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the Reaching Out (Interviews) Table of Contents
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1991 02:42:36 -0800
From: rhill@pnet01.cts.com
(Ronald Hill)
Subject: "Tiswas" interview fall 1978
24. TisWas: Kate is interviewed (fall '78*) by the same woman who would host Razzmatazz in No. 50*. In the present brief interview Kate, wearing a black leather jacket, and the other woman are kneeling on the floor, close to the camera. Kate seems quite ill at ease.
* Both of these are errors [VM]
[Transcribed by Ron Hill. Above note by IED]
[Hammer Horror is shown. My tape seems to cuts in mid-sentence]
I: ...Kate.
K: Hi.
I: 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.
K: It's going really well, thanks. Yeah, it's really good.
I: 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?
K: 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.
I: And how have you found the reaction so far from the audience?
K: Incredible..
I: Yeah?
K: ... I couldn't believe it. They're so beautiful.
I: Yeah.
K: Really.
I: 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?
K: Oh, a few months. We've been working since the beginning of this year, and it's coming along well.
I: I mean, were many people involved in sort of the whole concept, or was it basically all your idea?
K: 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.
I: 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?
K: 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.
I: Last year was really definitely your year, wasn't it, sort of hit records, you won practically every award going, your first single went straight to number one. Were you sort of prepared for the success to happen as quickly as that?
K: How can you be prepared for something like that?
I: I mean, did it sort of... did it stun you slight that everything was going was going so well?
K: Oh, yeah! Absolutely, I'm still stunned by that. I obviously can't believe it. It never really sunk in. It's something that you don't expect to happen and I'm just so lucky that people chose me.
I: How old were you when you were first interested in music?
K: Since I was a kid, I mean I've been interested in music since I was about five. But when I was about eleven I actually started writing songs.
I: Could you play an instrument when you were eleven, then?
K: I was learning the violin and I didn't like it and I used to go to the piano as a sort of rebellion against the violin and I'd take it out on the piano.
I: And you'd actually started writing at that young age? Were your family musical, did they sort of encourage you?
K: Yeah, my brothers were, but I'd used to sort of lock myself away, I was quite lonely as a kid, so I used to use my piano as a friend.
I: What really inspires you then to write your songs? I mean do you actually sit down and say "right, I'm going to write a song now" or does something that happens to you give you an idea?
K: Well even if I get the idea, I have to say "right, I'm going to sit down and right the song now" because you have to make that decision] before you actually break through the thinking about it to doing it. Because that's the trouble with everything, you can think about it for ages but to actually do it is the leap. And it really depends on so much as to whether it comes together.
I: Well, Kate, thanks very much for talking to us. And good luck next week, I gather you're doing a week at the London Palladium.
K: Yeah. [Laughs]
I: I hope that goes well for you.
K: Thank you.
I: We're going to in fact hear your latest single now, the one that's doing well in the charts for you. Here's Kate Bush with "Wow."
[The video is shown]
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