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

Whilst looking at rec.music.gaffa I noticed the first part had messed up so
I'm sending it again for the curious among you!I will be bringing some copies
of the magazine to the convention for anyone who wants one(I have 3 spare!)


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!(Ignore this bit if you've seen the 2nd part already!)
       Andy Semple   sre017@uk.ac.cov.cck