THE GARDEN - GARDEN1.TXT -ECTION 2 (OF 5)

[rhill@pnet01.cts.com (Ronald Hill)]

                    T H E   G A R D E N

                 A Chronology of Kate Bush's Career



     [This chronology is 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 Kate Bush Complete.
     [That book is an absolutely essential part of any serious fan's
collection.  It may be more valuable for its chronology than for its
transcriptions of the music. The latter, unfortunately, are not an improvement
over earlier publications, offering only the basic melodies notated in
drastically simplified form and punctuated at intervals by shorthand chord
indications. Kate Bush Complete, however, also presents an edition of the
songs' lyrics, and it marks an improvement over earlier available printed
versions.
     [The book was originally edited by Cecil Bolton and published by EMI
Music Publishing, but it is widely understood that virtually all of the
research for the chronology and the lyrics was undertaken by Peter
FitzGerald-Morris. Much of the information which appeared in Peter's Kate Bush
Complete chronology had appeared in installments 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 version, which draws from several sources in addition
to the FitzGerald-Morris chronology, is by Andrew Marvick.]


Kate Bush: A Chronology of her career 


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

1958-1969
     Kate has an ordinary childhood in a loving and supportive family,
immersed in music, art and literature. [This This statement, sweet but almost
comically uninformative, is the first of many conservative and protective
remarks in FitzGerald-Morris's chronology, which seems -- quite understandably
-- to have been designed at least partly with an eye to defending Kate against
various kinds of criticism in the past.]

ca. 1964
     [The Bush family visit New Zealand and Australia for a few months. Kate
is aged six.]

September 1969
     Kate starts at St. Joseph's Senior School, Bexley. She is obliged to take
up the violin, as all pupils have to learn an instrument. 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 embryonic versions of songs such as 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.
     Kate follows her elder brother John and begins to develop her poetry. Her
piano playing is an outlet for her frustration.
She is heavily influenced by an interest in Greek mythology.

1972
     At the suggestion of Kate's family, Ricky Hopper, a friend with music
business connections, tries to place "demo tapes" of Kate's songs with a
record company, with a publishing deal in mind. At this stage Kate considers
herself more of a writer than a singer. These original tapes 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.] 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 Dave Gilmour of
Pink Floyd, whom he knew at Cambridge University. Gilmour, who at this time is
spotting for talent that he can assist, is persuaded to listen to the demos
and then to hear Kate perform. He is impressed, and agrees to help.

1973
     Kate records at Gilmour's home studio. The backing band is comprised of
Gilmour himself on guitar, and Peter Perrier and Pat Martin of Unicorn on
drums and bass, respectively. The songs recorded
at this stage include Passing Through Air (later to surface on the b-side of
the 1980 single Army Dreamers) and a song now known as Maybe.
     [Again, a bit more detail would have been welcome here. There is no
mention of how many songs were recorded during these recording sessions.
Incidentally, an excerpt of this version of the so-called Maybe, which
presumably first appeared on Kate's original demos, was played by Kate during
a radio programme called Personal Call. It should not be confused with the
presumably more professional version of the recording which was made the
following year (see below),) but which has never been heard by fans.]
     The new demos are again circulated to record companies with no result.

1974
     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
     Kate goes into Air Studios in London's West End, with Gilmour as
producer, Andrew Powell as arranger, Geoff Emerick as engineer. The three
songs recorded are Saxophone Song (also known at this stage as Berlin), The
Man With the Child in His Eyes, and a song which fans refer to as Maybe.  

July 1975
     Kate takes her "mock A Level" examinations.
     While Pink Floyd are at Abbey Road Studios recording Wish You Were Here,
Gilmour plays the three-track demo to Bob Mercer, then General Manager of
EMI's pop division. Mercer is impressed and negotiations are opened.
     The deal takes some time to conclude. It is much discussed at meetings
between Kate, her family, Gilmour and EMI.

1976
     Kate gets a small inheritance, and decides to leave school to concentrate
on preparing herself for a career in music. She buys an old honky-tonk piano
for 200 Pounds and begins screeching into existence her unmistakable voice.
     [This 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, however.]
     The EMI deal begins to take shape. A publishing contract is settled
first.

March 1976
     Kate takes her driving test and fails.

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 [and 500 Pounds for publication 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".
     Kate pursues her dancing, first at the Elephant and Castle, South London.
But after seeing Lindsay Kemp perform in Flowers, she attends his classes at
the Dance Centre in Covent Garden. After Kemp goes to Australia, Kate trains
with Arlene Phillips, choreographer of Hot Gossip. [ It is probably at this
time that Kate's association with Gary Hurst and Stewart Avon-Arnold, her
longtime dancing partners, begins.]

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. She moves away from home and into a flat in a house owned
by her father in Lewisham,
Southeast London, with her brothers as neighbours.

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. Starting at the Rose of Lee public house in
Lewisham, and then in pubs and clubs 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.

August 1977
     Kate is finally called in to record material for an album. The producer
chosen is Andrew Powell, and the backing band are half of Pilot and half of
Cockney Rebel. 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
Gilmour demo on the album.

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. 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 demos [i.e., promos] of the single have already been sent out to radio
producers. EMI tries to retrieve them to prevent premature airplay. Eddie
Puma, producer of London commercial station Capital Radio's Late Show, and
Tony Myatt, the presenter, 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.

1978 

January
     At a three-day sales conference for EMI International delegates,
Kate sings live [song or songs unidentified], and Bob Mercer predicts that she
will be one of the major talents of the future.

January 20, 1978
     Wuthering Heights is finally released. Kate does her first live radio
interview on Tony Myatt's Late Show.
     Airplay for the single rapidly builds on British commercial radio, on
Radio Luxemburg, and on BBC Radio 1.

February 7, 1978
     Wuthering Heights enters the "official" BMRB chart at number 42.

February 9, 1978
     Kate makes her first-ever television appearance in a disused tram depot
in West Germany, for the famous Bio's Bahnhof on WDR-TV. She sings Kite live,
backed effectively by the KT Bush Band, and Wuthering Heights to a backing
tape. The backdrop, which is supposed to represent the Yorkshire moors,
includes a volcano. Following her performance the host, Dr. Alfred Biolek,
carries on an entirely one-sided onstage conversation with Kate--in German.

February 14, 1978
     The single moves up to number 27. Having cracked the magic "top forty",
the gates open and Kate appears on...

February 16, 1978
     Top of the Pops. She performs in high heels and slacks. Kate says later,
"It was like watching myself die...a bloody awful performance."

February 17, 1978
     Kate's first album, The Kick Inside, is released, and a huge promotional
campaign is unleashed.

February 21, 1978
     The single moves up to number 13.

February 25, 1978
     Kate performs live on BBC TV's Saturday Nights at the Mill, singing
Moving and Them Heavy People and giving a brief interview. She also appears on
the programme Magpie.
     The first major interviews appear in the music press, and Kate is the
subject of intense media attention. She begins preparing for a live tour,
projected for mid-year.

February 28, 1978
     The single moves up to number 5. Kate is said to be the most photographed
woman in the U.K.

March 2, 1978
     The Keith ("Keef") MacMillan-directed video for Wuthering Heights is
shown on Top of the Pops. It is the second video for the song. The first, made
by Rockflix in an [unidentified] outdoor setting, is rejected for British
promotional use, although it is used in other territories.

March 7, 1978
     Wuthering Heights is number 1 on the British singles chart, displacing
Abba. The press turn it into a nationalistic celebration. EMI celebrate with a
champagne reception for Kate, and dinner in Paris. She celebrates by buying a
7,000-Pound Steinway piano. The single celebrates by going silver in the U.K.
(250,000 sales).
     The single remains at number 1 for four weeks.

March 16, 1978
     On the same evening as her second "number 1" appearance on Top of the
Pops, Kate is interviewed on the BBC TV current-affairs programme, Tonight.
     Mickie Most asks Kate to appear in the pilot edition of his new pop-rock
television programme Revolver. She is introduced by Peter Cook and sings Them
Heavy People (which EMI want to release as the follow-up single) live. The
programme is screened on May 20, 1978.
[This is not the performance included in the video compilation The Single
File. ]

March 25, 1978
     Kate starts a four-day promotional trip to Eire, appearing on the top
show in the Irish ratings, The Late Late Show.
     [The Kick Inside is released in the U.S.A., unchanged except for an
inappropriate U.S.- and Canada-only front-cover design, not authorized by
Kate. This is sometimes known as the "mirror" cover. To this day the cover
continues to be used by Harvest, EMI's distributor for Kate's recordings in
Canada, but it was discontinued in the U.S. in July 1978 when Kate's contract
was transferred to the newly launched EMI-America label.]
     The album's reception in the U.S. is somewhat quieter than in Europe and
England. [To put it mildly!] Capitol-EMI wait for FM
radio-play to determine a likely single.

April 4, 1978
     Wuthering Heights moves down to number 3. The Kick Inside reaches its
chart peak at number 3.
     Kate is off to Europe to promote single and album in the Netherlands,
West Germany (a second time) and France. In Amsterdam
Kate makes a 25-minute promotional film of six tracks [Peter inexplicably
writes "seven", though only six tracks were filmed] at Die Eftelung, a gothic
horror theme-park. Her visit is commemorated by a new gravestone. She performs
on the Voor De Vuist Weg television programme. In Germany Kate appears on the
television programmes Scene '78 and Top Pop, performing Wuthering Heights on
both shows. Other guests on the former programme include Dr. Feelgood and The
Boomtown Rats.
     During this month Kate also makes a brief trip to the United States for
promotional purposes, arriving back in the U.K. by April 21st.
     Tour plans are put back to the end of the year.

May, 1978
     Kate makes her first promotional trip to the U.S.A. and Canada
(although she gives no performances and makes no U.S. television
appearances), and then takes a short holiday. [This must be the same trip
which is mentioned immediately above, for April. The U.S.-made interview album
Self Portrait may have been cut during this trip.]
     Wuthering Heights goes gold in the U.K. (500,000 sales). Kate presents
the disk to Tony Myatt. For four years it hangs in the foyer of Capitol
Radio's London base.
     EMI allow Kate to have her way over the choice of the follow-up single in
the U.K. It is to be The Man With the Child in His Eyes, which Kate had always
wanted to be a single, as she felt it showcased her real songwriting talent.
It is less of a novelty, and more of a standard. Dave Gilmour (executive
producer on the track, which actually dates from the June, 1975 demo-sessions)
is also pleased. In Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere the follow-up later in the
year will be EMI's first choice, Them Heavy People.

May 28, 1978
     The second single is released in the U.K. Airplay and sales are very
good.

June, 1978
     Kate goes to Japan to participate in the 7th Tokyo Song Festival.  On
June 18 she performs Moving (which is the debut single in Japan) live before
an audience of 11,000 at the Nippon Budokan. The television audience is nearer
35 million. The single is boosted on its way to number 1 in the Japanese
chart. Kate wins the Silver Prize jointly with American group The Emotions
[!].
     During her visit, on June 23, Kate performs abridged versions of two
Beatles songs, The Long and Winding Road and She's Leaving Home, on the
Japanese television programme Sound in S, taped at Tokyo's TBS G Studio.
     Also during her visit to Japan Kate makes her only television
advertisement, and her only endorsement for a commercial product--a spot for
Seiko watches.
     On her return to Britain Kate has under four weeks to get material
together for her second album. She does not like being under such pressure. In
the time available, three new songs are written, and a number of old ones are
revamped. These songs, making up the basic material for Lionheart, are demoed
in a studio designed by Paddy Bush and built out of the royalties from
Wuthering Heights.  

July 1978
     Kate is the best selling female albums artist in the U.K. for the first
quarter of 1978. Wuthering Heights has been number 1 in the Netherlands,
Belgium, New Zealand (five weeks), and Australia; and "top-ten" in Germany,
France, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

July 4, 1978
     The Man With the Child in His Eyes reaches its chart peak in the U.K. at
number 6.
     The Kick Inside is re-released in the U.S.A. on a new label--EMI-America
[and with a different but equally inappropriate cover, now sometimes referred
to as the "country-western" or "Tammy Wynette" cover.] Wuthering Heights is
finally released as a single in the U.S. There are some good notices, but Kate
is considered by radio programmers to be "too bizarre" for the American
market.

July 7, 1978
     Kate travels to Superbear Studios in Nice, France to record her second
album. She had had good reports of this studio from Dave Gilmour, who recorded
his first solo album there. The recording is a much-needed break for Kate. In
the sunshine and the mountain air she recovers from almost six months of solid
promotion, and pursues her real vocation, making music.

August, 1978
     It takes ten weeks at Superbear to record twelve tracks, of which ten are
used for the new album. [These two unreleased tracks have never been
identified.] Kate has definite aims for this album. She sees her first album
as having affected the senses. Lionheart is to be aimed at the guts. In this
she comes into some conflict with Andrew Powell, who is again acting as
producer. She is allowed more of her own way in the studio, and after applying
some pressure, she is able to bring the KT Bush Band in to play on some of the
tracks. Kate is credited as assistant producer, but Lionheart is the end of
the road for the Bush-Powell partnership.

September 5, 1978
     Kate debuts one of the tracks from Lionheart on a U.K. children's
television programme, Ask Aspel. She later explains that she wanted to sing In
the Warm Room, but felt that it was too risque for a children's show. She
sings Kashka From Baghdad, a song about two gay lovers, instead.
     As the album takes longer than expected, Kate is recalled to London by
EMI to do some prior promotion. At her own request, Kate is interviewed by a
diverse collection of publications ranging from The Sun, to Vegetarian and
Vogue (the last featuring Kate in photographs by David Bailey).

October 11, 1978
     From completing the final mix of the album, Kate is straight on a plane
for Australia, where she is to preside with that month's teen pop sensation
Leif Garrett over the Tenth annual TV Week King of Pop Awards before a live
audience of 1,000 in a circus tent, and a television audience of two million
on the Nine Network.
     The next day Kate also performs live on the television programme
Countdown, debuting the routine for Hammer Horror, devised in her hotel room.
Hammer Horror is planned as the first single from the new album.

October 17, 1978
     Kate moves on to New Zealand, specifically Christchurch, for a television
special. There she again performs Hammer Horror.
     The live tour is put back to February 1979.

November, 1978
     Julie Covington, who has known Kate and her family for many years,
releases an album including her own cover version of The Kick Inside.
     Kate promotes Lionheart in the Netherlands, German and France [although I
have no record of any television appearances dating from the trip].

November 7, 1978
     Hammer Horror enters the British singles chart at the unexpectedly low
place of number 73. [Contrary to usual record-company theory, saturation of
the market place with new, rushed product nearly immediately after the success
of a debut album is more often than not a poor business move, and usually does
as much damage as good to the artist's budding popularity. The commercially
mediocre sales of Lionheart should not have surprised anyone.]
     Lionheart has its international launch at the 14th-century Ammersoyen
Castel, two hours' drive from Amsterdam. 120 guests, from EMI Europe, Canada
and the UK, and including disk jockeys Tony Myatt and Kenny Everett, as well
as Dr. and Mrs. Bush, attend the reception. After dinner, in the grounds of
the castle, Leo Bouderwijas, the President of the Association of Dutch
Phonographical Industries, presents Kate with the prestigious Edison Award for
the best single of 1978. Kate is also presented with a platinum disc for sales
of the album in Holland.

November 8, 1978
     Kate flies back to the U.K. for a private buffet at The Venue for the
presentation of the Melody Maker 1978 Poll Awards. In the first year of her
public career Kate has been voted Best Female Vocalist and Brightest Hope of
1978.

November 10, 1978
     The international release of Lionheart.

November 17, 1978
     Kate performs Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake on The Leo Sayer
Show, on BBC TV. She is off on a personal appearance tour of British record
shops.

November 21, 1978
     Hammer Horror reaches its chart peak, number 44. Lionheart enters the
album chart at number 36.

December, 1978
     Kate is off to promote in the U.S.A. for the release there of The Man
With the Child in His Eyes.  

December 9, 1978
     Most importantly, she performs two songs on the U.S. NBC-TV programme,
Saturday Night Live. [This is the only live entertainment programme on U.S.
television, and is the most influential programme for the pop music market, as
well the most important American showcase for "alternative" music. Kate
performs The Man With the Child in His Eyes, seated on a piano, to the
accompaniment of veteran rock keyboardist Paul Shaffer; and Them Heavy People,
in a raincoat and Fedora hat. Nothing remotely like it has ever been seen on
American television before.]
    She is invited by Eric Idle, who is host of that edition; and
she is visited by Mick Jagger. Paul Simon drops in to watch her performance.
     Kate does press and radio promotion and moves on to Canada for more of
the same. She is known to have made no other North American television
appearances during this trip, however.
     Back in England the Kate Bush Club, the official fan club, is formed.

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