**** Return of the Vanishing Lady 1985 ****

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

Return of the vanishing lady

Kate Bush dances back and tells of her two years in self-exile
by Clive Goodman

Daily Mail
August 6, 1985

        At her peak, she had four successful albums in the charts, a 
series of hit singles, and was hailed as the country's brightest, 
freshest new star. 
        Her dramatic, ethereal voice and erotic, theatrical dance 
routines had pop pundits predicting a long career at the top.
        Instead, quite suddenly two years ago, she simply disappeared. 
        There were stories about drugs and a retreat on a Caribean 
island.
        The truth is that Kate Bush, the shy elfin-faced Kent doctor's 
daughter who took the charts by storm with Wuthering Heights, was simply 
tired of the showbiz circus that surrounded her. 
        It took her six months to get her feet back on the ground and 
relax.  It took her another 18 months in a private recording studio near 
the house she shares with long-time boyfriend Del Palmer, to produce a 
new album.
        Now, with the single released yesterday and the L.P. and video 
out later, Kate Bush feels ready to face the world again.  On the 
Berkshire set where the video was filmed, she explained why she had 
locked herself away.
        "I finished my last album, did the promotion, then found myself 
in a kind of limbo," she said.  "It took me four or five months to be 
able even to write again.
        "It's very difficult when you've been working for years, doing 
one album after another.  You need fresh things to stimulate you.
        "That's why I decided to take a bit of the summer out and spend 
time with my boyfriend and with my family and friends, just relaxing.  
Not being Kate Bush the singer, just being myself.
        "It was an incredible period of isolation.  When I restarted work 
on the album, I found times when I didn't even know what was in the 
charts!

SURPRISE

        "You get up, go to the studio, work there all day, then come home 
and go to bed.  There's just no time to take anything in."
        There is little doubt the stories that circulated about Kate 
while she was away, hit home.  Despite being signed by EMI as a 
fresh-faced 16-year old and writing for three years before becoming a 
performer, the music business still took her by surprise.
        "The pop scene is incredibly bitchy," she says.  "Reading stories 
like that can make you feel very vulnerable.
        "I'm a private person and when I'm working in the studio I live 
an isolated lifestyle, and not treated like someone famous.
        "When I come out of that into the real world and people start 
treating me like a star, I feel very strange."
        Her family and her relationship with Palmer helped anchor her 
against the ups and downs of her career.  "We're a very close family and 
all enjoy being involved in a project together.  That keeps me 
level-headed."
        For her latest album, Kate promises something different.  "It 
took me a long time to write the songs because I wanted one side to be a 
concept, and that took a lot of work."
        For the video, Kate worked with director David Garfath on the 
complicated dance routines.
        "I do like to be very involved.  That's definitely part of my 
nature.  I think that if you have strong idea about things you have to 
carry them through."

        

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