*** The Sun 1978 ***

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

SWEET KATE! 
The very private life of the Top Twenty mystery girl

By Nina Myskow - The Sun's Queen of Pop

The Sun - Sept 22, 1978


        KATE BUSH is the mystery girl of the pop world.  Ever since her 
weird and wonderful single, Wuthering Heights soared its way to the top 
of the charts, fans have found her fascinating.
        She sings in a strange, swooping way.  ANd when she first 
appeared on Top Of The Pops, the effect was electrifying.
        Moving like a beautiful, willowy gipsy, she seemed strangely 
unusual.  But is she? 
        I found her normal, friendly, sweet.  And just plain nice. 
        Pop singers are not noted for their punctuality, but she arrived 
at the photographer's studio where we met, exactly on time. 
        A tiny, slender girl, very polite. 
        Was she aware that people thought she might be a bit strange?
        She said: "I didn't even think that my voice was unusual until 
people started mentioning it.
        "Perhaps because I'm a songwriter they think I'm a bit different, 
that there might be something unexplored about me."
        Songwriting is her main passion.  She started writing early in 
her teens and Wuthering Heights was written when she was just 16. 

Fans

        She Said: "I saw the end of the serial on television.
        "I hadn't read the book, but that inspired me to read it, and 
that, in turn, inspired the song." 
        Now 19, Kate has had two hit singles - the other was [The] Man 
With The Child In His Eyes - and a good album, The Kick Inside, which 
comprised 13 or her own compositions. 
        Her follow-up album is due at the end of October.
        She appeals to an amazingly wide-ranging audience.  From older 
pop fans to children. 
        "I always hoped that I'd reach as many people as possible," she 
said.  "It's lovely to get fan letters, particularly from the kids.
        "I got a lovely fan letter recently from two little boys written 
in big loopy handwriting, including photos of themselves which I've 
pinned up in my flat." 
        Kate remembers her own days as a fan.
        "When I was younger I had a really big thing about Elton John," 
she said, "I was really crazy about him, his music, everything he did.

Thrill

        "I knew classical pianists from records, but he was the first 
great popular piano player I heard.
        "I used to sit and listen to his records for hours.  I wanted to 
be able to play like him, so I used to practice harder."
        Kate even sent Elton a fan letter.
        "I wrote saying how much I like him," she said.  "I quoted some 
of Bernie Tauplin's lyrics and told him how I played his music when I was 
low, and how much better I'd feel.
        "I took it round to the BBC.  I didn't know where else to send 
it.  I don't suppose he ever got it.
        "I've never met him, I'd love to, of course, but it wouldn't be 
same.  It would still be a thrill, though."
        Kate's other musical influences come from her family.
        "I have my mother to thank for that.  She's Irish, and all her 
family are musical, and could get up and just dance and sing."

Friends

        It was Kate's parents who encourage her to do something with her 
songs when she was 15.
        "I never though I'd get anywhere or be successful," she said.
        "Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, a friend of a friend of her two 
brothers, provided the link with the record company who signed her up a 
year later.
        Her younger brother, Paddy, 25, is a member of Kate's backing 
band.
        Kate has lived on her own in a flat in London for three years.
        "I love being on my own with just two cats," she said.  "It's 
really good for me.
        "I decided to leave home because I couldn't stand the traveling 
from Kent where we lived to my dance classes in London."
        Kate works out her dance routines for her songs in her flat.
        "I learned a lot from Lindsay Kemp's mime classes.
        "I just put the tape on and work out what it should be," she 
said.
        "I don't use a mirror.  I haven't got a big one in the flat, only 
my dressing-table mirror.
        "It gets so depressing looking at yourself if it's not right."
        What she sees in her mirror must be far from depressing.
        She has a heart-catching face with luminous skin and a perfect 
shape. 
        She looked stunning in the outfit we had chosen for her to wear.
        Kate also looked fantastic in her own clothes - simple cord jeans 
and a satin waistcoat. 
        When she has time off, Kate likes to spend it just pottering 
about her flat and seeing friends.
        "I've got quite a few friends I've known for years," she said.  
"One special friend, Lisa, I've know since I was nine.  She's a 
telephonist"
        Kate seems unaware of the devastating effect she has on her male 
fans.
        She said: "I didn't realise that they fancy me the way you say."

Happy

        "I don't meet many men on a chat-up level."
        Kate is very happy, though, about her love life.  There is a new 
man around. 
        "We've been going out for a couple of weeks," she said.  "He's a 
friend of my brothers.  He's not in the music business, but he's great." 
        I though she was very nice, too. 



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rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA