FEATURE:
Between a Man and a Woman
PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
Kate Bush and Mark Radcliffe
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I am ramping back up…
my Kate Bush features, as there are things that have come to mind that I need to discuss. It is interesting how, even though Bush has not put out an album for almost a decade – I am not including the 2016 release of Before the Dawn (as that is a live album) -, there is still this fascination and room for exploration. Ahead of the tenth anniversary (on 16th May) of Bush’s ninth studio album, Director’s Cut, it is timely that I am highlighting someone who interviewed her when she was promoting that album. I have been thinking a lot about Bush’s interviews and some of the best through the year. Whilst she has spoken with a lot of people through the years, there are people that Bush sort of ‘comes back to’ – those she trusts and has a great bond with. I may explore other interviewers in a bit such as John Wilson. The BBC Radio 4 Front Line host spoke with Bush when she released 2005’s Aerial, in addition to Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow in 2011. The same can be said for Mark Radcliffe. When you hear Bush being interviewed by Wilson, you can sense the rapport and warmth. This is a quality that reveals itself when one listens to interviews she conducted with Radcliffe. Unfortunately, for some reason, the interview Radcliffe conducted with Bush for 50 Words for Snow is not on YouTube (it was a few weeks ago) – so I will drop in the interviews for Aerial and Director’s Cut. One reason why I wanted to highlight Mark Radcliffe’s love of Kate Bush is because, before 2005, there had been this long-held desire and campaign to interview one of his music heroines (I shall explain more a bit later). Bush sent a ‘good luck’ comment to Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2 in 2007 ahead of his show moving to a new 8 p.m. timeslot (the message was played on the station on Thursday, 5th April).
One of Mark's fave vinyl possessions, his signed copy of The Sensual World by Kate Bush @RSDUK #RSDFillTheGap pic.twitter.com/q57wBvtVDf
— BBC 6 Music Studio (@6MusicStudio) April 18, 2020
When it comes to Kate Bush passion, there are few who exert the same level as Radcliffe! Born the same year as her (1958), I can imagine his love for her music started quite young. I know her holds her 1989 album, The Sensual World, in very high regard. One can be certain that, when Bush releases another studio album, Mark Radcliffe will get another opportunity to interview her. I know his BBC Radio 6 Music colleague and co-host, Stuart Maconie, is also a big Kate Bush fan (and he has interviewed her at least once before). Their weekend breakfast show would be the perfect slot for an interview. Let’s hope that Radcliffe and Bush get to combine once more very soon. Rather than simply drop in a couple of interviews between Radcliffe and Bush, I wanted to source some articles/interviews where Radcliffe discusses his experiences with Bush and why he loves her music. I wonder whether we will see a Wuthering Heights documentary from Radcliffe. As Kate Bush News reported in September 2020, there were rumours, suggestions and rumblings:
“BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Mark Radcliffe has posted several tweets recently of a trip he made to Haworth in Yorkshire, to make a film about Kate and the song that started it all, Wuthering Heights. The documentary should be aired sometime around Christmas. Mark has been a vocal supporter of Kate ever since creating the “Bushometer” on his radio show in the early 2000s before Aerial was released, counting down to his dream of interviewing Kate, which he has now since done more than once!”.
It would be good to see a documentary from Radcliffe as I myself have trying to pitch a Kate Bush documentary to the BBC and sundry sources – to little avail or much positivity from them. The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill was released in 2014 to coincide with Bush returning to the stage with Before the Dawn. That documentary, as I have said a lot, has some positives - though there are areas for improvement and some negatives…no less the mere one-hour running time and the fact the documentary is more an overview of Bush and her music rather than a deep dive! In August 2014, The Big Issue spoke with a host of people who talked about what makes Bush great – and what to expect from her gigs:
“On August 26, at London’s Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, Kate Bush makes her long-awaited, never-dreamed-of return to the live arena. Rumours of a big, theatrical extravaganza are buzzing, but the show has been kept firmly under wraps. This week Kate herself implored fans to just connect with the rest of the audience – and her – rather than view the shows through smartphones and cameras. As the excitement builds, The Big Issue spoke to a host of people who know and love her about what makes Kate great, and what to expect at the gigs… hold on to your hats!
Here, MARK RADCLIFFE, Radio 2 and 6Music DJ who’s bagged the best interviews with Kate Bush at her home, unravels the mystery of her music…
She’s got everything: she’s personable, beautiful, talented and yet she has a layer on top of that of sheer originality. She’s a one-off. Her work is magical. I love her voice, I love her piano playing, I love her composition and ideas. Her records take you to another place.
My favourite album of recent times is A Sky of Honey, the second disc on Aerial, which has birdsong all the way through, tracking a day with birdsong. I love the song on there Somewhere In Between, it works as a piece of pop music but it’s in the middle of this concept album.
There’s no one else in the whole world who would have thought of doing this. 50 Words for Snow, those long songs, just her at the piano; she does exactly what she wants to do and has the confidence to carry it through.
From a very early age she could make the music industry bend to her will, whereas the other way around was the norm. She then took time off to be a mother to her son, even though she was kind of working but not at any particularly great rate in those years.
Kate Bush is that old-fashioned thing, she’s an artist – she creates this music and a by-product is people want to know about her personal life. And she doesn’t want to tell them. She doesn’t want to put it on Facebook, it’s her private life. What she prizes over all else is being able to live a normal life with her family.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush captured in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton/National Portrait Gallery, London
The thing I found most surprising when I met her is that she was completely normal, she’s a really friendly, chatty, welcoming, working mum. The first time I went to her house she hadn’t had time to make any food so she’s got this cheese flan from the supermarket, she hadn’t made any particular effort in what she was wearing, she was just going about her day and that day happened to include me as well as taking her son Bertie to school and whatever else she was doing.
She’s absolutely not crazy (despite tabloid clichés). It’s not for me to speak for her, but I don’t think she’s wildly over-concerned, my impression was she finds it quite funny that they think she swans around in a batwing dress in a gothic castle. She’s picking up cheese flans from the supermarket!
I never thought I would get the chance to see her live, I didn’t see her one and only tour and I just never thought it would happen. When I’ve interviewed her I’ve always asked about it and she always said “I’ve not ruled it out”, but I never took that as an indication she was really serious about it. So it was quite a big surprise when she announced the dates.
I would be very surprised if it was anything other than quite theatrical, dramatic and well-designed with some over-arching concept to it, but I’m guessing”.
She cares very much about what people think about the work. She always asks you very carefully about it. She is interested, and the reaction to records is very important to her, she pours her heart and soul into them.
She is wildly imaginative and creative, and she’s fantastically single-minded, quite pragmatic about what needs to be done, not an airy-fairy flighty idea: it’s work, it’s art, the process of creation, and she takes all that very seriously. She has meticulous control over all the music and the artwork. She’s a one-off, a true original. And she’s fantastically good humoured and giggly and smiley”.
Although I have said that Radcliffe holds The Sensual World in high esteem (which is true), the fact that he first got to spend a lot of time with Kate Bush when she promoted Aerial means that the 2005 double album holds a very special place in his heart. The album’s second disc, A Sky of Honey, is a mesmeric piece of work. In 2019, Jude Rogers was writing for The Quietus and spoke with Radcliffe about his music tastes. A Sky of Honey was one of his album picks:
“Kate Bush – A Sky Of Honey (one half of Aerial)
Picking half an album is probably cheating, but this half of the album is worth a whole album to me. I like A Sea Of Honey [the first half] too, don't get me wrong, but this is something almost beyond music. The idea of it being carried through birdsong, starting with her child's voice, then travelling through a single day in the summer through to night, with Kate imitating the birds herself, then going through to the morning… what an amazing idea. Seeing her doing this at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 was one of the highlights of my life. I'd interviewed her three or four times at this point – she's lovely, and once made me a cheese pie – and I'd always hate having to say, well, 'Kate, would you ever…', feeling really embarrassed to ask her about touring. I never thought she would again, but she'd always say, 'I haven't ruled it out.' And there we were.
I've loved how she treats releasing music as something to do when she wants to do it. I know she can afford to, but what a great attitude that is – she could have released a lot more of it, and been pressured to do so. I mean, I can barely imagine what it must have been like being a teenage girl in the 1970s emerging into a pop industry full of the middle-aged equivalents to today's Jeffrey Epstein figures. Unbelievably tough. To come out of that so assured and confident and do her thing without ever compromising – I admire that so much”.
As Radcliffe revealed to The Star (the banner headline/paragraph explained how “The fates dealt Mark Radcliffe a tough hand in 2018. In the space of 12 months his father died, his dog passed away, the BBC 6 Music radio show he presents with Stuart Maconie was abruptly shunted from weekday afternoons to weekend mornings and – most worryingly of all – he was diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck”), he won Bush’s trust. Even though she is fiercely private, he did manage to find out a little about her. I love the interviews he has conducted with Kate Bush - let’s hope the 50 Words for Snow interview goes back up soon (there is a good one Bush conducted with Jamie Cullum that is missing too). The long and fascinating Aerial interview is worth seeking out. I also really like the 2011 interviews. It is clear that Bush likes Radcliffe and enjoys speaking with him. There is a natural back and forth and chemistry that means, as I said, it is highly likely he will be invited back for an interview if and when Bush releases another album – let’s hope it is post-pandemic so that he gets to visit her at her home! I feel interviews are an important aspect of Bush’s career; in the sense we can learn things about her that we do not get from the music. There have been a list of one-off interviewers. In an exclusive club is Mark Radcliffe. I love a lot of the interviews Bush has conducted, though there is something special about her chats with Radcliffe. Each of their interviews is…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow
SUCH a wonderful and intimate listen.