FEATURE:
Jeux Sans Frontières
IN THIS PHOTO: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush attending the BPI Awards in London on 9th February, 1987 after winning in their categories (Gabriel won British Male Solo Artist (and Best Video of the Year for Sledgehammer), whilst Bush won in the British Female Solo Artist category)/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Getty Images
Will Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel Ever Collaborate Again?
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THERE are few people…
IN THIS PHOTO: Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush on stage together during a benefit concert for Bill Duffield at the Hammersmith Odeon on 12th May, 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
more influential to Kate Bush than Peter Gabriel. I have written before how they were connected through the years. In brief, their first association was during a benefit concert Kate Bush held for Bill Duffield in London in 1979. He was a young lighting assistant/engineer who tragically died during the warm-up gig for The Tour of Life. In his memory, Bush made one of her tour dates a benefit for someone who she knew briefly but liked very much. Steve Harley was also on the bill (he and Peter Gabriel had previously worked with Bill Duffield). Peter Gabriel would inspire Bush to embrace technologies like the Fairlight CMI. He introduced her to that revolutionary piece of kit. She also recorded at Townhouse Studios for The Dreaming (1982). Gabriel recorded there previously and she was compelled to use that space because of him. There was a time when they were going to write a song together called Ibiza. That never came to pass. Bush appeared on three Peter Gabriel songs across two albums. For his third eponymous album released in 1980 (otherwise known as Melt), Bush provided backing vocals for Games Without Frontiers and No Self Control. Even if those two songs involved little more than small input from Bush, it was hugely effective. She is haunting on Self Control; seductive on Games Without Frontiers. The two had this close friendship. Bush took guidance from Gabriel when it came to emphasising percussion and putting that up front. How he recorded and the sort of sounds he put into his albums. In 2000, Gabriel accidentally let slip to the world that Kate Bush had a son (Bertie was born in 1998). That blew up in the tabloids. He almost let slip that Bush was planning a 2014 residency! I am not sure whether those blunders cost them their friendship, though I think they are still quite close.
That is a very rushed and brief overview of their history. From 1979, there was this kinship. Both very assured and pioneering artists who were experimental and built their own studios, Bush would appear on a Peter Gabriel song for the third time for Don’t Give Up. Released in 1986, it is a song where Gabriel and Bush compliment each other perfectly. Initially the part was going to go to Dolly Parton but she turned it down. Even if Bush’s first take was not to her satisfaction and she needed to record her vocal again, what she produced was perfect! The video of the two embracing is so beautiful and tender. I will move on in a minute. Before that, I want to bring in a feature from PROG, where we learn about how Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel came together. From a tragic event was born this decades-long friendship:
“In 1979, an accidental death during Kate Bush's UK tour led to a chance meeting with Peter Gabriel, and a creative partnership was born from tragedy
When Kate Bush embarked on her groundbreaking The Tour Of Life in spring 1979, it turned the notion of a live concert on its head. Fully choreographed by Anthony Van Laast, the sold-out 28-date tour was a visualisation of her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Much was made of it costing between £200,000 and £250,000 and employing 40 people – it was just at the very cusp of the touring industry being taken seriously. Such was the furore about the upcoming spectacle, there was a BBC TV Nationwide special on the tour to coincide with the opening night at Liverpool Empire.
However, for Bush, it would end up being overshadowed by the tragic, accidental death of Bill Duffield, her 21-year-old lighting director. On April 2, 1979, after a warm-up gig at Poole Arts Centre, Duffield was undertaking the so-called ‘idiot check’ where the final crew member present inspects the entire performance area to make sure nothing has been left behind. He fell 17 feet through an unlit open panel on the stage to a concrete floor below and died a week later in hospital from his injuries.
A memorial concert for Duffield was planned at the end of Bush’s tour on May 12 at Hammersmith Odeon. The evening was to be an emotional tour de force, where Bush was joined by two artists who had previously worked closely with Duffield – Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley. They duetted with Bush on Them Heavy People and The Man With The Child In His Eyes. Bush joined Gabriel on his yet-to-be released I Don’t Remember and they all sang The Beatles’ Let It Be to close.
If Duffield had not died, Bush and Gabriel may not have met. They hit it off immediately; Gabriel’s painstakingly free approach to his work was to inform her in a way few artists had ever done. The meeting had a profound effect on her – within months she would be singing on Gabriel’s third album, and through those recording sessions, she first encountered the Fairlight CMI synthesiser. Years later, in 1986, she accompanied him on one of his most powerful statements.
An evocative ballad, Don’t Give Up was partially inspired by the startlingly evocative Dorothea Lange pictures of Americans during the Great Depression. Written as a duet, Gabriel initially envisioned Dolly Parton to sing with him. Instead he turned to Bush, who was then enjoying huge commercial success in the wake of Hounds Of Love, to add the impassioned female vocal part. Over the gentle swell of Richard Tee’s gospel-influenced piano part, the song was a masterpiece of understatement that was in step with the straightened times lurking beneath the shiny veneer of the era.
Don’t Give Up spoke directly to a disaffected population. In 1981, Margaret Thatcher’s Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit infamously used an analogy about his father being out of work in the 30s, and instead of rioting, he got on his bike and looked for work. This became interpreted popularly as telling the unemployed to ‘get on their bike’ to find a job. Gabriel’s tale of a dispirited man at the end of his tether looking for work touched a raw nerve with millions of listeners in the UK and, latterly, the world”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate and Paddy Bush alongside Peter Gabriel during recording of Bush’s 1979 Christmas special, Kate/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
The two crossed paths at various times through their career. Whether it was sharing a stage at an award show or when Peter Gabriel was on Kate Bush’s 1979 Christmas special, they were very much in each other lives a lot. There is no doubt that Gabriel was this exciting and unique musician that spoke to Kate Bush in a way few others have. In terms of his use of technology and how unusual his music was compered to the mainstream and artists around them. I am going to include as many videos and photos of them together before wrapping up. I will come to the main point of this feature shortly enough. On the credits for Bush’s 1980 album, Never for Ever, she thanked Peter Gabriel for “opening the windows”. In the sense that he provided her with inspiration. The connection with the Fairlight CMI. Jon Kelly, who produced Never for Ever with Kate Bush, recalled how Peter Gabriel would pop into the studio a few times and sit there quietly and watch. I can hear shades of Peter Gabriel’s previous albums in Never for Ever. Songs like Babooshka, I feel, connect to Peter Gabriel. Maybe he was getting ideas for his next album. His fourth eponymous album, released in 1982 (otherwise known as Security), could have taken elements from Never for Ever. Also, Bush would have been influenced by Peter Gabriel’s music at the time for 1982’s The Dreaming. Hounds of Love maybe in some ways influencing Peter Gabriel’s So. They were definitely keeping an eye on each other. There is a suggestion from some that Kate Bush’s befriending of Peter Gabriel was quite calculated.
The fact Kate Bush wanted to be just like Peter Gabriel. Maybe there was some of that at the start, through there was an instant connection and mutual respect. They had a lot in common and there was never any real competitiveness. Bush and Gabriel always respectful of one another. It would be cynical to suggest that Bush zeroed in on Gabriel for commercial and musical gain. She approached him to play that 1979 benefit concert for Bill Duffield. There was this sense of reciprocation. Bush appeared on two Peter Gabriel albums. He featured in her Christmas special. Gabriel had this unorthodox music approach, less-than-traditional lyrics and was a visionary. This definitely appealed to Kate Bush. She said in an interview how Gabriel was the only artist who had the same approach as her, in the sense he was going for the emotional content of the lyrics. He also changed his voice too for various tracks. It was during the Never for Ever sessions Bush was invited to Townhouse to record with Gabriel. That experience opened her eyes. A studio she would soon use, it was also perhaps the first time Bush collaborated with another artist for a studio album. She did collaborated with Roy Harper, but in terms of frequency, Gabriel might have been key in terms of casting Bush’s voice in a different context. I also forgot that Bush performed with Peter Gabriel on I Don’t Remember during the 1979 Bill Duffield tribute. So it is four Gabriel songs in total (three studio and one live outing). I always forget (ironically!) I Don’t Remember, as people really talk about Games Without Frontiers and No Self Control. I am not surprised they did not manage to write Ibiza together. Both are independent songwriters and would have found it hard to share a song and make it work. Bush was clearly enamoured and in awe of the technology Peter Gabriel had at Townhouse, and that really influenced her when she recorded The Dreaming. It is her most Gabriel-sounding album.
Kate Bush was particularly impressed by the gated drum sound that Gabriel used at Townhouse. You can hear that on numbers through The Dreaming. Hugh Padgham was the engineer for Melt. Bush went worked with Padgham in 1981 for The Dreaming. Though he doesn’t have fond recollections of their time together – maybe too much experimenting and it not being that engaging -, it shows that Bush was taking sounds, technology and even personnel from Peter Gabriel! What always intrigues me is how Gabriel has not appeared on a Kate Bush album. Neither have really talked about that omission. No doubt Bush would have been tempted to ask him and maybe include Gabriel on Never for Ever or The Dreaming. Bush used backing vocalists for albums to that point, though no truly big artists had ever appeared on her albums at that point. Maybe they would steal focus or it would seem like an easy way for her to get attention. I often wonder what it would have been like if Peter Gabriel appeared on a few tracks from The Dreaming. Maybe popping in to help on Get Out of My House, Houdini, Pull Out the Pin or even Sat in Your Lap. He could have provided male vocals for a few lines on All the Love. I think the fact Bush was not writing for men or doing duets meant that it would have been hard to include Gabriel. Would he have been happy doing backing vocals similar to the ones Bush did for him in 1980?! Instead, it was a case of Bush appearing on Gabriel’s albums and the two of them keeping this friendship going. There was not a lot of interaction after 1987. There are three albums where I feel Gabriel could have appeared but did not – and I wonder if he was asked.
The first is 1993’s The Red Shoes. That album featured guest vocals by Prince and Lenny Henry (among others). There are songs on there I could well see Gabriel fitting into. Perhaps more instrumentally than vocally. 2005’s Aerial could have benefited from his vocals. On Somewhere in Between, where Bush sings with the late and missed Gary Brooker. I always felt that was a song that had Peter Gabriel written over it. Though Brooker is wonderful, was Peter Gabriel ever in her thoughts?! The same could be said for tracks on 50 Words for Snow. Gabriel could have done the vocal that Andy Fairweather Low does for Wild Man. Maybe he could have been included in a track like Lake Tahoe. All these possibilities. The creative partnership running between 1979-1986/’87 (they performed on stage together in 1987 for Amnesty International’s Secret Policeman's Third Ball at the London Palladium on 26th March). Even though they are still friends, why was there no further studio collaboration post-1987? You can read about the artists Bush collaborated with here. She never did get to work with a hero of hers, David Bowie. Paul McCartney has not appeared on her albums. I would, above all else, love to hear Peter Gabriel on a Kate Bush album as it would reignite this creative bond. Gabriel is still so innovating. His latest album, 2023’s i/o, was hugely acclaimed. With Gabriel still recording and Bush stating she is down to consider working on a new album, there is this question as to whether the two friends will join forces. I would love to hear Peter Gabriel in the mix! Maybe not a duet like Don’t Give Up, there would be this blank canvas where Gabriel could be included.
Who knows. I have been thinking about them both and how they came together. In such odd and unhappy circumstances, Bush was clearly bonded quickly with Gabriel. Seeing the way he worked, the two observed each other work and there was this connection. Bush appearing on four Peter Gabriel songs and the two performing together for her 1979 Christmas special. It is clear they kept in contact for years after 1987, though no new studio collaboration. We can never write the possibility off. Many hope a new Kate Bush album has fewer collections than 50 Words for Snow. If there was only one spot, people might want someone like Björk. Maybe Paul McCartney. For me, it would be Peter Gabriel. This studio reunion between two old friends who have a very similar musical mindset, fans of both would love it! It is a new year and there are all sort of potential bits of news. How awesome would it be if one were that Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush were working together! In 2011, during an interview with The Quietus, Peter Gabriel was asked about Don’t Give Up:
“With ‘Don’t Give Up’, did you originally ask Kate Bush to recreate her part or did you choose Ane Brun for the project?
PG: Well, I wanted to do it this way because I’d been singing it on tour with Ane and she’d been doing such a beautiful job. There’s an interesting story about this song. Because there was this reference point of American roots music in it when I first wrote it, it was suggested that Dolly Parton sing on it. But Dolly turned it down… and I’m glad she did because what Kate did on it is… brilliant. It’s an odd song, a number of people have written to me and said they didn’t commit suicide because they had that song on repeat or whatever, and obviously you don’t think about things like that when you’re writing them. But obviously a lot of the power of the song came from the way that Kate sings it”.
Will we see Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel uniting in 2025?! We can never rule it out. One of the most interesting chapters of her career is her respect of and work with Gabriel. How they have this long and loving friendship. I wonder when the last time is they spoke. If they exchange Christmas cards! It is clear that the geniuses are incredibly similar artists and have this singular talent. It would be a real dream if the two stepped into the studio together…
ONCE again.