Hannah Quotes #2

[rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)]

        Due to an error on my part, and to the index to Cloudbusting not 
*QUITE* being finished, I neglected a few quotes.  Thanks to Vickie for 
pointing this out.   



        When I was little my mother fainted for no apparent reason.  My 
father was there and put her on the bed, but he couldn't feel any pulse so 
he started doing artificial respiration and so on to try to revive her.  
Meanwhile, according to my mum, she'd taken off like a balloon and hit the 
ceiling.  She was looking down from there at my father pushing her body 
about and she was calling out "Leave me alone, I'm all right!"
        Then I walked in asking "Where's my mum?" and when she saw me she 
dropped down into her body, she says, anyway she did come back to life.   
(????,SH)

        AND DID THIS BEGIN TO ASSUME ALMOST PATHOLOGICAL PROPORTIONS AND 
START ALARMING THE FAMILY?
        PADDY: Absolutely!
        KATE: Pathological!
        PADDY: Yeah!  But no!  Because of the heavy Irish tradition in the 
family, I think it was escapism on her part.  Our mother is Irish and I 
think Kate maybe felt, you know, that there was a slight obligation to 
appease the Irish spirit.  And somewhere out of my mother's imagination came 
the idea that Kate should learn the violin.  It seems to be a tradition that 
the violin is _forced_ upon people.  I mean, there are few who take it up of 
their own volition!  And Kate was certainly one of those who only took it up 
under pressure, she didn't really like it very much.  So the piano was a 
kind of way of exploring music in dimensions diametrically opposite to what 
the violin must have _represented_ to her.  Escapism, pure escapism!  You 
know, the command would be, "go and practise on that violin, Kate," but the 
piano music came out instead!  I think perhaps we Bushes are a bit like 
that... So yes, her piano playing was in the first place a direct reaction 
to straight music as we knew it, or as _she_ knew it, at the time.  The sort 
of style which she evolved in her piano playing and singing were direct 
opposites of all the kinds of straight music which she was being fed right 
then.  Pure escapism, and very beautiful!   (1985, Musician)

        I stay round my parents for a few hours - after all, you can't just 
go round, take all the clothes you want and rush off - drink lots of tea and 
eat chocolate eclairs and sandwiches, the sort of things that mothers like 
to fill you up with.  I feel absolutely delightful after that, and I go back 
to start work on my routines for Tuesday.  (1980, Flexipop Diary)

        The video of "_Suspended_in_Gaffa_" was to be done as simply and 
quickly as possible; as always with very little time to complete it in, the 
simpler the better.
        I saw it as being the return to simplicity, a light-hearted
dance routine, no extras, no complicated special effects.  [IN FACT, 
HOWEVER, THERE ARE MANY VERY SOPHISTICATED AND SUBTLE TECHNICAL EFFECTS IN 
THIS VIDEO, AND THE PRODUCTION DESIGN IS VERY IMPRESSIVE.]  As we were all 
so pleased with the previous sets - put together under the supervision of a 
very clever man, Steve Hopkins - we asked him to build another, this time an 
old barn with large gaps in the walls where we could allow the light to 
streak through.  We used a combination of natural and artificial light, and 
everyone was thrilled with the sense of realism that the set achieved.  
Steve brought in huge branches of trees that were behind the gaps in the 
set, and a dedicated helper called "Podge" sat up on a piece of scaffolding 
for six hours and enthusiastically shook a piece of tree to make the light 
move and dance as if motivated by a furtive wind.  The video did remain 
uncomplicated - just a few effects and just one extra: but a very special 
one.  There is one section where a child's voice says, "Mother, where are 
the angels?  I'm scared of the changes."  And there was only one person that 
could be addressed to - my mother.
        When I asked her to appear in the section, contrary to my
concern about her nerves, she was more than obliging and said, "Yes."  She 
was definitely the star of the day, and waited patiently hour after hour as 
we slowly moved through the bulk of the shooting to eventually reach her 
debut.  I was amazed at her grace and stamina: as all of us began to wane 
and wilt, my mother continued to blossom and glow, and her only worries were 
getting back home in time to get dinner and hoping she would not succumb to 
an attack of giggles during the vital moments of being on screen.
        She needn't have worried, for she is a natural professional,
a real star and my favourite mum.  (You can see us together in action on the 
back page.)  (1983, KBC 13)


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