Toronto Star interview; MuchMusic special

[aj796@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Tippi Chai)]

First, for those who have missed it, the MuchMusic Kate Special wasn't
special.  Only about 10 min. of *NEW* interview were shown.  Major
rehashing of old footage.  But an interesting segment was Del being
interviewed.  Clean shaven and with short hair, he looks like a different
person from the photo I have of him taken by Ron Hill at the last KonvenTion.

Last I talked to EMI Canada they still claim that the new KaTe video will
be on sale on Feb. 15. (What's the name of the person who handles KaTe's
marketing in EMI Canada again? I only talked to the general info people.)

Here's the Toronto Star interview, Dec 14, 1993.
*************************************************
SINGER'S SINGER KATE BUSH MAKES A RARE APPEARANCE 
by Peter Howell, Pop Critic
 
Call Kate Bush a recluse, and she's got two words for you:
"ethereal" and "nutty".
 
They're the two other words of the three most often used to
describe the winsome English pop archetype, and Bush rhymed them
off herself yesterday while making an exceedingly rare visit to
Toronto.
 
Oh, the 35-year-old singer-songwriter understands why people have
these "very natural presumptions" about her, since she appears in
public about as often as Halley's Comet and weaves a tight sonic
tapestry with her music, using literary strands of Tennyson,
Bronte, Joyce and the Bible. 
 
"It's not important to me that people understand me", says the
very English, very charming Bush, in town to talk about both a
new album, _The Red Shoes_, and a new short film, _The Line, The
Cross And The Curve_. 
 
"It's my work that goes out, and I feel that's what speaks for
me.  In a lot of ways, I'm very happy for the work to do all the
talking, because I feel if I didn't make music, people wouldn't
be interested in me, anyways.  It's the music that says it; it
says it eloquently enough "
 
It speaks loudly.  Ask almost any current female singer-songwriter 
where she got her musical inspiration, and the name Kate Bush is
mentioned almost as often as that of Joni Mitchell.  Canadians
have been particularly smitten: Jane Siberry, Sarah McLachlan,
Rebecca Jenkins, Loreena McKennitt, Shirley Eckhard and more --
all have fallen under the spell of this four-octave dream weaver,
who was still a schoolgirl when she conquered Europe's pop charts
in 1978 with her debut single, _Wuthering Heights_.
 
"Oh, I feel honoured," Bush says, politely side stepping the
comparisons.  "How lovely to be compared up there to Joni
Mitchell."
 
She is equally polite and off-handed in explaining why she hasn't
toured since 1979, despite the fact that her sold-out series of
shows that year--the only time she toured--proved her continuing
skills at combining song, dance and theatre.
 
Advance word had it _The Red Shoes_ would see Bush finally
treading the boards again, with a basket of pop, rock and funk-
charged tunes especially written for live performance, with
guitar assists from big names like Prince, Eric Clapton and Jeff
Beck.
 
Bush allows she gave the idea serious consideration, but decided 
instead to put all of her carefully marshalled energies into
making _The Line, The Cross And The Curve_, a film built around
six new songs that she premiered last night to an invitation-only 
audience at the Royal Ontario Museum.
 
"I'd love to do some shows, but the whole thing of touring is
very daunting to me now," Bush says, pleading exhaustion from
nearly three years' work in her home studio on _The Red Shoes_, a
period that also saw her part with her long time partner, Del
Palmer, and mourn the death of her mother, Hannah.
 
"I like travelling, but I don't like doing a lot of travelling in
a short space.  To do some shows would be great; I think it would
be really good for me.  There's nothing planned ... The only
plans I have right now are just to take a break ...."
 
Bush expects her listeners to connect with her on an intuitive
level more than a verbal one.  She's pleased that one of her most
arresting new songs, "The Song Of Solomon", has a sexually 
strident chorus that most women apparently understand, but many
men don't: "Don't want your bulls-t, [sic] yeah / Just want your
sexuality," it begins.
 
"I've noticed a lot of men ask me what it's about," Bush says,
smiling.  "And so far, I haven't had one woman ask me.  I think
that's quite interesting in itself.  I think in some ways it's 
kind of a 'girl talk' thing."
 
Maybe more than girl talk, considering her legions of mostly
female fans give a new Kate Bush album the scrutiny afforded
Moses's delivery of the Ten Commandments.  Bush Is intensely
admired, and she knows it.
 
"I suppose I feel there's a responsibility to myself, which is to
try to do the best I can musically, and to just try to respect
the position I'm in, which I feel is very privileged, because I'm
doing what I want," she says.
 
"Not only am I able to make a living from it, but people
sometimes give me the most extraordinary feedback, which is very
moving." 

-- 
Tippi Chai, Toronto, ON, Canada             aj796@freenet.carleton.ca
"It's really happenin' to ya!" Kate Bush    "My past is warpaint" Happy Rhodes