FEATURE:
Put the Pin Back In
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at a record signing for The Dreaming at Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street in London on 14th September, 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Inside of The Dreaming’s Promotion
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I have already…
used the brilliant Kate Bush chronology, The Garden, for various features. You get these dates and events that are important when it comes to Bush’s career. I am returning to 1982 and the run-up to The Dreaming being released - in addition to promotion in the month or two following it coming out. I will do more general features in the coming weeks, but I am interested in a specific chunk of time that had some interesting events take place. I don’t think many Kate Bush fans realise some of the details behind the albums. There is a lot of standard promotion, but it goes deeper than that. Think about The Dreaming. It was a hard album to record, as it consisted of very long hours and not too much rest. Bush, sole producing for the first time, was really throwing her all into the album! Maybe proving that she was a serious artist, she really put her all into each song. A more dense and complicated listen than previous albums, it was hard for Bush to really sell the album. It got some positive reviews but, in terms of the selling the singles and really trying to get people invested, that was a harder task! Think about August 1982. The Dreaming was a single that I really like, yet it did not chart well. Getting to number forty-eight, BBC Radio 1 gave it no daytime airplay. I am thinking about modern comparisons. In 1982, Radio 1’s playlist would have been very Pop-focused. More accessible than a song like The Dreaming, it must have been gutting for Bush and EMI. The first single from The Dreaming, Sat in Your Lap, was more successful. Perhaps more accessible and relatable, putting out a more unusual second single was a gamble. Bush had to release singles from the album, though you get the sense she would have preferred to put the album out on its own and not really do single promotion. As it was, because the lack of airplay, The Dreaming’s title track struggled.
Even though there was not a great deal of support for The Dreaming, it remains one of Bush’s most interesting tracks. The album itself came out in September 1982. That was quite a busy month. I love looking at the promotional trail of each album. Perhaps less hectic and itinerant than The Kick Inside’s promotional at 1978, there was still quite a bit of to and fro. Bush appeared live at a Radio 1 Roadshow at Covent Garden’s Piazza, where she was interviewed about her album. I cannot find audio of that. It must have been quite a strange time. This denser and more layered album being discussed before an audience (and for a station) that had heard nothing like it. I am not certain how much say Bush had regarding who she spoke to and where she went, but it would have been important to connect with a younger audience. Maybe The Dreaming was ahead of its time in some ways. It must have been quite a strange time. She was speaking with radio stations and explaining her album, yet radio stations were baffled when it came out on 13th September, 1982. The Dreaming asks for a certain degree of patience and time. You could not put it on in the background or skim through it. You sort of get that today. Not many big stations like BBC Radio 1 are going to play songs or albums that are more experimental and layered. They want something that is quick and easy. More instant and less demanding of your intellect and soul, Bush would have been in an odd position. She has made this incredible album, yet she was largely promoting it to stations and places where it was not understood or being played! If there was this dissonance between Bush’s latest album and radio stations, the fans came out in force!
You get albums where the reviews might not be great and there is this rather dismissive attitude. The public’s love and the album’s commercial success contradicts and contrasts that. This was very clear with The Dreaming. It got some love from critics listening hard enough, but it was Bush’s fans that really made it a success. It got to three in the U.K., and it was top thirty in nations like France and Australia. Even if it only reached 157 on the U.S.’s Billboard 200, it still charted. It was a small sign that at least her music was beginning to penetrate there. The follow-up, Hounds of Love, and 1989’s The Sensual World would build on that. To promote The Dreaming, as I have written before, Bush made a personal appearance at the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street. The queue again exceeds a hundred yards in length. Bush’s ardent fans were turning out, keen to have their copy of The Dreaming signed! It must have been heartening, after a couple of shaky or rather fruitless promotional visits, to know that there was love out there. Bush’s fans have always been able to see the beauty and genius of her music. If somewhat older and less informed people in the media gave little time to The Dreaming, there was the admitting fanbase. That, coupled with some reviews that rightly acknowledged the brilliance of The Dreaming, would have given encouragement to EMI. They were a little disappointed the album took so long to finish. In terms of its commercial success, it did not sell massive units, but a top three success cannot be sniffed at! Bush did not promote as far-reaching as with previous albums, but she was hitting the road hard to get the album out there.
After that successful and love-filled signing in London, Bush continued by train to Manchester, using a specially cleared goods car to rehearse for a video for the next single. That must have been the routine for There Goes a Tenner (released in November 1982). It is amazing to picture Bush getting a train to Manchester and, rather than sit and kick back, she used that time to rehearse a video’s choreography! That was not an isolated incident. On more than one occasion I think, she was being driven by van somewhere and would rehearse dance moves and prepare for a video in the back. Use that small space to try and work out a routine! Whilst she was up in Manchester, she appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The video for The Dreaming is shown for the first time on British T.V. That show was probably a better fit for promotion compared to BBC Radio 1. From promoting the album, Bush wanted its eponymous single to do well. She put the graft in discussing and hyping it, but it was a song that was a relative commercial failure. The video was more filmic and less traditional. Most Pop videos rely on quick cuts and tighter angles. The Dreaming relied on wider shots and fewer cuts. It was almost like a film in some ways. Even if it was directed by Paul Henry; you know that Bush had some say and creative control. That was true of Sat in Your Lap too. She would have offered her ideas and wanted the video to be like what she saw in her mind. Following the low chart position of The Dreaming, EMI said to Bush that the next video needs to be simpler and more conventional. It is sad that the brilliant There’s Goes a Tenner and its cool video resulted in chart disaster – the song did not chart at all in the U.K. (well, it was outside of the top 100).
In terms of the stations and T.V. shows she was promoting on/for, it was definitely eclectic! Bush made an appearance on Razzmatazz, performing There Goes a Tenner (which is to be the next single). That was on 21st September. I can only imagine how the children in the audience reacted to a song like There Goes a Tenner! She had been on the show in July 1981 to talk about Sat in Your Lap and how it was made. She bonded with the children and they seemed to hang on every word. Between then and this new appearance, Bush took time out from recording the album to visit Loch Ness. She also visited Abbey Road Studios to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. I forget that Bush was promoting Sat in Your Lap, yet The Dreaming had not been completed yet. It must have been strange promoting its first single before the whole album was done! Not too many modern artists would do that. Anyway, back to 1982. After her new appearance on Razmataz, she visited Europe. Whilst in Munich, The Dreaming is performed, whereupon she is presented with a Gold Record for German sales of Never for Ever during the same television appearance. How confusing to receive an honour for her previous album whilst promoting her new one! Like albums before, there was not too much chance to decompress. Bush was swiftly off to Milan, where she performs The Dreaming. Maybe there was also a trip to Spain, though this cannot be confirmed. Bush must have needed a holiday at this point! She did holiday in Jamaica in May 1982 as a way of getting some relaxation following such hard work on the album. Unable to relax and enjoy the tranquillity, the oddness of not having noise and the bustle of London sort of messed with her mind! I feel, at this point, Bush was so used to the hectic schedule and busy cities that she was unable to relax or appreciate the quiet.
In October 1982, Bush appeared on the BBC’s Saturday Superstore to be interviewed about the new album. Noel Edmonds chatted with her. It was a nice moment where she could be on home soil. I suppose, like most artists, the label were aiming the music at a younger audience. She did quite a few spots on children’s T.V. Whilst none of Bush’s albums were children-friendly or for that demagogic, she still appeared on those shows and was able to bond and connect with younger fans. Maybe the critics were a bit confused, but whilst she was on the road, there were people turning out. Bush made personal appearances in Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmingham. The Dreaming goes Gold. Keeping that promotional train going, in October 1982, when she was up in Birmingham, Bush records an appearance on the Beeb’s Pebble Mill at One where she was interviewed by Paul Gambaccini about the new album. The interview is screened on 29th October and part of the video for There Goes a Tenner is shown; the only time that this video is aired on British T.V. Gambaccini predicted Sat in Your Lap would be a success, but Bush was not too sure. She was finding it hard to predict how people would react to her singles. If she loved meeting fans and wanted them to listen to the album, you feel her heart was not in doing singles and trying to make songs chart. The Dreaming is a not a singles album. Hounds of Love is much more so. That would have pleased EMI. Bush recorded The Dreaming very much as a single piece of work. Rationing out the songs and expecting them to succeed and resonate out of context would have been a struggle. I am not sure whether there are any unseen photos from that promotional tour in 1982, though the fans would definitely love to see them!
After U.K. airtime, Bush was back in France for more T.V. promotion of the album, where she lip-synched Suspended in Gaffa (it was released as a single in Europe) and did an in-depth interview for French T.V. station France-Inter. By November 1982, with The Dreaming out there and doing well, Bush would have been thinking ahead to Christmas and a chance to relax and celebrate with her family. Never allowed too much time to chill, November 1982 saw her going to Germany where she was promoting like a champ. Again, she gave a lip-synced performance of Suspended in Gaffa (this performance was known as the ‘puppets’ or ‘marionettes’ version). If The Dreaming single did not chart and was ignored for airplay, I think the performances of Suspended in Gaffa helped make it more of a success. Although not a massive top ten success, it did chart in European countries. It is now viewed as one of her best songs. In November 1982, a crop of positive U.S. reviews and an okay chart position, there is buzz there. The Dreaming is pushed by spots on U.S. college radio. Towards the end of the year, airplay begins to pick up. Bush expands her small cult following in the U.S. to attract a wider audience. As I recently wrote, Bush was due to do a promotional tour of the U.S. in 1983 but travel issues meant she stayed in England, where she turned her thoughts to building a home studio for Hounds of Love. I love the fact that there was this small group of fans in the U.S. that were listening to Bush! I can imagine The Dreaming being bought and played in dorms and on campus. This cool English artists that was seen as a bit weird and cool! If the U.S. felt Wuthering Heights was strange back in 1978, four years later, an album as weird and different as that debut single was being embraced – albeit by a cult and minor following.
A few things are apparent when thinking about Bush’s touring towards the middle and end of 1982. Bush had been promoting quite steadily since 1981, so she was putting a lot of effort into ensuring that The Dreaming was talked about and heard. It is clear that EMI wanted the album to be successful and better-reviewed than it was. One cannot call the album a failure in any way. That said, Bush was under great pressure to tour to make up for the lack of obvious single success in the U.K. A tour is seriously considered, although it was never pursued. It is a great tragedy that songs from Never for Ever and The Dreaming have not been staged and joined together! Maybe tired of promotion and feeling it took her away from the studio, she looks ahead to 1983: a year when she will push on with a new album and start work for what was to become her magnus opus, 1985’s Hounds of Love. 1981 and 1982 was full of promotion and recording. It was a hectic time for Bush. 1983 and 1984, whilst busy and packed at times, seemed less tiring in terms of commitment, promotion and travel. I wanted to revisit the promotion for The Dreaming, as there are some fascinating stops and dates. From T.V. and media interviews to the videos for The Dreaming and Sat in Your Lap showing new sides to Kate Bush, it was an interesting time for her. Only twenty-four, Kate Bush has achieved so much. The fact that she produced an album like The Dreaming at that age is testament to her genius and supernatural abilities. Maybe the media were a little cold to the album – aside from some positivity from people who got what she was doing -, but the fans turned out and bought the album. They showed Bush…
SO much love.