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From: rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
Date: Fri, 07 Aug 92 21:00:03
PDT
Subject: The Sun - Sept 22, 1978 by Nina Myskow
SWEET KATE!
The very private life of the Top Twenty mystery girl
By Nina Myskow - The Sun's Queen of Pop
The Sun - Sept 22, 1978
KATE BUSH is the mystery girl of the pop world. Ever since her weird and wonderful single, Wuthering Heights soared its way to the top of the charts, fans have found her fascinating.
She sings in a strange, swooping way. And when she first appeared on Top Of The Pops, the effect was electrifying.
Moving like a beautiful, willowy gipsy, she seemed strangely unusual. But is she?
I found her normal, friendly, sweet. And just plain nice.
Pop singers are not noted for their punctuality, but she arrived at the photographer's studio where we met, exactly on time.
A tiny, slender girl, very polite.
Was she aware that people thought she might be a bit strange?
She said: "I didn't even think that my voice was unusual until people started mentioning it.
"Perhaps because I'm a songwriter they think I'm a bit different, that there might be something unexplored about me."
Songwriting is her main passion. She started writing early in her teens and Wuthering Heights was written when she was just 16.
Fans
She said: "I saw the end of the serial on television.
"I hadn't read the book, but that inspired me to read it, and that, in turn, inspired the song."
Now 19, Kate has had two hit singles - the other was [The] Man With The Child In His Eyes - and a good album, The Kick Inside, which comprised 13 or her own compositions.
Her follow-up album is due at the end of October.
She appeals to an amazingly wide-ranging audience. From older pop fans to children.
"I always hoped that I'd reach as many people as possible," she said. "It's lovely to get fan letters, particularly from the kids.
"I got a lovely fan letter recently from two little boys written in big loopy handwriting, including photos of themselves which I've pinned up in my flat."
Kate remembers her own days as a fan.
"When I was younger I had a really big thing about Elton John," she said, "I was really crazy about him, his music, everything he did.
Thrill "I knew classical pianists from records, but he was the first great popular piano player I heard.
"I used to sit and listen to his records for hours. I wanted to be able to play like him, so I used to practice harder."
Kate even sent Elton a fan letter.
"I wrote saying how much I like him," she said. "I quoted some of Bernie Tauplin's lyrics and told him how I played his music when I was low, and how much better I'd feel.
"I took it round to the BBC. I didn't know where else to send it. I don't suppose he ever got it.
"I've never met him, I'd love to, of course, but it wouldn't be same. It would still be a thrill, though."
Kate's other musical influences come from her family.
"I have my mother to thank for that. She's Irish, and all her family are musical, and could get up and just dance and sing."
Friends
It was Kate's parents who encourage her to do something with her songs when she was 15.
"I never thought I'd get anywhere or be successful," she said.
"Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, a friend of a friend of her two brothers, provided the link with the record company who signed her up a year later.
Her younger brother, Paddy, 25, is a member of Kate's backing band.
Kate has lived on her own in a flat in London for three years.
"I love being on my own with just two cats," she said. "It's really good for me.
"I decided to leave home because I couldn't stand the traveling from Kent where we lived to my dance classes in London."
Kate works out her dance routines for her songs in her flat.
"I learned a lot from Lindsay Kemp's mime classes.
"I just put the tape on and work out what it should be," she said.
"I don't use a mirror. I haven't got a big one in the flat, only my dressing-table mirror.
"It gets so depressing looking at yourself if it's not right."
What she sees in her mirror must be far from depressing.
She has a heart-catching face with luminous skin and a perfect shape.
She looked stunning in the outfit we had chosen for her to wear.
Kate also looked fantastic in her own clothes - simple cord jeans and a satin waistcoat.
When she has time off, Kate likes to spend it just pottering about her flat and seeing friends.
"I've got quite a few friends I've known for years," she said. "One special friend, Lisa, I've know since I was nine. She's a telephonist"
Kate seems unaware of the devastating effect she has on her male fans.
She said: "I didn't realise that they fancy me the way you say."
Happy
"I don't meet many men on a chat-up level."
Kate is very happy, though, about her love life. There is a new man around.
"We've been going out for a couple of weeks," she said. "He's a friend of my brothers. He's not in the music business, but he's great."
I thought she was very nice, too.
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