FEATURE:
Brief Return
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with John Lydon at the Q Awards in October 2001
Kate Bush and the Q Interview of 2001
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THIS is the final feature…
that I will take from the MOJO edition that came out recently. Among the Kate Bush features that were in there, one that really struck me was a great and memorable interview that she provided to Q in 2001. To mark twenty years (almost) since Bush briefly returned to the media spotlight, I wanted to provide some reflections on that interview. There is a great photo in the magazine with Bush at the Q Awards in October 2001 with one of her heroes, John Lydon. I remember that time and, as it was a month after the terrorist attacks in the U.S., the atmosphere must have been less jovial and celebratory than unusual. John Hazelwood writes for MOJO and he started off the article by asking why Bush sort of came out of a wilderness and spoke to Q. Her last album was 1993’s The Red Shoes; it would be another four years before she came out with the double album, Aerial. As that album was in her mind in 2001, maybe she was keen to talk about music or, knowing the album might not come out for a while, show the public that she was still about! In 1998, Bush became a mother. The public were informed of that through newspaper stories and rumours. I can understand why Bush would have wanted to engage with a magazine and make an appearance.
Bush said herself that it was weird that she was giving an interview when she had no work out. I suppose that is the way we have been conditioned: that actors, musicians and anyone in the creative industries only conducts interviews when they have something to sell; the fact that they would agree to an interview without that motivation seems strange. Regardless, Bush was doing something very rare in music (especially for someone as popular as her) and there were clear nerves from her. Q was MOJO’s sister magazine (it sadly came to an end last year). I love how Hazelwood describes his meeting with Bush. She wanted to control her nerves by taking control of the in interview. Having the setting as one of the Harrods restaurants might not be the most obvious location for an interview but, as he says, she was hiding in plain sight – nobody clocked her or made a fuss. Indeed, Hazelwood wondered if he would recognise Bush when he walked in! The fact that she looked like a slightly older version of her younger self meant that, instantly, any potential embarrassment was averted. There was a mix of the extravagant and homely – just what you would expect from Kate Bush! She was in quite a posh setting but, rather than being flanked by a team and creating a tense environment, she was on a shopping trip with her family.
With Danny McIntosh and her young son, Bertie, she could kill two birds with one stone by getting some shopping done and doing an interview (as one does!). I am not sure whether she would have seen it as a massive deal. So many years after her last interview and round of promotion, few would have expected any word from her! Bertie and his dad departed, so it was left to Bush and Hazelwood to chat. In chronological terms, I suppose the short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve was one of the most recent and discussion-worthy jumping-off points. Bush stated how she regretted doing it: “I was so tired. I’m very pleased with four minutes of it, but very disappointed with the rest”. Bush stated (perhaps unfairly) how she blew the chance to make something big and important. To be fair, she was biting off a lot by writing, directing as well as appearing in the film. If she had let someone else direct then that might have resulted in a better product. Bush was directing videos and fully involved in the creative process, so I can appreciate why she was determined to take on all these duties. She wanted the film to resemble, as closely as possible, what she had in mind. As she had recorded The Red Shoes and things were pretty hectic; maybe her quality control and concentration was not at a high level.
I really like The Line, the Cross and the Curve, though the gulf between expectation and the final result must have been quite extreme. Bush explained how she was seen in a negative light at that point, much like she was when The Dreaming arrived in 1982 – “It dissipated my energy severely and threw me into a state of exhaustion. You just get worn down”. The fact that her mother, Hannah, died in 1992 and she had this couple of years of negativity and depression resulted in her stepping away from the limelight. Many people ask why Bush ‘disappeared’. She was not being reclusive or quitting music. Instead, she was still mourning her mother’s death and having to process some of the most negative press of her career. She also broke up with her long-time boyfriend, Del Palmer, around this same period. It was a devastating and hard time where she felt detachment was a way to cope. Watching, as she said, a lot of rubbish T.V. and not being motivated to work, it is as bit of a blessing that Bush was able to recover, be inspired to work and not retire from music. The fact she found new love and meaning is a big reason why she wanted to be interviewed in 2001. As she told Hazelwood: “…I look at him and I know it does”. She was referring to a belief in magic after the birth of her son.
Clearly, Bush was in a much better headspace and she had recovered a lot of purpose and happiness since 1993. Bush was asked whether she would want her son to follow her into music. She explained how she wants him to be happy; she knows how tough the industry can be. Asked whether her own music made her happy, Bush answered with “Yeah, sort of…”. Hazelwood raced ahead in time and noted how Bertie would become Albert. He would study Physics at Oxford University and join her on the stage for 2014’s Before the Dawn. Bush was giving an interview, I guess, to say to fans and her label at the time (EMI) to be patient and she was still very much around. She had bought herself time with Bertie and being in a family. That familial setting and happiness inspired a lot of Aerial and, with that, she would go on to undertake new interviews. As we look ahead to twenty years since that interview, there has almost been as long a gap as the seven or eight years between The Red Shoes and the 2001 Q interview. She did some interviews in 2016 to promote the live album of her Before the Dawn residency but, since then, there has been very little. Maybe we will not see a similar interview where Bush speaks with a magazine or newspaper a few years before a new album comes out. A lot has changed since 2001. She has a grown-up son and there is probably not the same expectation for her to come back. After a bad year in 1993 and some bad press, the fact she started a new family meant, to me, an album was inevitable. Maybe she will follow 50 Words for Snow soon but, with so many magazine features and books about her being released, we have plenty to keep us occupied! I love the MOJO spread regarding the Q interview. Who else but Bush would hold an interview at a Harrods restaurant and talk about her past work just after her family has left to do some shopping?! Thinking about it and it…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Before the Dawn residency in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features
COULD only be her!