KT NEWS--NOT TO BE MISSED!

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrw Marvick (IED)
 Subject: KT NEWS--NOT TO BE MISSED!

     A new full-length article/interview about/with Kate Bush
appeared in this Sunday's edition of the _Los_Angeles_Times_.
It was written by Terry Atkinson, a longtime staff music critic.
     _All_ Love-Hounds will want to read at least the first three
paragraphs of the article--_believe_ IED about this one, folks!
<Note: all remarks enclosed in brackets <> are IED's, not part
of the original text.>


                _The_Baffling_,_Alluring_World_of_Kate_Bush_

                               by Terry Atkinson
                <_Los_Angeles_Times_, Sunday, January 28, 1990>

     Do you celebrate Katemas? Not Christmas. _Katemas_.
     If you do, then you're undoubtedly a Love-Hound. A Love-Hound
is what some Kate Bush fans call themselves--the ones so devoted
that they attend Katemas parties every July 30 in Boston, Santa
Cruz, Bellingham, Wash., London and other locales to celebrate the
English pop singer's birthday.
     Love-Hounds subscribe to Kate Bush fanzines like Homeground,
which just published its 36th issue in conjunction with the October
release of Bush's _The_Sensual_World_, her first album of new
material since 1985's _The_Hounds_of_Love_ <sic>. Published in
Bush's home ground of Kent, England, the fanzine contains 32 pages
of breathless updates, worshipful reviews, Katemas reports, short
stories inspired by Katesongs, letters and personal messages.
     On the other hand, there are plenty of Katehaters--among them
many American rock critcs. Dave Marsh once described Bush's voice
as sounding "like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a
Hoover vacuum cleaner." Another writer called her "just a curiosity...
with no pop hooks."
     Even those critics who've found kind things to say about Bush
are often baffled and annoyed at much of her work. While her style
is frequently "enchanting", Ira Robbins writes in _The_New_Trouser_
Press_Record_Guide_, "she can be overbearingly coy and preciously
self-indulgent." Another writer perhaps summed her up best: "Not
for everyone."
     The object of all this affection and abuse is the 31-year-old
(last Katemas) daughter of a British physician. Her English-Irish
family was a musical one, and Bush began playing piano at age 11
and writing songs soon after, including her early masterpieces
_Wuthering_Heights_ (based on the Emily Bronte novel) and _The_Man_
_With_the_Child_in_His_Eyes_. She was discovered and aided at the
age of 16 by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. <Incorrect: she
was no older than 15, and probably only 14.> Her first album,
_The_Kick_Inside_, released in 1978, was an immediate sensation
in England, Europe, Australia and parts of Asia, and gave her the
creative freedom to indulge in her often mystical and theatrical
album projects. But she would never go beyond cult status in
America until _Hounds_, her first gold record here--spurred by
her first U.S. hit, _Running_Up_That_Hill_, and frequent showings
of her own unique videos on MTV.
     To help _Sensual_World_ follow up on that success, Bush went
to extraordinary lengths (for her) of traveling to New York recently
and doing interviews.
     More disconcerting for longtime fans than her delayed American
success is Bush's continuing and puzzling dislike for concertizing.
It's puzzling because her hourlong _Live_at_Hammersmith_ video shows
the lithe, attractive Bush having a ball--changing costumes, playing
various personas, concocting outragious production numbers and
indulging in her love for mime and dance.
     Of the last time she performed her material on stage, Bush
says, "I suppose just after the tour I was at a point when I
felt so exposed and so vulnerable I needed to retreat and just
make albums--be a songwriter again. That's how I started. I lost
a lot of confidence as a performer during the tour--I get very
nervous about the idea of performing live."
     _Very_ nervous. That last tour took place in 1979, when the
Hammersmith show was taped.
     And there doesn't seem much chance Bush will take _The_Sensual_
_World_ to the stage. "I have no plans as yet," she said during a
phone interview during her New York trip. "Because, really, I'm
just too caught up with making albums, making videos. Live performance
just kind of got left behind with me."
     It would seem that Bush would keep up the concerts at least
occasionally, if only to give her well-known love of dancing an
outlet. But, she says now, "that's kind of been left behind" too.
     "It was such a very important part of my life. When I started
music I think it was responsible for keeping me sane, because training
as a dancer really kept me in good spirits amid all the crazy stuff
that happened when I first became popular. But I guess I've gotten
more and more into filmic imagery, and I don't really keep fit like
I used to."
     Film seems to be where Bush is headed next. "I have this desire
in the back of my mind now of making music and film at the same time--
putting the two together." It would seem a natural, considering
that she has conceived and directed most of her own promotional
videos.
     Bush--who also produces her albums and plays piano and
synthesizer--came close to going beyond four-minute videos when
she flirted with the idea of making a film based on _The_Ninth_Wave_,
the intriguing conceptual second side of _The_Hounds_of_Love_.
     "What I wanted to do was turn that into a half-hour film
integrating music with visuals. When I was writing it, I was really
thinking visually. It was just unfortunate that by the time I
had the opportunity to make the film I was just too tired. I did
not have the energy."
     Bush's lyrics are seldom easy to fathom on first listening,
something she acknowledges. "My music can be a little obscure,"
she admits. "It does worry me that the music might be too complicated
for people to take in--that they have to work too hard at it."
     _The_Ninth_Wave_ is as good an example as any of how challenging
her themes can be. The related string of songs concerns a woman
who is dreaming (perhaps) of floating on water and being lulled
into sleep (and perhaps death). She finds herself drowning under
ice. Then several friendly voices pull her up from this state of
mind, but a Mediaeval witch-hunter thrusts her back under water to
prove she's a witch. Images of loved ones, salvation, morning and
a lust for life end the cycle.
     Though not quite so complex, Bush's individual songs usually
tend to be similarly drawn from the unconscious realms, especially
since her great 1982 album, _The_Dreaming_. Madonna she's not.
No wonder it took her so long to sell records in America.
     However, not all of Bush's songs are difficult to enter.
An excellent place to start for a beginner is one of the songs on the
new LP, _Deeper_Understanding_, which deals with how people often
cut themselves off from others and opt for technological "friends".
Sample lyric:

          As the people here grow colder
          I turn to my computer
          And spend my evenings with it
          Like a friend...
          I need deeper understanding
          Give me deeper understanding

     "That seems to be something we're encouraged to do," Bush said,
"in that, more and more, it's almost easier for us to stay in our
rooms, watch the television, shop from our computers. To become
such isolated beings."
     But hasn't she been accused of being too isolated herself since
moving to the English countryside, and spending literally years working
on each album with bassist/engineer/boyfriend Del Palmer?
     BNush doesn't see it that way. True, though, she did want to
get out of the city. "I find it fascinating how I've heard people
say that they get a tremendous amount of inspiration from the cities
and from this kind of unnatural situation. <Oddly enough, Kate once
said as much herself, but she seems to have forgotten that these
days...> I get much more inspiration from being outside in nature."
     Bush admits she does spend a lot of time in her own home
studio--and when she isn't there she's most likely to be found
"in the garden--if it's summer--or watching television, watching
a film, trying to catch up on sleep."
     But, while no party animal (again, Madonna she's not), the
singer also enjoys "asking friends around to dinner, or maybe
going to the theater with them. I love being with my friends,
relaxing and talking."
     In fact, Bush says, there's nothing more important to her--in her
life and in her work--than relationships.
     "I think that's really my big fascination--relationships. I suppose
in some ways you can look at everything in terms of relationships.
<This seems to be one of Kate's current theses, though in fact there are
a good number of songs of hers which can be described as "relationship
songs" only in the loosest possible sense.> It's so crazy! I think I
could spend the rest of my life just working with relationships."
     _The_Sensual_World_, like her previous albums, explores this
fascination. The LP's songs include _Love_and_Anger_, _Reaching_Out_,
_Between_a_Man_and_a_Woman_, and--on the cassette and CD--_Walk_Straight_
_Down_the_Middle_, an optimistic consideration of male/female symbiosis
comparable to her moving 1987 duet with Peter Gabriel, _Don't_Give_Up_.
     One thing that sets _The_Sensual_World_ apart from the previous
albums, in Bush's mind, is an increased sense of "positive female
energy."
     "All my music has been influenced mainly by male music," said
Bush, who has specifically cited Gabriel, Elton John and The Beatles,
"and by the people I work with, which have almost always been men.
     "I love working with men, but with the new album I began to
explore my own ways of expressing music even more, to look for female
energies. Working with the Trio Bulgarka provided that for me."
     The Trio Bulgarka is made up of three singers from the Bulgarian
folk-music world, which has recently intrigued English and American
musicians and audiences because of its unusual modalities and powerful
female vocals.
     As reserved during an interview as she is unreserved on record
and video, Kate Bush came closest to real enthusiasm when speaking of the
three songs on the new album where she is backed by the Trio. She has
always integrated ethnic music in her work, but this was something
special for her.
     "Suddenly, there I was working with these three ladies from a
completely different culture. I've never worked with women on such an
intense creative level, and it was something strange to feel this
very strong female energy in the studio. It was interesting to
see the way the men in the studio reacted to this. Instead of just
one female, there was a very strong female presence. <Typical of
Kate, she describes the men's reaction as "interesting", but doesn't
say what their reaction _was_!>
     "It made me think of the words to _The_Sensual_World_," she said
of the album's title song, which is drawn from the Molly Bloom
soliloquy that ends James Joyce's _Ulysses_. The song is a torrent
of sexual memory and lusty acceptance of life's sensations, set
to soft, exotic, Celtic-tinged music. The last word in the book
and the song is _yes_.
     "That's quite a female expression for me, really," said Bush.
"A more...open female expression. I'm not a feminist...but I think
I'm finally coming to terms with being a woman in this business."
     Bush has not yet "even begun to think about the next album."
As usual, she likes to take her time. Whether her American audience grows
or wanes is something she cares about, but it is not the most important
thing on her mind.
     "I make music because I love making it," she said. "I do it for
the sheer delight of watching it come together. I'm in love with the
whole process. It's important to me to keep that kind of priority.
If people want to hear it, that's a wonderful extra. But it's not
something you should expect. You really have to do things for the
love of doing them--and not for the reward afterwards."

     There is one photograph, a publicity studio shot by John Carder Bush
showing Kate, hair elaborately teased, sitting on the floor
crosslegged, wearing a dark blouse with a bright embroidered
flower design.

-- Andrew Marvick