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the Reaching Out (Interviews) Table of Contents
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1991 01:55:51 -0800
From: rhill@pnet01.cts.com
(Ronald Hill)
Subject: "Kate Bush In Concert", German
documentary, April 1980
43. Kate Bush In Concert: German documentary with excerpts from live performances and interview clips (conducted in English).
A Dutch version, with German voice-over omitted, also exists. Interview segments were filmed in April 1980.
1. Room For the Life;
2. Kate walking on a city street, childhood photos interposed;
3. Interview (Part I);
4. Strange Phenomena;
5. Interview (Part II);
6. Kate exercising;
7. Interview (Part III);
8. Violin;
9. Interview (Part IV);
10. Kate's family introduced;
11. In the Warm Room;
12. Hammer Horror;
13. Interview (Part V);
14. Kate studying a video;
15. Kate at a party;
16. Interview (Part VI);
17. Kite;
18. Interview with John Carder Bush in a mixing room;
19. Wuthering Heights.
[Transcribed by Ronald Hill, above note by IED. Thanks to Ed Suranyi for supplying me with tape.]
[Room For The Life live is played followed by Cathy-like photos, then Kate walking down the street and signing autographs]
I: On the music, whom do you admire. To come back to when you have been 11, 12, 13 or something. Whose was the person who admired... That you admired?
K: When I was that young, it was really the music that my brothers played and I'd pick out the stuff that I like and listen to it with them. And...
I: What kind of music they play...
K: They were into King Crimson, at that time, and Pink Floyd, and Blind Faith, Fleetwood Mac, that sort of thing. They were the first, and the Stones of course, these were really the first bit of contemporary music I was getting into. And the Beatles, obviously.
I: When you created your personal tastes, who was [??? favorite] people?
K: I think probably a little of everyone, especially traditional music, because that was what was happening in this house when I was tiny. And I think that's...
I: What kind of traditional music?
K: English folk music, Irish folk music. My brothers were into playing it. And I think that had a very strong effect on me.
[Strange Phenomena live is played]
I: Do you think it's a... this job takes part of you're physical power?
K: Yeah, I think it's very mentally tiring, more than physically. I think touring is physically tiring, but I think, really most of the other things involved are much more mentally exhausting, like concentration is the main thing, really. And, like, having to do things all day and just keep up and not sorta do this [makes exhausted motion] after three hours. But it's very good, because it teaches you to draw on energies that maybe you didn't think you had and you have to sustain it. And I think it's a very good exercise.
I: You always thought there's only way, the only one way is to be professional?
K: I think it is the only. Especially in this business you have to be professional about everything, really. Because it's so important to keep in control and keep cool.
[Kate exercising]
K: When I preform, that's just something that happens in me. It just takes over, you know. It's like suddenly feeling that you've leapt into another structure, almost like another person, and you just do it. But when I'm not working, I'm very much me. I mean I certainly wouldn't soon dance around the table and sing. Like now, I'm just being me, and I think they're very separate, and I have to keep them separate, otherwise I think I'd go mad.
[An excerpt of Violin live is played]
I: Was your family, in one way, making you creative, or...?
K: Yeah, I think so. I think, I mean they're very responsible for me entering this path of life. Without.. especially my brothers, they were very musical. I mean, all the time there'd be music in the house, from the time I can first remember. And to have that around you is bound to effect and either take you right away from it or make you jump into it. And I obviously joined in, because it was fascinating for me. And we used to sing things and...
I: What was your father doing?
K: He's a doctor, but he used to play the piano. He's musical, too. It seems to run in the family.
I: And even if you've been 11 years old, there was no other way to go then in music?
K: I don't know about that. I mean it was definitely the thing that I felt very deeply. But I guess that I felt that I should have some sort of career in mind that was normal, because it's the expected thing. But I don't think my heart was really in it, I think I was truly into music all the time, but I didn't really want to allow it.
I: And your parents, they told "you have to learn something serious that makes your living?"
K: Yeah, I think they were concerned that I should have a future that at least would be stable, and the music business is probably one of the most unstable businesses you can even dream of getting into. But I think they realized how much music means to me, and how much I get out of it, and for them, for any parents the best thing is to see your children happy.
[Scenes of Kate in family farm, then cuts to interview with Dr. Bush, Mrs. Bush, Kate, Paddy, and John. Kate seems somewhat shy being around her whole family. Everybody laughs.]
Hannah Bush: [inaudible] Oh, in the show. I like her in all of it actually, the quality, her performance, and her stamina.
Hannah: Stamina, yes. I mean her stamina is fantastic. I mean she had to go on... We're very proud of that. [Taps Kate on the shoulder] Very professional, uh huh, isn't she?
I: Have you every saw a risk in this profession of your daughter?
Dr. Bush: What sort of risk?
I: I mean a risk to make a living out, this show business.
Dr. Bush: No, not really. I always had great confidence that she would make it, from when she was about 14 I think. Risk, well of course there's risk, but I thought there was... I'm her great fan I think from when she was very young and hadn't got much of a voice. I always knew there was something so original, that I was sure she would make it.
[In The Warm Room live is shown, then Hammer Horror live.]
I: I read in many interviews that people call you a sex symbol, how do you react to that?
K: I think it's really quite funny, 'cause it's the last thing in the world I'd ever have thought, you know, I'd be labeled as. And it's... I don't know it's incredibly flattering but I can't conceive it, myself. [Laughs]. It's quite funny.
[Kate and John watching a video]
I: Do you think there is a certain image about you already established?
K: Yeah, I mean I think that...
I: What kind of an image?
K: Well I can only really interpret it from what other people see it as. Because they're the ones that see it, I just do it. And I'm not sure, I think they get a theatrical thing. And hopefully it's just a little more interesting then if I was just standing. I'm trying to project something that will say something rather than just flit.
I: And I think that in our society it's very common to have put everybody in little boxes. So as you have definitely an image, but what kind of an image you want?
K: Well I suppose I don't really want an image. I just feel that whenever I preform anything, which is really where the image comes from... Images do seem to be physical. YOu don't often get an image from someone's music, you get an image of them as a person. And for me I'd like that to keep changing, because I don't think I have an image, I just try to project whatever's happening in a song at that moment. And every song is different, and that's how I would like to be - I would like to be different with every song. Rather than the same old thing, do you know what I mean?
[Kate at a party]
I: One half of the job is publicity. How do you handle this, it tires you sometimes? Or its boring for you sometimes?
K: I guess out of everything that I have to do, its the thing that I question the most. Because it was something that I was very aware of when I was outside the business. You know like, just reading articles of my heroes and maybe reading something that I thought "No!", you know, "They wouldn't do that." And when I started doing it, I realized that maybe half the things I'd read just weren't true, but I'd believe them. And that worries me to a certain extent that things that are written down, that maybe have been slightly misinterpreted, will be totally believed by an awful lot of people.
[Kite live is played. Kate and John Carter Bush are interviewed]
K: On the business side, especially Jay is involved, and my father too. There's so much to deal with.
I: What your father do?
K: Well, he sorta ... he'll go along to meetings because he's a director of the company. And...
I: What company.
K: Our company, we have a company. And just sorta sort out the points? Things that I just couldn't really have the time to do, or really the knowledge either.
I: And can you explain what you do for Kate.
John Carter Bush: Yes, well it's a sorta coordinating process, really. The company was formed when it looked as though she was going to become popular and there's the administration of that basically. We use a solicitor and accountant, alot of people in advisory capacities, so there's liaison between them as well. And the whole thing is really to just structure it so that the final decision on anything becomes Kate's, which tends to be unusual in the rock music. Especially when sorta somebody has suddenly become popular, they usually then find that they got a lot of hassles with their record companies and so on, which weren't thought of, you know, before they become popular. But it's been avoided in Kate's case.
[Scenes of Kate at mixing console]
I: Kate, was the tour a financial success, or was it just for publicity, to promote you?
K: What, the tour?
I: Yes.
K: It certainly wasn't for financial success, because touring is, well certainly the way we did it to, was much more a loss thing then making money. Because the amount of money it cost to actually get the thing together, to get it organized - all the people involved - it just cost a tremendous amount of money. And there's no way that you'd probably even make even, you would lose.
I: How many people are involved in the tour, altogether?
K: Well, altogether actually on the tour, there were about forty people, which is a lot. But besides that, there's like John working on the co-ordination and Hill and our solicitors and publicity people. It's just an enormous thing.
[Wuthering Heights live is played]
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