Leotard Revealed

[James Hogan <James@absfabs.demon.co.uk>]

Peter Brewis, the writer of "England My Leotard" or "EML" :), contacted me and I 
lost no time in getting the essential information on the Kate credit mystery.
Here are his answers to my questions.

> - If you have the lyrics in computer format can you e-mail them to me ?

Done. I had them in my head.

(I have not received them yet but will post as soon as I get them).

> - Why does the Album cover entry say (Kate Bush)/ Kate Bush Music Ltd. 

You guessed right: there were copyright problems. When Kate Bush's 
publishers EMI got wind of the song being put out on an album I was 
summoned to a meeting with their lawyers who said I'd ripped off Them 
Heavy People. I said, 'The tune's different, the harmony's different, the 
bass line's different and the words are different. It's a different 
song'. They said, 'But your song wouldn't have been written if Them Heavy 
People hadn't existed'. Yep - true enough. 'And that makes it a breach of 
copyright', they said. So there you are: in this country you can't send 
up any song that's still in copyright. Not The Nine O'Clock News was 
extremely popular at the time, so the album stood to sell squillions. 
They agreed to let the song go on the album as long as they (and Kate 
Bush) got my share of the money. And they insisted on that wording: 'by 
Kate Bush. Lyrical pastiche by Peter Brewis'. Sounds really Edwardian 
doesn't it? Lyrical pastiche. 'And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, for your 
amusement I should like to perform a lyrical pastiche'.

> Was Kate involved in any way in the production ?  If not did you 
> discuss the item with Kate and what was her reaction etc.

No, she wasn't and we didn't. I heard, soon after the show was first 
broadcast, that she was a bit angry about it. Then a year or so later I 
asked a friend of mine who'd been working with her if she'd ever 
mentioned the song. 'Yeah - we were talking about it. She thought it was 
funny'.

> - What is the story behind the record.

You mean the song? Well, I wrote it, made a demo tape of me singing it to 
give to Pamela Stevenson for her to learn it, booked four or five 
musicians, a couple of backing singers and  a studio. The bass-player was 
having an off-day and I got a bit impatient, but we got the backing track 
recorded in a couple of hours. The musicians went home. Pamela Stevenson 
arrived and listened to the backing track a couple of times before we 
started recording it. On the first take she sang the first line, 'I was 
into yin and yang and hatha yoga' and said, 'can I hear that back?' I 
said, 'You've only done one line!'

So bit by little tiny bit we got it recorded. She said she thought the 
line 'my carrot quiches were better than the bought ones' would be better 
if it was 'cauliflower quiches'. Never defensive about my finely-honed, 
expertly-crafted lyrics I agreed to change it. (Well - I argued with her 
for half an hour about it THEN I agreed). For the rest of the session, 
whenever we got to that line, the engineer and I would sing, 'My 
cauliflower quiches were better than the carrot ones'.
 
James