Cloudbusting -- Kate Bush In Her Own Words

1979

Do you feel obliged to sing like that these days?

What? You mean . . .

Y'know, like you could age the nation's glassblowers.

Oh yeah, sure. I mean I don't feel obliged - that is me. See, like in a recording studio when it's all dark and there's just you and a couple of guys at the desk, well you get really involved that to actually plan it out becomes out of the question. It just flows that way... and as a writer I just try to express an idea. I can't possibly think of old songs of mine because they're past now and quite honestly I don't like them anymore.

Doing ``wuthering heights'' must've been murder then.

Well I was still promoting that up until 18 months after I'd had it released. Abroad I was still promoting it on TV where I was able to do it backwards and (SHE MIMES IT WHILST PICKING HER NOSE NONCHALANTLY)... just weird. (1979, John Shearlaw)

I think I survived all the digs I had last year. I really wasn't deliberately keeping myself away from an audience to build up a reputation. It has simply taken all this time to stage things the way I want to. And to match up to the standard I've set myself.

Which I haven't reached and probably won't reach! SHE LAUGHS.

But however it turns out, it's my concept. My concept as much as the time, the budget and the presentation will allow.

And it's for all the Lionhearts first! (1979, John Shearlaw)

To kate the shows - her live arrival - is firstly: A present. A present that shouldn't be unwrapped until everyone is there! It's like hearing about a film. Everybody tells you it's amazing - and you could end up disappointed. You shouldn't get peoples expectations up like that. She smiles; Half-childishly, half apologetically.

I know you want to know. But how can I start? If I tell you one thing it's give everything away. It'll bugger everything up! SHE SMILES AGAIN, PROBABLY AT THE WORD.

If you look at it it's my reputation. And, yes, I hope it'll be something special, that's the way I'm working on it.

It can't be completely original ... it couldn't be ever. Nothing could, because to an extent it's all been done before. Just say they're my songs ... and hopefully presented in a way that suits each song. (1979, John Shearlaw)

I look back sometimes and realise how much time I did have to be receptive and open and take in so many things. To some extent I still am - and I'm still terribly subjective.

It's not that it's really changed, but I find that there are definite restrictions on my time and there are define things I want to control.

It'll be an objective look at me, going out on tour. It's really my reputation and my career and everything I've been working for.

I'm not closing off, and I still need help, but it's up to me to see that I can reach the standards I've set myself.

But just to get that audience contact, for the first time, will be fantastic. (1979, John Shearlaw)

We've seen a tremendous amount of you on television, of course, in the last twelve months, but you're about to escape the television studio and the recording studio and undertake your first major british tour, aren't you? Are you at all apprehensive about it?

Oh, yeah. Very, very indeed. But I'm very exited as well. It's something very new for me and it's something that I've always wanted to do, so it's great.

What sort of performance, what sort of show, can the audience expect to see, without giving to much away, of course.

Well, [Makes mumbling sounds with hand over mouth. Both laugh] I can't say much except that it's just a concept of my music really. And that we're just gonna try and present something visually.

We can expect it to be theatrical anyway, I think?

[Slightly abrupt] well, we'll see.

Right. (1979, Saturday Morning Show)

I think that maybe a lot of people heard that it was going to be visual, and many of them are into seeing shows that are different from the normal ones. But it's not really for me to say why they like me. It's the people who know that.

I'm sure there are as many people who hate my voice as ones who like it, but whatever it is, it's encouraging for me to know that people want to see me, whether it's to criticize, or because they really want to see the show. I think that's a great compliment.

Sure is. But it's taken a long time for her to take her show on the road, especially after her vinyl success with `` wuthering heights", `` wow'' and her two albums the kick inside and lionheart. So why did she wait until now to do the tour?

Basically, it's time. When `` Wuthering Heights'' and The Kick Inside took off at such a level there was a very strong demand for me to go out and do promotion. I think it's a sensible thing to do, but I didn't know it would take up a year. And besides, I spent most of that year recording the second album.

One of the reasons I waited was to get the show right because to go on tour in this way you do need at least three months' preparation, and I just didn't have the time before. You know, we were all working for six days a week, twelve hours a day - and the number of hours gradually grew towards the end.

I really need to be prepared for that sort of thing. Even for an album, I feel I need that preparation period. I don't know if this makes me a perfectionist. But I do have ideas that I don't always reach, so I guess that is what I am. (1979, Pop Star)

Her kick inside album is still high in the charts, although lionheart, the second album, hasn't done so well. Isn't that strange?

I think it was more surprising to me that the first album did so well, than that the second album is not doing as well as the first one. It was really a surprise to me that a lot of people liked that album, and as far as I'm concerned I'm quite pleased with how Lionheart did. (1979, Pop Star)

I am still amazed that people like me so much. As they do, I am determined to give them nothing but the best.

This is why I spent so long preparing for a European tour. I wanted everything absolutely right.

I rehearsed for two to three months, six days a week, up to 14 hours a day. (1979, Call Me Sexy)

Well, on tour we had a lady who looked after the costumes 'cause it wasn't just me who was wearing costumes, all the band had clothes and the dancers and the musicians and the magician had one. And she had to keep preparing them every night and getting them dry cleaned. And my hair, I really just tried... I had to have one perm before the tour and that tried to hold it for the rest, it didn't do very well. Yeah. (1981, Razzmatazz)

I only actually toured once ten years ago - '79 - and we toured England and Europe. I'd never done anything like that before. I'm not a performer, I'm not someone who's grown up playing around clubs or pubs and then becomes a recording artist. I'm someone who from a young age wrote songs, and then gradually learned to sing, and then gradually there I was in the studio and then... It's all sort of an unfolding process for me.

We wanted to do something special, and I guess really because of my influences from people like Lindsay Kemp we wanted to make it kind of theatrical. And so it would incorporate lots of different things, like dance, and we had a magician, and we had some poetry and just all different elements thrown together and it had a kind of a circus feel.

In terms of what we were doing then it was very experimental. I mean apart from musicals, or opera production, it was kind of unheard of to involve so many elements. (1989, VH-1)

Anthony van laast (kate's dancing instructor): One of our problems is that kate is dancing better and better. I mean I'm teaching her, and she's working... It's incredible how far she's got. I wouldn't have thought it was possible. And the problem now is that she's getting so good at dancing that it's going to be hard now to keep her from dancing so that she can sing properly. I mean it would be fantastic if we could put the whole show on recorder and then she could mine it and then dance. We can't do that. She's got to sing it. So we've got to fit the dancing to the singing.

You mean she would be out of breath?

Anthony van laast: Oh yeah, she couldn't dance the way she could dance possibly and sing at the same time. So somehow we've got to work it out so that it all fits in properly. (1979, Kate Bush on Tour)

On her dance lessons: It's the discipline that's all-important, and I can feel really bad if I have to miss it.

It's just so important for my state of brain - I feel completely different - and so much better - afterwards. And it's something that I feel I can carry on developing. With dance, and movement you're learning and creating all the time. (1979, John Shearlaw)

It's important that the visuals are just emphasizing the music because it's not a dance show, it's a music show that's being illustrated with movement, and it's important that they both complement each other. And I've only...I mean I'm not a dancer, I'm just learning to dance, and what I can do I'll try to put across in the show. But I'm not a dancer, I just love dancing. And I want to be able to learn as much as I can. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

"Wow'' we've got to get together more, because it's not sounding as it should be yet. It's not tight, they have to be tight. And especially the fact that we are going to be doing movement to the music, the music has to be very, very together and precise. And that's what we're trying to achieve.

I think the main reason why they listen to me is because [Laughs] I'm paying the wages and it's my music. And I think, they have enough respect for me, I hope, not to turn round and say ``you don't know what you're talking about.''

How much like the record will your music finally be, in the concert?

That is a problem, because obviously the albums have been very carefully produced and you've got mixed levels and everything. And so live work, to a certain extent, we couldn't do it exactly as the album is, even if we wanted to because it wouldn't come across in a strong way. For a live performance, you have to be aware of the fact that making things more obvious so that people can hear them. Trying to possibly make songs quicker. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

Band member: We're not just reproducing the albums. When you're a band, you have you're own identity, and if you're just reproducing albums, there's not much point in having a band. You know, you might as well just play the album.

Does she ever loose her temper with you?

Band member: No! I mean...

Kate: What?

Do you ever loose your temper with him?

Me?? Loose my temper? No!!! Come on, let's get on with it! (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

Are you nervous about the concert tour?

Paddy: A little apprehensive, no I think it will be good fun, actually. Really good fun. I mean we're so well rehearsed as far as it goes, and the music will take care of itself. (1979, kate bush on tour)

How complicated has the sound been for the tour?

Engineer: Ah, very complicated actually. [Inaudible] mainly the miking up of kate herself, um, from the dance point of view.

How have you solved that?

Engineer: With a very small microphone! Small mike on a boom arm, its gotta be used from the side of her head. (1979, kate bush on tour)

The most difficult ones are where I've got the headset and I'm moving a lot. It's an amazing feeling of freedom, because, like, there's nothing in your hands yet you can hear your voice being projected miles away - it's incredible. But it's not quite in it's full design yet. There are just a few things that are wrong with it. And it's not always right in front of my mouth, but we're getting that seen to.

With only one week to go before opening, how do you think the rehearsals have gone so far?

I think they're going very well. There's a lot of rushing, but there always is at this time and that's when mosts get done. I think it's going well. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

I remember thinking as I attended that gig that I hoped you wouldn't have a deep intake of breath 'cause the microphone was only about an inch from your mouth. Did you worry about that?

Yes, I had to be very careful about, well not saying things that I shouldn't when I was being... when I was turned on and everyone could hear me. And I also had to breath quite quietly, otherwise there'd be this sorta really loud [Makes deep breathing noises]. So I had to be very careful about the moments when I wasn't singing, yeah. (1982, Pebble Mill At One)

What I needed was a microphone that I didn't have to hold, because we wanted to do dance that involved two other dancers so I could be lifted and we could run across the stage, and holding a microphone was very inhibiting. So the sound guy that we had for the tour, I said to him ``I want you to invent a microphone for me that I don't have to carry'' So he basically invented the radio mikes that you see now, but he made it out of a coat hanger. So he got an old coat hanger and kind of bent it into shape here [Motions on side of head], and then had this piece that came round here [Motions around to front of mouth], that the microphone was then put on so it was just in front of the mouth. (1989, VH-1)

With three weeks to go, kate bush was more like an executive than a singer, making a series of decisions almost every hour. Every detail, every color, every texture, she helped to decide. Even the choice of the crew food was party influenced by her and produced by her other brother john.

John: Well we've got nothing very difficult, but there are a lot of vegetarians involved - about sixteen. And my wife's been cooking for the last few days, and its working out real well. Everybody likes it. Its all going very fast.

It's almost a vegetarian tour, isn't it?

John: Yeah, you could say that. You know, well it's good food because it lets people carry on working afterwards. They're not walking around really laid out with an enormous, great, meat meal. (1979, kate bush on tour)

Originally your Hippodrome [Concert] date was supposed for March the 4th and it was put back a month, why was that?

Well that was because of our rehearsal time, and in fact none of these dates should have got out. That was due to someone who was a bit naughty along the line. But we're coming out in April. (1979, Personal Call)

They'll never be another night quite like the first kate bush show at the liverpool empire. Even parts of the audience were nervous, wondering if the young lady with brittle voice and brittle nerves as well. But her manager, hilary walker, was carefully hiding any fears she had.

Hilary: It has been hard work every day, seven days a week. But it's really been a question of getting the right people to do the right jobs at the right time and pulling them all together and making it work.

Are you nervous about tonight?

Hilary: Excited, I think. I think we all are. Yes we're all nervous, of course we are. But things cost.

It means a lot doesn't it?

Hilary: Yes it does. (1979, kate bush on tour)

You play the piano track on all your recordings, right, but then on stage?

Well, on stage, because of course I'm dancing and doing all these other things, I used a guy called Kevin McAlea who was an incredible find. Because I've never met anyone else who plays the piano, or who can play it if he wants to, so like me. My style is really quite simple, and that's the problem. Professional pianists tend to sort of flourish everywhere, and that doesn't work in my songs because I use a simple style. I did play two or three numbers on stage, the ones that I thought were important, but the rest of the time I was up front. Obviously, though, because it's the instrument that I always used to write on, it made sense for me to put down all the piano arrangements on record. But most of the songs on the new album I wrote on the Fairlight. I'm sure, though, that I'll still continue writing on the piano, somehow it's such an extraordinarily versatile-sounding instrument. (1985, Musician)

Is the hammersmith-odeon video any different from the version shown on tv? How much other footage is not on these versions, and why were the other bits excluded?

The version shown on TV is the Hammersmith-Odeon video, unless it's been edited to fit time slots. There are about another one-and-a-half hours that were shot that night. The video version was edited from the complete show, which ran for about two-and-a-half hours, and we had to make it a standard length to fit TV slots.

When you decide to tour again, will it be video-ed? Do you think the hammersmith-odeon video gives a true vision of the stage show for those who weren't there?

I dare say it would be video-ed if we did tour. I don't think the video was a true vision at all. You had to be there to see it all. In fact, most of it was missing. You couldn't even smell the heather in ``Wuthering Heights!'' But for a video to do that, smellivision is yet to be invented.

Who entertained the audience while you changed costumes on your 1979 tour? I heard that it was a magician. Is this true? It is impossible to tell from the video.

There was a fantastic magician in show - Simon Drake. He made things float, glide and fly, not to mention disappear. However, most costume changes were done very quickly over extended fade-outs and extended intros. into the songs. (1984, KBC 17)

Did you use the first of eric satie's trois gymnopedies to lead into `` symphony in blue'' in your concerts, and if so, why?

It's really marvelous that people have recognised this, and it is so. At the time, some of us were really into the piece, and Paddy and the band were working on a version of it. We all really liked it, and as it seemed a good way of leading into the song, I decided to use it. I'm glad you liked it. Funnily enough, at the same time the band were working on it, several other versions were coming out, so it seems a lot of people were discovering him at the same time. (1979, KBC 2)

As the lyrics to `` violin'' are different on never for ever from the tour version, could you please tell us the bits of the tour version that are different?

The lyrics on `` Violin'' at the beginning of the Tour were slightly different from those at the end. The odd word would move here and there, and to be honest, I don't remember them; except I know they weren't that great! (1984, KBC 16) [Scene in dressing room after the first show, popping a bottle]

[Hands kate flowers] [Inaudible]...flowers.

Oh! Bless you! Thank you. [Kisses him]

You really happy tonight?

Did you enjoy the show?

You really happy?

I'm knocked out, I can't believe that audience.

Worth that three months hard work?

I'm just completely knocked out, really. That's amazing. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

And what does the future hold? Films, perhaps?

Oooh no, I don't think so, not just yet anyway. There'll be more songs obviously, but what matters more at the moment is being able to perform the songs I've written to the best of my ability, to give the public my everything, which is what they deserve. (1979, Liverpool Echo)

I must start by thanking you all for the masses of wonderful letters, and for all the slips that were left on the theatre seats that you took the time and trouble to send in. And the drawings, paintings, and poems have been great, too.

The tour was an incredible experience, and I'll never forget it, nor the reception we got from the audiences. In a way, the first night at Poole [This was the preview show held in poole, near liverpool, where the official premiere was given the next evening] was the most important, as it was the first real test as to whether it was going to happen or not, and the reaction really surprised me - it was lovely, and the greatest encouragement I could have possibly had. In fact, they all surprised me. I never expected such warmth. Some audiences wanted to be convinced, but that's only fair. In Europe people were a bit more reserved to start with in some places, especially where I wasn't well known, like France, but it was lovely - too good, really.

I really hope people understand why I didn't talk to the audience during the show. It would have been out of place. On stage I'm not me, I'm trying to create a mood and character, and to speak is, I think, unnecessary. I was speaking in so many other ways that words were not really worth their money. I'd rather something complete and tight, than a few words that couldn't be heard clearly anyway because of the sound system. I was really thrilled that so many people have commented on the dancing, and I loved the things that were thrown on stage, especially the green frog that landed at my feet at such a perfect moment in ``Peter Pan,'' and a UFO t-shirt that I've been wearing a lot. It was a lovely surprise when people clapped when they recognised a song, especially the album tracks. Normally it's an honour to have the singles clapped, and it's great that people recognise the songs and know the music so well. All the audiences were very respectful, and that's the most one can expect. In the solo numbers I wondered if they were still there, they were so quiet.

A lot of people have wondered why they couldn't use their cameras at the shows. I can understand why people want their own shots, but when the flash bulbs go off it's seen all over the auditorium and destroys the lighting effects on stage, spoiling it for everyone else. It's a bit selfish, like someone getting up to go out in the middle of a number, or shouting out.

I'd like to be able to answer all your queries about live recordings and the video film, but at the moment not enough is known for me to say anything. But I'll let you know when something definite happens.

What I really hated were the ticket touts. I wish something could be done to get rid of them, and I'm sure it could, as you don't see them on the Continent. It's really sickening to hear of them selling forged tickets at obscene prices. Everyone was really upset by their disgusting presence everywhere we went.

But that was the only negative thing about the tour. I was so sad when it was over, it was such a great time I never wanted it to end. Although it was right that it ended when it did, because we'd all paced our energies to that timing. I couldn't imagine a greater group of people to work with, and I think we all felt that it had been really worthwhile.

Now I want to write some new songs and get together with my piano again - I feel I've neglected it for too long. I also want to learn how to cook pizzas, something I can't do at the moment, and want to be able to do.

I'll end by saying thank you to all the people who came to the concerts and made it such a wonderful experience, and to all those of you who couldn't come - I wish you had. (1979, KBC 2)

And nice of you to spare some time to talk to us. I know you're in the middle of your first tour, which must be quite hectic for you.

It's going really well, thanks. Yeah, it's really good.

You have actually received very good reviews, well most of the ones I've read have been very good. Were you worried about what the critics were going to say about you?

Yeah, I'm always worried what they're going to say. But personally I always feel the most important thing is your audience. Because, whoever the critics are, it is only a personal point of view. And although it's very important, especially to the public, I can't help but feel that the immediate reaction you get there is what matters the most.

And how have you found the reaction so far from the audience?

Incredible..

Yeah?

... I couldn't believe it. They're so beautiful.

Yeah.

Really.

Now, of course, it is a rather elaborate show that you're doing, isn't it? The sort of set changes, like how you're doing a bit of magic, all sorts of things going on. How long did it take to get the whole thing together?

Oh, a few months. We've been working since the beginning of this year, and it's coming along well.

I mean, were many people involved in sort of the whole concept, or was it basically all your idea?

Well, the major concept is basically mine, but I've had a lot of help from people and we've all worked together, really, on a lot of levels. And I think that's the best thing about it, you know, that everyone's really enjoying working with each other.

Now that it has worked so well, I gather that you were a little bit worried before hand that it would be okay, now that it proved to be so successful, do you think you might do a more extensive tour later in the year?

That really depends. So much depends on energies, you know, because it can become very tiring with the traveling. I don't know, we have to wait and see. (1978, TisWas)

I got so incredibly nervous before I'd go on. All I'd ever really done in the way of live performance before the tour were things like TV shows, and videos. I'd never done a big tour... and the sort of props and ideas for the show we were carrying around with us seemed a bit ambitious, a bit awesome, at first, but I loved those shows. Once I was onstage I had so much fun. I'd like to do more of it. (1981, Kerrang!)

Kate, was the tour a financial success, or was it just for publicity, to promote you?

What, the tour?

Yes.

It certainly wasn't for financial success, because touring is, well certainly the way we did it to, was much more a loss thing then making money. Because the amount of money it cost to actually get the thing together, to get it organized - all the people involved - it just cost a tremendous amount of money. And there's no way that you'd probably even make even, you would lose.

How many people are involved in the tour, altogether?

Well, altogether actually on the tour, there were about forty people, which is alot. But besides that, there's like John working on the co-ordination and Hill and our solicitors and publicity people. It's just an enormous thing. (1980, Kate Bush In Concert)

Don't you have a problem now? What next? How you're going to follow the success?

Well you see people say this to me and I don't really look at it that way, because it's not a matter of following success. It's things have happened, you've done them in the past. And you see things wrong in them, and you want to go on, and you want to do them right. And I think that's all it is, you know? It's just the desire to want to keep doing things better. And I don't really see it as following a great success, cause if I did I'd get really paranoid and I probably wouldn't be able to do a thing. I'd be so worried about doing something better than that. Whereas you're just in the present moment and you're doing what you're doing.

Are you likely to change your style completely, suddenly?

I don't know. I'd quite like to in a way, because I think change is a very important thing on any level. And I do want to change, not only as a person, but as a musician. And I think its starting to happen a little. Just slightly different. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

You're now just over twenty one, and you've made it. What is there left to do now?

Everything!!! Yeah, I haven't really begun, yet. I've begun on one level, but then that's all gone now so you begin again. I think... IS THERE EVER A CHANCE THAT YOU MIGHT GIVE UP, GET MARRIED, SETTLE DOWN, BE AN ORDINARY MOTHER, SAY?

Obviously there is a chance, because I'm a human, and humans are very unpredictable. But, ah, I don't know. I don't see that happening to me, not for a while. I've got so much do to and I think freedom is important to be able to do all those things.

What will kate bush be like at thirty-one, any idea?

I don't know, probably a few more lines. [Laughs] I hope they're happy ones.

And a few more songs.

Yeah, I hope so. That's what I want to do, that's what I'm here for. (1979, Kate Bush On Tour)

By the end of that tour, I felt a terrific need to retreat as a person, because I felt that my sexuality, which in a way I hadn't really had a chance to explore myself, was being given to the world in a way which I found impersonal. When I started in this business, I felt very at home in my body. I was a dancer, that was the areas I explored. And it was very scary for me those next few years, because whatever I wore, whatever I did, people were putting this incredible emphasis of sexuality on me, which I didn't feel.

I think I was a victim of the fact that I was a young woman who was writing music and the emphasis went on the fact that I was a young woman. There were a lot of things that didn't fit like I was very young, I was female, people thought I was attractive, and I had a very idealistic and positive attitude at a time when negativity and anarchy were hip. So I was coming in from completely the wrong tangent.

If I'd seen a lot of things I could have trodden a lot more carefully in those early days. But I was very young, and I didn't see them. I trusted people. But all that aside, and I did have a hard time, I think what I've managed to achieve is worth all that shit I went through. (1989, The Guardian)

And in many ways it might be better for her to lie low for a bit before coming back. Does she agree?

Yes. I think humans are like cars - when the petrol runs out, that's it. What worries me is running out of fuel, because when you're working all the time there is very little chance to do things like going to the theatre, reading books, or whatever things inspire you.

So it's very important for me to have breaks and be natural and normal and re-fuel, because without that fuel inside you can't give anything out. Very often I see people whose work has totally taken them over, so they can see nothing else in the world. That frightens me. I am a bit obsessed with my work - but I'm also concerned about being a human being.

I always try and gauge my reactions from people I've known for years, and if I see that changing, it's up to me to check where I'm at, because being a human being is the most important thing.

If people don't want to hear my music any more, I as a personality or celebrity would no longer exist, but I will always be human. The lifestyle may be different now than it was two years ago, but I think I'm still the same... although not as serious, perhaps! (1979, Pop Star)

There are probably a lot of pressures that I'm not even aware of, that other people feel probably more strongly than myself. You do feel general pressures sometimes, but I'm having a real good time at the moment, and I'm doing what I want to do, and things are running more or less as I wish them to.

It's such a fulfilling time of my life at the moment. The thing about money - being wealthy - I'm not really aware of, because I see money as something that should be used and not thought about much, because it causes an awful lot of hang-ups in people. It's terrible that money is such a material thing.

As for the future, kate simply has this to say:

I think everyone has to change, because tastes and times change. Even Cliff Richard, who's been going for years, changed at times. I'd like to change, but it's also important to keep the continuity. There is no point in changing just for the sake of changing. I never know if I'm going to change until I actually do something. So I just have to wait and see. (1979, Pop Star)

I think the tour did quite a lot from the start. I learned an incredible lot about myself as well as the whole thing of performing. Singing songs that maybe I had written five years ago, over and over again, I find completely exhausting. I think it did change me quite a lot and I think in a way that was one of the brave things I did along with the tour. I decided to go through co-production with the engineer I had worked with before instead of having produced it, it was quite a big thing for me to learn and I think it was quite positive. (1983, Wireless)

In a film magazine it said that you turned down the offer of singing the title song to the james bond film moonraker. is this so, and if so, why?

Yes, this is true. I thought it was a very lovely song, but I just didn't think it was for me. I think Shirley Bassey did it a lot better than I would have, anyway. (1980, KBC 5)

Why, oh why didn't you turn up at the cricket match at paddington on september 16th, as advertised, when so many of us came just to see you?

I'm really upset about this. I really wanted to go. It would have been such fun. But it shouldn't have been advertised, and it was very naughty of whoever did it, because it was never confirmed. Again, you mustn't believe all you hear through the media. That was the day I was making the video for `` Them Heavy People,'' from the On Stage EP, for Top of the Pops. I'm really sorry for those who had a wasted journey. (1979, KBC 3)

Was the concert with the london symphony orchestra televised? [Kate sang `` blow away'' during a concert celebrating the 75th anniversary of the lso.]

No, it wasn't. (1980, KBC 5)

In your tv special, who wrote the song sung by you and peter gabriel, and will it ever appear on vinyl? Also, what were the names of the new songs you did on that show?

In the TV special the song that I sang with Peter Gabriel, ``Another Day,'' was written by Roy Harper - a very beautiful song from his album Flat Baroque and Berserk, which you can buy from your record shops along with his most recent one, which is brilliant. It's a really good song, and it will be on vinyl one day, hopefully soon, but not with this album. [Kate has still not released this recording.] The names of the new songs that were done on the show were `` The Wedding List", ``The Ran Tan", ``Egypt'' and ``Violin.'' (1980, KBC 5)

It is a much like my tour as possible - song liked into song with lots of movement.

There is no chat. I can't bear it when you see singers standing up and introducing their guest in that false way. (1979, Wow! What Smuthering Tights)

On the tv special, what were the trousers that you wore for ``foot on the heartbrake'' made of, as they appeared to be stretchy?

Those trousers were made by a guy who deals in stretch fabrics, so they are stretchy, and it's very good material. (1980, KBC 5)

I have become a terrible hermit really. I'm writing the songs for my new album and spend most of my time in my flat.

I'm thrilled to have some new songs to sing. I can't listen to my old albums.

It's not that I don't like the songs, but I feel they are so much a part of the past. So much has happened to me since then.

Last year I felt I was building bricks. This year I have had room to breathe and try different things. I have done some session singing which I loved. It is lovely to work on someone else's songs for a change.

It's very inspirational but at the same time you realise how inadequate you are.

You can't help but compare yourself to them and question the point of your own work. (1979, Wow! What Smuthering Tights)

Gaffaweb / Cloudbusting / Story / 1979