FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
Imagining What It Would Be Like Interviewing An Artist I Adore
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THIS edition of…
IN THIS PHOTO: Emma Barnett/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life takes us to now. In fact, the future. Sorry to make this feature all about me, but I am going to expand on an idea I include in a feature from October. On 25th October, we all got some phenomenal news when it came to Kate Bush. An animated video, Little Shrew (Snowflake) was released. Directed by Kate Bush, it was intended to raise awareness for the suffering of children because of war and to raise money for War Child. To promote the video, Kate Bush was interviewed by Emma Barnett for BBC Radio 4’s Today. Nobody really saw any of it coming. A new interview with Kate Bush! It would have been enough to have that interview and the wonderful and moving video. Gifts enough for all fans! We could have left it there. In 2022, when Barnett and Bush first spoke – around the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and its use in Stranger Things -, there was this what-if about it. The interview was wonderful, though there was no question around new music. Bush said how she really taking to gardening. Many took this as a sign she was retiring or had given up making new music. A little stereotypical, ageist and flawed in terms of logic, one realises Bush was no stranger to gardening. In fact, it helped her creativity! I wonder if Bush had any ideas for new music around that time. Quite a few people thought that a question should have been asked about future plans. Perhaps Bush would have said there was nothing yet. Been a little evasive. However, last month, she was asked that question by Barnett.
No way leaving that question off the table, Bush at first sort of seemed to say there was nothing. She then said how she had been busy with the animation and spent a lot of in revisionist mode. Bringing out her lyrics book, working on reissues of her albums and some archiving. Basically, she was now open to new ideas (and had a lot in mind). It was an exciting moment that many fans did not expect. As I wrote previously, I felt that the death of Del Palmer earlier this year would have spelled the end of a creative relationship that dated back to the 1970s. Bush unable really to conceive of working without Palmer. As much as she adored him, he would have wanted her to continue making music. The reaction from fans around the world was one of relief and excitement. There is no date for a potential eleventh studio album. The fact that it was put out there suggests Bush has already planted seed and has worked up songs. Rather than her being at the sketching stage, I would not be shocked if several songs were already completed. I am writing this on 2nd November, and there have been no announcement about a title or release date. I sort of worry by the time it comes out there might be, which means I have to re-write and edit this feature pretty heavily! I suspect the earliest we might get a new Kate Bush album is the middle of next year, yet one cannot bet against her announcing something long before then. As 50 Words for Snow is almost thirteen, that gap sort of led to an assumption Bush was maybe not going to put out any more music. Luckily, we were given more than a glimpse of hope!
IN THIS PHOTO: John Wilson
I will write a separate feature as to what I think the album might concern and what it might sound like. Titles perhaps. I can either imagine a one-word title or something like Songs for Peace. Given Little Shrew (Snowflake) and Bush raising funds for War Child, maybe there would be this look at the modern world. How there is warfare and conflict. Being Kate Bush, there would also be hope and beauty. Of course, nobody knows for sure what will come and when. That is the beauty of Kate Bush: she could announce an album tomorrow (though, as I say, it will bugger this feature up a bit!). As remote as it was then, now it seems marginally less remote. I am talking about interviewing Kate Bush. As I say, I did cover this a few weeks back. How a dream I thought was dead is, well…slightly less dead. Kate Bush does not know who I am or anything I have written about her. There are people who have written books about her who will never get to interview her. I suspect, when a new album does arrive, she will know the radio stations she wants to feature on. BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 6 Music. Returning interviewers like Mark Radcliffe and John Wilson. Maybe Matt Everitt too. In terms of the 6 Music stable, Lauren Laverne too (who is currently away from the station as she is being treated for cancer). There will be some magazine/newspaper interviews perhaps. I guess it depends on how generous Bush is with her time. Interviews will be conducted via landline or she will be recorded at her home. That was the way it was more or less with Aerial (2005), and definitely more so with 2011’s 50 Words for Snow.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Laverne/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
Bush will not be travelling much/at all to do interviews. I imagine there will be a fair few shorter interviews rather than longer-form ones she did around Aerial’s release in 2005. A single might come – which is unlikely to feature Bush in any capacity in the video – and there will be the vinyl and C.D. release of the album. I think many journalists are in the same situation. We would all love to speak with Kate Bush, though the likelihood for most is slim. I have talked how I would love to send her a letter and say that I have written about her for years - and to wish her good luck. Maybe ask if she might contribute some audio to a Hounds of Love podcast next year (when the album turns forty). It is quite ambitious to think a letter could get to her or I deserve a response, regardless of how much I have written about her. However, helping me through a tough period of depression is this recurring dream: the interview request. Getting a notification – or imagining such a distant reality! – and having to wait by the phone for Bush’s call. Her on a landline and me, rather nervously, on my mobile. Hands trembling as the call comes through, I would need to situate myself somewhere calm and quiet. It would be the ‘screening call’. The introductions and getting a sense of what was going to be asked and how the actual interview would go. You then wait for the day when it happens. I suspect being driven to her home, never really knowing where it is. Getting out of the car and walking to her door to be met by Kate Bush or Dan McIntosh (her partner). The tour of the house, garden and maybe studio too. Reading accounts of those who have been to Bush’s home – her current one or previous ones – and what happens. The hospitality offered. Bush making me feel at ease. After everything is finished, being driven back to London and trying to take it all in. It is exciting to think of that possibility!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: David M Bennet/Getty Images
However much I do dream and try and manifest that, I know the reality. The slots are coveted and Bush would probably not take a risk on an unknown journalist or someone with a small readership. A new album after, well, fourteen years (if released next year) would mean interview slots go to big stations and websites and papers. I know Matt Everitt, and as he works for BBC Radio 6 Music, I often joke to myself I could be brought along as security. You know, just in case Kate Bush flips out! That, or I could be part of the team who sets up the microphones. It is nice to dream and have that ambition. Up until a few weeks ago, this seemed intangible and fantasy. Now, because there is a strong possibility a new album will arrive in the next year or so, that does turn that fantasy into something that could be realised. Not that an interview is the be all and end all. Writing about Kate Bush and people connect with those features is its own reward! Something I am very lucky to be able to do. Her knowing about it one day would be amazing! Everything has changed after that Today interview. Bush letting us know that she has ideas for a new album. The fan in me is pleased enough with that and excited that her music will reach new people - and we can only dream of what a new Kate Bush album will encompass. The journalist in me longs for that interview. Or a chance to speak to her. Although it seems unlikely and distant…
STRANGER things have happened!