Transcript - Kate on Radio 2

[min@waknuk.demon.co.uk (Araminta Thorne)]

Hi, I've just tapped up a transcript of the Radio 2 programme on Kate
that went out this evening:-

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BBC Radio 2 (FM) "I write the songs", 10:00-10:30 p.m., Thursday 4 July 1996

Good Evening, I'm Don Black and in this series I intend to take a closer than 
ever look at the singer songwriter.  I have chosen six very different 
performers, some seasoned ones and some pretty new ones - but all very 
individual.  This is not intended as a forensic study of songwriting skills
- - more a light-hearted analysis of their particular crafts.  Without songs
there would be no music business, no artists, no producers, no nothing.  The
song is the source.  Everything stems from the melody and a lyric.  Tonight I
am going to look at the career of a unique talent.  A very private person, her
albums are so infrequent that when they are finally released they become more 
of an unveiling.  She sings, she writes and she produces her own records.  She
has only toured once in eighteen years.  When asked why she said "I just don't
like all that attention".  Well, whether she likes it or not, the spotlight
this week falls on Kate Bush.
[Plays "The Man With the Child In His Eyes"]
There is a strong poetic element in Kate's work.  She usually constructs the
music and, writes a general idea of the lyric, and, then goes away and spends
ages polishing the words.  She's passionate about getting those words right
and a lot of her ideas come from real-life scenarios.  She read that in 
Victorian times a wife would send her husband a love letter, but she wouldn't
sign it.  She would write it in a flirtatious and provocative way as if she 
was his mistress.  Well, a very dangerous thing to do - but what a great idea 
for a song.
[Plays "Babooshka" - well, obviously]
Ah yes, Kate Bush.  Her most famous record shows just how brilliant she is. 
She takes an enormous book and, in a few minutes, condences the story in such 
a concise and mysterious way that you'll want to hear it time and time again.
And every time you do, it still sounds fresh.
[Plays "Wuthering Heights" - equally obviously]
I met Kate just a few weeks ago.  She told me that she had only seen one
musical in her life.  That was "Godspell" some twenty years ago so I arranged
for her to see "Sunset Boulevard".  The reason I mention this is because I was
amazed that *she* was so amazed by it.  Not just the show but the orchestra, 
the lights, the costumes.  We automatically assume that stars are used to 
opening nights, fancy parties and hobnobbing with sophisticated friends.  I 
think that I can say that Kate is one of the most normal, ordinary mega-stars I 
have ever met.  There is no side to her at all.  No show-business veneer.  When 
I got home that evening I wanted to remind myself of her talents so I played 
some of her records, which just seemed to prove to me that her everyday 
exterior must belie deeper feelings.  How else could she write so poignantly 
about loss and the memory we leave behind?
[Yes, plays "Moments of Pleasure"]
I said that Kate is very normal, but there is nothing normal about her
creativity.  She seems to have her own signature on all her songs - no-one else
writes like her or sings like her.  Maybe that's why her songs aren't covered
by other artists - her versions are the definitive ones.  The next record is
an interesting one because Kate didn't write it - George and Ira Gershwin did.
[Um, plays "The Man I Love"]
I asked Kate if she had a favourite singer and she said her favourite is the
blackbird and her second favourite is the thrush - well, I told you she was
different.  I also asked her which one of her records she particularly liked
and she said "Running Up That Hill".  In the song she says to her lover "I
wish I could make a deal with God and get him to swap our places - only then
would you know how I feel".
[Plays "Running Up That Hill"]
I hope that we don't have to wait too long for another Kate Bush album.
Meanwhile, it's comforting to know that no matter when the song was written,
or the record made, it never gets old - in fact it improves with every hearing.
Till next week, this is Don Black saying "Goodnight".
[Plays out with "Wuthering Heights"]

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So, is her next venture going to be a musical starring blackbirds and thrushes?

Min
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min@waknuk.demon.co.uk  or  araminta@quantime.co.uk