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Singer Kate Bush's fascinating amber eyes gazed at the Thames as she said: "I want to establish myself other than as the girl with the squeaky voice. I want to become more than a warbler...
"I was worried that the public was only into the bizarre quality of my first record."
She meant the extraordinary "Wuthering Heights" song she wrote and sung to the top of the hit parade in a high-pitched oriental sound.
It's for this reason that 19-year-old doctor's daughter Kate is all the more delighted that her latest record "Man with the Child in His Eyes" is a hit.
On this she sings in her normal voice, rather than sounding as if she's stepped out of the world of Suzy Wong.
"I'm thrilled that the public are with me," said the girl EMI started backing as a 16-year-old songwriter with a £3,000 advance and whose LP The Kick Inside is also high in the ratings.
The song is about men, whom the 19-year-old Kate believes are all little boys at heart.
Although she doesn't have a steady boyfriend, she likes men. I asked her what qualities men have to have to attract her.
"I'm just concerned about the human being. I'm not after money -- so I'm not interested in rich men. I like men who are good and interesting."
She is certainly a pretty girl, with a gipsy quality about her delicate features. She lives in a Lewisham house with two pet cats and her two brothers, although she grew up in Welling, Kent, where her father is a GP.
Her 25-year-old brother Paddy plays mandolin and is a member of the group she has just formed to back her on a planned concert tour.
Kate's big break came when Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour heard Kate sing some of her songs at the piano at her parent's house. He volunteered to pay for her to record some tracks and present them to EMI.
Although EMI immediately decided she had potential, they felt that at 16 she was too young. They put her under contract, leaving her to prepare for the important day by investing in lessons in mime and dance.
"The were right," said Kate. "I wouldn't have been ready for it then. But now I am. I'm very critical of what I do and I really fight for what I want to get. "
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the Reaching Out (Interviews) Table of Contents
"The pull and the push of it all..." - Kate Bush
Reaching Out
is a
Marvick - Hill
Willker -
Mapes
Fitzgerald-Morris
Grepel - Love-Hounds
Presentation