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Palmer, Del
(b. 3 November 1952) A central figure in Kate's life and career. A self-taught bass player from London who started playing at the age of twelve, when a band formed with his friend Brian Bath needed someone to take up that instrument. Palmer (and Bath) joined the KT Bush Band through his friendship with Kate's older brother Paddy Bush.
Palmer was unable to appear on the album The Kick Inside, due to producer Andrew Powell's preference for session musicians, but made his presence known by contributing an illustration for the back cover of the album. Palmer went on to play bass on the songs Wow, Kashka From Baghdad, Hammer Horror, Blow Away, Egypt, The Wedding List, Violin, There Goes A Tenner, Suspended In Gaffa, Night Of The Swallow, All The Love, Running Up That Hill, Jig Of Life, The Morning Fog, The Sensual World, Reaching Out, Between A Man And A Woman, and Rocket Man. He plays Fairlight on Waking The Witch, and contributes handclapping on The Big Sky (with Charlie Morgan), backing vocals on Houdini and Cloudbusting, and percussion and rhythm guitar on Heads We're Dancing. In addition, he has engineered virtually every recording made by Kate Bush since the album Hounds Of Love.
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Panpipes
A graduated series of flutes bound together, or carved out of a single block of wood or stone. Also called a syrinx. Played by Paddy Bush on the song Kashka From Baghdad.
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Parker, Alan
A veteran session musician who played guitar on the song Saxophone Song.
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Parsons, Alan
Although he has never worked directly with Kate, EMI studio boffin Alan Parsons is indirectly connected to her through a number of collaborators they have in common. He served as an assistant engineer on the Beatles album Abbey Road (produced, of course, by George Martin) and Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon (a group including, naturally, one Dave Gilmour) and produced albums by Pilot and Cockney Rebel before founding his own studio group The Alan Parsons Project. Ian Bairnson, David Paton, Duncan Mackay, and Stuart Elliott were all involved with this group prior to the recording of The Kick Inside; one Andrew Powell served as arranger. Small world!
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Passing Through Air
A song recorded as a demo by Dave Gilmour in 1973, ultimately released as the b-side of the single Army Dreamers. The only one of Kate's demo recordings ever to be officially released. See the Phoenix section for more information.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Paton, David
Former bass player with Pilot and The Alan Parsons Project, Paton plays bass on the songs Moving, Strange Phenomena, Kite, 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, Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake, Fullhouse, and Coffee Homeground. He also plays acoustic guitar on the songs Wuthering Heights and Oh To Be In Love, and provides backing vocals on Oh To Be In Love.
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Pearson, Justin
Strings on the song Reaching Out, with the Balavescu String Quartet.
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Perrier, Peter
Drummer with the group Unicorn, Perrier played on three demos recorded at Dave Gilmour's home studio in 1973; of these songs, only Passing Through Air was ever released.
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Pert, Morris
Percussion on the songs Strange Phenomena, Kite, Wuthering Heights, Breathing, and The Big Sky; Boo Bams on the song Room For the Life; timpani on the song All We Ever Look For.
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Pethig, Hazel
A highly regarded and talented costume designer who began her career with the television program Monty Python's Flying Circus. Films which bear her distinctive touch include Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Life Of Brian, A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, and the controversial television series The Singing Detective. Pethig designed the costumes for The Line The Cross And The Curve, simultaneously providing a striking look for the production and further cementing the links between Kate Bush and the British comedy scene.
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Piano
Having been obliged to take up the violin, Kate began playing piano of her own accord by age 12, ostensibly to accompany Paddy during his violin practice. She began to write songs on an old honky-tonk piano bought for 200 pounds. When Wuthering Heights went to Number 1 on the British singles chart (the date was 7 March 1978) Kate celebrated by purchasing a Steinway piano for £7,000.
Although she has largely abandoned the piano as a writing tool for the Fairlight CMI, she continued to have a strong sympathy for the instrument, as this comment from a 1985 interview suggests:
"I think my favorite piano is the one I have at home. It's an upright Bechstein. It's absolutely beautiful, but it's not ideal for master recordings. For me, the piano is one of the most difficult things to record well. It sounds good in the room, but it doesn't always sound good coming through the speakers. But I like Bechsteins, and I think Steinways are quite good. I find that it sometimes helps for the piano to be older. I have a Grotrian-Steinweg piano that I use all the time in our studio, and that seems quite nice."
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Pilot
Best known for their single Magic -- one of those inescapable radio songs that you know even if you think you don't -- this mid-Seventies glam-rock group consisted of keyboardist Billy Lyall, drummer Stuart Tosh, guitarist Ian Bairnson, and bassist David Paton. The latter two were recruited by Andrew Powell for the album The Kick Inside.
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Pirates of Penzance, The
In January 1982, Kate turned down an offer to play the role of Mabel, daughter of the Major-General, in this 1879 operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Plane At Night Searching For Someone Lost At Sea, A
See Someone Lost At Sea Signalling A Plane For Help.
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Playing Canasta In Cold Rooms
Also known as Rinfy The Gypsy. This is a provisional title given to a demo version of a song which was never released. It is available only on bootleg recordings; see the Phoenix section for more information.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Powell, Andrew
An arranger and producer who previously worked with The Alan Parsons Project. Powell served as arranger on early demo recordings produced by Dave Gilmour at AIR Studios in London in June 1975; the songs recorded were Saxophone Song, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, and a still-unreleased song known as Maybe. He then served as producer of the albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart. In addition, Powell plays keyboards on Saxophone Song, electric piano on Strange Phenomena, bass and celeste on Wuthering Heights, synthesizer on Oh To Be In Love, beer bottles on Room For The Life, joanna strumentum on Kashka From Baghdad, and harmonium on Hammer Horror. He also co-wrote and co-arranged (with Dave Lawson) strings for the song Houdini.
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Powell, Michael
(b. Michael Latham Powell, 30 September 1905 - 19 February 1990) A British director of fifty-four films, author of eight books, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and actor. Many of his greatest accomplishments were made in partnership with the Hungarian emigre Emeric Pressburger. Under the joint name The Archers, the pair cowrote, coproduced, and codirected a landmark series of films, including One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing, The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I'm Going, A Matter Of Life And Death (formerly known in the U.S. as Stairway To Heaven), Black Narcissus, and of course The Red Shoes. Each of these is among the finest movies ever made. Kate Bush, an avid film buff and admirer of his work, met Powell in New York City shortly before his death due to cancer at age 84; the song Moments Of Pleasure is in part a remembrance of that encounter.
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Price, Nick
Artist who created the cover artwork for the album Never For Ever, the single December Will Be Magic Again, and the back sleeve of the single Sat In Your Lap. Price also performed the aquatinting of the front sleeve photo on the album The Dreaming.
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Prince, The Artist Formerly Known As
(b. Prince Rogers Nelson, 7 June 1958) Also known at various times as "The Artist" and by an unreproduceable glyph, this Minneapolis wunderkind arranged and added vocals and various instrumental parts to the song Why Should I Love You? Speaking for the record, Kate has opined:
"Prince is an extraordinary talent...and a bit clever...In the time it took me to make one album he had released three albums, completed two world tours, a TV special, various videos and is still a better guitarist than me."
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Prince's Trust Rock Gala, The
A charity event in aid of the Prince's Trust held on 21 July 1982. Asked to take the place of David Bowie on a scant 48 hours notice, Kate performed the song The Wedding List, backed by the all-star lineup of Pete Townshend and Midge Ure on guitars, Mick Karn on bass, Gary Brooker on keyboards, and Phil Collins on drums. Despite a minor problem in wardrobe on stage, it proved to be a significant night; she later worked with all but Townshend and Collins on other projects. The concert was released as a video.
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Prophet 5
Manufactured by the Sequential Circuits Corporation, this was one of the old breed of analog synthesizers, with sounds produced through voltage-controlled oscillators rather than digital samples. The Prophet 5 was quite advanced in its day; it was possible to play five notes on the keyboard at one time. The Prophet 5 is played by Mike Moran on the song Egypt.
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Pull Out The Pin
A song on the album The Dreaming. This song was inspired by a television documentary film:
"I saw this incredible documentary by this Australian cameraman who went on the front line in Vietnam, filming from the Vietnamese point of view, so it was very biased against the Americans. He said it really changed him, because until you live on their level like that, when it's complete survival, you don't know what it's about. He's never been the same since, because it's so devastating, people dying all the time."The way he portrayed the Vietnamese was as this really crafted, beautiful race. The Americans were these big, fat, pink, smelly things who the Vietnamese could smell coming for miles because of the tobacco and cologne. It was devastating, because you got the impression that the Americans were so heavy and awkward, and the Vietnamese were so beautiful and all getting wiped out. They wore a little silver Buddha on a chain around their neck and when they went into action they'd pop it into their mouth, so if they died they'd have Buddha on their lips."
The documentary filmmaker was Neil Davis, who worked in Southeast Asia from 1964 until his death in 1985. Davis did indeed report the war from the Vietnamese point of view -- the ARVN (Army of the Republic of South Vietnam) point of view. This alone would not serve to make him biased against the Americans, their allies. (It has been suggested that Kate wasn't paying very much attention while watching the documentary, or that her own expectations colored her recollection of it.) Davis was eventually killed by a burst of shrapnel in a street in Bangkok on 9 September 1985.
An excellent biography of Davis called One Crowded Hour has been written by Tim Bowden, a close friend of Davis. In a pleasing coincidence, the foreword of this book begins:
"Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife,
Throughout the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life
Is worth an age without a name."
The lines are by Thomas Osbert Mordaunt (1730 - 1809), written during the Seven Years' War of 1756 - 1763. The biography informs us that Davis wrote the last two lines of Mordaunt's verse in the flyleaf of every work diary he kept in Southeast Asia. Davis told Bowden it was his motto, and summed up his philosophy.
This song is also listed in the Discography section.
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Pyewacket
A cat (felis catus, member of family Felidae). This feline member of Kate's household was, with fellow cat Zoodle, the subject of a comic strip Kate drew for the Kate Bush Club Newsletter.