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[***SEMPSY*** <sre017%cck.cov.ac.uk@mitvma.mit.edu>]

What follows is the latest interview with Kate in a Q/HMV special mag:

                    Follow That!

This month adds another blockbuster to record shelves.Presented with
the requisite lavishly illustrated booklet,This Woman's Work is the
title which gathers together Kate Bush's six albums plus 31 further
tracks hitherto only available on B-sides,in French,as "alternative "
mixes,and on the live Onstage EP.In short,the complete works.And still
only 32.  For Kate Bush,this collection marks both a breathing space
and a turning point.  "in some ways this boxed set has almost put an
end to an era," she says softly, a charming,unaffected woman in
jeans,boots,blouse and jacket you wouldn't remark if worn by a
schoolteacher.Her only armour ,in fact,is the tape recorder with which
she duplicates our interview,perhaps just in case she is misquoted.
"I can't say what will be that different about my work from now on,but
it feels like a rounding up,a putting to bed-putting all those little
sheep in apen!"  So with one eye on the future,Kate looks back at a
dozen years as a recording star,and assesses how she feels about the
songs that today stand as a corner- stone of modern British
music,songs mostly never performed live or,if so,not for 11 years and
therefore unchanged since the day they were cut.With one exception. .
.

Q:Why did you sing a new vocal on Wuthering Heights for 1986's The
Whole Story compilation?(Both versions are included in the box.)

I'm happy with my voice now,and I suppose I wanted to make Wuthering
Heights somehow step up through the decade.It sounded very dated to
me:my voice sounded so young,the production sounded so '70's.I like
the idea of taking the song I'm most associated with,and making it me
now as opposed to a very young girl,as I was in '77.

Q:When most artists revise their old songs,they do it
live.This,however,is an option you've forsaken since 1979 and the
multi-costumed and exhausting shows of that year,never repeated.Will
you continue to forsake that option?

I think I'm starting to feel different about a few things,and my
attitude toward live work is one.I would like to think from this point
onwards I could speed up,and keep the momentum of my work faster.I
have a tendency to think too much.I've just started writing again,and
there's no pressure on me.I get no sense of people expecting anything
from me,because I take so long.That's a very nice feeling,actually
doing something in my own space.How I wrote at least the last two
albums was to go into the studio and write ideas on to tape,as it
werew dump stuff on to tape,forget about it and then move on to the
next area.  But when I first started,I always used to write on the
piano,and just the last couple of months,I've felt at home again
writing on the piano.It's such a different process,I find it quite
shocking.It's like suddenly you've become the memory banks;instead of
dumping it on tape,it's staying in you.And each time you play the
song,it changes.The sense of transformation is very subtle;each time
you play it,something will change.And by continually playing that
song,it actually begins to develop,almost like it takes on a life of
its own.I find this fascinating-and exhausting,because I have to use
memory and concentraion which I haven't had to use in quite a
while.Going back to a rooted way of working,I do feel a change in
myself.Maybe I'm taking the opportunity to peruse the landscape and
see if there's not things I could change.

Q:Is this return to the piano a result of feeling you'd gone as far as
you could with hi-tech?

I do feel that I've achieved things on that last album(TSW).At some
points when I was making it I thought I would ever finish it.It was a
mammoth task.Just getting up the courage to get in touch with The Trio
Bulgarka took me a long time.I wanted to preserve the sense of how
precious they were,I didn't want to abuse it.A lot of time goes into
my fear and worry about something,and afterward it's all right
anyway.In a way I feel what I should do is jump in there and do it!

Q:What are you trying to prove?Or have you now overcome that need to prove
yourself?

There is a big part of me that is very over-ambitious.It's
ridiculous!And it drags me along behind it.It's one of my qualities
that I can't deny in my work.  I guess I'm trying to prove something
to myself.But perhaps rather than having to prove something,people who
create feel a great empty sense of hunger,a feeling of emptiness in
life.And by being able to create,you can somehow express yourself in a
way that maybe youn can't in the ordinary realms of life.I really feel
it's connected to religion-real religion.In your teens you hit the
point where there's a big introversion-you're saying.Who am I?What am
i going to do with myself?I really felt when I was 17,which was when
the whole propulsion of my creativity took over.I changed very
dramatically in about two years.I do feel it's an introversion that
all creative people go through,and a lot of it is linked to
religion.So many artists are looking for God,and this is where we find
the voice to try and speak.It's also a kind of self-therapy,trying to
heal yourself.

Q:Of what?

Probably a sense of inadequacy.And through this expression you at last
have a voice,whether it's through painting,whatever.And I think it can
be a much wiser voice.In your creativity there can be quite deep
attitudes,and I think its got to be linked somehow with the
unconscious that you're tapping into.

Q:Which of your songs particularly connect with this form of
spirituality?

Breathing,I think,was one of my first,what I would call spiritual
songs.The subject matter isn't necessarily,but the spark is.When I was
writing it,it felt like:Hang on,I don't think I'm writing this-this is
a bit too good for me!Rather than the song being my creation,I was a
vehicle for something that was coming through me.

Q:Have you defined your religious feelings?

No,I don't think so.Iwas a Roman Catholic and brought up in Roman
Catholic schools.I would never say I was a stict follower of Roman
Catholic belief,but a lot of the images are in there;they have to
be,they're so strong.Such powerful beautiful,passionate images!There's
a lot of suffering in Roman Catholicism.I think I'm looking for not
necessarily religion,but ways of helping myself to become more
understanding,more complete,a happier person-what we all want in
life.But I really don't think I've found a niche.

Q:You hint at the possibility of confronting a live audience again.Was
your performance as a hapless bride in TV's Comic Strip play,Les
Dogs,by way of dipping a toe into public appearance?

I love comedy.I think comedy is so....profound.And like everyone,I
really love the whole new wave of comedy that started with The Young
Ones.I'm a big fan of all the people involved.I'd seen Strike(another
Comic Strip special),and I was very impressed by the look and Peter
Richardson's direction.What those guys do is very special:it might not
always work-it's experimental-but its essence is challenging and
wonderful.I wanted to make a video for TSW,but I was feeling insecure
as a peformer.Though I like being the observer rather than the observe
d,I felt this time I had to confront myself as the observed.And what
would help would be to take on a part that would give me a sense of
confidence and creative feedback.  I liked the idea of working with
Peter,and I also really like the attitude in their work towards
women.A lot of films I sit there thinking,That's stupid!We worked on
the video and it was alot of fun,and we stayed in touch as friends.
When he was working on the Comic Strip series,I got a script and he
asked me if I'd play a part.It was a perfect challenge.I thought
,OK,if you're going to confront yourself as a performer,here's an
opportunity.I felt very honoured to be asked.It was a completely
different pace of working and I learned a lot.You sit around and read
all day,but also you're on tenterhooks.Videos are much more
frightning,because there I'm trying to be me rather than someone
else.I quite enjoyed acting;I wasn't sure I would.I'd never really
wanted to be an actress, but I love film.I'm not sure if I want to act
again,but if an interesting director asked me,my ego probably wouldn't
let me say no!I love film directors, and I guess part of me would
eventually love to make a film-just a short one.

Q:The promo film for Cloudbusting was short-and it included Donald
Sutherland, a real film star....

I still can't get over the fact that he did it!It was great!It means a
lot to people that someone who is supposedly so famous and
inaccessible makes the effort to make themselves accessible for such a
little project.I was extremely moved by the fact that he did it;it
meant a tremendous ammount to me.And to work with him-Jesus,I thought
I would never have the luck.I was his co-star!  Ridiculous!

This interview is going to be typed up in two parts,I will send the
next one when it is done!

       Andy Semple   sre017@uk.ac.cov.cck