"The games we play -- boredom breeds suspicion."This song is also listed in the Discography section.
Kate Bush,
The Best Of Kate Bush
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Bain, Jimmy
A session musician who was briefly a member of Richie Blackmore's Rainbow. Bain plays bass guitar on the songs Sat In Your Lap, Leave It Open, and Get Out Of My House.
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Bairnson, Ian
Former guitarist with the bands Pilot and The Alan Parsons Project. Bairnson plays guitar on the songs Moving, Strange Phenomena, Kite, Wuthering Heights, James And The Cold Gun, Oh To Be in Love, L'Amour Looks Something Like You, Them Heavy People, Room For The Life, Symphony In Blue, In Search Of Peter Pan, Wow, Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake, Fullhouse, Coffee Homeground, Hammer Horror, and Leave It Open. He also provides backing vocals on Oh To Be In Love, bass voices on Delius (with Paddy Bush), and plays beer bottles on Room For The Life.
Trivia: on a 1979 solo album by sometime Alan Parsons Project vocalist Lenny Zakatek, Ian Bairnson worked with fellow Kate Bush accompanists John Giblin, Stuart Elliott, and Max Middleton. Small world.
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Baiser D'Enfant, Un
The French-language version of The Infant Kiss.
See also Ne T'en Fui Pas and Games Without Frontiers.
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Balalaika
A type of lute with a long neck and a distinctive flat triangular body, used originally in Russian folk music. Paddy Bush plays balalaika on the songs Babooshka and Running Up That Hill.
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Balavescu String Quartet
Formed in 1987 by Romanian-born first violinist Alexander Balavescu, this quartet has played music composed by Michael Nyman, David Byrne, and Kraftwerk, as well as their own compositions. The Balavescu String Quartet provide strings on the song Reaching Out, arranged by Michael Nyman.
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Barrett, John
The assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios on the albums Never For Ever and The Dreaming. Barrett is mentioned by his nickname Teddy in the song Moments of Pleasure.
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Barson, Ben
A keyboard player in the band for the Tour Of Life. His brother Mike Barson was a keyboard player with the group Madness.
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Bath, Brian
(b. 30 November 1952) Guitarist with the KT Bush Band from their formation in April 1977, joining alongside his friend Del Palmer, and rhythm guitarist on the Tour Of Life. Bath plays guitar on the songs Wow, Blow Away, Violin, Army Dreamers, Pull Out The Pin, Hello Earth, and shares guitar duties with his Tour Of Life bandmate Alan Murphy on the album versions of Babooshka, All We Ever Look For, The Wedding List, and Breathing. He also provides backing vocals on The Wedding List and Army Dreamers.
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Be Kind To My Mistakes
A song composed for the Nicholas Roeg film Castaway. After the song appeared on the film soundtrack, an altered and remixed version was released as a single b-side.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Beck, Jeff
(b. 24 June 1944) An obscure British guitarist. Plays guitar on the song You're The One. Beck and his old friend Eric Clapton joined the ranks of Kate Bush collaborators when illness made it impossible for Dave Gilmour to participate in the recording of the album The Red Shoes. Beck is great friends with Peter Richardson of the Comic Strip group, who is in turn good friends with Kate; this connection may have played a role in securing Beck's involvement. Kate has also worked with Max Middleton, a former member of Jeff Beck's band.
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Beer Bottles
An "instrument" played by Andrew Powell and Ian Bairnson on the song Room For The Life. Some years later, Bairnson recalled the festive occasion:
"Ah...the heady days before samplers and synths! We simply wanted the sound of tuned bottle blows so we drank the contents a little at a time until we got the tuning to the correct pitch...and I can't remember much after that. Seriously though, it was a nice spontaneous thing to do. It sounded good in the track and tasted quite good too. Try getting a result like that from a sampler!"
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Bendall, Haydn
Chief Engineer at Abbey Road Studios on the albums The Dreaming, Hounds Of Love, The Sensual World, and The Red Shoes.
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Berkeley, Michael
Berkeley arranged the choral parts in the song Hello Earth, sung by the Richard Hickox Singers.
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Best Of Kate Bush, The
A book of sheet music published in 1980, now out of print. Though its place has been taken by more recent and more complete music books, this volume is notable because the thirteen songs included are each given short descriptions or epigrams written by Kate especially for the collection. The full selection of these lines can be found in The Garden section.
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Between A Man And A Woman
A song on the album The Sensual World.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Big Country
Kate did session work for this group, providing backing vocals for the song The Seer on the album The Seer.
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Big Sky, The
A song on the album Hounds Of Love. Kate has described this as a difficult song to write; at various times there were three versions floating around before a completed version was developed. And in fact, there are several completed versions of this song: an album version, a slightly different single version, another version for the video, and a special extended 12-inch single versionalled The Big Sky (The Meteorological Mix).
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Big Sky, The (Meteorological Mix)
An extended version of The Big Sky with reduced lyrics and a very funny spoken interlude, released as a 12-inch single.
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Big Stripey Lie
A song on the album The Red Shoes. This song marks Kate's first time playing electric guitar and bass on a recording. Equal attention has been given by fans to the especially cryptic lyrics.
In an interview shortly after the album's completion, Del Palmer described Kate's adoption of a new instrument:
"She said to the guitarist we were using, 'I'm really into the guitar. I'd really like to be able to play it,' and he said, 'Oh, here, play this one (a Fender Stratocaster) for a bit.' So, he showed her a few chords, and -- this is no kidding -- a week later she was in front of this Marshall stack in the studio giving it her all! I've never seen anything like it. She's a natural -- she was playing lead guitar and no one would know it wasn't an experienced guitarist."This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Bio's Banhof
Kate's first television appearance was on this West German program hosted by Dr. Alfred Biolek on WDR-TV, broadcast on 9 February 1978. She performed the songs Kite and Wuthering Heights; the first was a live performance with the KT Bush Band, the second was sung to a backing tape. The backdrop, intended to evoke the Yorkshire Moors, displays an active volcano, leading to many furrowed brows among people with a good sense of geography.
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Birchington, Jeremy
A semi-imaginary character whose name has made ephemeral appearances in Kate-related spheres over the years. The character is possibly connected to or based on one Jeremy Cartland, a literary friend of Kate's brother John Carder Bush and his partner in the Salatticum Poets group; it should also be noted that Birchington-on-Sea is thought to be the village in which the Bush family has long owned seaside property. Trivia buffs might also note the nearby village of St. Nicholas-on-the-Wade, and the curious disappearance, after several early issues, of the Kate Bush Club Newsletter's first Editor-in-Chief, Nicholas Wade, who was very probably Kate Bush herself.
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Blow Away
A song on the album Never For Ever. Bearing the dedication "For Bill" this song is a tribute to Bill Duffield, a lighting technician who died after the first concert date of the Tour Of Life. The song envisions an afterlife for musicians, who are greeted on arrival by the likes of Minnie Ripperton, Keith Moon, Sid Vicious, Buddy Holly, Sandy Denny, and Marc Bolan.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Bodhran
An Irish hand drum played with a small mallet, used by Stuart Elliott on the song Army Dreamers.
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Bolan, Marc
(b. Mark Feld, 30 September 1947 - 17 September 1977) Leader of the glam-rock band T. Rex, later a solo performer, who was killed in the midst of a comeback attempt when his car struck a tree on Barnes Common. Bolan is named in the song Blow Away.
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Boneva, Stoyanka
A member of The Trio Bulgarka.
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Boo Bams
Small tunable drums which are played with the fingers or very small drumsticks. Used by Morris Pert on the song Room For The Life.
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Book Of Dreams, A
An autobiographical memoir by Peter Reich, recalling his childhood memories of his father, controversial Freudian psychologist Wilhelm Reich. This book inspired the song Cloudbusting, and can be seen in the video for that song, when Kate pulls the book out of the pocket of Donald Sutherland.
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Boomtown Rats, The
A new wave group of the late Seventies and early Eighties, formed by vocalist Bob Geldof before his collaboration with Midge Ure on the Band Aid benefit single Do They Know It's Christmas? Kate mentioned the Boomtown Rats as a favorite group in interviews during the time of their existence.
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Bouzouki
A variety of lute, originally from Greece, which has been imported into Irish music largely through the efforts of musician Donal Lunny, who plays it on the songs And Dream Of Sheep, Jig Of Life, Hello Earth, and The Sensual World.
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Brazil
Kate recorded a dark, ominous version of this classic standard, over an orchestral score by Michael Kamen, for the soundtrack album of the film Brazil, a fantasy about a nightmarish Orwellian society directed by Terry Gilliam. Her version of the song is not heard in the movie.
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Breathing
Final song on the album Never For Ever.
"In point of fact it is possible to tell the difference between a small nuclear explosion and a large one by a very simple method. The calling card of a nuclear bomb is the blinding flash that is far more dazzling than any light on earth -- brighter even than the sun itself -- and it is by the duration of this flash that we are able to determine the size of the weapon. After the flash a fireball can be seen to rise, sucking up under it the debris, dust and living things around the area of the explosion, and as this ascends, it soon becomes recognisable as the familiar 'mushroom cloud.' As a demonstration of the flash duration test let's try and count the number of seconds for the flash emitted by a very small bomb...This song is also listed in the Discography section."Then a more substantial, medium-sized bomb...
"And finally, one of our very powerful high-yield bombs..."
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Brewis, Peter
A British comedy writer, Brewis wrote the lyrics for the pastiche song England My Leotard; the tune comes largely from the song Them Heavy People.
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Bride Wore Black, The
See La Mariee Etait En Noir.
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Brooker, Gary
Founder of the classic rock group Procol Harum, best known for their Bach-influenced song A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Brooker played keyboards when Kate performed the song The Wedding List at the Prince's Trust Rock Gala on 12 July 1982. Over a decade would pass before he worked with Kate again, this time playing Hammond organ on the songs Constellation Of The Heart, And So Is Love, and You're The One.
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Brown, Faith
A British comedienne and chat show host who did a very popular impression of Kate, based on the original "Rockflix" video for the song Wuthering Heights. This impression became a staple of Brown's stage act for a time, and even won her a four-page letter of appreciation from Kate herself.
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Bryant, Andrew
Provided backing vocals on the song All We Ever Look For.
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Bubba
Kate's nickname for dancer and longtime friend Gary Hurst. The name is mentioned in the song Moments of Pleasure, where he is pictured "dancing down the aisle of a plane."
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Bullroarer
A slat of wood attached to a rope or thong, whirled quickly to produce a roaring sound. One of the earliest and simplest of musical instruments, the bullroarer is played by Paddy Bush in the song The Dreaming.
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Bunk, Junk & Genius
A London recording studio. Portions of the song Mna Na h-Eireann were recorded here.
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Burke, Kevin
Formerly in the Irish musical group the Bothy Band with Donal Lunny, Burke plays violin on the song Violin.
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Burning Bridge
A song released in Europe as the b-side of Cloudbusting and in America as the b-side of Hounds Of Love.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Bush, Catherine
(b. 30 July 1958)
Every other entry in this Dictionary is directly related to this one.
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Bush, Hannah Patricia
(1919 - 1992) Kate's mother. A former nurse. Her voice can be heard in The Ninth Wave, saying the line "Come here with me now" in the song And Dream Of Sheep, and among the many voices calling to the heroine between the tracks Under Ice and Waking The Witch. She can be seen in the video for Suspended in Gaffa. Hannah Bush passed away on Valentine's Day 1992, and the album The Red Shoes is dedicated to her memory.
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Bush, John Carder
(b. 1944) Kate's brother, also called Jay. An accomplished poet and photographer. If you have ever seen a photograph of Kate Bush, including any of the album covers from The Dreaming on, there are good odds it was taken by John. A sample of his poetry can be heard in the song Jig Of Life. He also read from his own work between songs during the Tour Of Life performances, and reads an excerpt from his poem Before The Fall to Kate's piano accompaniment in the unreleased song popularly called Organic Acid. Books have been published of his poetry and photography -- most notably, the book Cathy consists of portraits of his younger sister taken during her childhood -- and he has given readings of his poetry on radio and was published several times in the Poetry Review. Jay also holds a degree in law from Cambridge University, where he made the acquaintance of Ricky Hopper and Julie Covington, each of whom was also to play a role in the future career of his sister.
John Carder Bush has written several contributions to the Kate Bush Club Newsletter; these can be found in The Garden section.
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Bush, Paddy
(b. Patrick Bush, 9 December 1952) Kate's brother. A gifted multi-instrumentalist and raconteur, Paddy specialized in making medieval instruments at the London College of Furniture. Paddy is also described as a talented artist and model maker; he made the dancing double-bass costumes used in the video and live performances of the song Violin, perhaps the strangest application to date of his college specialty.
Apart from his many contributions to his sister's recording career -- he is one of the only people apart from Kate herself to appear on every Kate Bush album -- Paddy has maintained has maintained his own musical endeavors. He composed backing music for the poetry performance group The Salatticum Poets, with whom his brother John was involved. In 1982 he played gengong on a recording by producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, on the influential album Music And Rhythm for Peter Gabriel's organization WOMAD. Paddy has also collaborated with Colin Lloyd-Tucker under the group name Bushtucker. In 1997, Paddy Bush starred in a television documentary directed by Celia Lowenstein on the music and funerary practices of Madagascar for Britain's Channel 4.
Paddy Bush has written many contributions to the Kate Bush Club Newsletter which reflect his antic wit; these can be found in The Garden section.
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Bush, Robert John
Kate's father. A General Practitioner of medicine. His voice can be heard in the song The Fog, in the extended version of The Big Sky (The Meteorological Mix) and also among the voices calling to the heroine of The Ninth Wave between the songs Under Ice and Waking The Witch.
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Bushtucker
A collaboration between Paddy Bush and Colin Lloyd-Tucker. The duo have released an album called Skyscraping; more details can be found in the FAQ.