PHOENIX - The Kate Bush Demos, Part 1: History

[Wieland Willker <willker@chemie.uni-bremen.de>]

              P H O E N I X 

The Kate Bush Demos, Part 1: History

- My Magical Mystery Demo Tour - 

Hello friends, 
what follows is my first attempt to write some kind of Kate-Bush-DEMOS-FAQ,
to shed some light on the mystery of the 'early demos' aera. It is very
interesting but also sad to see, how little concrete we know and can know
about this period, only 20-25 years ago. It's almost as unsure as the
history of the New Testament, which is 2000 years ago. 

I think PHOENIX is an appropriate title for this text. I will try to keep it
up-to-date. Everything is (together with the latest Demo-Lyrics update)
available from me on request in the future. 

Everybody who can contribute: Speak up NOW, before everything will be 
forgotten for ever. PDFM? Do you think, Kate will tell us something, when you 
publish a revised version of this in HG? 

Some questions: 

- What happened exactly in the period, I described below as the 'second 
recording' (Gilmour piano session)?

- From which session comes the tape XX XX illegally presented to the public 
   in 1982? 

- Did all the 23 demos we know today, come from one and the same tape? 
  I assume Organic Acid comes from another source!

- Where did the 'Early Years' demos come from? The PTA-session? How did 
   this tape find its way to Germany?

- Where did the Kick Inside demos come from? 


     - Submission for approval!!!!

Note: I anonymised the name of the evil DJ (XX XX), though everybody, who is
a little bit 
familiar with the story knows it anyway. 



                    P H O E N I X

     T H E   K A T E   B U S H   D E M O S

            T  H E   H I S T O R Y

Sources: IED, Ron Hill, PDFM, LH-archive, Amazing Pudding Special. 


THE BEGINNING:

At about 1969, 11 year old Kate begins to play on the piano and starts writing 
poems. By 1971 she starts writing ballads and slow songs such as TMWTCIHE or 
Saxophone Song. 

Kate: 
"I just started poking around at the piano and started making up little songs." 
"I found it very frustrating being treated like a child when I wasn't
thinking like 
a child. From the age of ten I felt old. I became very shy at school...". 
"When I was 14, I started taking it seriously, and began to treat the words
to the 
songs as poetry." 


THE FIRST RECORDINGS:

In 1972 Kate recorded several tapes of songs (more than 30 songs per tape, some 
sources say 60 altogether, Kate once said "...I had, say like 50 songs...".
Some said up to 200 songs). 20-30 of these songs were presented via JCB's
friend Ricky Hopper, 
first without success to record companies, then to Gilmour. Gilmour noticed her 
talent, but also the bad tape recorder quality (this is from a Gilmour "Q"
interview 
around Sept '90, I don't have this!). 

*********************************
IED!  Pleeeeaase, transcribe this invaluable interview for us!! Pleeease!
You must 
have it somewhere! 
*********************************



THE SECOND RECORDING: ('GILMOUR PIANO SESSION')

This session took place at Kate's house with Gilmour. Only Kate and piano, with 
a better recorder. There are at least two Gilmour-interview confirmations
about this 
session (Q and CHEZ canadian radio). I think this is the session, Kate had
in mind, 
when she said: "Absolutely terrified and trembling like a leaf, I sat down
and played 
for him." 
But Gilmour also once said re this [?] session: (IED stating from the
Q-interview:) 
"He paid to have Kate go into a studio and re-record some fifty songs over
again. 
(again, apparently, solo with her own piano accompaniment-- not, it seems, with 
Gilmour and his musician friends at Gilmour's house)." (1990) 
Gilmour in a canadian radio interiew: "I did some recording at her house, her 
parent's house, and then I had her up to my studio and recorded some things." 
(1983) 

This is a bit confusing. It seems to be sure, that Gilmour visited Kate at
her home 
and listened to her songs. I also think, they recorded something. Did
Gilmour visited 
Kate more than once? Did he brought a recorder at the first meeting? What is
this 
about the piano studio session? It seems unlikely IMHO, to insert yet
another session 
here. Nothing is well confirmed so far. 

********************
IED, please transcribe the Q-interview! Has anybody else any other quotes? 
********************

So far, we have no indication to which of these two early sessions our 23 demo 
songs belong. IED once said, they belong to the second, because of the good
quality, 
but this is not sure, because we don't know, if this second recording made
it to EMI. 



THE THIRD RECORDING: ('Passing Through Air', PTA-SESSION) 

In August 1973 at Gilmour's farm with two "Unicorn" band members: drummer 
Peter Perrier and bassist Pat Martin, and Gilmour electric guitar. According to 
Gilmour (Q) ca. 10-20 songs have been recorded. This tape definitely made it
to EMI. 
Besides PTA also the first version of "Maybe" has been recorded. 
(this version was presented by Kate in part on Personal Call, 1979: 
[A portion "Maybe" is played] 
Ed: Kate had a very wistful look on her face. Why was that? 
K: I was waiting for the flat note in the middle. [Laughs] 
Ed: Ah, you mean we faded it just in time! 
K: No, you caught it actually, I'm sure... )

Kate 1978 re Maybe: "pretty awful." 
1990, Bush Con: "It had a couple of titles..."Maybe". ...there was an -
"Humming", 
it was called as well.") 

PTA later appeared as a B-side of Army Dreamers. 
Kate: "This was the first time I'd ever done an overdub with the keyboard..." 

It seems that ten recordings of this session are on the mysterious 'Early
Years' 
LP. It is not clear, if the titles are given by Kate. Maybe they are only
guesses from 
the bootleggers (e.g. Need Your Loving = PTA)

Early Years collection [HG xx?]: 

1. Something Like a Song. 
2. Need Your Loving. [=Passing Through Air]
3. Davy (or Davey). 
    [= Maybe, Humming?, not While Davy Dozed?]
4. You Were the Star. 
5. Gay Farewell. 
6. Cussi Cussi. 
7. Atlantis.   [maybe Organic Acid?] 
8. Sunsi. 
9. Disbelieving Angel. 
10. Go Now While You Can. 

-----------
From: Scott Telford <s.telford@ed.ac.uk> 
Date: Mon, 4 May 1992 07:44:40 -0700 
Subject: The Early Years - the mystery deepens.... 
In the May Record Collector, there's a review of Robert Godwin's "Illustrated 
Collectors Guide". The reviewer (the editor, David somebody) starts off by
recalling 
that he once held a copy of The Early Years in his own hands and remembering
that 
all the tracks were listed as being written by *someone* *else* - a woman as he 
recalls. This is news to me. IED's discography doesn't mention this
possibility. It 
seems very unlikely that KaTe was singing other peoples songs at that age -
maybe 
she was using a pseudonym? 
---------------



THE FOURTH RECORDING: (3-SONG-SESSION)

In June 1975 Gilmour booked a professional studio (AIR London), brought 
Andrew Powell to arrange and produce the songs and hired top musicians to back 
Kate. 
They recorded TMWTCIHE, Saxophone Song and Maybe. This tape finally was 
Kate's breakthrough at EMI. The first two songs appeared on The Kick Inside. 


-----------
Kate began work on her first album in July 1977. 
KT Bush band performances around London. 
----------



1977 DEMO SESSIONS

Kate Bush Complete states that "during the first year of the [EMI] contract
Kate 
makes two further demo tapes." Whether these were piano demos, more fully 
produced demos, or both, is unknown. PDFM? 

A confusing sentence from Amazing Pudding: 

"These recordings [her own early recordings] are thought to be live, single
track 
recordings  as opposed to demos Kate was to make at home [!] four years
later [!], 
which were two track recordings (two separate tape recorders having been 
connected)." 

IED: 
"IED believes that the demos probably date from a somewhat later period, 
because in both PTA and Maybe Kate's voice is a little timid and uncertain,
and does 
not venture into her now-long-since-abandoned-but-historic falsetto range
(which is 
at its prime in these demos). Also, although IED is the first to admit
loving Passing 
Through Air, and especially Maybe, he thinks it would be silly to try to
argue that 
either of those songs--particularly PTA --is as complex or as stylistically
singular as 
any of the 23 solo-demos." 

I think, this argument is supported by the fact, that 5 songs, which appear
on The 
Kick Inside, Lionheart AND Never for Ever [!] (Violin!), can be found on the
demo 
tape! 
On the other hand, if the collection dates from 1977, then we must accept the 
notion that Kate was re-recording songs (such as "Something Like a Song" and 
"Disbelieving Angel") which she had already composed four or even five years 
earlier, and which she had recorded during her PTA-session in the summer of
1973. 
This is possible, of course, but unlikely. 


***************************
So, the origin of our PIANO DEMOS is completely unclear. We can only say for 
sure, they date from the period 1972-1977. 
***************************


-------------------
The Kick Inside Recording Sessions:
July, August 1977. The actual recording sessions for the album. 
------------------



THE KICK INSIDE DEMOS

These recordings are of a far more refined and polished type, and are fully 
orchestrated and produced. They would seem to have been recorded 1977, and are 
probably among the many tracks which were worked on prior to the final
selection 
of the thirteen songs on The Kick Inside. Five of the titles are familiar: 

- Moving
- Don't Push Your Foot on the Heart Brake
- L'Amour Looks Something Like You
- Kite
- Strange Phenomena

- Scares Me Silly (But It Gets Me Going) 
This sixth track is an unreleased song. It is extremely bouncy and catchy,
laden 
with melodic hooks. Its lyrics are fascinating, as well (they describe the
challenge of 
retaining the original spark of feeling of a song during the recording
process). 



OTHER DEMOS:

Finally, there are two known demo versions of the song "Babooshka". Excerpts 
from the demos were apparently played by Kate herself on a BBC radio programme 
ca. 1980 [?]. Both are almost exactly 2 min. long. The first demo of
"Babooshka" 
features Kate on piano, and she has added one backing vocal during the
choruses. 
The second version has a percussion pattern from an early rhythm-box, and
features 
a synthesizer and, in addition to the lead vocal, at least two over-dubbed
backing 
vocals. 



FAKES

The only song falsely presented so far as a Kate Bush song is "Turkish
Delight": 
Homeground No. 32, p. 8: 
"A track which has appeared on certain 'instant' tape cassette bootlegs
recently 
has caused some puzzlement. The name of the track is 'Turkish Delight'. It
isn't 
written or performed by Kate. It was recorded by an outfit called 'China
Doll', and 
it was released by EMI (Parlophone) as a single in July 1983. It was a cold
methodical 
rip-off of an accountant's view of what constituted the 'Kate Bush Style'.
DJs who 
could not find space for Tenner on their programmes, found space for this
travesty, 
introducing it as 'the new Kate Bush single' (yet another one). We thought it 
sounded like Faith Brown doing an impression of Pamela Stephenson doing an 
impression of Kate on a bad day. ..." 

To me it sounds even now quite good. I wasn't sure for some weeks although 
I noticed some slight differences in the voice. 




        T H E   S O U R C E S   O F   T H E   D E M O S


1. THE PIANO DEMOS:

>From the April/May * 1984 * issue of Breakthrough: 
From: Cortina Bandolero 
"Dear Dale and cohorts at Breakthrough, 
Here in Phoenix there is quite a sizable awareness of Kate. This would be an 
ideal city for EMI to sponser a "Bush Bash". There are import stores here
where the 
import LPs, the Hammersmith-Odeon video and the 45 Box Set can be readily
found. 
Also there's a small but loyally followed radio station, KSTM, which isn't
averse to 
playing Kate's songs. In * 1982 * when local DJ XX XX was at KSTM, he aired 
an hour of Kate's rarities which included some of her very early solo-piano
work. 
He had worked for EMI at the time of Kate's initial signing, and aquired the
tapes 
then. There were some real surprises for collectors, including an altered
version of 
Hammer Horror and another song with a refrain about "playing canasta in cold 
rooms." Does anyone know anything about this rare song? ...Now I'm off to write 
the KB club!" 


2. THE KICK INSIDE DEMOS:
No idea. Maybe also XX XX? 


3. BABOOSHKA DEMOS:
Presumably from a BBC radio programme around 1980, in which Kate played 
parts of these songs. PDFM? Date? 





T H E   S O N G   T I T L E S


Nobody knows Kate's titles. They are only guesses. The following early sources 
are known: [Many other obscure, but wrong labelings appeared later on CD's and 
LP's.] 


THE PHOENIX BROADCAST 1982:

The Phoenix broadcast titles seem to be the nearest to the original because I 
think, XX XX read them directly from the original [!] tape! 

Bryan Dongray, you have a recording of this broadcast. Can you listen again and 
tell us everything. you know about it? What is the DJ telling us about, how
he got 
hands on the tape? E.g. did he really say "Rinfi", and not maybe "Rinfrey"
or so, like in 
the song? 


Phoenix broadcast	(Often referred to as:)

1.	It Hurts Me (Feeling Like a Waltz )
2.	Stranded at the Moonbase (Keeping Me Waiting )
3.	Surrender into the Roses (Carmilla)
4.	Rinfi the Gypsy (Playing Canasta in Cold Rooms)
5.	On Fire Inside a Snowball (Hot in the Ice )
6.	Dali (Ferry me over )
7.	Where Are the Lionhearts (On the Rocks )
8.	The Gay Farewell	(Eddie the Queen )
9.	Something Like a Song (In my Garden )
10.	Come Closer to Me Babe (Who is Sylvia? )
11.	So Soft (You're Soft )
12.	Rare Flower (Don't See Why I Shouldn't (Pick the Rare Flower) )
13.	While Davy Dozed (Davy )



Also a mail from a person, I can unfortunately only refer to as 
nudeadguy@aol.com (NudeAdGuy) [can you hear me?] seems to indicate, that the 
writer actually HAS SEEN the box of this original tape. It appeared to me
that he 
lives in Phoenix or so. Can anybody confirm or deny this? 

***************
NudeAdGuy! You have seen the original tape? Do you think it's an original? Are 
the titles handwritten? ...
***************

------
From: nudeadguy@aol.com (NudeAdGuy) 
Date: 3 Oct 1995 15:42:30 -0400 
Subject: Demos Re: "Snowbound..." 
According to the box that stored the master tape copy that was played on the 
radio down here in Phoenix some years ago (and which I copied on tape), the
song is 
called "On fire inside a snowball," not "Snow Bowl" or "Snowbound," or anything 
else. 
-----
From: nudeadguy@aol.com (NudeAdGuy) 
Date: 5 Oct 1995 14:17:35 -0400 
Subject: re "Snowbound..." 
FYI--I had a tape of this radio braodcast at least a year before the "Cathy"
Demos 
started appearing in illicit record stores in my area. I, too, bought that
demo on 
colored vinyl to see if the quality was any better than the low-power radio
broadcast 
that I had. (It is.) 
So, yes, I do have an inside lead--the DJ was a guy named XX XX, who goes 
by Johnny D on the air and he's a big Kate fan and former employee of Capitol 
Records, which is where he got the tape. 
Incidentally, I saw him at a local record convention recently where he
showed me 
EMI acetates of "Man with the Child" and another song, I think "Kite." They 
weren't for sale, by the way. He just likes to pull them out so Kate fans
like us can 
drool on them. (He has no idea what he would ask for them even if he was
going to 
sell them!) 
For the record, here's the songs on the tape I have, with the titles as
listed on the 
tape box, as read by the DJ: 

			duration from Home Demo CD --WIE:

1.	The Kick Inside, 			3'39
2.	Hammer Horror, 			2'41
3.	It Hurts Me, 			2'54
4.	Stranded at the Moonbase, 	2'52
5.	Kashka from Baghdad, 		2'30
6.	Surrender into the Roses, 		1'28
7.	Oh To Be In Love, 		3'07
8.	Rinfi the Gypsy, 			4'07
9.	On Fire Inside a Snowball, 		2'27
10.	Dali, 				3'03
11.	Where Are the Lionhearts, 	2'23
12.	Violin, 				2'07
13.	The Craft of Love, 		2'56
14.	The Gay Farewell, 		2'27
15.	Something Like a Song, 		2'10
16.	Frightened Eyes, 			3'15
17.	Disbelieving Angel, 		2'10
18.	Nevertheless, You'll Do, 		1'57
19.	Come Closer to Me Babe, 		3'47
20.	So Soft, 				2'46
21.	Rare Flower, 			2'59
22.	While Davy Dozed. 		3'09
					-----
					60'54
-------------End of Mail--------------------------------------------------

So, I think, what we have here, appeared to be the track-listing of Kate's
original 
demo tape. They appear to be legitimate, though none of us can be certain of
course. 

It is also interesting to mention, that "Organic Acid" (5'45) is missing. 

When you calculate the duration of the whole thing you come to something like 
60'54 minutes. This indicates a C60 tape. So, maybe Organic Acid comes from 
another tape? 


----------------
From: nudeadguy@aol.com (NudeAdGuy) 
Date: 10 Oct 1995 13:25:52 -0400 
Subject: Re: Phoenix demo tape broadcast 

[re Dali/Darling:] 
Just listened to the tape--he definitely says, "Dali," but that doesn't mean
he's 
right. This broadcast was in the wee hours of the morning, and the light in
a radio 
station isn't always the best. 
Reading from the box, he also says, "Kashka from Baldad," apparently a typo on 
the box. So Dali could be a typo from some long forgotten stenographer at EMI. 
----------------


*********************************
Bryan or NudeAdGuy, can you please transcribe, what the DJ has to say? Pleease! 
*********************************



THE 'FIDDLE' TAPE/CD:

IED: "Fiddle" is the title of an early (1988?) cassette-only bootleg of 22
of the 
demos, which IED picked up at a record swapmeet. From your description both 
"Fiddle" and "Alone At My Piano" [CD] appear to stem from the same source 
(perhaps the Phoenix FM broadcast). 



DUTCH FANZINE 'KATE:

In the May '89 issue of the Dutch Kate Bush fanzine Kate, co-editor Theo Haast 
reports for the first time the six Kick Inside Demos: 

					duration from CD:
1.	Moving 					2'37
2.	Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake 	2'50
3.	Kite 					2'44
4.	L'Amour Looks Something Like You 	2'08
5.	Strange Phenomena 			2'40
6.	Scares Me Silly (But It Gets Me Going) 	3'11
						-----
						16'10





CONCLUSION:   MUCH CONFUSION!   :-)

But seriously:


We know for sure that:

- Gilmour visited Kate at East Wickham Farm. 
- the Piano Demos are from around 1972-77
- the Kick Inside Demos are from around 1975-77
- all available versions of the 22 piano demos mentioned above steam from XX 
  XXs tape. 


We can presume (but not for sure) that 

- Gilmour recorded something with Kate at East Wickham Farm. It's not clear if 
   this conceivable tape has been sent to EMI. 
- it is more likely that the piano demos are from around 1972/73. 
- the song titles from the Phoenix broadcast are Kate's own titles. 
- Organic Acid is from another tape. 
- the 'Early Years LP is from the PTA-session. 
- the Kick Inside demos are from 1977. 
- the Babooshka demos are from a 1980 BBC radio programme


It is completely unclear 

- how often Gilmour visited Kate. 
- if Gilmour sent Kate to a studio to do professional piano demos (only one
unclear 
  interview confirmation. IED?)
- from which of the early 1972/73 sessions our piano demos come from. 
- to which song the following titles from 'The Early Years' refer to: You
Were the 
   Star, Cussi Cussi, Atlantis, Sunsi, Go Now While You Can. They seem to be 
   completely unknown songs. 
- what the Record Collector's editor is refering to re the writer of the
songs (see 
   above, Scott's mail). 
- who offered and bootlegged the Kick Inside demos (maybe XX XX, too?) 


What we need most of all: 

- Kate in her own voice!
- an official release of all demos with official lyrics and comments on each
song! 
- a transcription of the Phoenix broadcast! 
- the Q interview! 
- more early Gilmour-interviews!



Nevertheless, despite all the mysteries:

*******************************
These demos show without the slightest doubt, that God Incarnate is living
among 
us! Anyone who is less than absolutely convinced of this is a bloody idiot. 
*******************************

Best wishes
Wieland

"You want my reply?
 What was the question?"
        (Kate re the demos) 

-----------
It is now universally acknowledged that the only thing in life worth wasting
any 
thought on at all is Kate Bush. Everything else is just killing time. 
There is no question whatever of the truth of this judgement, which is 
unanimous, absolute and irrevocable. 
----------
KTISGOD.