KTexts: the Shearlaw interview

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: John Shearlaw's interview and tour preview, March 1979



                            Wow Amazing
             says Kate Bush; John Shearlaw agrees with her

     Who said a word from the band was worth two from Kate Bush?
     Because, just this once, it isn't true. But how else
is one to penetrate the cloak of security? To delve into the mystery
that surrounds Kate's upcoming (and now totally sold out) British
Tour? To find out--or at least get an idea--of just how "amazing"
(to use one of the lady's own favourite words) her first real
"grand entrance" in front of the great British public is
going to be?
     That it will be a grand entrance is now virtually beyond
question. For Kate, still only twenty years old, has found
that what was at first a tentative (and very well planned)
debut outing has swollen into a full-scale tour--now including
five nights at the London Palladium, with Europe to follow.
     While I've found (let's say a birdie told me!) that this
spectacular initiation is likely to offer such treats as:
     Two supporting dancers appearing with Kate (herself an
accomplished dancer and mime artist);
     What has loosely described as a "magician" (although,
typically, the nature of the act is being kept a secret!).
     A specially designed stage with opening mirrored ramps
for Kate and the seven-piece band to disappear in and out of.
     A variety of equipment--including a _black_
carpet that will cover the entire stage area.
     Mind-boggling set-pieces--one of which seems likely
to be Kate suspended inside a giant, transparent egg (with only
two handholds and two footholds) which will rotate as she sings.
     As well as a completely new approach to the singer as
the center of attention--perhaps one of the most interesting
innovations! As well as using radio microphones (without leads),
she'll also be wearing a wire head-piece (with a mike) for
certain songs--thus making it easier to move, dance and sing...with
no limitations.
     Nor is all this dedication to presentation a mere attempt
at technoflach. In fact, the whole production (which will travel
with the tour and be adapted for each venue--with the full works
being reserved for the largest stage: the London Palladium) isn't
reckoned to be _that_ expensive.
(A figure of "around 150,000 Pounds has been mentioned--almost
peanuts in relation to full-scale ELO-like production packages).
     Rather, if it works--and with all the effort that's gone
into it, it looks like it will--it will be some way towards Kate's
original stated ambition of "combining songs and dance in a
slightly _different_ way--a way that suits me."
     Now you know, although you shouldn't! Prepare for something a
little bit special--that's if _Wuthering_Heights_ didn't,
or the incredible BBC TV video she recorded in
Switzerland last month for _Wow_ doesn't either.
     Ms. Bush, whichever way you look at it, is about to break
out in a big way. And not just out of an egg!
     Yes, she _has_ played live before--"in pubs and clubs, from when
I was about fourteen," she remembers. "I was always happy
to perform." And who can forget that it was Kate, as a
squeaky and precocious sixteen-year-old, who first gained
record company interest (and to certain people, also
from record companies, who must now be kicking themselves
with some force, abject scorn) by accompanying herself on
piano at her doctor-father's house?
     But, since the success of _Wuthering_Heights_
and her subsequent breakthrough as one of the most truly
original voices of the decade (perfectly executed and illustrated
on two albums) last year, there hasn't been what
product-managers would call back-up. No live appearances; just
videos in Japan and playbacks for _Top_of_the_Pops_.
     The reason being, yes..."a genuine lack of time."
     "I think I survived all the digs I had last year,"
she says now. "I really wasn't deliberately keeping myself
away from an audience to build up a reputation. It has simply taken
all this time to stage things the way I want to. And to match up
to the standard I've set myself.
     "Which I haven't reached, and probably won't reach!"
she laughs.
     "But however it turns out, it's _my_ concept--my
concept, as much as the time, the budget and the presentation
will allow.
     "And it's for all the Lionhearts first!"
     "It's also a concept, says Kate, that is the culmination
of two years' planning, and--more realistically--six solid months
of rehearsal, which began with the band long before Christmas, extended
into lighting and effects work at a Home Counties film studio, and will
culminate, for the rest of this month, with full run-throughs at a
major London theatre.
     "It does, however, make it somewhat understandable that the
lady _herself_ is reluctant to disclose any details of the surprises in
store. Since Christmas she's lived with the hard-core reality of
putting the show on--a development that has attracted so much
rumour and speculation that someone less determined (and less
in total control of her own projectction) might be tempted to
begin her own publicity before the event. Not so.
     To Kate, the shows--her live arrival--is firstly: "A
present. A present that shouldn't be unwrapped until everyone
is there!" And secondly, she also maintains: "It's
like hearing about a film. Everybody tells you it's amazing--and
you could end up disappointed. You shouldn't get people's
expectations up like that." She smiles, half-childishly,
half-apologetically.
     <Shearlaw is apparently unaware that he--and he alone
among all journalists prior to the tour's opening--has just
done exactly what Kate would have appreciated he not do.>
     "I _know_ you want to know. But how can I start? If I tell you
one thing, it'll give everything away. It'll bugger everything up!"
     She smiles again, probably at the word this time. Underneath
it, though, there's an iron resolve.
     "If you look at it, it's _my_ reputation," she says. "And yes, I
hope it'll be something special, that's the way I'm working on it.
     "It can't be original...It couldn't be, ever.
Nothing could, because to an extent, it's all been done before.
Just say they're my songs...and, hopefully, presented
in a way that suits each song."
     So, we have the tour, and the ever-expanding talents of
one Kate Bush--strangely, somebody who is often criticised
for her originality. Almost on the lines that: "If she's
that original (especially that voice), it must be a gimmick.
She'd better broaden out soon, before people get fed up with
it."
     And for the last six months she's been living a double
life. On the one had Kate Bush, the lady in public demand: an
award winner in so many polls early this year that even she's
probably lost count of the number of times she's said
"amazing" with reference to said distinctions.
     On the other, a fiercely determined artist, working
full-time on her big arrival. Her concept. And what could well
be the full public flowering of one of our brightest new talents.
     Great, fantastic and incredible. How else would she put it?
     "I'm really looking forward to it so much," she
says. "I look at myself, and I'm _not_ a public
person. At least I don't see myself as a public
person; I don't go out and go to parties. My friends"
--her boyfriends "are "just good friends", she points
out--"don't make front-page news! All that amazing
show-business thing, you know.
     "But," she continues, "you do have different
faces. My different face is when I perform--it
_will_ be when I perform, I mean!
     "When I'm on stage, I get possessed, really."
Her eyes--still bigger-than-believable, away from the
flash-guns--sparkle. "Away from it, I'm just
normal and small...then, suddenly, I've got this really
special thing. I'm really letting go.
     "It's an amazing feeling, a great big rush."
     She pauses and delivers a sentence that could have a
malicious tease about it. Equally, it could be genuine. "It's
almost like seeing God, man! Though it's not quite as simple
as that...
     "You're communicating, without talking, something
that's inside you--your creation--and it's going out
to people. It's fantastic when you see them accepting it."
     And does she feel they do, or sorry, that they will? Or does
she worry about promecting a conscious image to gain that
acceptance?
     In a word, no. "It's not a question of being sexy
or anything. It's much more to do with the interpretation
of each song. Each one you see differently and present differently,"
she says. "I've been very open to lots of influences
up until now, or I wouldn't even be doing the things I am
doing. Like if I hadn't worked with Lindsay Kempt, I wouldn't
be moving around at all while I was singing! Can you imagine that?
     "So I've arrived at a stage when I'm ready
to present myself as myself. Being sexy, or whatever, isn't
deliberate at all.
     "Anyway," she adds, defusing the topic, "it's
not really right, is it? I mean, I don't look like a symbol
first thing in the morning, do I?"
     Ahem. On we go. She tells me that there are problems with
the show, which is why the rehearsals have been so intense. It's
a new band (which does include her brother Paddy, while another
brother, John, is in charge of the show on the road--"they're
an amazing family," says Kate); and, more particularly,
she has had to adapt to the difficulties of presenting her
voice--in all its uniqueness--while simultaneously interpreting
the song through dance.
     Kate's been almost religious in the last few months
about this aspect of her training. She's been having lessons
(with teacher Anthony Van Laast) for two hours each day, as well
as other dancing routines, and she maintains: "It's
the discipline that's all-important, and I can feel really
bad if I have to miss it.
     "It's just so important for my state of brain--I feel
completely different, and so much better--afterwards. And it's
something that I feel I can carry on developing. With dance and
movement, you're learning and creating all the time."
     While she's still--very much--keeping control of her
career destiny, as well as--for the most part--her secrets, the
only thing she's worried about is time. Time to get it right.
     She says: "I look back sometimes and realise how much
time I did have to be receptive and open and take in so many
things. To some exten I still am--and I'm still terribly
subjective.
     "It's not that it's really changed, but I
find that there are definite restrictions on my time, and there
are definite things that I want to control.
     "It'll be an objective look at me, going out on
tour. It's really my reputation and my career, and everything
I've been working for.
     "I'm not closing off, and I still need help, but it's
up to me to see that I can reach the standards I've set myself.
     "But just to get that audience contact, for the first time,
will be fantastic!"
     What else, indeed? The unveiling begins next month and--secrets
or no secrets--it _will_ be worth it.
     What was that about "_Wow_ is the word"?