FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for 2011’s Director’s Cut/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Pulling Away from EMI and Towards Fish People
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PERHAPS similar…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
to recent features I have published that relate to Kate Bush’s career between 1993/1994 and 2005, I wanted to talk more about how she pulled away from EMI. I am interested in Bush’s label, Fish People, and the reason she went independent. Although she has not produce for other artist or has signings to Fish People, it did complete the transition from working with EMI to having her own brand and space. That suggests there was this long unhappiness and strain from Bush. Rather than it being a frayed relationship and something fractious, Bush wanted freedom. Maybe feeling that there was a pressure on her and she did not want to work to deadlines, I often think about he albums released with EMI and how difficult it was at time. In 1978, Bush put out two albums. The Kick Inside and Lionheart took a lot out of her. 1982’s The Dreaming, her fourth studio album, left the label unhappy. Even if it was a chart success, its sales were pretty low (compared to her debut, The Kick Inside) and the singles released from the album were largely unsuccessful. They could have no complaints about Hounds of Love, though one feels there was always an issue with timescales, expectations and budgets. Bush was spending so much money and time moving between studios for 1982’s The Dreaming. She built her own studio for Hounds of Love. It isn’t EMI’s fault that Bush became tired of going between studios. What I do find hard to ignore is how they were perhaps not as patient with her in the early years as they should have been. What I mean is that there was this rush to get the second album out. Whilst some feel that is them having faith in her and wanting to keep momentum going, it was pure commercial pressure and EMI not considering Bush’s need for space and time to write new material.
One could say Bush came with a certain amount of privilege and she was very lucky to sign with a label like EMI (or EMI Records to be precise). Thanks to some mentoring from David Gilmour, whose reputation and name would also have helped Bush, there were moments when the relationship between artist and label were not harmonious. In 2011, four Kate Bush albums were re-issued after she won back control of them from EMI. The Dreaming, Hounds of Love, The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, which EMI originally released between 1982 and 1993, were all lined up to be re-issued with former EMI and PolyGram executive, David Munns (then acting as a consultant to her). That was reported by Kate Bush News. I believe The Red Shoes was remastered in 2011 whilst the other studio albums were reissued to C.D. under the Fish People label. There was a definite series of ups and downs with EMI. I can understand why Bush wanted ownership of her albums and set up Fish People. However, a lot of the time things were quite close between Kate Bush and EMI. As much as I hate how there was this pressure from EMI and, like most labels, they seemed to put sales and commercial success ahead of artistic freedom and space, they did realise that a very talented teenage Kate Bush needed time to develop her music at such a young age. There was not this push to get her right into the studio. When EMI’s Bob Mercer died in 2010, there was this loving and passionate obituary. The section relating to Kate Bush caught my eye:
“In July 1975 Mercer dropped in at Abbey Road to check on the Pink Floyd sessions for what would become the Wish You Were Here album. The Floyd guitarist David Gilmour played him the three-song demo tape he had made with Bush at AIR Studios. Mercer was particularly taken with "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" and "The Saxophone Song", which would both be included on The Kick Inside, the singer's 1978 debut album.
Mercer put the then 17-year-old singer under contract, but also suggested she take time to develop further artistically. "On meeting her, I realised how young she was mentally. We gave her some money to grow up with," he said. "EMI was like another family to her. She was the company's daughter for a few years."
When, during a fraught meeting, Bush burst into tears and insisted the company issue "Wuthering Heights" rather than "James and the Cold Gun" as her first single, and also demanded a change of picture bag which delayed its release until January 1978, Mercer gave in.
"It went to No 1 and stayed there for four weeks," he said. "I had told her not to worry, that it would take at least three albums and she should be patient. To her credit, she never reminded me of the incident." The notoriously elusive Bush held him in high regard and kept in touch after he moved to the US. In the 1980s he worked for EMI Films, and had a spell managing Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, which culminated in the momentous and monumental staging of The Wall in Berlin in 1990”.
It is complex unpicking the relationship between Kate Bush and EMI and truly understanding the reasons why Bush set up her own label. I guess she did want to make music on her own terms and in her own time. Also protect her albums and assume some sort of control that was not given to her at the time they were released. I want to investigate the move away from EMI. I am fascinated by the decades-long relationship between Kate Bush and EMI. Granted, she did take a while to record albums, though you always get the feeling the label were expecting her to pump out an album a year. They wanted their star to bring out music and stay in the public eye, yet there wasn’t quite the true space there should have been. Even though I say that, there is no telling how many times Kate Bush breached her contract! Even if it unreasonable, EMI would have expected faster turnaround. That flexibility, I guess, is to be admired. David Munns and Tony Wandsworth left EMI in 2008. They were reliable and familiar faces to Bush. Maybe Bush felt that EMI were prizing profitability over artistic merit. Things were changing. If once she felt like part of a record label family – albeit one with some arguments and tense moments -, things altered not long after Bush released 2005’s Aerial. She did not have a father figure or familial connection anymore to EMI. She did not want to hand her music over to strangers or people she couldn’t trust. The fact was Bush could record music on her own terms and without the help and support of EMI. I am taking many of these observations from Graeme Thomson’s book, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush.
One of the most significant dynamic changes in Kate Bush’s music happened in 2011. A year when she released two albums, I can understand the symbolism of her pushing away from EMI in 2011 and also releasing Director’s Cut. An album where she rerecorded songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes, it was almost like she was correcting mistakes or reworking the past. Not only did Kate Bush oversea the mix, packaging, and pressing of Director’s Cut, she also well aware of how the industry was changing (and the shifts in infrastructure). How albums were promoted and released. Bush’s Fish People swam into view in 2011. EMI distributed her albums still, though all the creative decisions and everything else was conducted at home. With very few familiar faces at EMI, that trust had well and truly gone. One of the most interesting passages from Graeme Thomson’s book is where we learn Tony Wadsworth left EMI. That happened when Terra Firma acquired the company. Bush apparently phoned Guy Hands up to say that this was the first and last time she would speak to him. Feeling angry that maybe Wadsworth was pushed out or there was this premature departure, that was the final straw. There was this delightful spoof that appeared in The Sunday Times in January 2008 that was a reaction to Guy Hands’s lack of tact regarding artists. EMI was sold to Universal Music Group in 2011. Bush did acknowledge that Fish People was not a reaction to being given no freedom. I do think EMI could have made better decisions in 1978 regarding the rush for a second studio album. However, since 1980, Bush was given more freedom regarding her output. So setting up her own label was not this radical shift. She just had total freedom! Fish People meant that she had control not over how her music was made and when it was released. Bush could also have say over how she was perceived and how she promoted her albums. Maybe that endless cycle of promotional interviews of the past was heavy on her mind.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2005/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
You could see and feel these subtle alterations. If Aerial’s photos, as Thomson notes, were more organic and natural, there was more flair and theatre for Director’s Cut’s promotional photo. Shots with her brother, John Carder Bush. She shot with Trevor Leighton in 2005, so bringing in her brother again for promotional images seemed to reflect how Fish People was in-house and homemade. I love the shots for Director’s Cut. Bush conducting interviews from her home. Although EMI would have been fine with that, you can feel how Bush was bringing everything back home. Almost returning her career to how things were before 1978. Going full circle in many ways. I am interested as to the future. It is clear Fish People will not sign artists or whether there will be any albums released through it from other artists. However, I do like how this label was Bush making it clear she was no longer working with EMI. One can argue whether her relationship with EMI was more positive and different to how it would have been with other labels. It is clear they let her get on with things for the most part, though what would have things been like if they made different decisions. That tussle between an artist wanting to make music in her own image and the record label concerned about commercial longevity and keeping Bush ‘accessible’. It was a shame Bush lost faith with EMI. I do think Fish People and this new increased independence was a great thing. If she does release a new album – which it seems is most likely -, how will Bush’s promotion change? We can look at how Bush has utilised her own record label and freedom when reassuring her studio albums. There are still issues around distribution and control over her first few studio albums. Regardless, Bush is now in a position when she can release albums when she wants and promote them as she sees fit – and she seems so much happier for it. The birth of and continued relevance of Fish People allows the divine Kate Bush to…
SWIM freely.