FEATURE:
Before 30th July…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush signs an autograph in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix/Getty Images
A Kate Bush-Related Challenge to Raise Funds for Crisis
_________
I am not going to mention Kate Bush’s birthday…
PHOTO CREDIT: Katebushnews.com/Cabaret vs Cancer
until closer to the time on 30th July. She will be sixty-five. I know that is a big birthday, but she will be the last person to celebrate it with such significance and hoopla! She will be pretty modest and low-key, I am sure. I know that many websites will use the opportunity to mark her sixty-fifth birthday. Maybe they will do her best sixty-five songs or write about Bush’s ongoing significance. I have said how I’d like to do a Lionheart podcast. Bush’s second studio album came out in November 1978 so, ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary, maybe a special podcast. It is an underrated and under-loved album that more people should really appreciate and seek out. I think that would be a fitting tribute to someone whose music has enriched so many lives. I am definitely going to up the amount of features I do. Rather than highlight her birthday and age, it is a good opportunity to go deep with her albums and explore various sides to her career and personality. There is something special I want to do. As opposed a birthday present, there is something Kate Bush-related that would be awesome. She is someone who has spent so much of her career supporting charities. The likes of Crisis are particularly close to her heart. Recently, Bush donated a couple of signed CDs to a very worthy cause. Here are more details:
“Kate has donated a number of signed Running Up That Hill CD singles to the annual Cabaret vs Cancer charity music auction. Cabaret vs Cancer was set up in 2016 and raises money through cabaret and burlesque shows as well as themed online auctions to help people coping with the effects of cancer. Kate has donated signed items for the previous two music auctions. Dave Cross from HomeGround Magazine is a patron of the charity, and last year organised a Kate themed cabaret fundraiser at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. The music auction also includes signed items from Kim Wilde, Belinda Carlisle, The Pet Shop Boys, Stormzy, Taylor Swift, Joan Armatrading and many limited edition vinyl and CD collectibles. Please do check out the auction online here, a wonderful cause – thanks Dave!”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush cuts her thirtieth birthday cake on 30th July, 1988 at Blazers Boutique, where she was raising money for AIDS Victims/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix
It is no surprise that Bush has opted to raise money for a worthy charity. There are those who would say that, as she has a fair bit of money herself, why can’t she donate herself. She wants to give something; something like a signed C.D. It also helps raise awareness and focus, rather than her just doing this privately. Getting fans involved and bringing to the focus important charities has been in her blood since the early days. For example, on her thirtieth birthday on 30th July, 1988, Bush cut her birthday cake at Blazers Boutique where she was raising money for AIDS Victims. This kind of altruism and selflessness is another reason why she is so respected and loved around the world. I felt, rather than doing a birthday celebration or something related on 30th July, I would use the opportunity to follow in her footsteps. If she spent her thirtieth birthday raising money for charity, I would like to do something for charity on her sixty-fifth birthday. I have been thinking about backing Crisis and raising money for them. A charity that aims to end homelessness, I am acutely aware of the problem living in London. There is so much rough sleeping in the capital, and you wonder how much is being done to help those in need. A very worthy charity that aims to assist those affected and try to end something that shouldn’t exist in the modern age, I wanted to do that highlights her work, but also raises money for charity.
PHOTO CREDIT: freepik
Rather than something like an album listening party, event, or podcast, maybe a marathon challenge or something that would be quite a feat. It would be interesting to hear suggestions, but I was thinking of doing a challenge related to journalism. 31st July falls on a Monday this year so, starting on Sunday and ending on Monday morning, I was thinking of instead writing one to-end-them-all feature. Designed to show a love of the icon and also a guide to music for new listeners, rather than write an entire book about her – which would take weeks and months -, doing something over the course of maybe twenty-four hours would be more fitting. Perhaps it could be streamed, but the challenge is to complete the whole thing and publish it before 8 a.m. on Bush’s sixty-fifth birthday. Instead of making mention of her birthday, it would be like any normal feature, albeit a pretty comprehensive one! Linking to Crisis, I would set up a fundraising page and urge people to donate. Of course, if I do not finish the feature by the deadline, then that does not mean the charity goes without. The money goes there regardless. It is chance for me to express my love of Kate Bush with that desire to introduce her to as many people as possible. There is a whole generation out there who do not know about her work, or they do not know the depth of its brilliance and variety. Crisis is a charity that I am a big supporter of . The charity offers year-round education employment, housing and well-being services from centres in East London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh, South Yorkshire, South Wales, Croydon, Brent and Merseyside. It would be amazing to do something for them and bring Kate Bush into it. I wonder if people would donate and support an idea like that. Ahead of her sixty-fifth birthday, I have been thinking of doing something big that would not draw attention to that milestone, but it would be an opportunity to do something special. A marathon feature or twenty-four hour challenge, I think, would be a nice tribute to..
AN amazing person.