*** The Things Kate doesn't tell Mother, 1980 ***

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

m8011;3

The Things Kate doesn't tell mother

by James Johnson

Evening Standard 
Friday, Sept. 5 1980

        KATE BUSH would be less than human if she did not sometimes 
marvel at the attention she has received over the last three years.
        She says: "Sometimes I see myself in the paper and it's hard to 
associate with the name Kate Bush.  She is this well-known person who has 
almost become like a brand name like Maxwell House coffee or something.  
Meanwhile, I'm just working on my music and my life."
        Somehow she remains an awkward personality to categorize.  One 
newspaper has described her as Britain's top pop sexpot while a new, 
unauthorized biography about her life opted for the title Suburban 
Princess.
        Even now she comes over in person as part pop star and part 
ordinary girl from East Welling in Kent, firmly in the south London 
commuter belt, while her conversation ranges between traditional pop 
world cliches to perceptive comment.
        Her guilelessness and insistence on being eager to please almost 
offers a challenge to find some kind of hidden dark secret to her life.  
However, nothing rarely emerges.
        "I often think people are looking for something in my life that 
they can't find," she comments.  "A number of performers, I suppose, come 
from working-class families or their parents were divorced, perhaps that 
gives them the urge to go out and struggle for something.
        "But basically I have always had a normal, very happy life with 
my family.  I never went out and beat up old ladies or became an alcholic 
at school.
        "I think the public have become conditioned to want to know who 
is sleeping with who, or how many marriages somebody has had, but as far 
as I'm concerned it's totally irrelevant.  I'm really very normal and 
there is nothing sensational to uncover.  I wouldn't talk about some 
private things to my mother so why should I to anybody else."
        Nevertheless one still feels impelled to broach the subject of 
sex, especially as many of her songs seem to incorporate underlying 
sexual themes.
        According to Kate: "I think music and love are very similar.  
They're both natural energies, they have the same kind of all-embracing 
freedom, the elation.
        "The communication of music if very like making love.  If you 
play a piano, for example, you're so united it's really a beautiful 
thing."
        Now 22-years-old, the singer has accomplished almost everything 
the pop world has to offer except in the U.S.A. as yet.  She has 
performed at the Palladium, made frequent appearances in the charts, and 
been given almost every major award available.

POWER PLAY

        A new album due out next week has been held back for three months 
by EMI since they regard it with such importance that they did not want 
it's appearance to clash with other major releases this year by Paul 
McCartney and the Rolling Stones.
        When we arranged to meet this week one could feel the power-play 
of the record business grinding into action as a car whisked one off to 
her hotel to meet the singer on her return from a television appearance 
in Germany.
        While she remarks that she has felt more grown up of late, she 
has always appeared untouched by the pressures and difficulties that can 
accompany fame and fortune.
        "I can see why people do have nervous breakdowns and so on, but 
it all depends on the person rather than what you happen to be doing.
        "Sometimes I have felt that I'm losing control and that it's all 
running away with me, but all I have to do then is say to myself 'well 
leave then, give it up' and I know I never would because my life is 
really music and I love it so much.
        "I would like to survive like people like Cliff Richard or Paul 
McCartney.  If you look at them they're so strong and solid and happy, 
they'll be able to go on for as long again as they have already.  They're 
happy because they're doing exactly what they want."
        One particular buffer against the outside world would seem to be 
the Bush family.  Her father, a former family doctor, and her three 
[three?] brothers are involved in different levels of her career.

FAMILY AFFAIR

        One brother, Paddy, plays an assortment of instruments on her new 
album, while Novercia Ltd., the company that has been formed to look 
after her interests, has no fewer then five Bush family members as 
directors.
        "I'm lucky to have a family I love who can give me advice when I 
need it.  I like to think of myself as director of the force, but I'm not 
a business woman, for example, and when it comes to legal jargon I need 
some help. 
        "They're obviously people I trust and not just motivated by 
money, because if they wanted some, I'd give it to them anyway.
        "Right at the beginning they weren't that involved, though they 
were always interested.  It's just been something that's evolved as there 
has become a need for it.
        "My parents weren't keen on me giving up school at the beginning 
to go into singing and dancing, but once they saw I was serious about it 
they gave support.
        "I was quite stubborn about my decision and in the end they 
realised it was for the best."


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