reputation, and so unfortunately a great
deal of presumption goes on. What can I say? At the second P.A.
I ended up running the last mile to the shop. The clouds had opened
and the streets had jammed with traffic, and I arrived somewhat wet
and out of breath. And at the third P.A. everything was great--third
time lucky, I guess.
     Talking about "guessing", at last someone has discovered what's
being said at the end of _Leave_It_Open_--well done! But let
me tell you about some of the fascinating encounters I've had. There
is a Mr. John Reimers from the U.S.A. who has rung up once a week
with his new version:
     "Is it...?"
     "Nope!"
     "Well, is it...?"
     "Nope!"
     "Tell me! Tell me!"
     John, you're terrific!
     But I'm afraid this is just a mild case. One night I woke
up to a tapping on the window. It was someone hanging from a
nearby tree by their feet. In their hands was a card, and written
on it was: "Is it 'We paint the penguins pink?'" I'm afraid I
had to laugh, and shook my head. They burst into tears and
ran off into the moonlight. But I think the cleverest was a
phone call I had the other week.
     "Hello, Kate?"
     "Hello?"
     "It's Jay here, how are you doing?"
     He sounded a little squeaky to me. Then he said:
     "You know, it's ridiculous. I was sitting here listening to
the end of _Leave_It_Open_ the other day, and I just couldn't
remember what you said--I know it's crazy but--"
     I interrupted.
     "'We paint the penguins pink.'"
     "Oh, yeah! Of course, how could I forget? See you soon--buy!"
     Hmmm...see what I mean?...C-lever!
     But seriously, I have enjoyed your guesses tremendously, but
I have terrible dreams about your reactions now that
the answer has been revealed. Do I hear cries of "You're
kidding! But that's stupid!" or "Cor, that's pathetic--all our
efforts over _that_?"
     Well, I hope not...And remember to let the weirdness in.
                           Lots of love,

                           Kate xxx

                           _Interview_

     What is Gaffa? What does _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ mean?
     "'Gaffa" is Gaffa Tape. It is thick industrial tape, mainly
used for taping down and tidying up the millions of leads, and
particularly useful in concert situations. _Suspended_in_Gaffa_
is trying to simulate being trapped in a kind of web: everything
is in slow motion, and the person feels like they're tied up. They
can't move." <Love-Hounds: Remember, IED has already admitted defeat.
Please don't rub it in!>
     Many of your songs contain references to occult and esoteric
philosophy. Is this a particular interest of yours, or are you just
widely read?
     "I don't think I am particularly interested in gthe occult, but
I do have an interest in the human mind, and the unusual situations
that occur, or are said to occur, to human beings in extreme religious
or spiritual states. But surely we all have a curiosity for things
that we know little about."
     How do you manage to do the guitar, bass and drum arrangements,
as you don't play those instruments? Do you hear in your head what
you want, and if so, how do you communicate it to the session musicians?
     "Mostly I have a strong idea of what I want to hear. The sound
aspect I would explain to the engineer, but musically I would
suggest the mood, or any piano lines I wanted picked up. But
usually I leave the musical content to the musician, and they always
understand the atmosphere you want to create. With the drummer,
we're now working a lot with drum machines. I originally explain
the type of rhythm I want to Del, who then programmes the Linn. I
demo the song using the rhythm, and then ask the drummer to replace
the feel, adding his own subtle human adornments."
     How do you choose which songs to include when you tour?
I know some of them are obvious selections, but what about the rest?
Have you any idea what songs you will include when you next tour?
Any idea when that will be?
     "I think the most important thing about choosing the songs
is that the _whole_ show will be sustained. Obviously we would try
to pick the strongest songs, try to get a variety of moods, but
build the show up to a climax. And the songs must adapt well visually:
a show is visual as well as audial, so there must hopefully be a good
blend of the two. I think we all know about the tour situation by
now--It's really a matter of time, but how long? I don't know. <Four
more years have passed since Kate wrote this.> This is the truth.
So the safest thing to say: once this next album <_Hounds_of_Love_>
is out, I have to promote and do videos, so time is already being
eaten up this year; but once the album "project" is out of the way,
I do plan to make another tour the next priority. <Hah!> I think
also that because there will have been three albums since the last
tour, we will not include any songs from the first two albums.
But it's all a long way off at the moment, and who can really say
what will happen?"
     Any chance of a tour for '84?
     "Let's just say 'Unlikely,' to be on the safe side."
     Do you choose all the photos of you that appear in magazines?
     "No, I don't. It does depend on the magazine, but most like
take at least one of their own at the time of the interview, and
if they have room for more photos, we supply them with our favourite
shots."
     Do you decide what records are going to be released in other
countries, and what the picture sleeves are going to be?
     "Apart from the U.S.A. releases, we normally know up front
what's happening, if there's to be a special release. In the cases
of the Irish _Night_of_the_Swallow_, the U.S. mini-L.P., the
European _Suspended_in_Gaffa_ and the French _Ne_T'Enfuis_pas_,
we designed the bags, hoping they would particularly appeal
to that market."
     Why don't you release any twelve-inch singles?
     "I'm afraid to say that EMI don't find them 'commercially
viable propositions'. We very much wanted to release the single
_The_Dreaming_ on a twelve-inch--we could have got a beautiful-sounding
cut with that one. I could lend you my twelve-inch if you'd like
to hear how good it is!"
     As the lyrics to _Violin_ are different on _Never_For_Ever_
from the Tour version, could you please tell us the bits of
the Tour version that are different?
     "The lyrics on _Violin_ at the beginning of the Tour wee
slightly different from those at the end. The odd word would
move here and there, and to be honest, I don't remember them;
except I know they weren't that great!"
     I have just finished reading Shakespeare's _Othello_. In the
scene just before Othello kills Desdamona, he says, "Put out
the light/Then put out the light." I was wondering if this means
the same thing in _Blow_Away_.
     "You're the first person in four years to pick up on this--so,
thank you."
     A couple of years ago I read that you were writing a book. Did
this ever come out--as I've tried everywhere to get it--?
     "It was planned at one time, but I just could not find the time
amongst my album projects; and perhaps I am not yet ready to write
a book about myself."
     You obviously believe in keeping yourself as healthy as you can
through exercise and eating the correct foods, etc. But it puzzles
me and others as to why you continue to smoke.
     "I can understand why it should surprise you, but unfortunately
I am only human." <Bravo, Kate! Maybe that'll silence these obnoxious
anti-smoking pests for a while, though it's damn unlikely.>
     Have you ever considered doing a version of _Number_Nine_Dream_
by John Lennon (which I know is your favourite single)?
     "I think what would be nice is if they re-released it. It was
well ahead of its time, and didn't really get the attention it deserved."
     What was your favourite record of 1983?
     "_101_Damnations_, by Scarlet Party."
     About a year ago I purchased a U.S. promo record containing four
tracks from _The_Dreaming_. On the front was a sticker stating
"Not for sale--For promotional purposes only." Is it illegal to
possess such a record? How come I was able to buy it if it's not
for sale?
     "I shouldn't worry, you're not in any trouble for buying it, but
unfortunately whoever sold it to you was making an illegal sale. Thanks
for bringing it to our attention."
     I understand you like Steely Dan. What is your favourite album
of theirs?
     "_Gaucho_. For me, each album got better, and I wish they hadn't
split up."
     Has anything ever happened while recording--say, a strange sound
by mistake which you have decided is worth keeping in the track?
     "A lot of accidents happen, but usually they're re-done for the
master recordings. They seem to happen mostly at the demo stage:
tracks leaking through, odd voice phrases, a synth that wasn't
rubbed oof when it should have been. That sort of thing."
     Is the single version of _Sat_In_Your_Lap_ mixed differently
from the album version? The vocals on the album seem a lot
louder than the instruments. Any special reason for this?
     "Yes. The single mix is different from the album. We very
much wanted to do another mix. The album has a definite flavour
that was confirmed by the mixes, so we wanted _Sat_In_Your_Lap_
to be a part of that. The voice was also deliberately lifted, because
we had quite a lot of feedback about the lead voice being a little
quiet on the single version."
     Do you actually read any of the letters sent to the Club?
And how many staff work there?
     "Yes, I do. Lisa runs the Club, but with the help of 'family'
hands and friends."
     What is your response to the poor airplay of your recent
single releases?
     "Disappointing. But it just shows how reliant you are on the
people at the radio stations liking the singles, to get the airplay."
     Is Paddy married, and if not would he marry my friend?
     "No, he's not married, but I'll add your friend's name to the
list (number 759)."
     Is the man featured on _The_Dreaming_'s cover in the Houdini
pose Del Palmer?
     "That's for me to know and you to find out."
     What gave you the idea of doing a song with an Australian
background?
     "The stimulus started years ago, when Paddy bought _Sun_Arise_
by Rolf Harris; a unique and wonderful song. And for many years it has
greatly disturbed me, the way 'civilised' man has treated ancient
tribes such as the Aborigines, Red Indians, Tasmanians...and because
of the beauty of the Aborigines' music and the way it seems to
exude space, and the feeling of having great contact with the
earth, I felt it was the perfect way to portray this feeling of
invasion by white man."
     Is there any reason why you used a real dijeridu on _The_Dreaming_
as opposed to a synthetic one created by the Fairlight? Is it
because there is the ability for greater tonal change with
a real dijeridu?
     "A Fairlight dijeridu was used to demo the song, but there is
_no_ comparison with the real thing, especially with an instrument
like that when it is played by someone as brilliant as Rolf Harris.
He was an absolute dream to work with, and so much more fun than a
machine."
     I was told recently that you appeared on Zaine Griff's
album _Figures_. Is this true? And what did you do, B.V.s or
keyboards?
     "Yes, I did. Zaine had written a song for Lindsay Kemp
called _Flowers_, and he asked me to sing B.V.s. It is a really
lovely song. Zaine and I met years ago at Lindsay's classes, and
as Lindsay was such a powerful influence on us both--as he is
on anyone who is captured by his strong magic--it was a real
pleasure to be a part of something dedicated to him."
     Why do you always move your eyes right and left in your videos?
It is very pleasant to watch, but it intrigues me. What is the
idea behind it?
     "I have to watch out for any demons that might be creeping
up on me, and video shoots attract so many of them that I have to
keep an extra eye out in case they trip me up while we're going for
a take. You've seen what happens to Faith Brown because she doesn't
look out for them." <Kate's referring to Brown's parody of her
_Wuthering_Heights_ video, in which Brown trips and falls.>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here are Kate's article and interview from issue number 17.>

     This album all started last summer in my music room at home, with
an eight-track Soundcraft desk and tape machine, my piano and the
Fairlight.
     The first song I wrote started with a musical riff and Del
programming a Linn pattern. From that moment, the album "process"
has steadily rolled, and Del has been there from beginning to end.
     The album has been treated as two halves: the "A" and "B"
sides. The "A" side is five songs, the "B" side has a theme
linking
several. When most of the songs were in some form, we moved from the
home studio to the "big" studio, and continued to demo the rest of
the songs.
     It reached a stage where it was ready for drums, so I rang
Paul Hardiman to come and engineer, and Stuart Elliott to play on
drums.
     Paul is great to work with, a very good engineer: quick, and
with a natural feel for sounds. Stuart's drumming is the most emotional
I know. He's always interested in the songs and the lyrics, and has
a way of creating the right mood for the track. The most difficult
thing was working out the compromises between the Linn drum already
there as the demo, and Stuart working with it, or indeed, as in some
cases, taking over completely but working to the Linn.
     In some cases we keyed Stuart's sound off the Linn, it was the
only way to really make it sit. It some cases, we kept the Linn
patterns and Stu worked in some delicate toms around them. He broke
plates and saucers for one track, and became an army of military
snares in another, sprinkling fairy dust hither and thither.
     The next stage was recording all the pianos. The home piano
on the demos was an "upright", and not good enough quality for
professional recording, and so had to be replaced by a grand piano.
Some of these tracks would be taken to Ireland to do some work on.
     We wanted a very delicate piano sound, these tracks being
very empty and sad. Paul went for a very live sound--reminiscent
of Erik Satie, Chopin: the empty ballroom after the party when
everyone has gone home.
     The next stage was some Fairlight, and concentration on the
tracks that would possibly go to Ireland within a few weeks' time.
Rough B.V.s and lead vocals were put down on these tracks, and
copies of the twenty-four-track masters
were made by our maintenance man and cavalry in sticky situations:
Jim Jones--and a very nice chappy he is, too.
     During the trip to Ireland, I hoped to write the lyrics for as
many of the songs as possible, a lot of it being little odds and ends,
which are the hardest to get,
I suppose because you're so limited fitting in a couple of lines within
a context, rather than creating it from scratch.
     However, the main reason for going was to work in Windmill Lane
with Bill Whelan. We met in London, and I played Bill the demos,
and he started thinking about ideas.
     We agreed that we'd need a couple of weeks up front to go
through all the arrangements and sort out the musicians and
studio time. Not only was Bill a dream to work with, but he made
us feel very at home, and we got to see Ireland in a really fun way.
We worked with Liam O'Flynn, a beautiful musician and person, and
Donal Lunny, whose spontaneity and ideas filled us all with awe.
     Bill introduced us to John Sheahan, the fiddle player and
multi-talented musician from The Dubliners, who was like Santa Claus.
He played a piece that Bill had written, and it was so moving and
he played so emotively that I started to cry and felt silly,
but what a nice experience. I highly recommend it!
     One of the tracks we worked on was inspired by a discovery that
Paddy had made of a fascinating Greek ceremony that he managed to get
on tape. He knew it would get in to the inspiration centre, and that's
what it did. We played the tape to Bill, Liam, John and Donal; and
Paddy, who was on his way to the West Coast of Ireland to visit the
Lakes, stayed with us in Dublin and joined in the general fun, and
as a non-stop shift of Irish musicians put the magic of their race
onto the songs, we danced and whooped in the control room.
     We consumed the information from Pad's tape as much as we could.
I'd only finished writing the song the day before on Bill's piano
while his wife brought me cups of tea and biscuits (thank you, Mrs.
Whelan). We used Bill Somerville-Large as the engineer. He worked
on the Irish sessions on the last album. He has a way of bringing out
the natural beauty of acoustic instruments, and it's rare to find an
engineer with perfect pitch! And we worked with a nice man called
"Pearce" as our assistant.
     Windmill Lane is a great studio, very efficient; and they are
all lovely people. We all felt relaxed and happy, which is definitely
the only way to feel when recording and creating.
     This track was built around John Sheahan. Bill conducted him,
I played chords on the piano and Donal played bodhran (a small Irish
drum). We did this in one studio, baffled off from each other. We
got a good take quickly, and John overdubbed fiddle. Then Donal
overdubbed more drum and bouzouki; and then, John playing whistle
and Liam playing pipes, they jammed together on the jig that
Bill had written for the end of the track. Bill is very talented,
as they all are, and I think his arrangements and ideas are
fantastic. It really is fun working over there.
     On returning to England we started again with Stuart to work
on the tracks from Ireland. Unfortunately we only had a limited time
with Paul, as he was committed for another album, but we had four
clear weeks.
     We started on some B.V.s, and did bits of Fairlight, and Paul's
ideas for sounds were invaluable not only then, but later on when
Del came to work on my vocals.
     The next stage was bass guitars. Del played beautiful
bass on some of the tracks, knowing them as well as myself--I
always find Del's ideas are so in tune with the songs.
And I asked Danny Thompson to play on one track and Eberhard Weber
to play on two of the songs. There are a few songs with no bass
guitar at all.
     With Danny we used a quite live sound--you can hear him plucking
and pulling the strings in the ambient room, which we found attractive.
Paul got a great sound and balance between the sound of the bass and
the ambience of the room, and Danny got a fabulous feel for the track
-- like a jungle cat, and very moody. Danny is a very sensitive
player, and again, he loves to know what the track's about, and who or
what he's meant to be; he has a real "feel".
     Eberhard Weber came over to England for two days. I am a big fan
of Eberhard's, and it was really a pleasure to be working with him
again. I'd sent him a cassette up front, with lyrics and notes on
the "vibes" of the tracks, and he came prepared with manuscripts
and ideas. One of the tracks was demanding, as it required so much
space: he used beautiful bowed notes that sound like a plane, and in
the other track he soars and dips like a stalking panther...oooh, it's
lovely.
     Next came Paddy's bag of delights; the dijeridu, given to Pad
by Rolf, was captured, and joined the track that he'd originally
sparked, so Australia joined hand in hand with Greece, Ireland and
England.
     Next he played shimmering mandolins that waxed and waned. He
sang, he dijeridued, as ever waving the magic wand that only Pad
can wave.
     The next musician was John Williams. There was one track in
particular which I hoped he would play on. He was lovely to work with,
and full of enthusiasm and interesting stories, and it took very
little time to get what he wanted. <Typo? She probably
means "we".> (I've always dreamed of working with him.)
John played to a rhythm machine, which is not always
easy when the track is delicate and needs to sound light, but for
him it proved no problem at all. Paul got a beautiful sound in quite
a live room and close-miked John's guitar, using the ever favourite
Neumann U87 microphone.
     Unfortunately, Paul's time was running out, and his commitment
with another album was due. It was an interesting situation. I had
not really approached any engineers, as we'd reached a stage where I
needed to work on ideas and just listen to
the tracks and what we'd done up to that point.
     There were still Fairlight ideas to put down, a couple of tracks
     We were at a stage where I wanted to start on the vocals, to
try and get as many as possible done before I'd call in another
engineer. The one outstanding thing was a track that needed strings
-- real strings. Admiring James Guthrie's work on _The_Wall_,
I asked him if he'd engineer the session for us.
     Luckily, he had a free day during a busy schedule, and I rang
Dave Lawson to confirm the date. (Dave arranged the strings on _Houdini_,
on the last album.) I had written this song with Fairlight
strings, and they need transcribing and writing out for _strings_
.bf ital;strings
.pf
rather than a synthesiser. Dave suggested the "Medicci"
players,* and obviously I was into that.
He thought a great deal about the arrangement and "construction"
of the sextet, and he decided on two violins, two violas, two
'cellos, and was also present on the day to help out with any changes
in the scripts or any problems that might arise.
     It was a big day for us, and it is always exciting working with
strings, and especially when they are such respected musicians.
     It was an extremely hot, humid day, and between takes everyone
would rush outside to breath in the slightly less hot humid air
before returning inside to continue the recording.
     We got a very warm, close sound, which was appropriate for the
weather, and James remained cool and calm, and the strings grew
and grew, and everyone was smiling. And I got an autographed "Medicci"
album--it was great. James is an extremely positive, talented
engineer, and it was a pleasure to work with him.

<*--"Medicci" players:
IED has checked all the UK musicians' union records and found no
listing for a "Medicci" group, but Kate's great respect for the
group makes it seem likely that she's talking about the Medici String
Quartet. The misspelling would not be the only one in the liner notes
of Kate's albums, as many fans have discovered...
Working against this theory, however, is the fact that Kate's part
was arranged for sextet; but since the six-part arrangement was
apparently developed by Lawson independent of the Medici players'
own configuration, and since Kate describes how "the strings grew
and grew", it seems pretty clear that overdubs were used. This problem
can best be resolved by the players themselves, of course.>

     The next layer was voices. Del and I had been working a lot
on voices on the demo/masters (which were now really masters).
Some of the voice sounds were demanding, and some of the performances
(especially from an emotional aspect) were quite difficult.
I really enjoy working with Del, I think especially on the voices.
I always feel very relaxed and uninhibited, which gives me a head
start compared to normal studio situations, where I'm fighting my
nerves until I can settle down.
     We really did have a lot of work to cover, and in some cases I
had to put down the ideas and leave them for a few days in order
to know what I really thought about them. Coming back to them, I
might want to play with them a little--liking the basic idea,
but needing to change it somehow.
     The majority of the vocals were recorded using an 87 Neumann
mike. Del has a natural feel for the sounds I like, and has really
good ideas, so he would get the sound quickly, and the time would
go on me getting the performances and us experimenting with ideas.
     In a couple of cases the B.V.s
on the demos had just the right sound and atmosphere, so we kept these
and maybe added to them. Often "demos" create problems like this,
and that's why we decided to make the demos the basis of the
masters, keeping the feel, the speed, and keeping as many of the Linn
drums, Fairlights and voices as we could.
     When we had covered a fair amount of ground, I contacted Haydn
Bendall (who, again, worked on the last album), and he came in to
engineer. Haydn is a very gentle, lovely person and we've been friends
for years. Again the atmosphere was relaxed, and Haydn set about
cleaning up. We had lots of voices to bounce (which means, for instance,
taking four tracks of vocals and recording all four of them onto
another two tracks. Then we wipe the original four tracks, leaving
us with more to record on, and making the voices easier to handle
in the mix.) We also worked on some more Fairlight, keeping most of
the original demo Fairlights where the quality was good enough.
Haydn is very excited by the Fairlight and works with it a lot.
This was nice for me, as it does take me a while to work out the
Fairlight arrangements sometimes, but Haydn is very patient and
enthusiastic, and it's just what I need in that situation.
     We always have the Fairlight going through some effect or other,
even if it's just a bit of equalization and a nice echo, but it
seems to need it, and it always compliments the effect you want.
     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.
     We then got into a pattern of where I would work with just Del
for two or three days a week, and Haydn would work the rest of
the week compiling and bouncing the ideas we'd worked on in the
earlier part of the week. This worked very well, as I was uninhibited
at trying out the ideas with Del, and Haydn could come in
objectively to them. Quite often I was very nicely surprised when
things I felt might be a little too obvious, perhaps, were nicely
disguised. It is impossible to remain totally objective, especially
when the ideas need to be subtle--you mustn't make them too subtle
or no one will hear them!
     We continued to work this way for quite a long time, and then
reached the point where Haydn was again working full weeks.
     Paddy came in again and did some vocal overdubs. At the end
of the tracks on the "theme" side, Paddy did some beautiful
harmonic singing. This is something you have to see to believe.
Just hearing it might not convince some people that it's just Pad!
they'd swear that there was a synthesiser in there whizzing through
the harmonics, but it really is just Paddy's voice, and it's quite
celestial--I can't wait 'til you hear it, so you can hear how lovely
it is.
     The tracks were still growing, though retaining their "space",
and two tracks cried out for guitar. Alan Murphy, as I'm sure you
all know, has played some wonderful guitar on the albums, and this
was no exception. We worked one long day, and it was very exciting
to hear how the tracks blossomed with every overdub. There is a
good musical communication between the two of us, and I find that
inspiring.
     We wanted a very _"heavy"_-sounding guitar, so we
used Al's amp in a very live room and miked
up the amp. Haydn got a frighteningly raunchy guitar sound, and Al
did the rest.
     Sound effects, little pieces here and there. Lose this, lose
that, create a little space here, a little something there to help
the crescendo and all the recording is at last finished.
     I thoroughly enjoy working with people, especially when they
are musicians, engineers and friends of a calibre that I am honoured
to be with.
     A big thank you to all of them, a special thanks to Haydn
for all his work and feedback, and a Happy Christmas to all of you.
And a big thanks to _you_ for your communication and support--I'd
be lost without it.
                               Lots of Love

                               Kate xxx

                              _Interview_

     Do you compose your music with traditional written notation,
or do you rely entirely on demo tapes? And has your process of
composing melodies and harmonies, etc., changed since _The_Kick_Inside_
and _Lionheart_? Are you, for example, more specific in writing out
a bass line now than in 1978, or do you give more leeway to the other
musicians during rehearsals than you used to? <IED wrote this question.>
     "My notation is very basic. I just write out the chords and
lyrics, and I rely mainly on my memory. This does make it a bit
difficult when I try to come back to a song after a few years, but
I can listen to tapes and bash around on the piano, rediscovering the
past. Before the first album it was easy: I used to practice all
my songs every day in rotation, and kept them totally in my head.
But I just don't have the time any more, so I do rely on the records
and tapes to refer to chords--for live performances, for instance.
     I think the process of recording has changed very much since
the first album, perhaps the biggest change being my involvement
with the production. The demos on the first album were just piano
and vocal; the demos for the second and third albums were a very
big influence on the master recordings; the fourth album was completely
influenced by the demos; and the current album _is_ the demos.
     When working with musicians, I find that it depends totally
on the individual, and the communication between the two of us.
I will normally guide the direction to start with, but it's up to
the musicians to make it really happen."
     Have you ever thought of releasing a live L.P.?
     "Yes."
     How did the session for the film _The_Magician_of_Lublin_ come
about? Did you help Maurice Jarre write the song or its lyrics?
     "Maurice Jarre asked me to sing the song, which he had already
written. The whole thing was a most enjoyable experience."
     What is sung at the end of _Symphony_in_Blue_? Is it: "No
wonder that I blew it"?
     "Yes, but you've spelt it wrong: it's 'blue it.'"
     I am fascinated by _Symphony_in_Blue_, and wonder if
I am right in thinking that the musical inspiration was supplied
not by Gershwin, as the title implies, but rather by Erik Satie,
and in particular the beautiful Gymnopedies.
     "Yes, it was inspired by Erik Satie's Gymnopedies (II). <Sic--
number two (of the three) is not the one that the KT Band played
in concert and on the _Kate_ special, but all three are very similar.>
     Why didn't the single _December_Will_Be_Magic_Again_ appear on
the _Single_File_ video? Did you make a jingle for radio stations
the Christmas before last?
     "There was no video made for _December_Will_Be_Magic_Again_.
Yes, I did make a Christmas jingle for Capital Radio and Radio
1, but I never heard it played and would love to know if any of
you did."
     Do you enjoy modern art? And if so, who is your favourite
artist?
     "Salvador Dali."
     Do you drive?
     "Yes."
     How often do you get your hair cut, and do you go to a
special hairdresser for famous people? I think your hair always
looks fantastic, and often wonder whether you suffer from split
ends, etc., like the rest of us.
     "I get my hair cut about every six weeks by Anthony Jacomine.
I am really pleased that you think my hair looks good, as it's
still recovering from all the heated curlers and tongs it was
blasted with on various photo sessions."
     Is it true that some of the singles in the _Single_File_
boxed set have been re-mixed? And if so, which ones?
     "None of the singles have been re-mixed, but _Sat_In_Your_Lap_
and _Breathing_ are the album mixes, and not as on the original singles."
     What is sung during _Delius_, after the bit where Delius is
dictating to Fenby?
     "Can't you tell?"
     Your lyrics have always fascinated me, but none moreso than
those of _The_Man_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_. I have often
wondered whether you found inspiration for this from Emily Bronte's
poetry. It is her constant references to eternity which make me
wonder: for example, "The Sea of Death's Eternity" parallelled
with your "Telling me about the sea/All his love, till eternity."
     "I find your parallel interesting, but unfortunately the
only Bronte work I have ever read is _Wuthering_Heights_."
     What is your feeling about the Church and religion?
     "It is a very powerful, widely influential force that has
extreme good and bad effects on people."
     What kind of make-up do you use? <Well, you can't fault these
questions for lack of variety!>
     "I don't bother any more, I use Latex!"
     The song style on _The_Dreaming_ appears to be more rhythmic
in nature than your earlier, more melodic material. Is this a
deliberate change in musical direction?
     "Since drum machines entered my life on the third album, it's
never been the same."
     Why is _The_Kick_Inside_ the only available L.P. on compact disk?
What do you think of the quality of CDs, and would you like to see
KBV released on this system?
     "Maybe you should ask EMI why only _The_Kick_Inside_ is available
on CD. I would like KBV to be out on this system so that I can tell
you what the quality is like, 'cause I haven't heard one yet!" <This
interview dates from December 1984 or earlier.>
     Is the Hammersmith-Odeon video any different from the version
shown on TV? How much other footage is not on these versions, and
why were the other bits excluded?
     "The version shown on TV _is_ the Hammersmith-Odeon video, unless
it's been edited to fit time slots. There are about another one-and-
a-half hours that were shot that night. The video version was edited
from the complete show, which ran for about two-and-a-half hours, and
we had to make it a standard length to fit TV slots."
     When you decide to tour again, will it be video-ed? Do you think
the Hammersmith-Odeon video gives a true vision of the stage show for
those who weren't there?
     "I dare say it would be video-ed if we did tour. I don't think
the video was a true vision at all. You had to be there to see it
all. In fact, most of it was missing. You couldn't even smell the
heather in _Wuthering_Heights_! But for a video to do that,
smellivision is yet to be invented."
     Who entertained the audience while you changed costumes on your
1979 Tour? I heard that it was a magician. Is this true? It is
impossible to tell from the video.
     "There was a fantastic magician in show--Simon Drake. He made
things float, glide and fly, not to mention disappear. However, most
costume changes were done very quickly over extended fade-outs and
extended intros. into the songs."
     As many of the press and album reviewers considered _The_Dreaming_
to be "weird" and "over-produced", etc., do you mind if the press
label the new album "even weirder"?
     "I don't mind 'even weirder', but I don't like 'over-produced'.
     Who are your favourite band at the moment, and what has
been your favourite album and single of 1984?
     "Favourite band: Killing Joke. Favourite single: _80s_ by Killing
Joke. I can't give you my favourite album, as I haven't really had
time to listen to any this year."
     Do the birthday and Christmas cards and presents you are sent
actually reach you?
     "All the ones I've received have reached me."
     If you had to live in another country, where would you choose?
     "If I had to, I think it would be Ireland."
     Which is your favourite cover version of one of your songs?
     "_Poor_Old_Flea" by Madame Maria Nanky."
     Any New Year's resolutions?
     "To try and go on holiday."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here is Kate's article for issue number 18.>

     This album is two very separate sides for me. Each side has a title.
The first side is called _Hounds_of_Love_, and is five separate songs--
individual, but in some way all linked, because they are forms of love
songs. The second side is called _The_Ninth_Wave_, and is a conceptual
and is five separate songs--individual, but in some way all linked,
because they are forms of love songs. The second side is called
_The_Ninth_Wave_, and is a conceptual side, consisting of seven tracks
tracks that are linked together.
     It becomes increasingly difficult for me to talk about the content of
the songs. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because the more I go on, the
more I feel it's for the songs to say than for me. Especially with the
second side on this album I see it very visually. I would eventually
love to see this as a piece of film, and so I feel restricted about
talking about these songs other than to give a brief analysis of the story.
Otherwise, I find that perhaps too much energy is going into _talking_
about the visual side of it, rather than _doing_ it. <Plans for a film of
_The_Ninth_Wave_ were eventually abandoned.> I will try to give a brief
analysis and to fill you in more about some of the people we didn't get
round to talking about in the last _Newsletter_.
     The first track on the first side is _Running_Up_That_Hill_, and I'm
sure you will have all heard this by now. I am very excited about how it's
been received by people! It's so rewarding after working for a long time
to see that your work is being received with open arms. This song is
very much about two people who are in love, and how the power of love is
almost too big for them. It leaves them very insecure and in fear of
losing each other. It's also perhaps talking about some fundamental
differences between men and women.
     The second song is called _Hounds_of_Love_, and is really about
someone who is afraid of being caught by the hounds that are chasing him.
I wonder if everyone is perhaps ruled by fear, and afraid of getting into
relationships on some level or another. They can involve pain,
confusion and responsibilities, and I think a lot of people are
particularly scared of responsibility. Maybe the being involved isn't
as horrific as your imagination can build it up to being--perhaps
these baying hounds are really friendly.
     The next song is called _The_Big_Sky_. Someone sitting looking at
the sky, watching the clouds change. I used to do this a lot as a child,
just watching the clouds go into different shapes. I think we forget
these pleasures as adults. We don't get as much time to enjoy those kinds
of things, or think about them; we feel silly about what we used to do
naturally. The song is also suggesting the coming of the next flood--how
perhaps the "fools on the hills" will be the wise ones.
     The fourth song on this side is called _Mother_Stands_for_Comfort_.
It's about a son who has committed a terrible crime, and how basically,
although his mother knows that he's done something wrong, she'll protect
him and care for him and hide him from the people who are looking for
him. It's talking about a mother's love, and how sometimes she will
actually go against the morality she feels within herself about what is
right and wrong, if the child is endangered.
     The last song is called _Cloudbusting_, and this was inspired by a
book that I first found on a shelf nearly nine years ago. It was just
calling me from the shelf, and when I read it I was very moved by the
magic of it. It's about a special relationship between a young son and
his father. The book was written from a child's point of view. His
father is everything to him; he is the magic in his life, and he teaches
him everything, teaching him to be open-minded and not to build up
barriers. His father has built a machine that can make it rain, a
"cloudbuster"; and the son and his father go out together cloudbusting.
They point big pipes up into the sky, and they make it rain. The song is
very much taking a comparison with a yo-yo that glowed in the dark and
which was given to the boy by a best friend. It was really special to
him; he loved it. But his father believed in things having positive and
negative energy, and that fluorescent light was a very negative energy--as
was the material they used to make glow-in-the-dark toys then--and his
father told him he had to get rid of it, he wasn't allowed to keep it.
But the boy, rather than throwing it away, buried it in the garden, so that
he would placate his father but could also go and dig it up occasionally
and play with it. It's a parallel in some ways between how much he
loved the yo-yo--how special it was--and yet how dangerous it was
considered to be. He loved his father (who was perhaps considered dangerous by
some people); and he loved how he could bury his yo-yo and retrieve it whenever
he wanted to play with it. But there's nothing he can do about his father
being taken away, he is completely helpless. But it's very much more to
do with how the son does begin to cope with the whole loneliness and pain
of being without his father. It is the magic moments of a relationship
through a child's eyes, but told by a sad adult.
     _Big_Sky_ was a song that changed a lot between the first version of
it on the demo and the end product on the master tapes. As I mentioned in
the earlier magazine, the demos are the masters, in that we now work straight
in the 24-track studio when I'm writing the songs; but the structure of
this song changed quite a lot. I wanted to steam along, and with the
help of musicians such as Alan Murphy on guitar and Youth on bass, we
accomplished quite a rock-and-roll feel for the track. Although this
song did undergo two different drafts and the aforementioned players
changed their arrangements dramatically, this is unusual in the case of
most of the songs. That takes us to the second side, which itself had
two or three drafts.
     It was very different for me working conceptually across half an hour's
worth of music, rather than five minutes optimum in a song, and it was very
interesting but more demanding. The whole was changed by anything you did to
one part of the concept. Once the piece was in context with what was
happening before and after it, it would change its nature dramatically,
and it was important that the whole side kept a sense of flow and yet
kept the interest and kept building and ebbing in the right places.
     The side is about someone who is in the water alone for the night.
_And_Dream_of_Sheep_ is about them fighting sleep. They're very tired and
they've been in the water waiting for someone to come and get them, and
it's starting to get dark and it doesn't look like anyone's coming and
they want to go to sleep. They know that if they go to sleep in the
water they could turn over and drown, so they're trying to keep awake; but
they can't help it, they eventually fall asleep--which takes us into the
second song.
     The second song is called _Under_Ice_, and is the dream that the
person has. They're skating on ice; it's a frozen river and it's very white
everywhere and they're all alone, there doesn't appear to be anyone else
there. As they skate along they look down at the ice and they can see
something moving underneath. As they skate along with the object that's
moving under the ice they come to a crack in the ice; and as it moves
under the crack, they see that it's themselves in the water drowning, and
at that moment they wake up into the next song, which is about friends
and memories who come to wake them up to stop them drowning.
     As they wake up and surface, they are coming out of the whole feeling of
deep subconsciousness. One of the voices tells them there's someone
there to see them, and here in the water is a witchfinder. This is a
sort of nightmare they're having. This monster figure is basically
trying to drown them, trying to see if they're innocent or guilty. If
they drown then they're innocent. If they don't drown they're guilty,
they'll be drowned anyway. It's the trial of this girl who's in the
water; and all she wants to do is survive and keep her head above water.
This song was written through a guitarist--Alan Murphy. The track
would have had the wrong feel with a keyboard instrument. All he had to
work to was the drum track, and I tried to hum and point patterns out.
Everything he came up with sounded great; we spent the day building up
the guitars, then built vocals, Fairlight, sequencers over the top.
Thanks for that, Al.
     The next song is about how she wants to go home. That's really the
thing she wants most, just to be in the cosy atmosphere of her belongings all
around her, and the security of those four walls and the firm ground, and
being with the one that she loves. She finds that she's there in spirit,
and there's her loved one sitting in a chair by the fire, but she hadn't
conceived the idea that she wouldn't actually be there in real terms.
She's not real. And although she can see her man, he can't see her--she
can't communicate with him in any way. It's more of a nightmare than
anything so far, because this is the closest she's been to any kind of
comfort, and yet it's the furthest away.
     The next song is _Jig_of_Life_. This is about the future self who comes
to her rescue, basically. She says "Look, I'm the next part of your life
and if I am going to survive and enjoy the things that I've enjoyed--
having my children, my happy home and my husband--then you've got to keep
it together, you've got to stay alive, you musn't drown or I will drown
with you." It's the future begging her, pleading with her to let her,
the future lady, live.
     The song after that is _Hello_Earth_, and this is the point where
she's so weak that she relives the experience of the storm that took her into
the water, almost from a view: looking down on the earth up in the heavens,
watching the storm start to form--the storm that eventually took her and that
has put her in this situation.
     This track features orchestral arrangements by Michael Kamen. It was
wonderful working with Michael. He's a very receptive person to work
with, and the orchestral arrangements that he did for the tracks I felt
were very atmospheric. It was wonderful for me to watch the layers of
this song go on one by one. It initally had to be written with the
verses symbolizing the storm's gradual buildup, and the choruses having
a great sense of space and atmosphere --and this I always hoped to be a
male choir. When I first wrote _Hello_Earth_ I was very much inspired
by a male choir that I'd heard in Herzog's film _Nosferatu_. And although
the verses are a very different piece of music, it was all designed so as
hopefully to link, eventually, with this male voice choir which would
take us to a very different place in the song. They really are meant to
symbolize the great sense of loss, of weakness, at reaching a point where
you can accept, at last, that everything can change.
     This takes us into _Morning_Fog_. "Morning fog" is the symbol of
light and hope. It's the end of the side, and if you ever have any
control over endings they should always, I feel, have some kind of light
in there. This was originally written to a Linn drum machine. I
wrote, on the Fairlight, an instrumental piece of music using the sample
of an acoustic guitar. I then later wrote the song on top of this
instrumental, building up the voices in layers. The piece I'd written on
the Fairlight was transcribed by Dave Lawson for an acoustic guitar
player, and I felt that really one of the best people to play this was
John Williams, a superb classical guitarist who I had met on a
couple of occasions before when I was working at Abbey Road. This seemed
like the perfect opportunity to ask him if he'd like to play on a
track. We added Del's fretless bass, Kevin on synth, and built up the
backing vocals; then Pad layered up Appalachian fiddles and fujare. We
kept the guide vocal as the master voice and mixed up the last track on
the album.
     Many hours were spent on tiny vocal ideas that perhaps only last half a
minute. Many hours went on writing lyrics--one of the most difficult parts in
the process for me, in that it's so time-consuming and so frustrating, and it
just always seems to take far too long for something that seems as though it
should come so naturally. One of the difficult things about the lyrics
is that when I initially write the song, perhaps half of the lyrics come with
it but it's almost more difficult fitting in the other half to make it
match than it would be perhaps to start from scratch, where, for
instance, you might have just hummed the tune; or where, in some cases,
I wrote them as instrumentals, and then the tunes were written over the
top of this. Many times I ring up Paddy and ask him to come over to the
studio immediately, to bring in that string-driven thing--to hit that
note and let it float. <N.B.: "Hit that note and let it float" is a
quotation from _Big-Eyed_Bees_from_Venus_, a song by Captain Beefheart
and the Magic Band.>
     One of the most positive things is now having our own recording studio
where we can experiment freely, and it's definitely one of the best
decisions I've made since I've been recording albums. We've put a lot of
hard work into this album, so we've been waiting for it to be finished
and ready, and I know you've been waiting. I hope that after this time,
and after all the snippets of information we've been giving you, you
don't find it disappointing, but that you enjoy it, and that you enjoy
listening to it in different ways again and again.
     This album could never have happened without some very special people.
Many thanks to Julian Mendelsohn, and especially Haydn Bendall and Brian
Tench, who put a lot of hard work into this project, to _all_ the
musicians, who are a constant inspiration, to Ma who helps with every
little thing, to Paddy and Jay for all their inspiration and influences,
and again to Del for all those moments we've captured on tape together.
                               Lots of love,

                               Kate xxx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here is Kate's article for issue number 19.>

     Since the end of the album so much has been happening. The way
the music has been received is so rewarding. It has been very
busy: promoting the album is important, and has eaten up a lot of
time.
     The visits to America and Canada were lots of fun. Everyone
seemed so positive about this album. It is nice to think people
in different parts of the world are listening to ideas you might have
had in the bath!
     The difference in the attitudes of the journalists was very
apparent: a lot of the interviews were conversational, and their
enthusiasm endless. We did one in-store appearance in New York
<Tower Records, 4th and Broadway, November 1985> and it was a very
moving experience. There were so many people there that they went
around the corner of the street. Everyone was so considerate and
well behaved that even the New York Police commented on how
unusual this was. It was wonderful to meet you all, and we were
very taken by your warmth and all the presents you gave--thank you.
     The trip to the U.S.A. and Canada was very busy, and coming
back to the Convention <November 30> was one of the nicest ways
to be welcomed home. It was lovely to see you. I recognised so many
smiling faces--I just wish we'd had the time to talk as well as
smile at each other. Next time, huh? <Kate actually tried to
make the next "convention"-- a "video-party" held in London in
October 1986--a more intimate occasion, but so many people showed
up that casual conversation became quite impossible.>
     It looks like this album is intending to have maximum mileage
in terms of four single releases. It is interesting how "singles"
now involve much more time and effort--not the a-sides themselves,
but the "accessories" that now accompany them. A single is not
even released now until the video and the twelve-inch are ready; and
with the twelve-inch is needed at least a second b-side. Also, if
time and ideas allow, all these things should be presentable. I feel
a particular obligation, with the artwork of the seven-inch and
twelve-inch, that it should at least be interesting; and the same
with the video: visuals are important, and with so many images being
thrown at people from every side, it can be difficult to come up with
ideas.
     John's photographs are so creative that he always seems to
add a sparkle to even the dullest moments. Videos, I feel, have
moved into a different area--like the recording process gradually
pulled me in, so does the visual world. It's impossible not to be,
as soon as you become involved.
     I still think some of the best videos are where the band/artist
perform the song as a singer--just that simple. I share the feelings
of many people who dislike a lot of pop videos: they're
so...unstructured! But I think I've discovered that while videos
are needed to go with a single, I can explore the medium of
film-making, of what works and what doesn't. Much of what happens
in a video is dictated by the song: the mood, the subject matter;
but it's a fascinating area, and from what I can see so far, it's
very similar to the recording process. It's working with pictures
instead of sound--it's a very different beast, but still the same
"piecing together" of a story, images. And I'm so lucky to be in
a situation where I can play with sounds and pictures and see if
there's anything in there I'm good at.
     _Cloudbusting_ was really exciting to make. I really wanted
it to be like a short film. The song was inspired by the book
_A_Book_of_Dreams_ by Peter Reich, which was such a strong, magical
story that the plot was there and the most difficult areas were
trying to do the story and the characters justice, and deciding
how to "distill" all the information.
     I worked with Julian Doyle as director. He was suggested
to me by Terry Gillima. 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. It seemed to make sense to treat it
like a film and cast actors, and I had this initial crazy idea
of usisng a very tall actor who would play the father, and myself
to appear as the small boy. It continually astounds me that I have
the nerve to publicly announce these crazes, and I'm even more
surprised when they work. It seems to be connected to a kind of
faith?
     The first move was to check that I'd be able to look boy-like
or tom-boyish, so we pulled "The Team" together. This consists of
Tina Earnshaw on make-up--she set about with foundation and stick-on
freckles; Anthony Yacomine, who designed and cut a short wig which
my hair was bundled up inside of; and Pamela Keats, who had
brought a variety of dungarees, cardigans and wellies <rubber
rainboots> that completed the character; and Del gave options.
I looked a bit like Coco the clown, and someone mentioned Harpo,
but we all felt with fine adjustments we could get away with it,
especially when we took a polaroid with Anthony standing on the chair
to look tall next to me.
     We were all trying to think of a tall actor who would be
perfect for the part, and who else, really? We thought Donald
Sutherland would be superb, and it's still hard to believe that
he actually said "Yes."
     _Cloudbusting_ is one of the few videos we've made that has
the right visual content within the subject matter. It is a story,
and could easily be treated as such.
     One of the things that needed a lot of work was the Cloudbuster
machine. It came out of our heads, based on vague information from
the book. It had to look larger than life--elegant, strange, aimed
at the sky. And when I went to see it in its early stages I really
wondered: four cardboard tubes on wheels--eek!! But by the last
stages it looked great, and on screen it looked superb.
     Another thing that needed a lot of work was the weather. We
needed so much luck to complete the shoot. We had only three days,
and we demanded the weather to change for different scenes; and
somehow--we still don't know how--it did; even to the moment when
it began to rain just as the light and the film in the camera was
running out.
     _Hounds_of_Love_ is the third single, and trying to follow
the _Cloudbusting_ video was extremely difficult. I still wanted
to follow the approach of making "a short film", and this time we
wanted to suggest a piece of "Hitchcock": a short thriller.
     Paddy inspired me into a _39_Steps_ theme, and for the two-three
weeks over Christmas my life became this third video. It was
particularly hard organising meetings over Christmas; everyone
was busy partying. At one meeting someone turned up in fancy dress.
The advantage was that I got a brilliant crew who were free to
do the shoot because it was Christmas-time, generally a very quiet
period. If you get to see the video, let us know if you spot
Hitchcock's appearance?
     Even with the work over Christmas we were still in a situation
where the twelve-inch and the b-side had to be rushed. Sometimes
things benefit from the pressure, but with only a few hours to
do the b-side before the cut (which had been arranged weeks before),
we plumped for a totally unaccompanied traditional song.
     The twelve-inch of _Hounds_of_Love_ has been the most demanding
so far. It's a short song, with very little tuned instrumentation,
so we decided to go for an alternative lead vocal over the existing
track, with a few changes here and there--it seemed an interesting
solution. Del and I re-did the vocal, the b-side and the mixes
in two days (that's some kind of record for me!)
     So now, with a remixed seven-inch and twelve-inch of _Big_Sky_,
we are armed with time, hopefully, to not rush the video; but
somehow other things always come up, and it seems no matter how
long you have to get something done, time always speeds up at the
end of the process, and there you are rushing again!
     Hope you're having a happy '86.
                           Lots of love,

                           Kate x

P.S.: Thank you for the great Christmas presents you sent me.
I wish I had time to reply to everyone individually, but things
have been so hectic over the last few months that it has been
impossible--so I'll do it now, thank you.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here is an interview with Kate, which seems to have been
conducted _by_ Kate, as well, under the fictitious name "Auntie Hetty".
It appeared in the twentieth issue of the _Newsletter_.>

                     _An_Interview_With_Auntie_Hetty_

     Let me introduce myself. I'm Kate's Auntie Hetty, and I've
been waiting to do this interview for years, but she's such a busy
dear, and I like to keep myself active with my amateur dramatics.
Such a lovely group of boys and girls--so enthusiastic--
keeps them away from nasty things like sniffing glue and listening
to Sigue-Sigue Sputnik. I'm terribly into Method acting and have just
had a nice long sleep. I was playing a woman alcoholic who'd been
up for three days and three nights, so I stayed up for three days
and three nights and drank both bottles of sherry (from that lovely
boy who played Bottom three years ago in Little Hampton). It's so
much more fun than acting. But I feel most refreshed now, and as I
enter Katie's front gate I notice the garden's a little untidy--
I really must tell her about old Mr. Squashy, and I've some
lovely hollyhocks she could put by the door.
     So, with a nice cup of tea, I refer to my notes, take up the
old crochet hook and begin:
     Now Katie, dear, we're all so pleased about this album doing
so well and we heard a lot about a film called _The_Ninth_Wave_.
.bf ital
The Ninth Wave.
.pf
Will that be your next project?
     "The film was something I very much wanted to try. The b-side
of the album was originally written with visual ideas in mind, and I
am intrigued by the combination of pictures and sound on film. I
went as far as approaching a couple of people about the idea, but
I found the success of the album and the rate of single releases
extremely demanding, especially as each single required a video,
12", single artwork...It soon built up, and there was no time to
even think about this film. The promotion for this album almost lasted
a year. By the time I'd taken a break, the gap between albums was
already becoming too big to consider fitting in another project.
I've now had a holiday and some time to do nothing, and am in the
process of thinking out some ideas to take into the studio."
     Oh, I see, dear. Well, you must have been very busy. Did you
have a lovely holiday?
     "Yes, it was...lovely."
     Now, you have a video E.P. out called _The_Hair_of_the_Hound_,
and it's been at number one in the charts, which is very nice,
lovely. They must have taken a lot of time to do. You see, I
understand these things--Amateur dramatics is the same thing,
you know: rehearse, rehearse, struggle, toil, iron your costume
every night...
     "I really wanted to try and make videos that looked like short
films this time. I think I've always wanted to do this, but apart
from one or two of the previous videos I have not achieved it. I
started approaching film directors. I believed that video and
film were two very different worlds, and that people who made videos
would be less likely to make a pop "video" look like a piece of
35mm film.
     "All the people I approached were very kind but very busy, and
I began to realise that unless I was extremely lucky, no one
that I wanted would be able to shoot the promo.
     "I am a big admirer of Terry Gilliam's work--he is a great
director. I asked his advice; could he suggest people I could work
with who were good. He recommended David Garfarth, who had worked as
a cameraman for him. The lighting cameraman was Phil Mayheux--
who, interestingly, worked on the _Max_Headroom_ special, which was
superbly lit--"
     Max who?
     "The video <_Running_Up_That_Hill_> took eight weeks: six weeks'
training and choreography working with Dyane Gray, and three days
shoot, plus editing and various meetings.
     "_Cloudbusting_ took eight to ten weeks, working with Julian
Doyle, who has worked many times with Terry Gilliam.
He is multi-talented, and covered many areas of the shoot, with
Brian Helighy lighting for the first time--it's hard to believe
that it is his first time at lighting."
     Yes it is so atmospheric, I love the story. But I'm
very upset that you didn't bring that lovely Donald Sutherland
to see me. You know your Uncle Bertie used to get quite
jealous...eh, hmm, yes. Now I noticed you didn't move your
lips to the music in three of the videos--or should I call them films?
     "Well, they were all shot on film, but all eventually were
edited on video.
     "Apart from _Running_Up_That_Hill_, which was edited totally in
the video suite, the others were edited on film as much as possible:
doing all the cuts--except the ones that need special effects: slowing
down, speeding up. All this is much quicker (and sometimes cheaper) to
do on video, and with promo deadlines video is so convenient. But it
does change the quality of the pictures when the film is transferred to
video: it somehow loses its depth. But I'm sure in a couple of years
the quality will be brilliant. Video is advancing all the time, but
for me you can't beat the original quality of film, it's a very ancient
form. The advantage of video is being set loose on all the effects,
although on the E.P. all except _Big_Sky_ have been approached from a
purist film-maker's point of view: very few special effects. We
deliberately encouraged this, again trying to emphasise the film
aspect. Which has a lot to do with no lip-synch: as soon as a performer
is 'singing', they become that performer doing other things while
singing. Which is great live, but on film, people acting out events
without the lip distractions have more chance of playing a character.
I found it very interesting and much more enjoyable. I'm always
concerned about the miming being as accurate as possible, and that
takes a lot of concentration and makes me behave like a singer.
So without the lip-synch I could put much more effort into a character.
I felt a little nervous about it in _Cloudbusting_.
In _Running_Up_That_Hill_ it was different: no lip-synch, but I was trying
to act a dancer, and they are facial expressions I know the sensations of.
But playing a little boy, and playing opposite Donald Sutherland, I
began to wonder if I was going mad, voluntarily putting myself in these
situations where I had a ninety percent chance of looking a total
absolute idiot! But if anything, Donald made it seem extremely natural,
he was just like my Dad. He could make it rain, and I would watch him
being taken away. I must say it was an extremely moving experience,
burnt strongly into my memory upon the hill with the machine and the
wind..."
     I had a similar experience with Sir Cecil Dill in
the last performance of _Ooh,_Was_it_Really?_ at
Dulwich. He was playing Mortimer West, and as he rushed on the
stage with his epee in his back and said,
"Good God! It was him all along!" I knew I would never forget that
moment, and with tears in my eyes I said,
"Ooh, was it really?" and down came the curtain to the roar of
applause, with that smell of old velvet--Still brings a tear to my eye.
     Now, where was I? Oh, my dear, you've made more tea. I didn't
see you go!
     I notice that you directed two of the videos. Did you
enjoy doing that?
     "It was very interesting and extremely educational. I've had
a lot of encouragement from people to get more involved, and it can be
difficult sometimes to find directors who are enthusiastic about the
amount of involvement I like to put in. I found it took
_all_ my time rather than _most_, and the actual
shoots felt very relaxed. Cupcake, Aunt Hetty?"
     Ooh, don't mind if I do, dear.
     "I am extremely lucky to have worked with such a good film crew:
Mike Roberts was the cameraman. He's worked on _The_Killing_Fields_ and _The_
Mission_, and Billy Camp was assistant, who organised everyone and everything
so efficiently on the days of the shoot that I could almost relax.
I used two different lighting men: Hughie Johnson; and Roger Pratt,
who again worked with Terry Gilliam. The crew were so receptive, and
made a very daunting, expensive task a lot of fun.
     "It is very like making early albums: I feel a bit disappointed
with the results, not having enough rehearsal, a big enough budget,
etc., etc., but the shoots were so much fun. It's such a good feeling
to work with a big group of people. I seem to like working with such a
crowds. On both _Hounds_of_Love_ and _The_Big_Sky_ shoots there was
relaxed air--both shoots involved crowd scenes, and _The_Big_Sky_ was
especially satisfying. Besides a large number of performers to fill a stage
and give the effect of a live concert, we needed an avenue of people, from
the Wright brothers to two astronauts, to simulate aviation history.
The Wright brothers looked remarkably like Dave Cross and Peter
FitzGerald-Morris, and one of the astronauts looked so like
Jay...We also needed a large, enthusiastic crowd, so we asked
Dave Cross to organise some members of the
Club, and two hundred beautifully behaved people arrived on the day
of the shoot. It was very moving, they filled us all up with energy--
It made it feel like a real concert.
     "All the film crew remarked on how incredible everyone was.
They had been terrified with past experiences of invited audiences,
but I told them they hadn't met the right ones. Everyone left just
as beautifully--nearly everyone with a burnt thumb from being
a star in the sky holding up lighters and waving. I'd never been
in the same room with so many stars before."
     Oh, the little angels, how lovely! Did it take long to edit those
clips?
     "No, I worked with John Mister as film editor. On both those
shoots we worked to very detailed storyboards, and in both cases
could give John a photostat of the script beforehand so he'd know
the gist of what we were working on. Then he'd do a rough cut by
himself, following the storyboard. Then we'd work together until
we were happy. He was great to work with, and both edits were very
quick: just taking them into the video suite for bits and pieces.
But it would have to be transferred to video for T.V. showings, anyway,
so all ads <sic--Does she mean 'adds' here, as in 'additions'?>, etc.,
end up on video.
     _The_Big_Sky_ was a little more complicated. The beginning
part on the rooftops involves chromakey, where all the live action
goes on in front of a blue screen and then the various weather effects
were put in at the edit. The pieces of film with the weather were
chosen beforehand and transferred to video; they then replaced the
blue screen."
     That sounds awfully complicated, dear. We just roll our scenery
up and down from the wings, it's so much easier.
     Now you must tell me about all these darling people you've been
working with. What was it like working with that lovely Peter Gabriel
again?
     "I was so excited that he asked me to sing on that track--
It's such a lovely, haunting song, and I love his work. But I do
get nervous, especially when it's something I really like. His music
is very strong, and he is a great person--I love working with him."
     And those dear Big Country boys...
     "Yes, I like the Celtic influences in their music. They were
lovely to work with--I really enjoyed it. They asked if I'd like
to do some backing vocals, and I went in for an evening. They were
really nice. It was fun. I like working with different people.
     "I really enjoyed doing the Comic Relief concerts."
     Oh, but my dear, the language was appalling. I'm afraid
I had to write to _Points_of_View_. I was more than a little
I was more than a little
shocked that you and Cliff Richard of all people...
     "It was fantastic. I'm a big fan of so many of those comedians--they
are so talented. For me, alternative comedy is the most exciting
thing coming out of this country at the moment, and to be involved
in something with them all was really fulfilling. I felt nervous there,
too, it's been a long time since I've performed live to an audience, but
they were so warm. Unfortunately the piano pedal jammed on the first
night in _Breathing_ and I sang to the most horrific combination of
chords you can imagine, so the second and third nights were relatively
relaxed after that!
     "Singing with Rowan was hilarious. He's one of those people
who can make his face and body language make you laugh without him
having to speak. Again, I was so pleased that they asked me to
take part. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I just wish I'd
been brave enough to ask most of them for their autographs--
'Er, Ben, would you? I say, Rick, I've got this nephew...Just sign it,
don't bother signing it to him...' You know, you're meant to act
nonchalant, but I found myself starstruck."
     I did see gorgeous Ronnie Corbett and the Monty Python chappies--
Wasn't Terry Gilliam there?
     "Yes, he was...Just so much talent. British comedy is unique and
the best."
     Here, here, Gr-r-reat Britain...
     I hear you sang _Brazil_ on the soundtrack to Terry Gilliam's film.
     "Yes, what a beautiful song--and I always thought it was a really
bad cabaret number, but actually it is very sad and nostalgic."
     Of course it is, you silly girl--One of the best tunes
ever...Br-a-a-zil-l-l-l...
     "Michael Kamen did the orchestral arrangements. He worked on _The_
_Ninth_Wave_:_Watching_You_Without_Me_ and _Hello_Earth_. He is very clever.
He did the music for the film, and was putting the soundtrack album
together with Terry, and they played me this beautiful arrangement
without a voice. I'm not sure if this piece was in the film or not,
but I don't sing in the film at all. It has such a 30s/40s feel,
and Michael asked if I would sing over it--My immediate reactions
were fear and 'Yes'."
     Now, just before we have another cup of tea, I want to ask
you if you're going to work with any more famous actors, because
if you worked with that lovely Peter O'Toole you could tell him to pop
in and see me and have a nice cup of tea, and we could act out one or
two scenes from _Romeo_and_Juliet_...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here is an interview, apparently conducted _by_ Kate, using
the name Zwort Finkle. It appeared in the twenty-first issue (winter
1987).>

                   _"Cousin_Kate"_by_Zwort_Finkle_

     Hi, my name's Zwort Finkle, I'm from the U.S. of A. and I'm a
distant cousin of Kate's. We haven't seen each other for years,
so I had to fill her in on my life story. I left college three
years ago, and have been following a brilliant career in journalism,
working for such well known magazines as _Blurt_, _Let's_Go_Crazy_,
_Let's_Go_Crazy_Again_, _Son_of_Blurt_ and _Let's_Go_Blurt_Again_.
This was my first visit to London, and I was astounded at how you
guys can survive this climate, how you manage to keep to one side
of the road when the roads are so small, how quaint and cute you
all are, and how totally bored and unenthused you all are with
things that would make us little old Americans go "Yee-Hah".

Zwort: Tell me, Katie, have you ever thought of living in America?

Katie: There are very few places I've been to that I've felt I
could live in--I think too many of my roots are here in England,
and so much of my work is based here, and I seem to spend most
of my time working. I've only been to America a few times, and then
only to New York, L.A. and Las Vegas, but maybe if I visited more
parts of America I would find a place that I feel I could live in.
I really enjoyed my visits, especially to New York--there's so
much energy there, so many different and interesting people and a
very social sense between artistic people, that certainly in the
music business doesn't exist in this country. People seem to work
in great isolation here, whereas in New York, people want to get
together and talk and enthuse.

Zwort: Like, er, do you feel there's a lack of enthusiasm here, cous'?

Katie: Yes, I do, and I feel a lot of people, certainly within the
music business, are particularly attracted to America by this.
"Artistic" people like--possibly even need--a lot of feedback,
and Americans are wonderful at making you feel wanted, and are very
positive about the launching of new ideas, new approaches. It's
exciting to be among this energy, and in England I think we're all
a bit hard on each other, but this country has a great wealth of
talent and creative ideas, it's just that people have to fight a
little to get a bit of enthusiasm going. But maybe that's not such
a bad thing--maybe it creates more determination in a cause. What
do you think, cousin Rodney?

Zwort: Actually, it's Zwort.

Katie: Sorry?

Zwort: Zwort!!

Katie: Sorry, _what's_ Zwort?

Zwort: My name, of course.

Katie: Oh!

Zwort: What were you doing in Las Vegas? That's an unusual place
to visit!

Katie: I was there with a guy from the record company just for a
day, and it was really just an opportunity to see the place while
he had business matters to deal with. It is an extraordinary place.
Instead of saying "How you doing?", everyone says, "Feeling lucky?"
It's like a strange oasis stuck right in the middle of the desert
away from everything. We took a flight in a small plane over the
Grand Canyon, and it was one of the most terrifying experiences I've
ever had. The Canyon is totally enormous, and we were so tiny--
I've never experienced that kind of vertigo before or since,
and with all the air pockets, we went up and down, up and down.

Zwort: I understand you don't do many interviews.

Katie: That's right.

Zwort: Why is that?

Katie: I find it very difficult to express myself in interviews.
Often people have so many preconceptions that I spend most of the
interview trying to defend myself from the image that was
created by the media eight years ago. That is understandable to a
certain extent--that's when I did most of my interviews, and
I think the image was created by what the press felt the public
wanted, how they interpreted me as I was then, and how I projected
myself at that time.

Zwort: You mean like saying "wow", "amazing", and that you were
weak and fragile, etc.

Katie: Yes, that is part of it. I was very young, idealistic and
enthusiastic about so much then, but I felt they exaggerated these
qualities. And I was--and am even more so now--a private person,
and perhaps because I wouldn't talk about these areas of my life
they turned to the "wow", "amazing" girl, even when I didn't use
those words. The few interviews I do, people still seem to dwell
on this old "me", and I find it disappointing when I want to talk
about my current work.

Zwort: Do you , like, er, think enthusiasm was an unfashionable
thing, particularly at this time, when punk and street cred were
the "hip" thing?

Katie: Yes, I do. I think it still is, particularly in this country.
But I think clever people hide their unfashionable faces from the
public. Perhaps in a way, I was too open with the press, maybe
I should have "performed" for them, and puked and gobbed at the
cameras, but it's not my nature, I was brought up too well. The
interviews I've sat through patiently, sometimes hanging onto
my patience with the skin of my teeth, thinking it's good for
my tolerance and might make me a better person.

Zwort: But you do occasionally talk to the press?

Katie: Yes. There are good people to talk to, they're not always
talking about the past, or deliberately trying to make you look
like an idiot, and are genuinely interested in my work. But it's
like I said, I find it hard to express myself in interviews. It
depends how I feel--sometimes they're fun, especially if I know
the journalist, and the questions are interesting--they make
you think about areas you might not have even considered before.
But sometimes I find myself saying things just to please them,
or just to give a question an answer. Sometimes I get verbal
diarrhoea and just burble complete rubbish, and sometimes I feel
so guarded that I invert, and feel like a trapped animal. Quite
often I go over an interview in my head afterwards and realise
I've said something completely contrary to what I believe, but I
put most of it down to being quite a private person, and being
someone who likes to think carefully about how I say something.
Words are very special things, and are so easily misinterpreted--
I much prefer to write lyrics than do an interview. I feel I'm
a songwriter, not a personality, and I find it difficult to even
talk about my songs, sometimes. In a way, they speak for themselves,
and the subjects or inspirations can be so personal, or just
seem ridiculous when spoken about.

Zwort: Do you think it's important that people know what the
songs are about?

Katie: No, I think it can be interesting for people, but their
interpretation is what matters, and I find it fascinating how
people do seem to understand so much about a song that must be
totally obscure and is so personal to me, but maybe they just _feel_
it, they feel the emotions of the song, somehow grasp the
meanings. It's so hard for me to tell because I know what it's
about, but for example, some of the stuff on _The_Ninth_Wave_
are so obscure lyrically, and yet people seem to know exactly
what I'm trying to say. That's a great feeling. It stops me
worrying about that aspect of songwriting--that someone
somewhere knows exactly what you're trying to put into words.

Zwort: Do you have favourite lyric-writers, as opposed to
"musical" songwriters?

Katie: I'm not sure you can separate the two, because once a
word is sung, it can completely change its feeling to the point
where you don't recognise the word any more--for me that is
part of the fascination. But my favourite lyric just now is
_The_Boy_in_the_Bubble_ by Paul Simon. The chorus of that is
totally brilliant, particualarly the line, "The way we look
to the distant constellation that is dying in the corner of the sky."
It's poetry, but the impact is the combination of the words with
the music, and the way he sings it--it's _so_ good. But quite
often I mishear lyrics, and prefer my version to the real words
when I find them out. I know a lot of people who have the same
experience, and again we're back to what music means to the listener,
or how they hear it. Music is a very special thing.

Zwort: Would you say that music is something religious, even holy to you

Katie: Some of the most beautiful music ever was written for God,
for a loved one, in a state of grief, sorrow, suppression--it seems
to be an expression from a person on a higher level...? I'm not
sure I understand it at all, but music seems to come out of people
when very little else can. Some of the great composers wrote
beautiful music but, as people, were monsters or maniacs. People
who can't speak properly because of stutters can sing fluently.
I saw a clip from a programme about a man who only had a short-term
memory--he couldn't remember anything: what he'd just said, just
done. He lived in a constant state of panic, buecause he didn't
know where he was, or why he was there. It was terrifying. The
only thing he could remember was he wife, and when he sat at the
church organ at his local church he could sing a play complete
pieces of music without any problems. It was like he'd suddenly
been set free. And yet when he was shown a video recording of
him doing this, he had no memory of it whatsoever. Music is
a strange and beautiful thing. It means a great deal to
me. I love listening to and making music. I am very lucky to be
able to be involved with music--I hope I always will be.

Zwort: Do you think music comes from the soul? This is what some
people believe.

Katie: I don't know. I just know that music is something special,
and also something very personal for people.

Zwort: Going back to the obscurity of some of your songs that
are personal to you, and how you feel people pick up on this--
can you give some detailed examples?

Katie: Mmmh, let me think.

Zwort: I'll make a cup of coffee and you have a think, cous'.

Katie: Rod--er, Zwort?

Zwort (from kitchen): Yeah?

Katie: Can I have tea?

Zwort: Yeah, sure--you English and your tea. It's so quaint!
Can we have scones and I'll have tea too?

Katie: Sorry, haven't got any, but there's some fig rolls...

(ten minutes later...)

Zwort: Okay--teabreak over.

Katie: Right, back to your question. I think it works on the basis of:
if it moves you, it could move others. Hitchcock was talking about his
films and saying the best subjects for his films that were frightening
were things that frightened him--like _Vertigo_. Apparently he was
terrified of heights. It seems logical, doesn't it?

Zwort: Yeah, sure. Hitchcock was brilliant.

Katie: Yes, I agree, a genius. An engineer we were working with picked
out the line in _And_Dream_of_Sheep_ that says 'Come here with me now.'
I asked him why he liked it so much. He said, 'I don't know, I just
love it. It's so moving and comforting.' I don't think he even knew
what was being said exactly, but the song is about someone going to
sleep in the water, where they're alone and frightened. And they
want to go to sleep, to get away from the situation. But at the same
time it's dangerous to go to sleep in water, you could drown. When I
was little, and I'd had a bad dream, I'd go into my parents' bedroom
round to my mother's side of the bed. She'd be asleep, and I wouldn't
want to wake her, so I'd stand there and waid for her to sense my
presence and wake up. She always did, within minutes; and sometimes
I'd frighten her--standing there still, in the darkness in my
nightdress. I'd say, "I've had a bad dream," and she'd lift
bedclothes and say something like "Come here with me now." It's
my mother saying this line in the track, and I briefed her on the
ideas behind it before she said it. And I think it's the motherly
comfort that this engineer picked up on. In fact, he said this was his
favourite part of the album. _Cloudbusting_ is, again, lyrically
very obscure. I think the idea is easy to grasp, but the
story behind it is very involved, and in a way the video that
accompanies it is equally so, but I've spoken to several people
who have felt very moved by the song or the video or both, and they
all say they feel this really personal relationship between the
child and his father, how real it seems, how sad it is. For me, that
is wonderful--the book that originally inspired the song and video
moved me so much! It's so sad, and it's also a true story, and somehow
even if people don't understand the story, they pick up on the feelings,
the emotions--this is a very rewarding experience for me.

Zwort: Did the writer of the book get to hear the song and see the
video?

Katie: Yes. These were worrying moments for me--what if he didn't
like it? If I'd got it wrong? But he said he found them very emotional
and that I'd captured the situation. This was the ultimate reward for me

Zwort: Do you stay in contact?

Katie: Yes, we write to each other, and I enjoy the contact very
much. Many people have tried to get this book <_A_Book_of_Dreams_,
by Peter Reich>, many have read it since and adore it. The trouble
is, the book is out of print, and I think it's such a shame that it's
unavailable for those that would love to read it. It's very difficult
to find copies of it, though I understand that some libraries still
carry it.

Zwort: How do you feel about _The_Whole_Story_? Were you against the
release of a compilation album?

Katie: Yes, I was at first. I was concerned that it would be like a
"K-Tel" record, a cheapo-compo with little thought behind it. It was
the record company's decision, and I didn't mind as long as it was well
put together. We put a lot of work into the packaging, trying to
make it look tasteful, and carefully thought out the the running order.
And the response has been phenomenal--I'm amazed!

Zwort: Careful, there's that word!

Katie: Surely I can say it once or twice. Everybody else does,
and gets away with it--Zzzwort!!

Zwort: Only teasing. How do you feel about the video compilation?

Katie: Again, I was worried initially, because of the release of
_The_Single_File_ and _Hair_of_the_Hound_, but with the opportunity of
getting _Experiment_IV_ on it, and the record company being sure
there was a market, I felt it could be a good idea. We spent a lot
of work on _Experiment IV_, and because of it almost being an
"adult" video, we were sure we'd have trouble getting it shown on TV.

Zwort: Did you have trouble getting it shown?

Katie: Yes. The video took a long time to make, and with having
to write and record the single with the tightest deadlines I've
ever had, the video was needed before we'd finished it. But we
did get a minute clip ready in time to be shown when the single
was charting, but Top of the Pops refused to show it, saying it
was too violent! It's not violent at all, but we expected a response
like this. Pop promos are in a very sensitive area. They're
considered "family viewing", but there are many sexualy ambiguous
videos shown on children's TV--yet this was considered too extreme.
However, _The_Tube_ showed it in its entirety, and it's now showing at
the cinema with a feature film, so we've made a sort of B-film!!
That's quite exciting.

Zwort: I noticed that instead of the _Wow_ video you've pieced
together footage from the live shows. Why is this?

Katie: Two reasons, really. Firstly, I really don't like the
promo we did for _Wow_. I think it's silly. And also, looking
through the videos I noticed a great absence of "performance"
promos, and the tour was an important part of the story. Also,
it makes it a more interesting item for people who have some of
the other videos. That way it's not just _Experiment_IV_ that is a
new visual.

Zwort: I understand you directed this clip. How did it go, and why did
you direct it?

Katie: Directing is a new experiment for me--actually, it was
Experiment III--and with this track I had such strong visual
ideas while I was writing the song that I wanted to give it another go.
It's the first time the video and song have come together. It was very
hard work, but a lot of fun.
     We filmed in an old disused hospital, and the conditions were very cold
and damp, but everyone got very involved and we had a great time.
     The cast included Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, Richard Vernon, Peter Vaughan,
Del, Paddy, Jay, Lisa and many friends. It was wonderful to work with
people who I admire so much, and a very exciting experience. Paddy
played the lunatic, and in every take his sounds were just as impressive
as his visuals--I wish I'd put it onto tape. He literally "threw"
himself into the part, and the crew were so impressed they applauded
him--a great accolade!
     Although this was the most complicated of my directions, it was so
much easier for me because I appeared in it only briefly, so I could
concentrate on being behind the camera, which I really enjoy. And it's
so nice to involve the people I like--not only are they great performers,
but they're good to be with.
     There were some wonderful moments, like filming in East London. We
had a field full of "dead bodies" who kept moving about to get more
comfortable, so we had to shout out over a loud-hailer, "Stop
moving--You're supposed to be dead!" And the music shop that we
created for the shot <_Music_for_Pleasure_> was so realistic that
passers-by kept popping in wanting to buy some of the instruments.

Zwort: How do you view the changes audially and visually on
_The_Whole_Story_ album and video?

Katie: I really like the idea of the album being available on
video--I've always wanted to make a form of video album, but I
never thought it would be a compilation!
     I see two main changes, although I'm very subjective. Audially,
the important step for me was production, which had led on to our
own studio. The process is so much more personal because of this.
On the first two albums all my arrangements were contained within the
piano arrangement, which was the foundation, but which was then
handed over to Andrew Powell as producer to interpret with his
string arrangements. And the musicians and I worked in my backing
vocals by playing the tapes over and over and singing along. But being
producer I could put a lot less emphasis on the piano arrangement
and interpret the song through other instruments onto tape, even
playing around with the parts after the musicians had gone, and
getting our own studio meant I could build up the song straight onto
tape, keeping bits that worked and building up ideas even before the
musicians came in.
     Visually, I see a shift from being inspired by dance (Lindsay Kemp
being a big influence), to filmic imagery (being influenced by
all the films I love so much). I find the combination of film and
music very exciting, and it's very rare for people to concentrate
on both with equal concern--film-makers don't want the music to
distract, and musicians don't want the visuals to be stronger than
the music. But when it works, it's so powerful! For instance,
_The_Wall_, _Singing_in_the_Rain_, _Amadeus_--there are definitely
people moving this way more and more. It's great.

Zwort: Wouldn't it be great to attack all the senses at once?
To have film and music, sensurround fitted to the seats, scents
filtered in through the air-conditioning--Yee-hah!

Katie: Oh, Cousin Rodney--that's what I love about you:
you're so enthusiastic!

Zwort: It's _Zwort!_

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

     <Here, finally, is the brief interview which is Kate's only
contribution to the latest issue of the _Newsletter_ (number 22).
It came out in late December, 1987).>

     How is the new album going?
     "Well, as usual it is slow, but I keep writing new songs, as I feel the
urge. And I now have lots of songs, but most of them have pieces missing
or sparse lyrics, and sorting these things out takes a lot of time."
     How are you approaching this album? Is it different from the last one?
     "Again I am working straight onto master tape in our home studio. As I
get ideas, I put them onto tape. Sometimes this causes more problems,
because I'll like parts of it and not others, but I try to re-do as little
as possible. I like to try and keep the performances quick and
spontaneous. It's the sorting out of these performances afterwards,
and the rethinking of structure or arrangements, that take the time.
Each musician changes the feel of the track dramatically, and it's
important to keep the track moving in the right direction and to
communicate what is wanted, which in my case is achieved through
images, humming lines and letting the musicians do what they feel
is right and saying if I don't like it. It seems to have worked, so
far, and I always find musicians so inspiring. Quite often they'll
put an edge to the track that gives it greater potential, so I sit
and re-think bits again. The tracks continually change, and yet the
original "feeling" doesn't seem to. I'd like to think that by
putting the initial "muse" onto tape, we've captured its soul,
so that whatever we put on top of it, it is, in essence, the same."
     Are you using a lot of synthesizers? If so, which ones, and how?
     "I'm using the Fairlight again, and a DX-7; but a lot of the songs
have been written on piano initially, and it does definitely give
the songs a different flavour from those written on Fairlight. A
lot of rhythms are arranged by Del, and we tend to keep bits and
replace a lot with real drums, but still keeping his "feel". But
there are a few tracks which are just synthesized drums. It's
whatever works;  but I am using a lot of real instruments on this
album. I really like working with musicians, they approach things
from a different angle. They have fresh ideas."
     When will the album be finished?
     "Umm..."
     When do you think it will be finished?
     "Umm..."
     Have you been doing other projects besides the album?
     "I've been mainly concentrating on the album and catching up on my
life a bit, but I did write a song for a film by an American
Director: John Hughes. The piece from the film is extremely
moving, and I really enjoyed writing to it. Let's hope when the film
is released (hopefully some time in '88) that you get to see it.
The director has a very distinctive style (he directed _The_Breakfast_
_Club_, which I really like), and I think this, his latest film
_She's_Having_a_Baby_, is well worth a watch."
     You also appeared at Peter Gabriel's live concert at Earls Court.
     "Yes, it was very much a last minute decision. Peter had asked me,
and I wasn't sure if I was brave enough to perform unrehearsed in
front of such a large crowd. It is such a beautiful song to sing,
but the reception from the audience was so overwhelming, I couldn't
hear what I was singing. So if anyone reading this was there that
night--sorry if I was a bit out of tune; and if you were one of
those people--thanks for an incredible experience, I don't think
I'll ever forget that welcome. It was a fantastic concert and I am,
again, very honoured to have been involved in Peter's work."
     I know you like animals and I hear you keep cats. I wondered how
many you have?
     "I used to have two cats. Zoodle and Pyewackit, but I'm afraid that
Zoodle died earlier this year. I was very upset, but she was
eleven and had a good life. She was a beautiful cat. Pyewackit is
absolutely fine, although she missed Zoodle at first. A few months
ago we adopted a stray, feeding her and letting her live in the
garage, and she had three kittens. We now have the 3 kittens. They are
called Rocket, Sparky and Torchy. And although Pye didn't like them
all at first, they all get on really well now, and we find them
cuddled up on a chair together when we get in. They're such good
company for her, and they all have such different personalities.
It's so entertaining just sitting watching them play. It's bringing
out the kitten in Pye: I've noticed her springing across the floor
and leaping onto ledges that are far too small for her. She does
things she hasn't tried for years and seems to be enjoying it all.
I guess we're all young at heart, but sometimes it takes something
to rediscover it!"

     Dear All,
     Hoping you have a very special Christmas and a great New Year.
     'Til '88--All the best and lots of love,

                             Kate xx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

<Transcribed by Andrew Marvick, except for the last, which was
originally transcribed by Michael Knight.>