No Subject

        [Transcribed by Ron Hill.  Thanks to Tracy Robin for the 
interview]

        How Kate Bush outgrew being seen as "this strange creature" 
being manipulated by this huge record company' and began to gain a 
little respect as a singer/writer/producer.  Words and pix:  Ralph 
Denyer.

        
        While I listened to and understandably much guarded advance 
cassette copy of Kate Bush's third and new Never Forever album she was 
completing her other interview in another room close by.  That over, 
she came into the room I was in to use a phone and we introduced 
ourselves to each other.  She quite small and somewhere in between 
pretty and beautiful.  Her manner is very friendly with none of the 
tough facade that most successful music business people develop through 
time.  Loads of smiles and an offer to help me to the next room with my 
cases of equipment follow.  On the way through she laughs when I tell 
her it's nice to have a roadie for a change.
        She had just completed her new album.  She has taken car of all 
the piano playing on the record, as usual, as well as playing a bit of 
synth.  One big change on her new album is that the orchestral 
backdrops have gone.  Replacing them are some of the best specialist 
keyboard players around.  Mr. Funk, Max Middleton, plays Fender Rhodes, 
Larry Fast defies gravity.  Andy Mackay, Richard Burgess, and John 
Walters make use of Landscape's Fairlight CMI system to provide what 
Kate describes as 'Musical animation'.
        At 21 she has just reached the point where she has complete 
control over her own music.  She has achieved this by taking over the 
artistic side of her record production, choosing to work closely with 
John Kelly. He engineered Kate's previous two album, The Kick Inside 
and Lionheart.  For the new album he continued in that role but also 
took car of the technical aspects of recording which would normally be 
the producer's province.  But more of that later. 
        I asked about the day-to-day decision making and what role her 
family play.  "I've got two brothers (Andrew alias Paddy and John alias 
J) and they're both very important.  My family are very close and I 
think there are very few family establishments left, generally 
speaking, that are close.  It's become very much an individual society. 
 We all love each other very much, we all love much and we've all grown 
up together.  Even my parents, they grow up all the time too.  When 
things started happening for me in so many ways, they were happening to 
the family as well because we are so close.  As things were going, the 
most important thing seemed to be that I had control.  Because one of 
the worst things that can happen to one's product - that terrible word 
- is that you become manipulated, as I've seen written about me in so 
many papers.  They think you're a little doll who's being manipulated.
        "The public, not because of being ignorant but because of 
propaganda, have such strange ideas about what happens in various 
businesses.  The only one that I get to see and be amazed by is this 
particular business because I am in it.  The things that some people 
think you can do are wonderful, they really have no idea."
        The Bush family are all musical and Kate's mother has been a 
dancer.  Their keen interest in - if not addition to - traditional 
Irish music and dance meant that Kate was exposed to music from quite 
an early age and was soon hooked herself.  While still at school she 
had violin lessons and then moved on to piano.  When her career started 
to take off, not surprisingly the whole family took an interest.  
Professional help was enlisted in the form of an accountant and a 
solicitor.  At the appropriate moment a company was set up.  "Really 
though [though?] all the things that keep happening, different roles 
keep coming up.  My brother J has now taken over a great deal of the 
business operation."
        They have now set up a fan club near Kate's parent's home in 
Ken.  Many would consider this to be a relatively unimportant facet, 
but Kate has positive ideas on how the club should be run and does not 
intend to allow it to become the usual catastrophic mess such 
organizations usually degenerate into.  "Yes, well that is what we 
didn't want.  One of my best friends is taking care of that.  I think 
that it is only right that you should try and get control over as many 
areas and make sure that people get something nice and making sure they 
get something which is accurate.  The further you get away from the 
public the more misinterpreted... the more wrong information becomes.
        "We decided that I didn't need a manager because the main 
reasons for having a manager are for him to give musical direction, 
ways in, you know, all the things that an unbroken act needs.  But in 
my situation I'd already had "Wuthering Heights" without a manager, 
we'd already released the album (The Kick Inside) without a manager.  
And although everyone kept telling us that I needed one, we couldn't 
see it at all!"
        "I thought: Good, because I want to make my own decisions and 
it's my life.  It can be very dangerous when you are not in a position 
to make your own decisions and therefore you can be doing things that 
you never intended.  Practically selling your soul, which should never 
happen.  So we went along those lines and it has been taking all this 
time to build things up into an organization of our own and it will 
continue to build, companies are always growing and organising 
themselves."
        "And I think we've done remarkably well.  Hilary Walker is my 
PA and apart from the solicitors and accountants it's just me and my 
family.  So all the information that comes in is passed on.  The stuff 
that they know I won't want to do they say no to.  Stuff that I see I 
say yes or no to.  And it's really wonderful to have that sort of 
control and not have people doing things behind your back, which 
inevitably happens with managers.  They establish contact here and 
there for their own good and not necessarily for the artists.  I'm not 
slagging of all managers because there are some good exceptions, and 
there are some very, very, good ones.  But you know the sort of thing 
I'm talking about, it's just wicked, the things they do to young 
bands."
        There is a surprising amount of variation between the different 
media accounts of Kate's beginnings in the 'biz' so I shall endeavor to 
set the record straight.  First attempts to get a reaction from record 
companies were made by a friend of Kate's armed with n early demo of 
some of her songs.  He met a blanket of rejection until 1975 when he 
played the tapes to an old friend from Cambridge by the name of Dave 
Gilmour.  The Floydian guitarist reinforced his reputation for giving 
help to new acts by advising Kate to cut finished masters of her best 
three songs for presentation to companies.  The tapes are often 
referred to as "demos" but after exhaustive research (I read the sleeve 
notes on The Kick Inside) I can reveal that he Gilmour financed 
recordings provided two of the tracks which were to appear on Kate's 
first album some two years later.  They were "The Man With The Child In 
His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song".  I asked Kate about all this as the 
album has a continuity that makes the two-year "gap" surprising.
        "Yes, they do fit very well on that album, don't they?  Maybe 
there's a few reasons for that.  But the thing that I notice is the 
difference in my voice, that's the only thing that gives it away for 
me.  They probably fit well because Andrew (Powell) was the arranger on 
all the tracks.  I wonder how many people would notice that because 
no-one comment on hearing any difference, you're the first person to 
mention that.  No-one's commented on that before so it's very 
interesting."
        When Gilmour took Kate into Air Studios to record "The Man With 
The Child In His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song" she was 16.  When 
Gilmour played the tapes to an EMI executive they wanted Kate.  EMI 
treated her well from the word go, though the media (true to form) 
stereotyped the situation with a standard: Big company manipulates and 
exploits the young innocent etc, etc. 
        The company did not rush Kate into completing an album although 
she has some 100 songs already written.  Instead they advised her to 
get a lawyer, an accountant, and advanced her L3,000.  Around that time 
an aunt of Kate's died and left her some money.  Finding herself able 
to forget about immediate monetary problems she went about developing 
various aspects of her abilities.  Lindsay Kemp had an ad in Time Out 
offering his services as a teacher of mime and dance.  Kate responded 
and she was soon receiving group instruction for 50p a day from the 
magister artis.  She was fascinated by singing in a high register and 
worked on singer higher and higher notes.  She wrote more songs.
        It was two years exactly before she returned to Air Studios to 
record the rest of the material for her debut album The Kick Inside.  
Virtually the last song she wrote for the album was "Wuthering Heights" 
- "The Man With The Child In His Eyes", for example, had been written 
some five years earlier.  Apart from the general supportive role her 
family plays, they make individual specific contributions to her music 
and business affairs.  As well as taking care of business, J also 
photographs Kate.  His shots can be seen on the "Babooshka" sleeve as 
well as on the back of her new album.  Paddy has played mandolin, 
guitar, mandocello, panpipes, and sung back-up on her albums.  Kate 
says that her father remains a doctor first and foremost but ... "mulls 
over anything with negative and legal aspects."
        She undoubtedly is a very together person.  My impression is 
that she does use her family as a sounding board and frequently takes 
their advice.  On the other hand I think she frequently listens 
carefully to their advice before she goes on to do exactly what her 
instincts had told her in the first place!  There again, she does not 
display any of the signs of an ego which forces her to do thing her way 
for the sake of it.  Her satisfaction  comes from being good at what 
she does.  Obviously the fact that she produced her new album - albeit 
with the technicalities handled by John Kelly - is the major point of 
interest.  Before talking her  about that I asked about her 
relationship with Andrew Powell who produced her first two albums. 
        "Dave knew Andrew.  I don't know how, and he thought Andrew was 
a very competent arranger and would be quite capable of taking care of 
the production side.  So we went into Air Studios, I was about 15 or 16 
at the time."
        Was she terrified? "Yes, I was very nervous it's a big studio.  
Andrew was fantastic.  He was completely in control of it.  I was just 
a schoolgirl doing my exams at the time and reeled at the prospect of 
someone just working on my songs.  The musicians did their own thing 
and Andrew wrote some beautiful strings.  We managed to get it to EMI 
and they leapt at it.  Then there was the situation obviously where I 
was only 16, totally naive to the business and everything and EMI were 
wondering what to do with me.
        "They could either send me out into the world with the songs I 
had - a 16-year old - or hang on.  I was more then happy to hang on 
because I didn't feel that I was ready.  Although I was waiting to make 
an album for at any minute, after about six months I realised that it 
was a long-term project so I stated getting on with my own things.  I 
decided to leave school and go fully into the business.  Then I got a 
little group and we played around in pubs.  After that came the album.  
And Andrew, of course, because he had done so well on the earlier 
tracks, was the first guy we thought of. 
        "As soon as I started the first album, already three years had 
passed from the demos (sic) to the album and I obviously gathered a lot 
more self confidence.  I was beginning to understand what I wanted in 
my music.  The songs were obviously maturing and I was getting around 
and understanding the business more.  Andrew did a fabulous job on the 
album, he really did.  Even at that stage I could feel that there were 
areas where he was taking the music that perhaps if I had been in 
control, I wouldn't.  That's understandable.  He was the producer and 
therefore - he was very good and always listened to what I wanted - he 
would obviously plant his feelings there.

        [PART II Tommorrow]

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