FEATURE:
In Discussion…
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Following This Woman's Work: A Kate Bush Symposium: Looking Ahead to Kate Bush Events in 2022
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THIS is a drum that I am going to beat…
PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Forster/ANL/REX/Shutterstock
quite a bit through this year. I think most of us are looking to the future and hoping that next year is a lot brighter than this one. One hopes that the pandemic will be far less of a problem when 2022 begins. For musicians, the chance to get back on the road and perform to crowds is paramount – in return, there is a huge demand and anticipation for live music from fans. I have no firm plans at the moment but, right now, I am looking to hold an event in 2022 that celebrates Kate Bush’s music. I have been speaking with various people but, essentially, it would mark some important anniversaries. Before going on, I have been thinking about the last time when there was a serious dissection and discussion of Bush’s work and her impact. That would be back in 2019. This Woman's Work: A Kate Bush Symposium was something I almost attended and spoke at. It might seem quite academic and formal but, as I have highlighted in a previous feature when I discussed the symposium, it was a fascinating and broad two-day event that was far less dry and formal as it sounds. The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia has more details:
“A two day conference devoted to the outputs and achievements of Kate Bush, featuring talks, screenings and performances at the University of Edinburgh, held on 12 and 13 December 2019.
The programme of the two days was as follows:
Thursday 12 December
9.00 – 9.40: Delegate arrival and registration
9.45 – 10.45: Keynote 1: D-M Withers (University of Sussex): Figures, Communities and Concepts: Kate Bush as a Multi-Faceted Pop-Cultural Phenomena
11.00 – 12.00: Panel 1 – National identities
Samuel Love (University of Edinburgh): ‘How Beautiful it is, Amongst all the Rubbish’: Kate Bush’s Oh England My Lionheart and the Iconography of Englishness
Daniel Pietersen (Independent scholar): Two Steps on the Water: Folk Horror in the work of Kate Bush
12.15 – 1.15: Panel 2 – Gender (I)
Kirsty Fairclough (University of Salford): The Fine Purple, The Purest Gold: Authorial Connection in the Collaborations between Kate Bush and Prince
Alison Mayne (University of Edinburgh): Plucked from Mrs. Bartolozzi’s Washing Line: Kate Bush, clothing and exchanging experiences
2.00 – 3.30: Panel 3 – Sensual worlds and art historical perspectives
Thomas Houlton (Independent scholar): Bushcraft: Exploring Kate Bush’s Sensual World
Molly Gilroy (Independent scholar): ‘Strange Phenomena’: Tracing Surreal Metamorphosis, Ballet and Keys in the works of Kate Bush, Maya Deren and Leonor Fini
Sandra Lockwood (Simon Fraser University): Kate Bush and the Romantic Sublime
4.00 – 5.15: Keynote 2: Graeme Thomson (author of Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush) in conversation with author, broadcaster and curator Hannah McGill
Friday 13 December
9.00 – 9.30: Intro: Max Browne, photographer, Shooting Kate in ‘79
9.30 – 10.30: Keynote 3: Ian Cawood (University of Stirling): Lionhearts and Fishpeople: Kate Bush on Stage
10.30 – 11.30: Panel 4 – Gender (II)
Levent Donat Berköz (Independent scholar): Swapping Places: Kate Bush’s Masquerade in Running Up That Hill
Usha Wilbers and Lara Severens (Radboud University): Into the Sensual World: Gender Subversion in the Work of Kate Bush
11.45 – 1.15: Panel 5 – Studio technologies
Amanda Feery (Independent musician): This Woman's Work: A Composer's Perspective on Vocality and Narrative in the work of Kate Bush
Paul Harkins (Edinburgh Napier University): Following the Auteurs: Kate Bush and the Fairlight CMI
Laura M. Zucconi (Stockton University): Deeper Understanding: Kate Bush in the Historical Context of Producers
2.00 – 3.15: Keynote 4: Rob Young (Independent author and former editor, The Wire): Sowing the Secret Garden
3.30 – 5.15: Panel 6 – Performance
Hannah Buckley and Catriona McAra (Leeds Arts University): Running with Wolves, Somaticizing the Text: Revisionary Feminism and Contemporary Dance
Harry Maberly (Independent artist): Kate Bush: Fiction, Fantasy and Fandon”.
The reason I bring up the symposium is two-fold. First, there will be an appetite for people to get together next year and discuss Kate Bush. Such has been the sense of activity and fascination regarding her work over the past year, we have seen books and magazines dedicated to her music. I think it has been busier than ever in that sense. 2022 is a year where a couple of Kate Bush anniversaries are marked. For one, it will be forty years (in September) since The Dreaming was released. One of her best albums, I feel that anniversary deserves to be marked and discussed. I am not sure whether there are plans afoot from another corner regarding a symposium-like event in 2022. I feel we will see magazine articles and, perhaps, a couple of books about her work.
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Maybe not something like the symposium. Also, 2022 is forty-five years since Bush finished recording her debut album, The Kick Inside. I think that this is a milestone that warrants recognition and respect. I will put more details out when I have something concrete, but I have been thinking ahead to next year and marking that anniversary. It would be held in August. I was looking at something like the 2019 symposium, perhaps with a documentary feel. It would be a selection of people together, on a single day, that would explore Bush’s music and her impact. Taking the form of album dissections, discussions of various themes related to her work and clips of interviews and music videos, it would be a one-off event that marked an important occasion. I don’t think there would be a shortage of guests and options regarding contributors. Not only are there people who have written about Bush and have been fans for years; there are scores of artists and people across the arts that owe a debt to her. I am looking forward to. The biggest considerations are financing and locations. Of course, such a project is costly and would run into four figures. I am also not sure of the exact location. I have talked with a couple of music studios and, as we would need to seat quite a few people, there would need to be quite a bit of room. Of course, it doesn’t need to be a music studio though, though I thought there would be symbolism and relevance to holding it there. As I say, it is in the early stages right now. Through 2020 and 2021, there has been some impressive column inches dedicated to Kate Bush. It is heartening to see how important she remains to this day. For that reason, next year, I would love to get people together…
TO celebrate her work.