Touch the Past 2: A new Kate Bush chronology (Part I)

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

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Touch the Past 2: A new Kate Bush Chronology (Part I)

     This, the second Touch the Past posting from IED, is the first
part of a newly corrected, updated and detailed chronology of the career of
Kate Bush.
     This chronology is still basically a revised and slightly enlarged
version of a chronology by Peter FitzGerald-Morris, the editor of
_Homeground_, the International Kate Bush Fanzine. Peter's chronology
was included in a book of sixty-six of Kate's songs entitled (or more
properly mistitled) _Kate_Bush_Complete_. (Kate has written well over
two hundred fifty songs to date). Despite some weaknesses, _Kate_Bush_
_Complete_ is an indispensible part of every serious Kate Bush
fan's collection. It may be more valuable for its chronology than for its
transcriptions of music. The latter, unfortunately, are not an improve-
ment over earlier publications, offering only the basic melodies notated
in drastically simplified form and punctuated at intervals by shorthand
chord indications. But the book does include an edition of the
songs' lyrics which marks an improvement over earlier available
versions (except, of course, the edition called "lyrics.ied", which can
be found in Love-Hounds' Archives).
     The book was originally edited by Cecil Bolton and published by EMI
Music Publishing in 1986, but it is widely understood that virtually all of
the research for the chronology and the lyrics was undertaken by Peter Fitz-
Gerald-Morris. Much of the information which appeared in Peter's _Kate_
_Bush_Complete_ chronology had appeared in instalments over a period of
five years, in issues 1 through 25 of the fanzine _Homeground_.
In _Kate_Bush_Complete_ the chronology was entitled _Retracing_All_the_
_Scenes:_An_outline_of_Kate's_career_to_date_.
     The following chronology is an attempt to reconcile and merge Peter's
chronology, which is usually reliable but occasionally vague, with Kate's
own recollections, as well as with the newer chronology by Kevin Cann and
Sean Mayes, found in their 1988 biography, _Kate_Bush:_A_Visual_Documentary_.
I have tried to remove wherever possible the instances of overly cautious,
imprecise or incomplete explanations which are found in both chronologies.
Edited by Andrew Marvick.


               Kate Bush: A Chronology of her career
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

July 30, 1958
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     Catherine Bush is born at Bexleyheath Maternity Hospital,
South East London.

1958-1969
^^^^^^^^^
     Kate has a relatively uneventful childhood in a loving and
supportive family, immersed in music, art and literature.
     Her mother, Hannah (nee Daly), is originally from County Waterford,
Ireland. She had been an accomplished Irish dancer in her youth, and
it is she and her relatives who expose the Bush family to Irish music and
dance. Kate's father, Robert John, a physician, originates from South Ockendon.
As a young man he had composed and published a few songs. Kate's two siblings
are Paddy, six years her senior (bn. 1952), and John Carder, fourteen years
her senior (bn. 1944). Paddy is particularly interested in traditional
music from an early age, and with occasional contributions from
John he plays in local and itinerant folk ensembles throughout the
later 1960s and early 1970s. He eventually enrolls in a well-known
school of furniture-making, where he specializes in the re-creation
of lost ancient instruments. John Carder Bush writes poetry from an
early age, and by the early 1970s has published several small volumes
of his poems. He also studies law and becomes a student of kyudo and
karate; and he takes up photography in his teens. Both John and Paddy
listen constantly to progressive and popular rock music as well as folk.
All these sources of music provide Kate with a rich and diverse cultural
climate--as well as lots of hand-me-down records--from a very early age.
     Kate grows up in a highly atmospheric farm estate called East
Wickham Farm situated on isolated grounds in Welling, a suburb of London.
The family also owns a small summer cottage in Birchington, on the east
coast of England. Dr. Bush also owns a three-story house of flats in
Lewisham, a suburb closer to London. (Kate will later move there.)

July 1964
^^^^^^^^^
     The Bush family visit New Zealand and Australia for a few
months. Kate is aged six.

1967
^^^^
     Kate attends St. Joseph's Preparatory School, which is situated
alongside the grammar school she would later attend.

September 1969
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate starts at St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School. "The Cruci-
fixion", the first of several poems by Catherine which would appear in
the school's annual magazine, appears in the end of the 1969-70 edition.
She also passes her "11-plus" exam this year, and, obliged by school rules
to take up an instrument, she begins instruction in the violin. By year's
end she is listed as "Grade 2, Violin". She plays well, but does not enjoy it.
     Also at about this time she begins to set her poems to her own chord
formulations. By 1971, when Kate is twelve or thirteen, embryonic
versions of songs like "The Man With the Child in His Eyes" and
"Saxophone Song" begin to emerge.

1970
^^^^
     Kate's brother Paddy needs someone on piano to accompany his
violin playing. Kate's father shows her the C-Major chord and
she begins to play.
     At school, Kate is in Form II. She publishes three poems in that
year's school magazine: "A Tear and a Raindrop Met", "Death" and "You".
     Kate follows her elder brother John and begins to develop her
poetry. Her piano playing becomes an outlet for her frustration, and
a haven from school society--she never tells anyone at school about her
private musical activities. Also at this time she develops an interest
in Greek mythology, and meanwhile is constantly being exposed to Irish
and English folk music, through her family's frequent evenings of communal
musicmaking.

1971
^^^^
     In September Kate begins Form III at St. Joseph's, and in
the end-of-year magazine two more of her poems appear: "Blind Joe
Death" and "Epitaph for a Rodent".

1972
^^^^
     Kate is in Form IV at St. Joseph's, having turned fourteen in July.
     At the suggestion of Kate's family, Ricky Hopper, a friend
of John's who has some music-business connections, tries to place
a collection of "demo tapes" which Kate has recorded of her songs with
a record company. Hopper, Kate and her family only have a publishing
contract in mind. At this stage--as now--Kate considers herself more of a
writer than a singer. Peter FitzGerald-Morris has written that these
original tapes, all featuring Kate singing her songs alone to her own
piano accompaniment, "have over thirty songs on each." An unfortunate
wording, since it may mean that there was one collection of thirty songs
which was duplicated, and of which one copy was sent to each publisher;
or that there were actually several different thirty-song collections.
Since Kate has herself indicated that by about this time she had
composed some two hundred songs, either explanation is possible. It
is also possible that the twenty-two so-called "Cathy Demos" which have
recently come into collectors' hands may be among those early tapes.
     All the major companies are approached. None accepts. Kate's songs
are described as "morbid", "boring" and "uncommercial".
     Kate feels that she cannot pursue a career in music and considers
the alternatives: psychiatry or social work.
     Unable to help further, Ricky Hopper makes contact with David Gilmour
of Pink Floyd, who had been a friend at Cambridge. Gilmour, who at this
time is interested in finding new musical talent to assist, is persuaded
to listen to Kate's demos, and then to hear her perform. Kate, only
just fourteen, is very nervous, but Gilmour is impressed, and
decides to lend a hand in the launch of her career.

Summer 1973
^^^^^^^^^^^
     Around the time of Kate's fifteenth birthday, Kate visits David
Gilmour at his home, where she records some of her songs. The group is
comprised of Gilmour himself on guitar, and Peter Perrier and Pat Martin
of Unicorn on drums and bass, respectively. At least ten, and probably
as many as fifteen, of Kate's songs are arranged and performed during
one long session. Among the recordings from this session are the b-side
of Kate's 1980 _Army_Dreamers_ single, a song called _Passing_Through_
_Air_ (also known as _Need_Your_Loving_), and a song known as _Maybe_
(originally called _Davey_). In 1979 Kate played an excerpt from the
tape-recording of the latter song during a BBC radio programme.

September 1973
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate begins Form V at St. Joseph's.

1974
^^^^
     Kate begins her sixth and final year at school: Form VI at St.
Joseph's. She leaves school in June 1975, making only one subsequent
brief visit to the school (possibly in addition to the "A Levels" visit
-- see below).
     With no progress in her musical ambitions, Kate seriously
considers a career in psychiatry.
     Kate takes her "O Level" examination and obtains ten "Pass"
grades, with best results in English, music and Latin.

1975
^^^^
     Gilmour decides that the only way to interest the record companies
in Kate's talent is to make a short three-song demo to full
professional standards. He puts up the money.

June 1975
^^^^^^^^^
     Still only sixteen, Kate goes into Air Studios in London's West
End, with Gilmour as producer, Andrew Powell as arranger, Geoff Emerick as
engineer. Together Powell and Gilmour sift through over sixty of Kate's
songs and choose three to record: "Saxophone Song" (also known at
this stage as "Berlin"), "The Man With the Child in His Eyes",
and a new, more polished version of the song which fans refer to as
"Maybe". (N.B.: This is _not_ the version which Kate played on the radio
in 1979.) The first two of these would later appear without changes on
Kate's debut album, "The Kick Inside".

July 1975
^^^^^^^^^
     Kate takes her "mock A Level" examinations.
     Pink Floyd are at Abbey Road Studios recording "Wish You Were Here",
and Kate attends the sessions. On one occasion during the sessions,
Gilmour plays the three-track Kate Bush demo to Bob Mercer, then
General Manager of EMI's pop division. Mercer is impressed, and
negotiations for a contract are finally opened.
     The deal takes some time to conclude: it is much discussed at
meetings between Kate, her family, Gilmour and EMI, and is not finally
signed until 1976.
     Kate has already begun taking courses in dance and mime taught by Adam
Durius in an arts complex in Elephant and Castle, South London.
But in February 1975 she attends a performance of Jean Genet's
"Flowers" by the mime and dance artist Lindsay Kemp at the Collegiate Theatre.
Soon thereafter she enrols in his course at the Dance Centre, Floral Street,
Covent Garden. After Kemp goes to Australia, Kate trains with Arlene Phillips,
choreographer of Hot Gossip. It is probably at about this time (toward
the end of 1975) that Kate's association with Stewart Avon-Arnold and the
late Gary Hurst, her longtime dance partners, begins.
     (N.B.: There are conflicts between Peter's dating and Mayes's and
Cann's dating for Kate's introduction to dance. Peter places the Lindsay
Kemp performances of _Flowers_ in 1976; Mayes and Cann just as positively
place them in 1975. Since Mayes and Cann otherwise follow Peter's
dating very faithfully, I am assuming that they are correct in making
this change. On the other hand, Mayes and Cann have left intact Peter's
dating of Kate's _earliest_ dance instruction--in early 1976; which
makes no sense if her exposure to Kemp's work really did take place in '75.
I have therefore tentatively dated that early instruction--under Adam
Durius--to 1975. Naturally, the resulting dates are not to be taken
as certain.)
     In order to make travel between home and classes easier, Kate
moves out of her home in East Wickham Farm after school ends in 1975
and joins her two brothers in Lewisham, a closer suburb in Southeast
London, where Dr. Bush owns a building of flats. Kate occupies
one floor, Paddy another, and John a third. (N.B.: Again, Peter
dates the move to one year later--actually in 1977. But I have had to
back-date the event in order for it to agree with the other information
which has been re-dated by Mayes and Cann.)

1976
^^^^
     At about this time Kate receives a small inheritance from her aunt,
and concentrates on preparing herself for a career in music. She buys
an old honky-tonk piano for 200 Pounds and begins to develop her
characteristic, high vocal range. (This is Peter's understanding. His
statement implies that the twenty-two demo-recordings which are now
circulating among fans date from no earlier than 1976. I do not know
what the basis is for Peter's assumption that Kate did not develop her
distinctive high vocal range until 1976, however.)
     The EMI deal begins to take shape. A publishing contract is
settled first.

March 1976
^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate takes her driving test and fails.

Summer 1976
^^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate writes a letter to an old school-friend, Frances Byrne,
and it is from this letter (unfortunately undated) that some of the
information in this early section of the present chronology is derived.
Kate by this time feels completely divorced from her former school routine
and most of her St. Joseph's friends.

July 1976
^^^^^^^^^
     Kate finally settles a recording deal with EMI.
The contract is for four years, with options at the end of
the second and third year. Kate receives a 3,000-Pound advance
for the recording contract, and an additional 500 Pounds for publishing
rights. EMI are content for Kate to take time to write songs,
sharpen her lyrics, train her voice and generally have time
to "grow up".

August 1976
^^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate takes her driving test again and passes.

1977
^^^^
     During the first year of the contract Kate makes two further
demo tapes. (Very possibly these include the twenty-two recordings
now making the rounds among fans.) She resists EMI's attempts to
"commercialize" her songs. She pursues her dancing.

March 1977
^^^^^^^^^^
     Wuthering Heights is written at the full moon.

April 1977
^^^^^^^^^^
     Kate's brother Paddy forms a band with his friends Del Palmer,
Brian Bath and Charlie Morgan. Kate is asked to be the vocalist,
and the band adopts the title of the KT Bush Band. The group begin at
what Mayes and Cann describe as "a tough Lewisham venue", the Rose of
Lee public house (now demolished), performing there at least six times
in all. They also perform at several other pubs situated
in and around London and the Home Counties over a three-month
period. The band perform a varying set consisting mostly of
rock-and-roll standards ("Honky Tonk Women", "Heard It Through the
Grapevine", "Come Together", "Sweet Soul Music", "Satisfaction", etc.),
although latterly Kate sings "Saxophone Song" and "James and the Cold
Gun" from her own repertoire. In July the band discontinue performing,
in order to allow Kate to prepare for the recording sessions for her
debut album.
     Del Palmer, the bassist introduced to Kate by his friend Brian Bath
during auditions for the KT Bush Band, is immediately "smitten" by Kate,
and they soon become a steady couple. (They are still together, some
thirteen years later.)

August 1977
^^^^^^^^^^^
     After more than two years of frustration, Kate is finally called in
to record material for an album. She has just turned nineteen. The
producer chosen is Andrew Powell, and the backing band are half of Pilot
and half of Cockney Rebel--EMI stable-mates. Though the songs recorded
are all Kate's own material, her role is confined to vocals, some
piano-playing and some simple piano arrangements. It is decided to
use eleven songs from this session and two from the 1975 three-song
Gilmour-Powell demo-session.

September 1977
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     EMI want to release "James and the Cold Gun" as the first single.
Kate wants "Wuthering Heights", and she gets her way.

November 4, 1977
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     The original release date for "Wuthering Heights". At a late stage
Kate asks EMI to change the artwork on the picture-sleeve from the
"pink top" photo to Del Palmer's photo-concept of "Kite". (This is
Peter's description of Del's concept, which actually is seen better on
the back cover of the album, in an image made up of John Carder Bush's
photography and Del's own colored drawing. The "Kite" image used for
the front cover of the single is derived from the same concept, but
features Kate herself hanging from a giant Oriental kite--an image
used again very cleverly for the _front_ cover image to depict the
imagery from another song, "The Man With the Child in His Eyes".)
She gets her way, and all the campaign materials are altered.
By the time the new campaign material is ready, Christmas is
approaching and EMI are unwilling to launch their new artist
into the pre-Christmas maelstrom. The release date is put back
until the new year. Many promotional copies of the single have already
been sent out to radio producers, however. EMI tries to retreive them
to prevent premature airplay. Eddie Puma, producer of London commercial
station Capital Radio's "The Late Show", and Tony Myatt, the
disc jockey for the programme, admire the record so much that they
decide to play it, and continue to play it throughout November
and December. Other radio stations follow. "Wuthering Heights" is an
airplay hit two months before release.

-- END OF PART ONE OF THE CHRONOLOGY. PART TWO WILL APPEAR IN L-Hs SOON. --

-- Andrew Marvick