FEATURE:
This Woman’s Work – The 2024 Extended Mix
PHOTO COMPOSITE: The GRAMMY Awards
Reflecting on a Terrific and Busy Year for Kate Bush
_________
THE year is not yet through…
PHOTO CREDIT: TFL
so we have not heard the last from Kate Bush in 2024 (follow Kate Bush on X and Instagram)! There is going to be the Christmas message coming very soon. If last year’s was a slightly downbeat yet realistic view of the modern world, I think this year is one that will have more sunshine and positivity. It is still a bleak world and there is violence around the world. Kate Bush is aware of that and recently released a video, Little Shrew (Snowflake), to raise money for War Child. I will come to that near the end of this feature. Nobody knew what 2024 would hold in store a year ago. Not that Kate Bush had been quiet and off the radar. After the reaction to Stranger Things featuring Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and it hitting number one in 2022, there was residual attention and buzz from that. 2023 (that boasted album reissues) was quite a busy one when it came to Kate Bush, though this year has been even more eventful and exciting! Even though the start of the year had some tragedy. We lost Del Palmer in January. It was a tragedy that Kate Bush posted about. Last year has some clear highlights. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) surpassed a billion streams on Spotify. Bush was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. On 20th April, Record Store Day 2024 took place. Kate Bush was announced Ambassador. She also donated a signed turntable to raise funds for War Child. Some incredible generosity from Bush. On 30th July, there was a lovely salute to Kate Bush from TFL. Bush responded to it. At the start of the year, Bush announced that an Illustrated Edition of 1982’s The Dreaming would be released. Thanks to Kate Bush News. You can purchase it here. A Polar Edition of 50 Words for Snow has been released. Bush spending time reissuing her albums and realising that a whole new generation are picking up her music. Bush reissued Hounds of Love and there was the amazing Baskerville Edition. It has been nominated for as GRAMMY. In fact, as I shall get to, that is not the only GRAMMY nod Bush received this year. In February, it was announced that Kate Bush would be releasing a 10” UV printed picture disc of Eat the Music. That came out on 20th April. Kate Bush News posted the news about the reissue:
“Kate has been announced as the official UK ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day, on 20th April! To mark this she will release a limited 10″ UV-printed picture disc of Eat The Music on the day. The BBC were first to break the news this morning with quotes from Kate’s statement. Since 2009 artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Jack White, Chuck D, Dave Grohl, Metallica, St. Vincent, Pearl Jam, Brandi Carlile and Taylor Swift have worn the annual “ceremonial sash” and used their high profiles to help promote the event online. The band, Paramore, have been named US ambassadors for the 2024 event. Find your local participating record store here.
Following on from her vinyl single releases to support independent stores on Record Store Day in previous years (Hounds of Love, Lake Tahoe and Running Up That Hill 2012 remix) on Saturday April 20th 2024 Kate will release a limited 10″ 3-track picture disc single of her joyous, Madagascan-infused 1993 song, Eat The Music, taken from The Red Shoes album. The 10″ disc features the cover art as a colour UV print on a side without grooves, with all three tracks on the other side, additionally including Lily and Big Stripey Lie, both also taken from The Red Shoes album.
The Eat The Music front disc artwork features the original single cover photo by John Carder Bush of Kate’s hands delving into the luscious fruit…”Split me open, with devotion, you put your hands in, and rip my heart out, eat the music….rip them to pieces, with sticky fingers…” The reverse side is white vinyl pressed with grooves playing the 3 tracks.
Kate’s statement in full:
What a huge honour to have been asked to be Ambassador for this year’s Record Store Day. It really is a great privilege.
Isn’t it great to see how the resurgence in vinyl has taken the Music Industry by complete surprise? It had decided to leave vinyl far behind, but it would seem that not everyone agrees! I love that!
I know there are many, many artists who are just as excited to see the audience turning the tide.
In the same way that some people like to read a book on Kindle but also want to have a book as a physical object, a lot of people like vinyl and streaming. Both have different appeals.
The added bonus of vinyl is that it encourages people to listen to albums. An art form that I’ve always thought can be treasured in a unique way.
An album on vinyl is a beautiful thing, given a strong identity by its large-scale artwork. There’s a much more personal connection with the artist and their work.
It’s been fun putting designs together for some of the previous RSDs. This year’s design echoes the cancelled release of ‘Eat the Music’ as the first single from the album, ‘The Red Shoes’.
The image was intended to be on the cover of the single bag and is now on the disc as a UV print.
The title, ‘Eat the Music’, is meant to be a playful nod to ‘If music be the food of love, play on,’ from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Each year Record Store Day gathers more attention, more momentum, and attracts more people who cram into indie record stores all over the world to see what’s up. What’s new?
This year, I hope you have a fantastic time at this very important event, and that you get to celebrate music that’s been specially released for you.
Very best wises,
Kate”.
I am going to lean onto Kate Bush News for the updates and news from this year. There have been so many wonderful updates posted through the year. Included is the fact that a cassette of Hounds of Love on the set of Stranger Things as they were filming the fifth and final season earlier this year. Will Kate Bush feature again?! If you can donate to Kate Bush News, you should do so here. Not only did we get updates and news blasts. There were other events and interesting things. Bush’s brother John (Jay) turned eighty on 26th March. I am going to work my way to June. This is when Graeme Thomson reissued (bringing things up to date and reacting to updates and events of 2022 and a new lease of success and attention) Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. Graeme Thomson also contributed to the April 2024 edition of Disco Pogo. Twelve pages of Kate Bush writing. I would advise people to pick up a copy as it is essential reading! Among the bright spots from this year, there have been some losses. As mentioned, Del Palmer died in January. Donald Sutherland (who appeared in the video for Cloudbusting) died in June. Kate Bush’s music was making its way into film and T.V. In July, The Morning Fog – from 1985’s Hounds of Love – was featured in an episode of The Bear. Placed prominently into an episode from season three, Kate Bush News spotted it. Kate Bush turned sixty-six on 30th July. Of course, there was so much love and affection for her. Lots of messages. Bush posted thanks to her website. On 26th August, we marked ten years since the first night of her residency, Before the Dawn, began. That opening date in Hammersmith was hugely anticipated and beckoned in celebrities and members of the public. Everyone mingling to see Bush take to the stage. Her first large-scale live undertaking since 1979’s The Tour of Life. It was a momentous live spectacle! The newspapers reacted in 2014. On 7th September, the Kate Bush Fan Podcast celebrated a decade of Before the Dawn.
The amazing Kate Bush tribute act, Baby Bushka, were in the U.K. and Ireland. An Evening Without Kate Bush toured extensively and there are some great dates set for next year. Amazing performers bringing the music and magic of Kate Bush to people in their own distinct ways. Earlier in the year, Halsey released I Never Loved You. It was inspired by Kate Bush (Halsey spoke in 2022 about Kate Bush and why she decided to cover Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Taken from her acclaimed and astonishing The Great Impersonator, Halsey conceived it as a confessional concept album believing it would be her last project after being diagnosed with lupus and a T cell lymphoproliferative disorder. As part of the album’s promotion, Halsey replicated music photos where she impersonated artists who inspired her. Among them was Kate Bush. Rather than replicating an obvious photo, she instead copied the ‘blue gauze’ shot taken by Clive Arrowsmith in 1981:
“Already known for covering Running Up that Hill live back in June 2022, US singer Halsey has announced that the song “I Never Loved You” is inspired by Kate Bush. The singer also pays visual homage to Kate on social media with a photo shoot recreating the Clive Arrowsmith “blue gauze” photograph of Kate used for the cover of the January 1982 issue of Company Magazine.
The track is featured on Halsey’s upcoming new concept album, The Great Impersonator, which takes influence from many different artists and eras, thematically tied to artists who’ve influenced her. Halsey also sent a message to her subscribers upon the song’s release to detail the dark story behind it: “This song cuts deep….a woman lies ill-fated in an Emergency Room. She’s holding on with all her might, in hopes her lover will show to say goodbye. He arrives, too late and defensive. Who was driving the car that hit her?”.
In October, PROG included Kate Bush in their magazine. Specifically, they combined features and interviews around her debut album, The Kick Inside. There were some parts that focused on later periods of her career. I have taken from those pages and am sharing them in features that will be published between this month and February. It is a great edition that you should buy! On 16th October, The Sensual World turned thirty-five. Although there were very few anniversary features, I hope it turned people onto the album that did not know about it. You can buy it here.
In October, a trailer for The Legend of Ochi featured a remix of Kate Bush’s iconic song, Hounds of Love. Kate Bush News reacted to this wonderful happening:
“The new trailer for the movie The Legend of Ochi features a TOTEM remix version of Kate’s song Hounds of Love, and it sounds fantastic! Teases of the “hounds” vocalisations start as early as 15 seconds into the clip, but later Kate’s actual vocal from the 1985 single explodes onto the trailer soundtrack along with stirring drums and orchestration. TOTEM (Patrick Buchanan and David James Rosen) were also responsible for another memorable remix of Running Up That Hill for the Stranger Things TV series in 2022 – Kate has clearly been impressed by their work.
We think we can see why Kate would have been charmed by the film, it even stars one of the kids from Stranger Things! The Legend of Ochi is an upcoming American fantasy adventure film written and directed by Isaiah Saxon in his feature film debut. The film stars Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Finn Wolfhard and Helena Zengel. It is scheduled to be released by A24 on February 28, 2025. We have no idea if the track will feature on the film soundtrack itself (by composer David Longstreth), but this is a brilliant use of Kate’s iconic track to promote this charming movie. The trailer music was also composed in conjunction with composer Ursine Vulpine (aka Frederick Lloyd).
On the film company A24’s site, the story is given thus: “In a remote northern village, a young girl, Yuri, is raised to never go outside after dark and to fear the reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. When a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to reunite it with its family”.
On 24th October, we got this tantalising-if-confusing update that we did not know would lead to the biggest Kate Bush event of 2024! A new Radio Edit of Snowflake (which originally featured on 2011’s 50 Words for Snow) was available in New Zealand. It seemed slightly random! It was available on iTunes there. The following day, the song became available on Spotify in the U.K. and Ireland (and other territories). The same day, we were treated to something huge. Kate Bush News gave us all the details:
“Wonderful, wonderful news this morning! Kate has given an interview to Emma Barnett on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme (listen back to it here) to announce the launch of a new short film she has written and directed to raise money for children affected by war. She also talks about her plans to make a new album. The black-and-white, four-minute animation, called Little Shrew, is set to a shorter edit of her 2011 track Snowflake and aims to raise money and awareness for the charity War Child. (be sure to read the story of Little Shrew on Kate’s official site)
Little Shrew is released on Kate’s official website today. It is free to watch, but Kate encourages viewers to support organisations helping children in conflict. Kate says: “I would like to ask that if you watch the animation, please make a donation to War Child, or to another charity that aids children in war.” War Child are accepting donations at their site here. The short film, which Kate worked with illustrator Jim Kay to create, was partly inspired by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “I started working on it a couple of years ago, it was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out, and I think it was such a shock for all of us,” Kate explained.
“It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through. And I just felt I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl. It was really the idea of children caught up in war. I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children.
“And so I came up with this idea for a storyboard and felt that, actually, people would be more empathetic towards a creature rather than a human. So I came up with the idea of it being a little shrew.” Reflecting on the impact of conflict on children, Kate said: “I think war is horrific for everyone, particularly civilians, because they’re so vulnerable in these situations. But for a child, it’s unimaginable how frightening it must be for them.”
Kate added: “I think we’ve all been through very difficult times. These are dark times that we’re living in and I think, to a certain extent, everyone is just worn out….We went through the pandemic, that was a huge shock, and I think we felt that, once that was over, that we would be able to get on with some kind of normal life…But in fact it just seems to be going from one situation to another, and more wars seem to be breaking out all the time.” The Guardian newspaper in the UK have already given Kate’s animated film a five star review “…this devastating film will make you weep at war’s violence against children.” Also, concept artist on the Little Shrew animation, Jim Kay, writes about working with Kate over on his official site.
War Child are accepting donations at their site here
About her next album, Kate adds that she is “very keen” to start working on new music. She said there are “lots of ideas” she wants to pursue, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space, it’s been a long time.” BBC report”.
Following the video and the introduction of Little Shrew, Bush added some new merchandise to her store. Alongside the Little Shrew T-shirt are Snowflake Christmas cards. Two great books about Kate Bush were released/reissued this year. One was Leah Kardos’s 33 1/3 book for Hounds of Love. That came out last month. This is a book that you need to own (you can pre-order a signed copy here):
“This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into the realms of imagination and possibility. Side A spawned four Top 40 hit singles in the UK, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)’, ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Big Sky’, some of the best loved and most enduring compositions in the Bush catalogue. On side B, a hallucinatory seven-part song cycle called The Ninth Wave breaks away from the pop conventions of the era, leaning into strange and vivid production techniques that plunge the listener into the psychological centre of a near-death experience. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process. When it came out in 1985, she was only 27 years old. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener’s point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush’s songwriting and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist’s importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere”.
Back in June, Graeme Thomson’s Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush was reissued for 2024. Go and order it here. This was before Bush dropped the Little Shrew (Snowflake) video and suggested new music was coming (will we see the book reissued again if Bush releases an eleventh studio album?!). However, in his final chapter from the 2024 edition, Thomson reacted to all the recent news and developments. How Kate Bush is still so relevant and visible. An artist making a huge impact in so many ways:
“The critically acclaimed definitive biography of Kate Bush, revised and updated for 2024, with a new foreword by Sinéad Gleeson.
Detailing everything from Bush’s upbringing to her early exposition of talent, to her subsequent evolution into a stunningly creative and endlessly fascinating visual and musical artist, Under The Ivy is the story of one woman's life in music. Written with great detail, accuracy and admiration for her work, this is in equal parts an in-depth biography and an immersive analysis of Kate Bush's art.
Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums and inescapable influence, Under The Ivy is an eminently readable and insightful exploration of one of the world's most unique and gifted artists. The text has been updated to include coverage of Bush’s return to the top of the charts in 2022 following the extraordinary resurgence of ‘Running Up That Hill.’ An eye-opening journey of discovery for anyone unfamiliar with the breadth of Bush’s work, Under The Ivy also rewards the long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis.
“The best music biography in perhaps the past decade” The Irish Times
“Superb.... A compelling examination of an artist in a constant state of becoming” Mojo
"Penetrating textual study potently combining interviews and research" The Beat
"Excellent... expertly unravelling her contradictions and motivations" Record Collector
"I’ve never met Kate Bush. But on occasion we may have shared the same dream about the afterlife of Elvis Presley – a fact I learnt while reading this wonderful book. She’s beguiling and eccentric and in thrall to a singular vision. She’s also smart in not dispelling her mystery. Over the years she has come to occupy a unique place in the British psyche. She’s now part national treasure, and part pop Athena with her devoted acolytes. Under The Ivy is respectful, but it gets us pretty close to the temple. This is the perfect book for aficionados or even the merely curious" Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout)
"Graeme is a fantastic biographer, warm and wise. He brings Kate’s interior and exterior lives to life, in vivid colours, in this wonderful book" Jude Rogers, author of The Sound of Being Human
"Peers deep into the weeds of this extraordinary woman’s work. Under The Ivy brilliantly fleshes out the stories behind the Bushcraft, without reducing any of her music’s enduring magic" Rob Young, author of Electric Eden and All Gates Open: The Story of Can
"Written in prose that from time to time seems linked umbilically to the very same ‘otherworld’ from which Kate Bush’s art manifests, Graeme Thomson’s style of storytelling penetrates the surrounding truths and myths. In doing so he presents us with the rarest of things: a portrait of Kate Bush incarnate" Jim Kerr (Simple Minds)
"There is no shortage of books written about Kate, but when Under The Ivy first appeared it felt like the definitive text. Probing, exhaustively researched, with a huge attention to detail, it was immersive and engaging. Graeme Thomson is clearly an admirer of the work, but avoids any hagiography" Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations and Hagstone
"An absolute joy for the Kate Bush fan, indeed any music fan, delving deeply and passionately into the world of one of our most important and cherished artists. A fascinating and richly rewarding read, this book explores in exquisite detail a truly unique vision and uncompromising approach in what has been the creation of some of the most incredible and intoxicating music ever recorded" Emma Pollock
"This is writing about music, and one of the key songwriters and performers of her or any time, that demands to be read not only by fans and connoisseurs, but by anyone interested in art and those who make it" Laura Barnett, author of The Versions of Us and Greatest Hits
"It’s such a well written and detailed book.... satisfyingly in depth and revealing and just as its title suggests a door to a secret garden, we get unseen glimpses of a private life and the connections of that world to one of the most influential and important artists of my life time. Absorbing, revealing and immersive" Kathryn Williams, singer-songwriter and author of The Ormering Tide
"Highly praised, comprehensively researched" Classic Rock
"Thomson is a perceptive critic and frames Bush's talent sympathetically, viewing her as a storyteller and 'a determinedly concealed individual'" 8/10 Uncut”.
Alongside all the Kate Bush activity and news have been great episodes of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast. One of the best was from 27th November. Alan Skidmore featured. Darrell from Bush Telegraph talked with Skidmore, who was the saxophonist on Kate’s 1975 track, The Saxophone Song (it appeared on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside). Kate Bush’s video for Little Shrew (Snowflake) was a winner at the World Film Festival in Cannes. Also, last month, we heard that Kate Bush had been nominated for two GRAMMYs. It was another huge bit of news in a busy and exciting year. Kate Bush News provided all the details:
“At a time when we’re already buzzing at Kate’s confirmation that she is working on ideas for a new album, it has been announced that Kate and her son Albert McIntosh have been nominated as art directors in two categories in next year’s 67th Grammy Awards in the USA. Her 2023 illustrated vinyl release of Hounds of Love, The Baskerville Edition is nominated for Best Recording Package, while The Boxes of Lost at Sea art pieces (also editions of Hounds of Love) have been nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package. You can read more about these releases on our original news item here. Congratulations to Kate and Albert and team! We are sure you must be delighted by this. Winners will be announced on the day of the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles on February 2nd 2025.
The Grammy Awards, established in 1958, are awarded annually by The Recording Academy of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry. They were originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded gramophone. There are a whopping 94 categories covering not just every genre of music but also for the likes of record packages, historical recordings, production, engineering, composition and arrangement. Most of these less glitzy Grammy trophies are presented in a pre-telecast “Premiere Ceremony” in the afternoon before the Grammy Awards telecast, a live show dominated by the most popular “general field” pop categories. Previously Kate was nominated three times for a Grammy; in 1988 for Best Concept Music Video (The Whole Story), in 1991 for Best Alternative Music Album (The Sensual World) and in 1996 for Best Music Film (The Line, the Cross and the Curve).
Significantly, in terms of Kate’s profile and status in the USA, these are Kate’s first Grammy nominations in nearly 30 years, with Forbes magazine musing that “clearly Recording Academy voters seem interested in recognizing her work and her talent.” This follows Kate’s biggest chart success ever in the USA in 2022 with Running Up That Hill and her induction last year into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Forbes also notes that while Kate faces tough competition in the two fields, “she should be considered a serious contender for one, if not both awards. She is one of many artists who have never won a Grammy whose legacy has grown throughout the years.”
The Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love, adorned with artwork by Timorous Beasties, was notable for its innovation for being the first ever vinyl record to have a solar powered LED light specially developed and built for the project by Kate and her team. The circuitboard was exclusively designed for the package so it would fit into the standard thickness of the gatefold sleeve. The release was accompanied by a special Cloudbusting-themed short film written and directed by Kate. Read more about the Grammy for Best Recording Package on Wikipedia here”.
I would also recommend people check out this Kate Bush Fan Podcast episode from Seán. Recently, UNCUT published a new edition that featured a ‘lost’ Kate Bush interview from 2011, where Andy Gill spoke with the icon about her then-new album, 50 Words for Snow. Kate Bush shared her excitement that The Baskerville Edition has been nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Recording Package. The GRAMMY ceremony takes place on 2nd February at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles. Kate Bush will not attend, though if she wins, she is sure to post an update to her website. It will be wonderful if she did win a GRAMMY! She has been nominated multiple times but never won one. We have a few more days of this year to go, so there may be other updates coming before her Christmas post. It has been a very exciting and busy one for Kate Bush. So many different events and bits of news. A special shout-out to some great people on social media like kate bush’s aquarius moon and FishPoeple Kate Bush for their dedication and posts! With potential new music coming soon and with Bush very much active and in people’s thoughts, this year has been incredible! Thanks to sites like Kate Bush News for keeping us abreast. To the journalists and tribute acts. To authors like Graeme Thomson and Leah Kardos. They have helped to keep Kate Bush very much at the forefront! It is going to be amazing seeing what Kate Bush news there is…
IN store next year.