FEATURE:
Movvvvvinnnnnggggg…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Tokyo, Japan in June 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images
Kate Bush’s Busy and Important May and June, 1978
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I have marked a couple of Kate Bush…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Tokyo in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images
anniversaries that happen this month. In fact, they both relate to singles released from her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside. Them Heavy People (released in Japan) and The Man with the Child in His Eyes turned forty-five. Very different but amazing songs, I am sticking with this time period. With her debut album released in February of that year, Bush experienced this hectic and almost whiplash promotional circuit. I think that May and June of 1978 was a period that was both packed and important. In terms of expanding her influence to other nations, these spring/summer months were pivotal. Thanks to this invaluable website for their Kate Bush timeline. For a bit of context, 4th April is where we start. Wuthering Heights, released in January 1978, had been at number one. By that April date, it slipped to three. The Kick Inside got to number three, so it was this time when Bush had an incredible and unique debut single holding steady on the charts (when it got to number one, she set a record as the first British female artist to enjoy a self-written number one single), in addition to an album that clearly provided a lot more depth and appeal than the one track! Bush headed off to Europe to promote both her single and album. In addition to heading to West Germany and France, she was in the Netherlands. In a twenty-five-minute promotional film for the new De Effeling gothic amusement/theme park in Kaatsheuvel, she performed six songs from The Kick Inside. Bush also performed on the Voor De Vuist Weg television programme.
Many people associate Bush with being a bit distant with the U.S. early on. In fact, Bush did visit in April 1978 on a brief promotional jaunt. I can’t find many details about this or whether any interviews took place. It seems that May 1978 was perhaps when she visited America. Bush also appeared on Saturday Night Live (introduced by Eric Idle) in December 1978 and sang The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Even by April 1978 – with one album down -, there were plans and talks of a possible tour. This early travel and international exposure was motivation to broaden the ambitions and visuals. As we know, The Tour of Life happened in 1979. I think it would have been impossible to realise a tour in 1978, as she released two studio albums (her second, Lionheart, came out in November) and promoted her music throughout the year – with barely a moment to perform! She did promote in the U.S. and Canada in May 1978. Even though there are no T.V. appearances here, it was a chance for the still-teenage Bush to experience the different rhythm and pace of North America. Whereas Wuthering Heights got to number one in the U.K., it did not impact North America. It got to eight on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, but I am not sure how much recognition Canadian and U.S. audiences had of Bush in 1978. Regardless, it was a valuable trip and an opportunity for her to get better known there – even if Bush resolutely stated that she did not dream of cracking America. It is a strange that the past couple of years has been the first time when you feel her music has been widely and truly embraced by a number of generations there!
If there was a bit of U.S. jaunt from April 1978, it seemed like Bush had a short break following her North American trip. A rare opportunity to briefly breathe, I can only envisage how Bush was feeling at this point! A few months off her twentieth birthday, it was a vastly different experience to what her old schoolmates would have been going through! It was her dream to make an album, but I don’t think in her wildest dreams she would have pictured how frantic and globe-trotting her first full professional year in music would been. After Bush fought determinedly to have Wuthering Heights released as her first single – EMI wanted the more conventional and accessible James and the Cold Gun -, she was given reign to select her second single. I suppose EMI would have favoured Them Heavy People (a success in Japan) or a song like Kite to be the next release – or even a return conversation around the merits of James and the Cold Gun. Intuitive and the best judge of her own music, The Man with the Child in His Eyes was the next single. That came out on 26th May, where it reached six in the U.K. Maybe because of some U.S. promotion, it actually got to eighty-five on the Billboard Hot 100! You can see why Bush felt The Man with the Child in His Eyes should be a single. Recorded in June 1975 – alongside The Saxophone Song -, it won an Ivor Novello in 1979. Demonstrating her incredible lyrical talent, her instincts proved right. Less of a novelty than Wuthering Heights, there was a nice contrast and balance – The Man with the Child in His Eyes more of a standard; more tender and almost soulful. In Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere, the follow-up later in the year was EMI's first choice, Them Heavy People. Even though that Kate Bush timeline says The Man with the Child in His Eyes was released on 28th May, 1978, I have 26th May down as the release date. I am not sure who can break the tie, but I am going with the latter date, as that is the one that seems to be most common elsewhere. As is the problem when it comes to getting accurate release dates from so far back, there is often no definite answer or single authority who can verify and make that ruling.
Regardless, by the end of May 1978, a lot had been achieved. Remember, The Kick Inside was released in January. Two singles down, chart success around the world, and so many people knew who Kate Bush was. She had visited multiple nations, and that was just the start of things! As I get a chance to visit Kate Bush’s visit to Japan in June 1978, I wanted to contextualise it forty-five years down the line. Maybe Bush’s most itinerant two-month period, from the U.S. and Europe in April/May, Japan came calling! Moving has been released in February 1978 in Japan. As I wrote recently, Them Heavy People was released as a single only in Japan. Retitled Rolling the Ball, it reached number three there - its only release worldwide as an A-side. I have written about Bush’s Japan trip of June 1978 (I don’t know if she ever returned to the country after that) before, but not in the context of that period where she recently visited America. Someone who was not a fan of flying from the off, there must have been some nerves and fear about going somewhere so far from home! I am not sure whether it was a decision EMI made to really bolster and boost her profile in Japan, but Bush was thrown into a very deep end with the 7th Tokyo Song Festival. On 18th June, Bush performed Moving live before an audience of 11,000 at the Nippon Budokan. Consider the fact that her biggest gig prior to that would have been a pub booking in England to around a roomful of folk, this was next level! That Japan performance was viewed by over 35 million people! Although it was a weird and inexplicable promotional angle, the gamble clearly paid dividends! Bush won the Silver Prize jointly with American group The Emotions. Moving reached number one in Japan. For someone who was unknown in the country at the start of 1978, she was now a chart-topping artist there! Even though she did not release Japan-only singles past Lionheart, it is amazing that she made such an instant impression there. Though perhaps not that weird. There were mixed blessings to this Japan success…
I wonder why there was such a divide between the East market and those in North America. Is it a language thing? Did the sounds of Moving and Them Heavy People/Rolling the Ball translate more effectively in Japan than Wuthering Heights did in North America? It would be interesting to get some theories and feedback on that. If the U.S. and Canada trips were not synonymous with television performances and that much eventfulness, that is not true when we consider Japan. Perhaps a market more fertile in terms of opportunity and commercial appeal, Bush also appeared on the T.V. show, Sound in S, taped at Tokyo's TBS G Studio. She made her only television advertisement, and her only endorsement for a commercial product - a spot for Seiko watches. Whether slightly coerced or something that was part of an early international career plan – Bush doing adverts and something more akin to what a mainstream Pop artist might do -, I am not too sure. I do like the fact Bush didn’t do more advertising, as her Seiko spot finds her slightly uncomfortable and uneasy. In a country that Bush was not familiar with and was a million miles away from the feel and fabric of her East Wickham Farm home in the U.K., there were moments of awkwardness, cultural appropriation and translation issues – which are understandable as Bush was never exposed to this way of life and language before! Regardless, I think that she was a true professional and stoic presence there. After only a brief holiday following her time in North America (which followed close on the heels of European promotion), she was jetted to a nation that would embrace her music more heatedly and instantly than most – though you wonder how much of it was understood and translated. Her natural charm, hard work ethic and raw talent put her in a very healthy and exciting position by June 1978.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her trip to Japan in June 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe
One would hope that EMI would offer their young prodigy a break before considering any new steps (and I would advise people to read this excellent feature about Bush’s Japan trip). I hope at least she got her twentieth birthday off (30th July, 1978) and enjoyed some family time! Not long after getting home from Japan, Bush was ordered to get ready for album number two. If that promotional blitz resulted in success and international exposure, it gave EMI the proof they needed that Kate Bush was indeed a star. One feels that money and commercial acclaim were outweighing allowing their tired artist to pause after promoting her debut album so diligently and without complaint. Of course, Bush did not relish the very short amount of time she was given to deliver songs for a new album. As such, only three of the ten that would appear on Lionheart were newly written. Despite the fact the majestic and gorgeous Symphony in Blue was among them, she couldn’t have gone into recording Lionheart in the best of spirits! That was the only album recorded outside of the U.K. (in France), but she had to revamp and rework seven older songs perhaps not considered strong enough or right-sounding for The Kick Inside. She demoed the songs in a studio designed by her brother Paddy (who appeared on all of her albums bar her most recent, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow). That studio was paid for from the royalties Wuthering Heights amassed. I guess the deadlines and way of working were good practise when it came to the foundations for 1979’s The Tour of Life. There, with Bush taking more command and control (and using a lot of her own money to realise her vision and execute the tour), it was a lot of long days and decision making all over the place. It would have been quite a tough time…so you can imagine Bush would have had some retrospective sympathy with EMI.
It is staggering and dizzying considering the amount of growth and work done less than a year after Bush was called into the studio in London to record The Kick Inside. That happened in August 1977. Prior to that, Bush was touring pubs and clubs around the south as part of the KT Bush Band. With bassist Del Palmer, guitarist Brian Bath, Vic King (who did not feature on her debut album and contact was lost after that, even though he played with The KT Bush Band for some live dates in 2016). I think the original idea for the band, from Paddy Bush, consisted of Del Palmer, Brian Bath and Charlie Morgan playing with Kate Bush. I am not sure whether that line-up played gigs past rehearsals and talk, but it is clear that the one of Bush, Palmer, King and Bath did play a string of dates together. Anyway. I digress! What I mean is that Bush started working in the KT Bush Band in August 1977 (about seven months after she passed her driving test). The Kick Inside gets completed by in August 1977 (though there may have been some additional input in September), and Wuthering Heights arrives in January 1978. If that five months or so seemed like a real leap, that was nothing compared with the five months that followed her debut single coming out! It was a really intense and escalating period where Bush was getting ever busier and known. No wonder what she wanted to tour and step away from album promotion and recording through most of 1979. As it was forty-five years ago, I wanted to revisit and explore an intense and memorable time in Kate Bush’s career. Even if it was quite exhausting and, at times, strange, it was very important. Bush was gearing some real-world exposure beyond the U.K. If it took a while for North America to connect with her music, that trip to Japan helped get her to number one there. It was a mind-broadening and interesting couple of months! I wonder how Bush would reflect on that time now. If it did not yield terrific commercial reward, and she came to dislike flying more than she would have done previously, it showed that there was a market and life for her music…
BEYOND the U.K. and Europe.